Or alternately, Why MAGfest is Blatantly Better Than PAX. The 8th annual Music and Gaming Festival wrapped up this week, and while some of us have still not fully recovered, I thought I'd give you a look at a few of the things you missed.
As Luck would have it, all the pictures I took have conveniently disappeared from my camera's SD card, so this will be unsatisfactorily light on images. Although in many cases, given the activities of the evenings, that's probably for the best. Read on for a look at what went down, and why you should make the trip out here next year.
Living up to its name, this year's event was heavy on the music, heavy on the gaming, and heavy on the good times. Music-wise,
Zen Albatross rocked out:
Armcannon rocked out:
Metroid Metal, The One Ups, Select Start, The Megas, A_Rival, Armadillo Tank, Rare Candy, The Smash Brothers, Temp Sound Solutions, This Place is Haunted, Entertainment System, Animalstyle, Virt, Enso, No Carrier, Inverse Phase, Shael Riley and the Double Ice Backfire, and Brentalfloss rocked out.
As for gaming, it was everywhere you looked. A hall filled with arcade cabinets kept the noise going 24 hours a day, as did the huge console room nextdoor. Tournaments and competitions went on steadily all weekend long, and there's a good chance that a lot of what was on offer was either somehing you'd never seen before, hadn't seen in years, or might never see again until next year. Shmups and fighters saw tons of love here, along with music games in their arcade machine form and an actual stage set up for Rock Band. Not to mention the LAN room, a table sporting three Steel Battalion controllers at once, and the countless gaming throwdowns happening in most hotel rooms upstairs; ours included.
Panels were also held, with speakers like Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John, Sid Meier, Dan Rosenthal, Robert V. Aldrich, Virtual Fools, Shawn Handyside, Dave Lister, Eric Ruth, Dave Stanworth, and Shaun Cashman. Filmmakers like the guys behind There Will Be Brawl, Angry Video Game Nerd, YuGiOh: The Abridged Series, and the fellas from ScrewAttack talked shop and gave us a look at how they do their thing.
And, of course, you could buy stuff. Vendors were on hand downstairs, with the guys from MadGear rocking all sorts of awesome deals on games and hardware, as well as quite the selection of nerd craftsmen offering up their homemade wares, toys, used games, and pretty much anything else you could stuff into your suitcase and take home with you.
In the midst of it all, innumerable events took place, most of which shall go unmentioned to protect those involved. Dtoid Baltimore / DC was awesome, Dtoid North Carolina was awesome, Dtoid NY and NE were awesome, and we'll leave it at that. Also, Adam made waffles,
Jon St. John crashed our party,
And this bidet very nearly became home to a live octopus named Eleanor. Don't ask.
MAGfest was an absolute blast, and if you miseed it, don't make the same mistake next time. It gets bigger every year, and in 2011 we are totally doing that thing with the octopus.
You can't bait a worm like a bidet dwelling live octopus and not expect to hook anyone, spill the beans. Or in this case syrup, on waffles. Mmmm I have a sudden craving.
And I couldn't stay for Jon St. John. I'm still surprised none of you were aware that you can pick the same character three times in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
So the guys from Metroid Metal were staying in the room next to our Suite and Changeston and I were hanging out with them on NYE. They're all cool guys and apparently also big fans of Destructoid. They were disappointed Mr. Destructoid wasn't coming to MAGFest. I told them I'd see what I could do about hassling Niero until he agreed to come next year. You hear that Niero? Metroid Metal wants Mr. Destructoid to come to MAGFest. I'm sure quite a few others, myself included, would too.
It would be pretty awesome to go to something like this. I love video game music and chiptunes. Virt is pretty much my hero. I make chiptunes but I doubt I'd ever be cool enough to perform since I write all my shit in famitracker and not on a gameboy. here's the latest one I've been working on. </plug>
Also those Mad-Gear fellows are absolutely insane. They had sealed copies of Guardian Heroes and Radiant Silvergun going for three-digit prices, but they let Policenauts and Snatcher go for less than $30 each. I don't understand them at all.
At least they let their Sakura Wars boxes go for similarly asinine prices.
I'm quite sure Policenauts and Snatcher don't go for much because in Japan they're not seen as a rarity...or at least not as much as Americans see it. Which is probably why they're cheap as so. Original (and then sealed on top of that)Radian Silvergun in general is rare. Dunno on Guardian Heroes.
Wow. Mentioned panels and movie groups but no mention at all of X-Strike Studios? They've been going to MAG longer than any of those other guys!
Also, I heard the Mega Man movie was shitty, but I didn't catch it so I have no clue.
The OneUps performance of Hell March was the best shit ever, though.
yea it's a WHOOOLE lot easier to find japanese versions of games from what I hear from people who've been to japan. So Japanese versions won't run for much. Which is why crap like FFVII and Chrono Trigger are just looked at as wtf probably when it comes to Japan. They're good, but not Rare.
plus Japanese don't throw out their games. They throw em out to Akibahara.
it's a WHOOOLE lot easier to find japanese [url= http://www.bolidy.com/dianyuan.html]¸ßƵ¿ª¹ØµçÔ´[/url] versions of games from [url= http://www.bolidy.com/]³¬Éù²¨ÇåÏ´»ú[/url] what I hear from people who've been to japan.³¬Éù²¨ÇåÏ´É豸 So Japanese versions won't run for much.Á¬¾í´ü Which is why crap like FFVII and Chrono ËÜÁÏ´ü Trigger are just looked at as wtf probably when it comes to Japan. µã¶Ï´ü They're good, but not Rare.
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 01.06.2010
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Next year.
http://www.bravenewgamer.com/2010/01/the-voice-of-duke-nukem-facetiously-confirms-duke-nukem-forever/
Also, if you wanted some waffles, you shouldn't have stayed locked outside the room until 9AM, Shin.
I can only imagine.....
Glad to hear you guys had fun and seeing Adam almost make love to Jon St. John's face.
I totally would have filmed that if someone remembered to take his pictures off the SD card before I took the camera upstate.
At least they let their Sakura Wars boxes go for similarly asinine prices.
not my fault you guys crash early.
@The-Excel
I'm quite sure Policenauts and Snatcher don't go for much because in Japan they're not seen as a rarity...or at least not as much as Americans see it. Which is probably why they're cheap as so. Original (and then sealed on top of that)Radian Silvergun in general is rare. Dunno on Guardian Heroes.
Also, I heard the Mega Man movie was shitty, but I didn't catch it so I have no clue.
The OneUps performance of Hell March was the best shit ever, though.
He had both the American and Japanese versions of Guardian Heroes. The American version was significantly more expensive.
plus Japanese don't throw out their games. They throw em out to Akibahara.
Topher this post is missing WINDJAMMERS.
Tentacle rape/whiskey drinking/shmup playing Octopus > all.
You guys were so much fun, all of you. Thanks for dealing with me in my naturally obnoxious state. :P
oh, and Adam's waffles were absolutely amazing.