I flew in on Friday. I was a little worried I might not make it in time. I got out of work a little before 2am on Friday morning and was able to sneak in a three hour nap. I got a lift to the airport well before my 8am departure time and arrived midday Friday. The hotel I was staying at was also where MGC was taking place so it was no problem getting around. I caught up with a few other people that arrived early and decided to sneak in another power nap before the festivities continued for the first night there.
Glenn of the PSnation podcast organized a huge community meet up event that night. It included a yearly trip for dinner at the amazing Delafield Bruhause, followed up with karaoke at a nearby bar. To make sure we did not have to worry about rides or designated drivers, he also arranged for a party bus we all went in on. The bus was set to leave from the hotel at 6:30. I got down to the lobby at 6:25 and......saw no one there. Odd, I thought, maybe everyone was meeting at the Retroids conference room we usually hangout in throughout the convention. A quick traversal there and I instantly found out that I was forgotten. Luckilly, Retroids cofounder Ken and fellow Retroids podcaster Tom were still down there finishing setting up for the convention and were planning on leaving a little later so I was luckily able to hitch a ride with them! I made sure to give Glenn a lot of grief, and I was just thankful to still make it out there.
Friday night ruled. The dinner at the Bruhause was amazing as always. I got the same fish fry special I always get, and it is still the best Cod around! Their in house brews are still as awesome as I remember too. Topping it off was one of my best karaoke nights yet. We had a section reserved for our group and we had a blast cheering everyone on. There were some diehard locals that kept a ton of country flowing throughout the night, including a guy who gave the most enthusiastic rendition of "Strokin'" I have ever heard, and a lady who somehow kept a straight face with her masterful performance of the "Pussycat Song." I was also amazed by another great singer who was later jamming out on top of the bar and showing off some amazing "bar-kour" flips.
I went up and sang two songs. I started off with one of my old stand-bys "Mother" by Danzig. I was then thrilled to sing "All the Things That You've Done" by The Killers because I never saw it in any other karaoke catalog before. I felt I did pretty decent up there. I went to get another drink afterwards, and a bar patron told me I had a perfect voice for The Talking Heads, and asked me to sing "Burning Down the House" which I gladly obliged to. I think I must have nailed that song, because they rang a cowbell after I was done, and they only did that for a couple other people that were pretty on that night...that or I was drunk and godawful, which I would not put it past me either!
Saturday arrived and it was the official start of the convention. The last couple of years I attended when I was still hosting the podcast I spent a majority of the show in the Retroids room manning a table representing the podcast. I usually had a television hooked up with some classic N64 wrestling games and ran a WWF No Mercy tournament each year and loved doing it, but a part of me missed out on not being able to check out the convention all that much. Since the podcast folded a month ago, it meant it was the first time I was able to be able to roam around freely in a few years.
I still checked out the Retroids room to catch up with people at least several times throughout the show, but it was great to be able to spend more time in the museum checking out almost every single videogame system in history up and running. I was eyeing this unique looking dodgeball game on Neo-Geo to play, but was never able to hop on it. I did get my annual time in with the Jaguar though, and dominated my brother's friend Zach in two games of NBA Jam TE. I also spent a bit of time compared to years past in the arcade hall which had countless arcade and pinball machines set up on free play. Usually it is nearly impossible to find a machine to hop on, but my timing must have been spot on this year as I was able to hop on several cabinets with little to no waiting.
Nearly a half year after its release I was finally able to play the WiiU. It was set up in the Retroids room, and I played roughly the first half hour of LEGO City Undercover. For those unfamiliar with it just imagine a LEGO version of Grand Theft Auto. Loved the first half hour of it, and it was refreshing to see a LEGO game with all unique characters in a new genre for a change. If I were to get it a WiiU, this and Super Scribblenauts would be the first two games I would purchase for it. Another fun moment was the developers of one of my favorite PS3/360 games, The Pinball Arcade had a booth set up with their as of yet to be released 3D Pinball tables on display, and it was an unexpected to treat to play my first ever 3D pinball. I also won a high score contest and won a tshirt from them and a code for their brand new Star Trek table.
I only had a chance to catch a couple of speakers this year. I must have jotted down some times wrong and got the speakers mixed up. I did see the unveiling of the RetCon 4, which turned out to be the RetCon 5, which is a system what can play NES, Genesis, SNES, Famicom and GB/GBC/GBA games. It looks mighty promising for an all-in-one system, and has some really enticing HD upscaling capabilities. Speaking of old games, the main attraction of MGC each year is of course its loaded vendor hall. In past years I have spent more than I care to admit here tracking down games for my collection. While keeping my immediate trip to DC in mind, I kept my spending down this year and spent only a record low of under $50. I was tempted a few times gobble up a few other games, but managed to keep my impulse buying to a minimum.
My haul this year included Road Rash for Game Gear for only $4, two random Famicom games for $10 combined. I have a NES clone that plays Famicom games and wanted some games for the sake of making use of that port so I picked up a random baseball game and Japanese version of Tetris. On the second day, a dealer was running buy any two PS2/Xbox/GCN games, get one free. I ended up getting 007 Everything or Nothing, Carve and Mario Superstar Baseball all for $20. Highlight was completing my 32X CD collection and getting the final fifth game I was missing in its library with Farenheight for only $12. I kept eying a GameBoy Micro at the show, but managed to walk away from it.
Another highlight of the show was on Saturday night for the annual Retroids after party. The Gamers Only Older podcast crew are all big fans of board games. They specialize in complex games you can only find online or at hobby shops, and they arranged for a six to seven player game of Eclipse I partook in. The simplest way I can describe Eclipse is that it is a much more complex version of Risk, in space. Gamers Only Older host, Scott did a great job easing us into its in depth rules and explaining its many intricacies. We did a "short" version of the game, which took about five hours to finish as best as I recall. I had no problem with it, and had a fun learning this new game and I was finally starting to grasp a lot of its core principles by the end.
As expected, MGC kicked ass again this year and I am glad I was able to make it out. It is always a blast spending a weekend geeking out with many fellow gamers who are as passionate about this hobby as I am. Hopefully I can return next year.
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