As I mentioned in the recaps last night, last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend Destructoid's housewarming party in San Francisco. Dtoid San Francisco already posted their gallery, but I thought you might want to see my photos too since they show off a little more of how the house is decorated. My friend Scott who lives in San Jose came with me, which was great since I was tired from driving all day. Besides, he wanted to see what was up with this website I keep talking about.


As you walked in the door, there was a long strip of cardboard in the opening hall, and all guests were encouraged to sign in. I'd show you what I wrote, but it was less than stellar and I didn't take a picture. I decided from now on I'm gonna leave the art stuff to the real artists, though.

The new house is a two-story, tan colored Victorian on Utah street in San Francisco. If you've ever seen Full House, you know those things are packed together pretty tightly. You could see into a couple of the neighbor's houses from the various balconies and the backyard... I hope they didn't mind!

Like this! Except, you know. Not.

My friend and I got there pretty early, so we got a good look at the decor before there were too many people there.

The kitchen area was packed with food and booze, maybe not in that order. I was impressed by how the place was decorated-- it's like walking into the website. The walls, even the ceiling are covered in gaming paraphenelia and stuff Niero has recieved from the community. It's gotta be great to get up in the morning, pour yourself a bowl of cereal, and look over to the wall and see the poster ScottyG had everyone sign. I didn't take any pictures of the bedrooms 'cause frankly that's none of my business, but from what I saw walking by they're also a testament to the power of the internet.


This was the chandelier in the living room. Samba de Amigo is SO BAD.


The original helmet adorned this plastic fellow off in the corner. You may note that he is pantsless. It was that kind of a party.


The shelves above the food and stuff were crammed with awards and memorabilia collected from trade shows and conventions. Chad keeps some interesting company... Jenna Jameson, Vivi the black mage and Ron Jeremy flanked him.


Everywhere you looked you saw something related to the site. Here's the orginal Smoking Robot toy that started it all.


The candy choice was deliciously appropriate, no?


Like Bender Bending Rodriguez, this robot has an insatiable desire for alcohol. Fortunately the bartender was happy to oblige.


This picture was what you saw as you walked in the bathroom. I hope no one saw the flash from my camera as I took it... they'da probably thought I was a pervert.


Some charts and graphs were on the walls showing how Destructoid and the rest of the Modern Method sites have taken off over the last few years. Apparently Niero studied the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition in addition to coding and such.


This picture was on the wall between the kitchen and the living room. I don't know what it is, all I know is that it spoke to me.

We headed downstairs since that's where the games were. There were 3 TVs set up with Nintendo consoles hooked to each... it was on the way to Hamza's room, so every time he wanted to go in or out he damn near tripped over someone's N64 or Gamecube cord.


This Tomopop banner graced the wall on the way to the basement.


And this... this is an accident waiting to happen. This thing caused more bad trips than Alfred Hubbard.


We were mightily impressed by the Wall of Power that faced us as we came down the stairs. Nearly every console and accessory you can think of is readily accessible...


All the way back to the Atari 2600. Oddly enough, there's no copy of E.T. here. Can't imagine why. By the way, don't worry too much about the broken Wii in that previous picture. There was a perfectly sound one in the corner playing Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom all night.


This is CTZ and Hammershark playing a quick game of Mario Kart before the party really got started. The door in the back leads to Hamza's room.


The N64 got a lot more use than the Gamecube, actually. I realized I still had my old muscle memory stored from Mario Kart 64...


To say nothing of Goldeneye. Maybe it's the retrogoggles, but I think FPS's were better when you could punch your buddy in the arm if he killed you with a Klobb.


Rock Band was set up on a projection screen downstairs. It was going great until the drum set's kick pedal stopped working. >_<


To the left of the Rock Band stage was this spectacular arcade cabinet, containing more than 3000 not-emulated games. Obviously there have been some concessions to modern design: I'm pretty sure HALO never came out in the arcades. This was the highlight of the night for me, though... I never thought I'd get to play Smash T.V. or Battletoads on an arcade cab again.


Like I said, there was love for gaming on display everywhere you looked. This retro Link pillow was on the chair by the arcade cabinet.


Hamza's contribution to the decoration.


It got progressively more crowded downstairs as the night went on.


The basement is actually a converted garage, and you can see the garage door opener hanging down from the ceiling in this photo. From what I understand, there were well over 100 people that showed up. We didn't stay the whole night since I had gotten up at 6 for work, so we went back to my friend's place around Midnight.

Once again, I'd like to thank Niero and the rest of the staff for creating this site, and also for being so open and friendly. Niero really is one of the nicest guys you're ever gonna meet, and he was walking about the party constantly, trying to make sure everyone was having a good time. I had a blast at the party, it was well worth the drive from Sacramento to be able to welcome my internet friends to California. Thanks again Destructoid, and I wish you great success here in the Golden State!

-Q