Magazine #15.2 1/03
Magazine #15.2 1/03
NWCGE Meeting
Spring time in Seattle - that means it's time for the annual NorthWest Classic Gaming Enthusiasts Meeting in Kirkland! After months of plotting and planning almost 140 classic and modern gamers attended this annual tradition to check out and play old games, swap, buy and sell collectibles and chat with other video gaming enthusiasts from the Pacific Northwest. Attendees came from as far as Vancouver and Utah(!) and were treated to everything from ancient Atari to most recent Xbox and PS2. I counted around 30 different systems that were set up and ready for gaming action.
The highlight was definitely Steve Safarik's Space Wars which eventually led to a heated competition between the old guys and the young kids. Space Wars is really the coolest game. If you ever have a chance to see Steve and his creation live go and do it! It's basically a four player (plus one robot) space shooting frenzy with thrust, hyper jump, short bursts of extra thrust, overheating guns and a detailed damage model. Everything that's ever been good about vector games - Space Wars has it! If you like the Vectrex and old videogames in general or just a very creative use of technology you will have to check this out!
Other highlights included Aaron's Vectrex TV, an original Lisa I brought over from Vancouver, a Jopac 7400 with Trans-America Rally, a cluster of old 8-Bit home computers, a portable Dactar system from Brazil and a big booth by Packrat Video Games filled with goodies - these guys drove all the way from Utah!
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| Aaron's awesome Vectrex TV! | This thing is amazing! | Lee and Rick unpacking | Rick and his treasures |
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| Xbox and LaserActive system | Jeff brought a Commodore CD-32 | So much stuff to choose from! | Came all the way from Utah: |
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| Packrat Video Games! | Layne's setup had another Xbox and a NeoGeo | CoCo, Vic-20, TI-99/4A and 800 XL | Aaron with the Vectrex TV, SX-64, Jopac 7400 and more... |
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| Steve's Space Wars in action! | This time with the green laser for extra power during the day light. | Heated competition! Later two little kids proceeded to kicks us old guys around :) | The enclosed Space War unit |
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| Nice hat Layne! | ColecoVision jr.! | Made by ResQsoft? | Steve shows Aaron the guts of Space Wars |
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| Steve with the night-time red laser versus the day-time green laser | LaserActive | Modified BHL-dev Jag and Vectrex | Hands-on play time |
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| Hmm... let's try this again... | What you can't see: two more tables with Vectrex, LaserActive and Jag | 22 tables in total | |
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| The Vancouver guys show up! | Lisa I with ProFile 5 | ||
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| The mouse wasn't exactly ergonomic... | Everything in great condition | Slow as heck but it works! | Nice screen too! |
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| The UU church in Kirkland | Kung Fu Chaos on the Xbox | Atari Jaguar case | Dactar Atari 2600 clone in suitcase - note the cart holder! |
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| The elusive Ebivision Pac Man and a Video Life! | Boxes full of good stuff | Videobrain computer | Interact computer |
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| Rare Hong Kong 2600 pirated carts | Misc. rare 2600 carts | Lee, Rick, Rob with Johann and me | A tender moment... |
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| Interesting Children's Discovery System with carts! | Packrat Video Games - from left to right: Edie, Rodney, Jarett and Jennifer! |
Also for the first time ever and thanks to two very generous donations by Packrat Video Games and Christopher Millsap from MS we broke even on the hall rental! Also thanks to everybody who showed up and brought stuff or attended and played and donated! We'll keep going as long as you guys show up! Finally a big thanks to Joie Goodwin from Northlake UU for the hall rental!
Pictures and texts © 2003 by CyberRoach™ Publishing, no content may be duplicated without the written consent of the author!