PAX 2010

[marus]

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in shmups chat, but...

Anyone planning on attending PAX this year? We should try to set up some shooter action in the freeplay room. This'll be my first PAX so honestly I'm not sure what to expect, but with the recent NA release of Death Smiles, this will be a good chance to spread a little shmup love!

[EPS21]

Huh, I've never been either and the dates of PAX always seem to elude me, looks like its coming up pretty soon! Everyday but sunday is sold out now, are you going for all 3 days?

The freeplay room somewhere where they have TV's to setup whatever we have? I could bring my J360, stick, and (nearly) all the shmups for it.

[marus]

Thankfully I got my 3-day pass before they sold out, so yes, I'll be going all three days. However, regarding the console freeplay room, apparently all of the TVs will be hooked up to dedicated consoles, so I'm not sure if people will be allowed to bring their own consoles. I can't find any specific information about it, but I'll ask my friend how it was set up last year. At the very least, Espgaluda II and Futari are both region free, and there's the US DeathSmiles.

I'll have my stick on me for most of the show, just in case.

EDIT: Okay, so I read around some more, and apparently you can bring you own console as long as you make sure to check it in.

[Vexorg]

They way they handle the console freeplay room is that they do have a dedicated console at each station (mostly current-gen, but last year there was some 8-bit and 16-bit stuff on hand as well) and there's a library of games you can check out (I assume you could bring your own as well.) They control access by checking out the controllers to people (usually it's a matter of signing up and getting on a list.) They also have a few dedicated stations for certain games (for example, last year they had a SF4 station that drew a lot of players, and they also have a few for other games they may be running contests on.) Unless it's not too busy, they'll probably also time limit access to the machines to make sure other people get turns. Tournaments are done in a separate room completely, which prevents conflicts, but also makes it pretty much impossible to watch the tournaments happening.

I didn't spend too much time in Console Freeplay last year (at least not playing, I spent more time in the PC freeplay room) but it seems like it works reasonably well. I've got a 3-day pass this year, but I'm undecided on whether or not I'm going to be attending on Sunday.

[RGB32E]

Thankfully I got my 3-day pass before they sold out, so yes, I'll be going all three days. However, regarding the console freeplay room, apparently all of the TVs will be hooked up to dedicated consoles, so I'm not sure if people will be allowed to bring their own consoles. I can't find any specific information about it, but I'll ask my friend how it was set up last year. At the very least, Espgaluda II and Futari are both region free, and there's the US DeathSmiles.

I'll have my stick on me for most of the show, just in case.

EDIT: Okay, so I read around some more, and apparently you can bring you own console as long as you make sure to check it in.

The free play room was very accommodating last year... though I didn't end up spending much time in there other than to play some vanilla (SF4)... We'll see how it goes this year!

[marus]

PAX starts tomorrow... GET HYPE!!!

[RGB32E]

T-minus 2 hours 37 minutes!

[RGB32E]

[Mad Mage]

My jaw dropped when I saw that in the expo hall. It had only been announced a week earlier so it hadn't occurred to me it would be there.