Joysticks and Pinballs and Other Stuff Your Momma Warned You About - Louisville Arcade Expo 2014

Convention Info

Name: Louisville Arcade Expo
Host City: Louisville, KY
Venue: Ramada Plaza Louisville Hotel and Conference Center
Date: March 7-9th, 2014

Giggity.

Anyway, don't let the title fool you. This is going to be a very serious, grown-up entry about being an adult. Which, in this case, means playing Dr. Mario on a giant projector screen and making high-pitched swooning sounds over an Apple IIe. But before I get to that, a story:

Note: that's what actually happens when you don a power glove.

Unlike many of my contemporaries, I arrived somewhat later to my gaming roots. Which is to say, rather than having an Atari or a Commodore, my earliest gaming memories in my childhood start with the original NES, and not until it had been out for a few years. I still remember the day when my dad bought it from a coworker, along with the big gray case full of games, the big fat book of game synopses(can't recall the title, but it was somewhere between a review magazine and a promotional publication), the Zapper, and the Power Glove. I read that book cover-to-cover, and I was instantly hooked before I even picked up a controller.

What followed were twenty-plus years of a sordid love affair between myself and ever-more-bits worth of platforming and adventuring, but because of my late start I've always been a little behind the current wave. I got a Sega Genesis for Christmas towards the tail end of its prime, but I didn't own a Super NES until high school. My PlayStation was 2nd- or 3rd-Gen, and I tracked down a Nintendo 64 and a Sega Saturn in college, etc. Point is, I've always had a thing for gaming goodness past.

Flashback again to when I was in elementary and middle school. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a town that still had living arcades, so I've always had the opportunity to indulge my retro tastes. Some of my most prevalent arcade memories, however, come from tiny game rooms, some barely larger than a laundry closet - the Mr. Gatti's pizzeria right down the street from my house had one such room. And it was here, and in similar locations in bowling allies and such around town, where I encountered the Star Wars, Addams Family, and SlugFest pinball machines. The first two, while incredibly fun, are more standard pinball games: launch the ball from the right-hand side, let it majigger around on the board for a while, and prevent it falling below the flippers.

This was where the Cool Kids hung out.

The latter, though, was an anomaly. Rather than have the usual "shoot and fight like the dickens to keep the ball from falling away" play style, SlugFest was a baseball-themed game, with a board set up like an actual baseball stadium. The launcher was a list of buttons with various pitch names; the ball was stored under the pitcher's mound, and depending on which pitch was selected, would be shot out and down at various speeds. There was only a single flipper, located in the batter's box and shaped like a bat, you only got one swing on a pitch, and the point of the game was to hit the pitched pinball at locations along the outfield. The result of the pitch was determined by which location you struck - singles, doubles, and triples resulted in runners advancing the bases accordingly, and there were of course "out!" locations. Also, at times, a ramp behind the pitcher's mound would elevate, allowing you to hit the ball up it and into stands, resulting in a home run(with subsequent loud celebration from the machine). On top of that, you could press a button before a pitch to try and steal a base, there was a heckler you could hit for a bonus, and the game had all these little neat baseball-themed specifics that really appealed to the sports-y side of Younger Me. Not to mention that some models of the machine shipped with the ability to dispense baseball cards depending on how you did in the game, which back then was hella neat.

Whew. Reminiscing complete. Anywho, the point of that story is that I have a lifelong obsession with retro gaming in all of its forms. Which is why the Arcade Expo is pure, undiluted awesome in my opinion.

The first Expo was held in 2011 at the Holiday Inn Hurstbourne, right off of I-64. Since then, the show has grown, and is now annually held at the Ramada Plaza just down the street from the old location. The Plaza hosts a lot of geekery shows - you'll see them pop up in my reviews of more than one anime con in the coming year - so this show is in one of my familiar stomping grounds. Conveniently-located, and sporting a Wick's pizzeria, it's become a home-away-from-home to me.

c/o the Ramada Plaza.

The Expo takes place mostly in the grand ballroom of the Ramada. I've been in theme parks that have arcades with twenty or thirty machines of various types, mostly newer things from the past ten or twenty years. But the Expo has over a hundred pinball and arcade machines, spanning from the very earliest days of gaming(think pinball machines before LEDs, with no flashing lights, and Space Invaders) to the new Wizard of Oz and Predator pinball machines that have come out in just the past couple of years. And if pinball/arcade(referred to hereafter as "coin-op") gaming isn't your thing, the Expo also boasts a giant collection of older consoles and computer systems. Atari? Check. Apple IIe? Check. Colecovision? Check. Philips CD-i? Check.

Seriously. If you haven't played The Legend of Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, please go do it. You won't stop laughing for years.

This year, the coin-op machines dominated over half of the grand ballroom. The consoles/computers were split between the adjoining conference rooms and circular tables in the main room, and a collection of long tables along one wall, where projectors were set up so that people could play Sunset Riders, Punch-Out, Dr. Mario, and other games in giant-screen mode for all to spectate. The projectors were also where the console gaming tournaments took place(Super Bomberman was particularly fun to watch).

Near the entrance, in-between the coin-op area and the second ballroom, was where the vendors/artists and the pinball tournament areas were located. As usual, this was my base of operations alongside Bardic Kitty. Want to see a sampling of the goods to be had/people to be met? I'm glad you asked!

Tom's Arcade Classics

Located in Elizabethtown, IL, Tom builds/refurbishes arcade cabinets, and also turns them into (still playable) cocktail tables. One of his most recent products was an oak-stained Ms. Pac-Man table, and it was beautiful. He also does custom machines for fans of sports teams, restaurants, etc.

RunJumpDev

RunJumpDev is a collective based in Lexington, KY focused around creating connections between local game developers. They meet several times a week at Awesome Inc., where they hold discussions, programming jam sessions, and guest speakers, but they also attend events like PAX East. One of their notable accomplishments is the Lexitron, an arcade cabinet built in-house by RunJumpDev and filled with games made by local developers. RJD is always looking for new members, and are super-friendly people, so if you have any interest in programming - whether becoming a professional or just a hobbyist with a passion for code and making cool stuff - definitely attend one of their meetings.

Rusty Shackles

Hailing from Ohio, Rusty Shackles produces some hilarious and beautiful game-themed art, often in the style of old-school comic book covers. If you run in gaming fan-art circles on the 'Web, you've probably seen his Final Fantasy VII "No Curaga For a Broken Heart", but here's a few more examples of his work, some of which I now own as well.

Z3r0k3w1

I'm a big fan of pixel art with perler beads. In case you're not familiar, it involves taking a boatload of little crafting beads, laying them out in a pattern to get the desired image, and then ironing/heating them uniformly until they merge into a solid, stable mass. Of course, that's about like summing up blogging as "putting words down on a web page" - technically accurate, but completely lacking the details of how much blood and sweat goes into the work(shuddap, I work hard on this blog). Anyway, it seems like a simple medium, but the range of design styles from one artist to another is wildly diverse. So I try to include a spotlight on them whenever I run across an artist I haven't seen before. This time, it's Zerokewl, from right in Louisville. What really drew my eye to this table was the overall composition involved - rather than just make individual sprites, he also mounts them on art taken from/relevant to the characters depicted, and it really serves to make the beads pop to the eye.

Take a look also at Cloud/Zack, River City Ransom, and another of his Chrono Trigger pieces.

Brokentoken

Brokentoken is a blog and podcast focusing on the endeavors of collecting, restoring, and playing coin-op games from the past several decades. They also share stories of their own experiences, and hold interviews with guests on both Skype and in-studio - in fact, their table, located right in the midst of the sea of cabinets, was active the whole weekend, as the team brought out their studio equipment and held interviews right on the spot. For now, their podcast updates around once a month, and they cover a lot of material in each episode, so go indulge the collector in your head and give 'em a listen.

Mommy's Best Games

Headquartered in Louisville, Mommy's Best Games is a small game developer founded in 2007 with big ambitions and some impressive credits. Nathan Fouts, their founder and president, previously worked on "Resistance: Fall of Man" and the "Ratchet and Clank" series, bringing action game experience from the industry to the table in forming his own independent company. They were tapped to make a recent addition to the Serious Sam franchise, Serious Sam Double D, and their inaugural title, Weapon of Choice, has become one of the top-selling games on XBox Live's Indie Games channel. Some of their other titles include Porkerpillar, Grapple Buggy, and Explosionade, but the game they were showcasing at the Expo was their still-in-development title Pig Eat Ball.

I initially became curious when I wandered by their area and saw four people sitting in wire-draped chairs. My first thought was that they were cyborgs(naturally), and that they were thus simply testing the limits of their game by subjecting it to augmented cybernetic reflexes(equally as natural). However, when I stopped to have a chat with them after that game was over, I realized I was mistaken - the (presumably normal human) players were actually just sitting on rumble pads:

Pig Eat Ball is a puzzle game, both single- and multi-player, with objectives that change as the stages change(like racing your little flying pig around a map to construct the most sandwiches before time runs out). Of course, few multiplayer party games are complete without some chaotic battling between the players to complete their tasks, and with their controllers plugged into the rumble pads, boosting, colliding into objects, and so forth were given an entertaining twist, as at times it was hard to keep from laughing at suddenly getting hit on the butt(about as hard as writing a paragraph about a rumbling butt accessory without it sounding dirty). PEB is expected to be ready for release sometime later this year, but the crew at Mommy's Best are accepting discounted pre-orders for it already, and it will be available on XBox 360 and on PC, Mac, and Linux, DRM-Free.

Now, returning to the con area at large, the second ballroom was the location of the lounge, where one could enjoy snacks from the hotel's mini cafe. This was also the location of several of their main events, including the game tune trivia match, two costume contests - one for general entries, on Friday evening, and a second for kids only on Saturday afternoon - and the dance, featuring DJ K-Dogg.

The Expo has experimented with different organization every year, but this year's was the best. Granted, I have a personal bias towards artists and vendors, but having them front and center was great for allowing attendees to see what was available immediately, before moving on through to game central. Plus, this ensured that there was plenty of room for both shopping and gaming without anyone feeling cramped, which is always a big win.

The gaming scene this year did not disappoint, as usual. A few notable machines from prior shows were missing/restricted to tournament play only/otherwise unavailable for open play, but there was still a solid selection of great machines. On the pinball side, my favorites included Medieval Madness, Pirates of the Caribbean, World Cup '08, Doctor Who(easy multiball accompanied by Daleks angrily yelling about the Doctor was particularly gratifying), and Whodunnit?(Murder mystery + pinball? Yes please and thank you). Aside from pinball, my coin-op experience included(but was not limited to) Donkey Kong, Joust, TMNT the Arcade, and NBA Jam. And of course I made a circuit of the computer and console systems set up in the side rooms. I could keep going on and on, but instead, I'll summarize with this: I spent an hour and a half playing Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego on an Apple II. That's how awesome my gaming experience was.

And now, for my obligatory Costume Section!

Given that most of my events are anime-themed, I've grown accustomed to seeing many of the same fandoms dominate the cosplay scene. That's not necessarily a complaint - cosplayers are an incredibly creative bunch, and can come up with an infinite number of variations on a character's design and look - but it can at times feel like only the Flavor of the Year is being represented. But with the focus of this convention being video games, it provided an excellent opportunity for an entirely different costume experience. And the participants this year brought the noise in a big way.

 

 

Dysentery is no laughing matter. Get your family to the Willamette Valley safely - play a doctor, yo.

Last, but not least, I'll throw in a bunch of random photos I took around the con, mostly of promo art collected by the organizers:

And that rounds out another year of arcading it up in Louisville. Follow the latest news at arcaderx.com to find out when the next one is being held, and check out their Facebook page as well. As for me, I'm heading off to scratch my retro itch with Super Mario World. For now, this is your 8-Bit Buddy Ro, signing off.

Power Glove image courtesy of nintendo.wikia.com, and SlugFest image courtesy of arcade-museum.com.