This weekend it was time for our bi-yearly pilgrimage to Claremont to dig up and dust off our gaming roots. The Southern California Classic Collectors got together once again to bring out the best of the best from classic gaming history.
This visit offered a few more cabinets, in addition to an xbox with emulators being hooked up and projected onto a big screen.
The usual fare of games was there, with a few more additions in terms of gaming cabinets and a computer projected on a screen in the back. There was much more Wii-playing, as people enjoyed Wii sports and other games. We also caught a glimpses of a Japanese jun-ken-pow/ro-sham-bo hentai game, where winning a round of rock paper scissors meant your attractive host takes off another article of her clothing… wooo hoo.
The big projector in the back was playing a showing of “SC3 TV,” which was a montage of retro-gaming themed shows, specials, and commercials from back in the day.
While we were there, we got a chance to interview some of the founders and collaborators of the event, We also chatted with as Rob from Coin-op.tv, who coincidentally interviewed our friend Rog over at i-mockery.com. It’s a small world!. These events are set to happen at least twice a year, and don’t worry; we’ll sound the alarms when it happens again so we can hook up for more old school gaming.
As we’ve posted previously, here’s a gentle reminder that this Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! the next awesome installment of the SC3 is happening, and you must go.
To put it simply: A garage filled with old but working arcade cabanet games (including but not limited to lazerdisk games, really obscure games I had never seen before, and old chestnuts like Sinistar), a huge movie played on a big screen, (last time it was Tron!), a HDTV with modern console games, a ‘Room of Doom’ with Guitar Hero, and more. It is a pile of awesome.
P.S. It’s FREE. Bring some cash to chip in for Pizza or to buy a beer or two off of someone, if you don’t BYOB, but yes. It’s completely free.
We will be there shooting some video of the occasion, probably some footage of the gaming machines, and probably a few interviews here and there.
In order to get directions, (Hint: it’s in Claremont,) you simply need to RSVP to the list by just shooting a mail to , and give a list of names of anyone who’s attending.
If you are remotely interested in Video Games or gaming nostalgia, you need to go to this. At the very least, stop by and show your support.
The next meeting of the Southern California Classic Collectors is only one month away! The event is scheduled for Saturday, September 15th, from 6:00 p.m. until “sometime after midnight.” It’s at the same location: Steve Hertz’s place in Claremont. Arcade games, outdoor videos, console games, Guitar Hero, Wii on the 65″ HDTV… you NEED to be there.
Guys, this place was epic. A garage full of classic arcade cabanets (like working Space Ace and Dragons Lair), other Laserdisk games, games I’d never heard of or seen before, games I had. (I HUNGER). They played Tron on a huge projector screen, had pizza and drinks, a huge stocked console on a huge screen, guitar hero all night. ALL OF THIS AND MORE, FOR FREE.
Last night I was at Wumpskate and someone asked me for an EGR flyer. Turns out it was Cory of Neoramen and Xenocanon fame!
We talked a lot about old video games, TG-16, games with awesome sound, Arcade Infinity, and Herzog Zwei (ya!). I was a fan of Neoramen back when it was Pockybot - it’s always awesome to meet up with people from The Internets. At the same time, however, it’s a bit like… “what are you doing here in the real world?”
This looks awesome; it’s also a way way prototype, so it might not even look like this, and this song might not even show up in the final game. But if it’s anything like this, it’s awesome. Granted, stuff like this has been done before with Guitarfreaks/Drummania/Keyboardmania, but it’s all Japaneazy stuff, not stuff I know or recognize.
Looks like Zug and I will be gathering troops to go to the Southern California Classic Collectors meetup next weekend. If anyone wants to go with us, let us know. Thanks, viscount for the tip! We’ll let you know how it is.
So last night we hit up the new Barcade we had posted about previously. EndgameRadio listener Anniex0r, Zug and myself wound up representing and checking it all out with a vengance. Rampage, Centipede, Gauntlet (man is the Elf ever weaksauce), Ms Pacman, Punch Out and others were played (some with high scores tattooed to prove that we were there) all for a real 25cents US quarter (no stupid tokens or ‘rape cards’ like in other nameless alcohol+games establishments). The staff was friendly, the drink prices reasonable, the Fried Egg Sandwich comforting, and the music hopping. Small and a bit hard to find but definitely worth it, this bar will definitely become an EndgameRadio approved hangout from this point forward.
Wil Wheaton touches on the death of arcades. We’ve talked about this recently on a show, it’s nice to hear other people thinking the same or similar things. We need to band together and do something.
Gama-sister-site gamecareerguide.com has started a history of video games as it pertains to game design. It is a very enjoyable read (++ for Coleco, Car Wars, and Go picture for the header) that covers board games, RPGs, and the rise of early consoles up until the home computer.
This is a first installment of many to come, but a must-read for any console or tabletop gaming history fan.
, and give a list of names of anyone who’s attending.