PAX East report

[brandchan]

PAX East was “Da Bomb.”  I had a really great time, the only thing that was missing was having more of my friends there.  So it went down like this or something…

Thursday, went to work a hour early to leave early.  Left on mad drive though the Poconos because I wanted to avoid North Jersey and New York City figuring even if the Pocono route was supposed to be like a half hour longer I’d save time because there would be like no traffic.  Outside of a couple mile spread, I was right.  It was pretty easy going driving.  It was strange to go though the Poconos though since I had done a lot of stuff up there as a child and hadn’t been back in years.  It’s a lot more built up but not incredible so.  I did pass some of the canoe rental places we had gotten canoes from and Fernwood which is a big resort that we stayed at some point.  What was also awesome about going this way was the only toll was a dollar!  And there wasn’t a toll going back this way.  Rock! FU GW and your 5 buck toll!  Haha I avoid you something fiece.

It took like 4 hours but I got to Leah’s house.  No one was ready, I guess shouldn’t be surprised.  There was the question of Leah’s brother coming but he had school work so he didn’t go in the end.  It wasn’t a big deal anyone on my side since it’s not like I Thursday night plans, I just didn’t want to drive up Friday morning.

Leah had to juggle some stuff for our mysterious roommates.  It turned out they were both pretty cool.  Scott writes for gaygamer.com and Jason was a programmer from down south.  It was also nice to share a room with only three other people.  Everything stayed pretty clean this time!  Both Leah and I over packed though.  I got to work on that on.  The only con I brought the exact amount of stuff I needed was Anime Boston.

Friday

So, Friday we all got in line for the opening ceremonies and keynote speech.  We waited in the line for a few hours.  It wasn’t a big deal, nothing happen until two pm anyway.  We ended up chatting with our roommates and playing a game of Guillotine since there wasn’t anything better to do.  I tried to use the net but I guess so was everyone else because it was stopped.  The keynote speech was pretty cool, given by Wil Wheaton.  Which I fine amusing on how he has become some geek idol, since for years he was made so much fun of on the net.  Then Gabe and Tycho came out and answered questions, some of which were not questions.  Such as the Action Castles thing which a dude came up and started playing it with them (it’s like live action Zork) and Gabe was all like WFT?  And Tycho was like nah, man I got this.

At some point Leah and I entered a Super Puzzle Fighter II tournament.  Leah had to leave for important reasons; I didn’t get too far myself.  I was having issues with the Xbox controller.  WTF?! Is wrong with that thing?  It’s like pushing half harden molasses around.

Leah, Jason, and I ate at the Chilli Duck which was an awesome Thai place, we had some bitching food.

We went to the concert afterwards, and saw the Protomen (which is like a prog rock band based off of Megaman, who are very serious about it), Anamanaguchi (which is some trippy NES synth band).  I skipped out on Metroid Metal to go see the Geek Nights panel on “Losing should be fun” which was an interesting panel on how to make losing a interesting part of the game and not just an annoyance.  I went back for Mc Frontalot but at that point I was pooped and only stayed for a couple of songs and went back to the room.

Saturday

Saturday was also pretty crazy.  Here is what I can remember.  I went to a Tetris DS Tournament.  In the warm up rounds I did great but then when I really faced off I lost.  First round was neck and neck, the second round I messed up and could not get back from it.  Next time I’ll practice a head of time!

I then didn’t have much to do so I went to one of the booths selling pen and paper rpgs.  I was looking for a copy of The Burning Wheel but they were sold out.  Then one of the guys was running a game demo so I was like sure.  So I played Human Contact (a Module of Shock: Social Science Fiction) with the game creator.  It is a pretty boss game that I’ll make a separate post for.  I liked it so much that when I found Leah later I was like you have to play this game, and went back and had the guy give us another demo.  Leah was unsure at first because I suck at describing stuff but after playing a bit, you could see her face light up.  Like Oh, Shit!  This is the bomb!  (Ok, maybe not like that).  I ended up buying Human Contact and ordering Shock since it was sold out.  The creator of the game even blogged about the game we played with him.

I went to the Retronauts panel, to see Kurt from Hardcore Gaming 101.  They did a podcast of the panel, which you can download here.  The panel was cool, it was about collecting.  Something I both miss and feel relieved that I don’t do anymore since that shit costs a lot of money and takes up a lot of space.  I do miss the adventure of finding cools stuff though.

I did not realize Jeremy Parish was such a big internet celebrity.  Everyone wanted to talk to him.  I remember years ago with his Toasty Frog website.  1up has a meet up at a bar across the street after the panel but uh…the bar was already rather full when we got there.  We thought there would be a room for us or something but no, it was a just packed bar.  I hung out with Kurt and a few others from Hardcore Gaming 101 we left the bar because it was lame and went and played the ColecoVision in the classic game room.  Every time should be Burger Time also!  I hope to get to see them at Otakon.

Sunday

Sunday we got up and got ready to leave and Jason and I went to Action Castle, which started late.  It was like Zork expect we all took turning giving a command which was rather amusing when we starting going up and down the same set of stairs over and over again.  We didn’t get to stay for the Jungle Explorer though because we had to leave to get our stuff.  I said good bye to Jason which I am rather shitty at.  Checked out, got my stuff and checked it.

I checked out the Expo floor and got some cool buttons, and waited like a hour for the chance to play Puzzle Quest 2 (we look like we got it right edition).  Also checked out those really sweet gaming tables of which if I ever have both space and money I would so totally get.

Meet back up with Leah for the closing ceremony, which was the last round of the Omegathon.  The contest was a game relay of 4 games that were unknown to everyone until each one was unveiled in turn.  The games were Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, Tetris, and Contra.  There were two teams of two and as the first person complete their goal the next team member would start.  It was awesome expect for the all the hardware malfunctions and they had to start over again.  Making the team that would have most likely have won lose.  Also the one dude sucked so hard at Tetris it wasn’t even funny.  How can someone be that bad at Tetris?

We got our crap and drove back to Leah’s where her Mom made yummy tacos.  I drove back though things were so running late at this point and it was pouring super hard but the time I drove into New York State I had to take it a lot slower than I did on the way up.  By the time I had a hour and a half to go, I was freaking pooped so I stopped at some dinner called the Gap Dinner and had a cup of tea, then drove the rest of the way.  Omg, at the end I was so falling asleep.  I had to hit myself to make sure I didn’t.  Thankfully I didn’t and got home, emailed my boss to say I was going to be an hour late and passed out.