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Games Entertainment

Arcade Meets LAN party 101

Posted by Hemos from the best-of-the-best dept.
Rylar writes "California Extreme is holding their annual classic arcade games show at the San Jose Convention Center September 7th and 8th. With paid admission you get free play on all the Pinball machines and old school upright arcade machines like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Centipede and Frogger to name a few. This year LANtrocity has joined the mix for an "old meets new" element. LANtrocity is providing a BYOC area and several free play computers on the 7th, one admission gets you into both the old style arcade free play area and the LAN party. Challenge your friends to a Biathlon; Galaga and SoF2."
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Arcade Meets LAN party More

Arcade Meets LAN party

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  • Tempest (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HisMother ( 413313 ) on Monday September 02, 2002 @11:09PM (#4187086)
    I miss Tempest. This is one game that just isn't the same on a PC or console, because it had this bigass heavy flywheel controller knob and there's just no substitute. Hope they have a Tempest machine!

  • Marble Madness II (Score:4, Informative)

    by xenoweeno ( 246136 ) on Monday September 02, 2002 @11:11PM (#4187094)
    California Extreme is also your chance to play this guy's [safestuff.com] rare Marble Madness II [safestuff.com] prototype, which he assembled [safestuff.com] from parts over a period of time.
  • Why does all the cool stuff happen on the West Coast?
    • "Why does all the cool stuff happen on the West Coast? "

      Because people prefer earthquakes to hurricanes?

    • Re:Cool stuff (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by cscx ( 541332 )
      I'd watch my mouth if I were you... TuPac and Biggie said the same thing, and look what happened to them, they got a cap in the ass.
    • One thing that San Jose has year-round are nickel arcades... "Hi-5" (On Payne and Saratoga, I think?) and several "Nickel City"s. (I think there's one right on Camden near the entrance to 85) They generally have an eclectic selection of classic games like Tempest or Pac Man or Golden Axe and other random things. They usually cost around $2 to get in, and $5 of nickels goes a long way, even though most of the games take 2 or more nickels.

      If you ever get the urge to play classic games, look for a nickel arcade in the area. The games are usually beat up a bit, but it's a good way to spend an evening -- if you like that sort of thing. I'm curious where else these things are popular, other than the Silicon Valley.

      P.S. Regarding your sig, unless I'm missing some obvious joke: "lone" means by one's self, like The Lone Ranger (who had Tonto, so he wasn't really "lone"), and "loan" is to let someone borrow something, like to loan someone some money.
      • With your $2 admission, you could play a classic game eight times in a regular arcade. You would have to play 18 times to break even, compared to just walking into an arcade with classic games at 25 cents. You really DO have to be a fanatic!
        • Well, in the nickel arcades I've seen, the classic games are all rigged for free play... Also, I haven't seen too many "modern" arcades that have many classic games. Not to mention the modern games that they have at the nickel arcade are also much cheaper (3-4 nickels instead of 3-4 quarters).

          -If
  • Just get a few of your friends, some good music and some time to kill. Anyone who has played test drive on the ps2 has an idea of what i'm talking about. All of the sudden, those 15-second load times turned into 3+ minutes.
    • YES YES YES, same happens to me, plus the fun of drivin' an 440' 1971 Hemicuda in the game... Really nice idea from Atari... way too cool
  • Nothing like short notice. Now I'll be out of town and miss it. Bugger!

  • How long are the lines usually? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I am thinking about going to this event. How are the lines at it? Must you wait very long to play any old game?

  • hear that? (Score:4, Funny)

    by skydude_20 ( 307538 ) on Monday September 02, 2002 @11:18PM (#4187119) Journal
    its the sound of geeks everywhere becoming aroused

  • what a deal! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Cade144 ( 553696 ) on Monday September 02, 2002 @11:19PM (#4187120) Homepage
    Looks like tickets only cost $12.50 to $40.00
    Not bad, considering I used to shovel about that much in quarters into the old games.

    Come to think of it, I spend more than that now at places like Dave & Buster's but I don't notice it as much since they have the swipe cards.

    This game convention is such a great idea. The kind of idea you kick yourself for not coming up with and exploiting yourself.

    • Re:what a deal! (Score:3, Informative)

      by phalse phace ( 454635 )
      Actually, 2-day weekend passes are $20.00 each for children under 12 or $40.00 for adults. A Saturday day pass is $12.50 for children (under 12) or $25.00 for adults. And a day pass for Sunday is $10.00 (children under 12) or $20.00 (adults).
  • I loved these older games because they were easy for me to play without being too much into games. Things like frogger were basic and adults and kids alike could enjoy them. While I marvel at the newer games I cannot always enjoy them in the short time that I have to devote to such things. Even simple racer games on the Xbox take a few hours to get used to the controls. I think there is still a market for simple fun arcade games.
  • That is the game I missed.

    My brother and I used to play these games to settle everything from arguments to where to head out on Friday nights...

    Ahh, the people at the local grocery knew us well while their Defender and Stargate [yesterdayland.com] machines worked....
    • there was a really terrific Defender clone for the Amiga...I think it was called Datastorm. It had really killer music, and some nice bosses. Anyone know where to get an image that will work with WinUAE?

      --Mike
    • My brother and I used to play these games to settle everything from arguments to where to head out on Friday nights...

      When I was at University, the house a few of us were renting had no telephone. There was a box a hundred yards or so down the street, but this was Morecambe in north-west England, which means it was raining an awful lot of the time.

      Consequently the three of us used to play tournaments of Dynablaster on the Amiga, later reborn and renamed as Bomber Man on various platforms, to decide who had to troop out, get soaked and use the phone to order pizza.

      We all got very good at Bomber Man...

      Cheers,
      Ian

  • You could also check out... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ieshan ( 409693 ) <<ieshan> <at> <gmail.com>> on Tuesday September 03, 2002 @12:29AM (#4187280) Homepage Journal
    www.dreammachineonline.com

    Okay, I know it's a crappy site, but we have arcades and LANs (in the same building!) in four different cities: Portland, ME, Danvers, MA (near Boston), Burlington, VT, and Dartmouth, MA.

    Come check it out! :)
  • And whats really cool is that they networked the old pinball machines together so that you can play head to head.

    hee hee

  • Kaillera (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Tuesday September 03, 2002 @01:01AM (#4187333) Homepage Journal
    They should have MAME setup with Kaillera [kaillera.com] on the LAN if they really want to bring the old and new together. Nothing like classic Gauntlet with each player on their own PC...
    • "Nothing like classic Gauntlet with each player on their own PC"

      I imagine they'll have an actual 4-player Gauntlet machine. Nothing like classic Gauntlet on the original 4-player arcade cabinet.
  • Back a long time ago when we all hung at the mall and ruled the arcade everyone would have their b-day party there and the main machines would be turned to free-play.

    It was awsome because we could eat and drink inside the arcade (for once, even though we hung with the workers they enforced this with a passion) and mortal kombat and street fighter after hours, for hours!

  • I will try to attend mainly for the pinball clinics. It'll be nice to see just how poorly I've been playing all these years.

    I've looked at wishlists of games on hand so far and one game I wouldn't mind seeing is Paperboy. Sure its been released on many classic formats one way or another but it isn't the same without the Bicycle controls (Complete with bike grips). Oh and hopefully a look at the fabled Marble Madness II machine!

  • Fun idea (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Trane Francks ( 10459 )
    What a cool idea. I'd love to have a go at Missile Command again. I can't even begin to imagine how many rolls of quarters I burned through at our local, small-town bowling alley on Friday's after school. That heavy, smooth-rolling trackball was JUST the greatest for both feel and accuracy. Playing PC ports of the game just doesn't come close to the original arcade version.

    As for modern-day games that I "miss," Descent 1 still ranks as my all-time favourite game. I used to play that for so many hours that I'd get vertigo when I went to bed. And once Kali came out and head-to-head was possible over the 'net, sleepless nights became the norm.

    Unfortunately for Descent 1, much of the joy of playing the game ended when my CH Flightstick Pro died an untimely death. The MS Sidewinder Precision 2 that replaced it just didn't offer the same feel and response.

    I've never been much of a gamer, but those two really were it for me. *sigh*
  • Just because you don't live in CA doesn't mean that you can't make it to a show like this. Somewhere near you there's _probably_ a pinball/arcade game trade show. No, not an industry trade show, but a gathering of folks with their own machines who are looking to buy or sell. Usually some giant warehouse is rented out for this event. Free play? You bet. Every machine that's in working order will be playable for free. Hell, you might even decide you want to buy a machine, if the price is right.

    These shows are a _lot_ of fun and I highly encourage everyone who wish they could go to CA Extreme to look around and find one of these trade shows.

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