Back from Vegas
Had a great time at CGE, the Classic Gaming Expo. When I heard about it earlier this year I thought "that might be fun", but didn't think I'd go. Later I found out that Medieval Mayhem was going to be used for a tournament, so I of course changed my mind :)
I got to Vegas late Wednesday night, had dinner then went to bed.
Thursday I spent the day walking the strip and seeing the sites.
Friday I helped Al set up the Atari Age booth. I thought it'd take half the day - I was mistaken, it was the full day. Had fun though and made some new friends.
Saturday I checked out the show and sat in on the panel of Atari programmers, followed by a teleconference with Ralph Baer, the "father of video games". He was very interesting to listen to, though there were a few issues with Skype. They also had the 2nd prototype of Brown Box(more commonly known as the Magnavox Odyssey) on display (the first is at the Smithsonian's NMAH in DC), though it wasn't hooked up.
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ralph_H._Baer
Halo 2600 was released at the show - as the name suggests it's a version of Halo for the Atari 2600. It was written by Ed Fries, who was VP of Game Publishing at Microsoft and involved in their acquisition of Bungie so Halo would be an Xbox exclusive (it was originally going to be a Mac game). Even cooler, Ed tracked me down after seeing Medieval Mayhem to find out how I did the dragon graphics. :D According to Al, Ed spent some time resetting the game to watch the dragon sequence while trying to puzzle it out before tracking me down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Fries
If you'd like to check out Halo 2600, you can download the ROM for emulator use from here (cursor keys to move, space bar to fire - note: you must find your gun first):
http://www.atariage....ad-the-game-here/
or play it online here(note: it appears to be skipping frames so Master Chief doesn't animate correctly when walking):
http://www.codemystics.com/halo2600/
The evening wrapped up with an auction which was quite fun - the last thing to go was a corona for $300! (auction proceeds went to charity). I then attended the AtariAge private party.
Sunday I sat in on the panel of Intellivision programmers. After lunch I was volunteered to run the Medieval Mayhem tournament and had a blast watching everybody enjoy my game. A few people asked to interview me once the tournament was over, but it ran later than I expected and I had to race to the front of the hotel to catch my bus to the airport when it was done :( Next year I'll plan to fly back Monday instead.
You can check out my photos in my gallery. 2 of them are "letter boxed" as they're the photo that's taken automatically at the start of recording a video. I'll be uploading the 2 videos later this week when I start to update the captions.
http://spiceware.org/gallery/cge2010
