Droid's SoCal gaming night #2 Saturday July 17th 2010

[droid]

Hi Guys,

This is an invite for those left behind in SoCal this CAX weekend, to come over and play some games. I'm guessing that amounts to a grand total of about 3 of us, lol. Everyone is up there it seems! I apologize for the short notice, but between work and family committments, these windows of opportunity arent always there and my schedule is often last minute. For those peeps that are lucky enough to hit Aaron's Sunday night for shmupping goodness and also hang out Saturday for the classics...that makes for a potentially killer gaming weekend. I just wish my son's B-Day wasn't Sunday or I'd definitely be visiting the Captain!

Anyways, all this talk of CAX games and the fun we had at our last meet, has me itching to play and talk about games, but its no fun doing so alone. I told my wife about my sad, non-CAX existence and even though our son's birthday bash is the next day, she's letting me have some people over this Saturday night, if I can find any. Kinda has me rethinking her SiniSara nickname, lol. Anyone up for this? If so, how does 5pm-11pm sound? I live in Garden Grove, about 45 mins from LA and Riverside, an hour from pasadena and about an hour and a half from San Diego.

I'll provide the sodas. Like last time, everyone is on their own for food. Thinking community Pizza or there is a real nice thai restaurant across the street we can hit together.

The games I can offer to play are:

Afterburner deluxe, Assault, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Burgertime, Crazy Climber, Crystal Castles, Dragon's Lair, Marble Madness, Millipede, Punchout, Rampart 3P, Sinistar, SmashTV, Warlords 4P, (3) japanese candy cabs and a boatload of pcbs which can be seen on my vaps link. There will be a new addition "GORF"this time around. Should be more than enough to keep us busy.

Please drop me a pm or call 714-588-4247 if you are interested in playing some games!

The crew:
1. Droid
2. Frenetic
3. DewmanSNK
4. MikeHaggar + brother + friend
5. Shuurin
6. Parrothead
7. Magicmajenta
8.
9.
10.

Thanks, Tom

[droid]

Frenetic added to the mix!

[droid]

DewmanSNK, MikeHaggard and Shuurin added to the mix!

Tom

[droid]

final bump from me for tomorrows festivities. So far we've got 7 total including myself, which is very cool. 5 other mebbes from the KLOV forums which this is crossposted to. If interested in joining us speak up now, as I'd like to have a firm head count to give the missus so she and I know how many to plan for

Tom

[socalmike]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for hosting a great party. You have an amazing selection of games. Especially loved playing some After Burner, 4-player Warlords and Atari Assault for the first time

And it was great meeting everyone and learning more about SHMUPS! I just picked up a Neo Geo AES system at the swaps so will be looking for some advice for some good shooters.

Here is a video showing the Neo Geo swap meet score from last weekend - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SrLvAO_Gak

I have 5 Games that I kept along with the system. Viewpoint, Andro Dunos, Alpha Mission II, Ghost Pilot and Last Resort. All pretty great shooters as you all probably know

[Shuurin]

Was a fantastic meet Tom, great mobile set up placing some of the cabs on wheels. Thanks again for the invite.

Never even heard of Berserk/Frenzy before, both excellent old school games got me hooked in one credit. Had some great competitive play in Warlords. Best part was when Voltronbadass joked about he'd never seen such focus over a 12in screen.

[mikehaggar]

Thanks for the awesome meet Tom!

We all had a blast! Rampart, Warlords, and Afterburner were all amazing!

I hope to host one in the future when I have more cabs (I don't think two is enough to hold a meet).

Say Happy Birthday to your son for me!

[voltronbadass]

Ohhh man, warlords is so badass!

and why does sinistar hate me?

Thanks again droid for being the best host ever!

[Frenetic]

Dang, where to begin? Berzerk was seriously insane. It was awesome watching Shuurin and droid for the better part of an hour post scores on Berzerk. It was cool watching Shuurin playing the game for the first time and I was truly humbled by droid's mastery of Berzerk. Seeing his top score on Berzerk was freakin nuts, I couldn't even get half that much.

Then it was a blur of Punch Out (dang you Kid Quick), Millipede, Robotron 2084. It was also awesome to play mikehaggar's Tetris the Grandmaster and and Mr. Driller PCBs, I definitely have a new appreciation for those games. I hope to be able to brush up my skills on those games in the future.

The definite highlight was 4 player Warlords. I don't know about you guys, but who knew Pong could be so fantastic. I played credit after credit after credit.

Props:
droid and his wife being so accommodating, especially on the day before setting up for their son's b-day (happy birthday!)
A pristine Gorf. I love that computerized voice from the Gorf empire even though it doesn't like me.
Speaking of computerized voices, the taunts from Berzerk really get my blood a pumpin'

Slops:
Again, none. The meet was perfect.

--F

[DewmanSNK]

Another great meet hosted by droid.

I have to agree with Frenetic, droid posted some pretty tough Berzerk scores. I tired a few times, but those diagonal shots were my downfall.
That After Burner cab is truly amazing. I somehow missed piloting that game on the first meet, no so this time around. I got to fly a full 20 planes and even though I suck - it was quite fun.
I set a new personal best on Sinistar, which is still a humble score overall. As soon as Sinistar is built, its GAME ON!

That warlords cocktail was a star of the show. It is hard to describe how great it is to have 4 people going all out with little more than a dial and a button. The turf wars erupted and the trash talking was fierce, nothing like warlords to bring out the best in people. In all seriousness, I had a blast playing that game. It was funny to see someone win a round and then just get annihilated as people are trying to dethrone the victor. VBA reached deep and pulled out some impressive warlord skills, never seen someone man a dial with such precision.

Again, a big thanks to droid for pulling together a great meet. Hope you boy has a great Birthday today.

-Andrew

[PC Engine Fan X!]

At the 2010 California Extreme show, I saw four guys playing on a Warlords cocktail table cabinet betting real dollars per gaming session. Now that's playing a real game for $$$...nothing like a bit of hustling. Raises up the ante a bit if you start betting higher denominational bills such as a fiver or a tenner.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[droid]

Thanks guys for the exaggerated praise...Damn how am I gonna top this next time?

Seriously though, thanks to everyone that could make it down. I had a great time and am already trying to think of a way to convince Sara to let me host another... Didn't realise myself how fun Berzerk really was, until we started playing competitively for score. Just checked and the board is saved scores on powerdown, so huzzah!! We'll certainly have to revisit this game in near the future.

Nice to see everyone putting in some time on warlords, that was great. Apologize again Frenetic for my Bosconian and Timepilot84 issues. I will get these ironed out man, I promise.

Enjoyed meeting MikeHaggar and his gang. Watching you play TGM2 and Mr. DG was fascinating if not intimidating, lol. Those are titles I definitely would like to spend some time learning.

Everyone else, what can I say? You're a great group of guys to hang out with. Can hardly wait to do this again. And a big thanks for chipping in for the cost of the pizzas. It was mucho appreciated. Also thanks for the kind birthday wishes for my son. His party was awesome. At some point during the party one of the moms asked if I could turn the games on for her son. Yeah right.. As soon as I did, there were 3 or 4 moms and an some dads in there gaming away, heh.




Tom