Flynn Lives Update: I Have Infiltrated Encom

For those of you following the Flynn Lives Viral Campaign for the upcoming Tron Legacy sequel to the 1982 classic film, you know that another big discovery was unearthed this past week. For those who are asking themselves "what the heck it TRON?" and "who the hell is Flynn?", perhaps you should check out the Flynn Lives ARG Forums over at Unfiction and catch up.

After a clue burried in the Discussion Forums section of the Flynn Lives web page led participants to a rather unique video game trivia quiz located on another web page at ArcadeAid.com, it was revealed that whoever could earn a perfect score there gained access to be able to create their very own Encom Employee ID Badge, theoretically for the purpose of infiltrating this fictitional computer company in the search to discover what ever happened to its former CEO (and creator of game like TRON and Space Paranoids).

Well, I returned home today to find a package from Flynn Lives in my mail box

Upon opening this package, I found a note from Zack, a key player in the ongoing Flynn Live Saga, mastermind behind the ArcadeAid web page and supposed employee of Encom.

But the full awesomeness of this package lies fully in my brand new Encom Employee ID

This ID included an Encom Employee ID number, which when entered into the Encom Intranet Web Page, along with my Flynn Lives password, granted access to this web page.

 

It is now the job of those of us who have gained access to this "internal" web page to snoop around and look for clues as to what the next step will be in the ongoing saga surrounding the dissapearance of Kevin Flynn. There is a section of the web page discussing an upcoming Encom press conference somewhere out West that will be coming in the next few weeks. This story is accompanied by a photo of the San Francisco skyline. So if you live in or near SF, I strongly suggest you snag an Encom badge if you still can and keep your eyes open for more Flynn Lives clues.

 

Posted by Waterborn @ 7:26 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Yet Another PAXEast Update

OK Folks, I usually try to make sure that my blog icon does not show up twice in the page-top feed, but I could not wait to post this update. I just received some exciting news from Gary Vincent and Mike Stuir of the American Classic Arcade Musuem located at Funspot in Laconia New Hampshire. Many of you may know of ACAM and Funspot from the movie The King of Kong featuring Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Gary posted a couple of very special announcments on the messageboards for our local classic coin-op collectors group here in New England and I thought I would share this info with everyone here.

From Gary Vincent

The American Classic Arcade Museum is pleased to announce that on Friday, March 26th and Saturday, March 27th, we will be having the first public showing of Crazy Otto since 1981 at PAX-East. PAX-East will be taking place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

Ms. Pac-Man started life as Crazy Otto, an enhancement hack of Pac-Man. Developed in Massachusetts by General Computer Corporation (GCC), the game featured a number of improvements over traditional Pac-Man gameplay including randomized ghost algorithms, multiple new mazes, new music & sound, new intermissions and bonus items that float around instead of popping up in the same place.

GCC showed their game to Midway (Namco’s American distributor for Pac-Man), attempting to bluff Midway into approving the release of the enhancement kit by telling them that GCC won their lawsuit against Atari involving a similar enhancement for Missile Command. Midway had nothing in the pipeline to follow up Pac-Man, so they suggested that GCC create a true sequel to the original Pac-Man instead of an enhancement kit. The result is Ms. Pac-Man.

Crazy Otto has been in GCC's possession since 1981. It was not released in arcades and it has not been emulated. Our exhibit of Crazy Otto is a one-time showing to the public.

From Mike Stuir - ACAM Board Member

With PAX-East just around the corner, I am proud to announce the ACAM Classic Game Developer Panel that will be taking place on Saturday, March 27th. The panel will take place in the Wyvern Theater at 7:30pm.

I have an exciting discussion planned. The panelists are former employees of General Computer Corporation in Cambridge, MA. GCC was involved in game development, and between 1981-1984, they designed products that created over $750 million in revenue for Midway and Atari. Some of those products include the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game and the hardware for the Atari 7800 console.

My panel guests are:

Steve Golson (Super Missile Attack, Crazy Otto, Ms. Pac-Man, Atari 7800)
Mike Horowitz (Crazy Otto, Ms. Pac-Man)
Jonathan Hurd (Food Fight)
Tim Hoskins (Jr. Pac-Man)
Tom Westberg (Jr. Pac-Man, Atari, other arcade)
Kevin Osborn (Atari 2600/7800 games)

We invite all PAX-East attendees to join us for a fun discussion of classic game development & history.

The American Classic Arcade Museum will be in room 310 at PAX-East. We are setting up a museum exhibit in that room that will consist of classic coin-op games & pinball machines, along with static displays of gaming history. All four of the GCC-designed arcade games (Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Food Fight & Quantum) will be on display in our museum-style retro arcade environment. We will also have two classic laserdisc games (Dragon's Lair and Us Vs. Them) hooked up to projectors so the entire room can watch the gameplay.

Mike Stulir
Board of Directors
American Classic Arcade Museum

Posted by Waterborn @ 8:31 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

T-Minuse 10 Days and Counting (Chaos Ensues)

Rapture Personified

PAXEast is now just 10 days away and I could not be more stoked. For those of you who have been lost from society or locked in a panic room somewhere, you should know a few things. First, Boston has become a slightly (oh ever so slightly) drier version of Rapture (Take THAT 2K Marin) over the past several days. After more than 72 hours of continuous rain, the sun has finally begun to shine once more in Beantown. However, the return of the light did not arrive quickly enough to save us much gnashing of teeth as we do our best to literally keep our heads (and in my case my collection of classic arcade games) above water. Early Saturday morning I noticed that the floor in my basement was beginning to darken with moisture. By Sunday, standing water was collecting on one side (luckily the one without the arcade cabs). As I left for work on Monday, I had a dehumidifier and sump pump running to keep the water at bay and my collection dry. By luck of the draw and with a bit of ersatz praying to the rain gods to move on, my games were spared any actual soaking or water damage. Several of my fellow collectors in the area (and my office) were not so lucky. Upon arriving at work yesterday, I was met with 4" of standing water in one area of our store (not the video game/comic book establishment, but my "real" place of employment) and water rapidly rising in another. After a few hours at work, I returned home to make sure that my basement was still dry (and it was). Some of my local arcade collecting friends were not as lucky, including one who reported that he had 18 vintage pinball machines sitting in over 3' of standing water in his basement. As I stated earlier, the sun finally came out today and things are now beginning to dry out. We have a forecast for at least a week of more sun and warmer (60 degree) weather. So hopefully you won't need a snorkel to get around by the time you arrive here in Boston for PAXEast next week.

Let the Games Begin

With a little over one week until people begin to arrive for PAXEast, planning for this event has ramped up to critical stage and things are getting a bit chaotic. I am working with our partners over at SFX360 to pull together the final pieces for our Gamers Gone Wild Event, scheduled for Saturday March 27th at Lir from 7:00 pm - 1:00 AM. We have so many cool things planned for this event, I don't know where to start. As you probably know by now, Carlos Ferro will be joining as a special Guest VIP. Carlos, who did the voices for Dom Santiago (Gears of War I & II) and Leonardo DaVinci (Assasin's Creed II), will be on hand to play some Gears of War 2 with attendees, sign memorabilia and judge our Rock Band Contest. Both 2old2play and SFX-360 will be holding special contests in the coming week that will give a few lucky folks special VIP access to meet and hang out with Carlos, so stay tune for more details coming soon.

Playing Gears of War 2 not enough for you COGs out there? Well then, how about a chance to win a custom-designed, Dom Santiago-themed Project Total Domination Gears of War Xbox 360 Elite from GamerGrafix.com . Our good friends at GG have been working very hard to pull this incredible machine together in time for our party. Check out some of the work that Omega and Co have done so far.

You do not need to be present at the event to win this beauty and can enter the drawing online. Carlos Ferro will draw the winner via a live online feed at Gamers Gone Wild, so head over to Gamer Grafix for details on how you can enter, before it is too late.

So You Want More?

The Gears of War Goodness above not enough to make you come hang out with 2old2play and SFX-360? OK, fine. We have much more in store for those who do turn up for our little party. Harmonix has graceously provided us with several Rock Band Bundles for our tournament, which will be held on the 3rd floor of Lir on Saturday. This is your chance to get a group of your friends together and show the crowd your moves. Winners will receive tons of cool gaming swag from our sponsors and bragging rights for the rest of the night. Here are the details for the contest:

• Hit the stage in our 3-6-0 Rock Band Tournament: 3 Judges, 6 Rounds, 0 Talent!
• Starts @ 9pm, bands must register before 9pm to qualify.
• First Place wins a $50 GameStop gift card per band member, up to four (4) members!
• Every participant will receive a prize, so sign up and rock Gamers Gone Wild!

Still not enough for you? Well then, dress up as your favorite Gamer Geek Icon and enter our Gamers Gone Wild Costume Contest.

• Starts @ 12am, contestants must register before 12am to qualify.
• Best Mens & Womens costume to be decided, Best Overall wins a Rock Band 2 bundle!
• Every participant will receive a prize, so go all out and steal the spotlight!

And yet you want more you say? How about a chance to win a full-sized, fully functional Street Fighter II Arcade Cab signed by Justin Wong (current Street Fighter IV World Champ)? All you have to do is destroy the competition in head to head, one-on-one brutality during our Street Fighter II Tournament. I am working to fully restore the cab as I type and pictures will be posted this weekend. Justin and his fellow Empire Arcadia Crew will be hosting demos and pointing out tips leading up to the tournament (No, Justin will not be in the actual tournament. We are not THAT mean).

Empire Arcadia Members in attendance will include:

• Justin Wong: World Champion- Street Fighter IV
• TriForce: Guinness World Record for Tetris DS and 30 other World Records
• Sanford "Santhrax" Kelly: 2009 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 World Champion
• Andre "Jago" Lambert: Street Fighter 4 Pro Bison Player
• Ariel "FightingGM" Capellan: Tekken 6 Pro Lee Player
• Micheal "IFC Yipes" Mendoza: 2007 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 World Champion
• Kevin "DieMinion" Landon: Street Fighter 4 Pro Guile Player.

Party with and challenge these gamers while they show you how to win like a pro in: Tekken 6, Tetris Party, Street Fighter 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars. Do you have what it takes to defeat the Empire?

And if all this still were not enough to get you to come and hang out with us on a Saturday Night, check out what else we have lined up for you. Additional swag provided by all of our incredible sponsors, including officially licensed t-shirts, games, and tons more!

All the action will be STREAMING LIVE @ ufragtv.com, so join us March 27th at the Lir Irish Pub, 903 Boylston Street in Boston, Mass. at 8pm for the most unforgettable, unimaginable party for the gaming community during PAX East weekend!

NO cover, NO inhibitions, NO excuse not to be there!

Posted by Waterborn @ 8:30 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

More TRON Goodness

So yesterday a new message was found on the discussion boards posted by Zack Attack asking if the Flynn Lives Faithful were "worthy". Clicking on the link in that thread led to this little Classic Video Game Mindbender.

If you are able to guess all 50 of the correct answers, then you are given the opportunity to create an Encom Employee ID.

As many of you may know, Encom is the company that Kevnin Flynn created and that went on to make games like TRON and Space Paranoids within the TRON lexicon. Speculation is that there are several upcoming events related to the TRON Legacy Flynn Lives viral campaign that will require possesion of an Encom employee ID for entry. So if you have not done so already, head on over to the Flynn Lives message boards and test your classic video game knowledge and hopefully score yourself a badge. If you need a little help with some of the answers, a dedicated group of Kevin Flynn loyalists may be able to help you.

More Stills From the TRON Legacy Movie Trailer

As people are picking over the recently released TRON Legacy Trailer, more stills are being released. Here are a few of the best so far.

 

Posted by Waterborn @ 9:12 am EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

So You Think You Are a Gears Fan? Check This Out!

So the awesme folks over at Gamer Grafix are working on something very cool for our Gamers Gone Wild party at PAXEast on March 27th. Omega for GG is creating a Custom Dom Santiago themed Gears of War Xbox Elite to be given away during our event. You really have to check out this guy's work to believe it.

Original Design Sketches

Dom Santiago will be featured as part of this mod design

The Xbox 360 Elite before work began

Custom DVD Cover

Custom Case Cut-aways

Custom Gears Omen Tag

Case Mock-up

Custom Hard Drive Cover

Once this fine machine is all finished, Carlos Ferro, the voice of Dom Santiago, will put the finishing touches on the system by signing it. This will definitely be a One-of-A-Kind Xbox that would make an excellent addition to any Gears fan's collection.

So You Want To Own This Beast?

You can enter to win this custom beauty by heading over to the Gamer Grafix Forums and buying raffle tickets. The winner will be chosen by Dom Santiago (Carlos Ferrro) himself at our Gamers Gone Wild Event. You need not be present to win and 50% of all proceeds from tickets bought will be donated to benefit

Win A VIP Pass to Gamers Gone Wild and Play Gears of War 2 with Dom Santiago

In addition to having an opportunity to own this awesome custom Gears of War themed Xbox 360 Elite, you can also enter to win a VIP Pass to our Gamers Gone Wild Party. This pass will get you open access to all areas of Lir during the event and will also provide you with a chance to play Gears of War 2 against Dom Santiago (Carlos Ferro) himself. To enter to win the Gears of War VIP Pass for our Gamers Gone Wild Party, simply follow me on Twitter and retweet any announcments that I post regarding this contest, along with the phrase "I will be there" so I know that you are actually planning to attend our event during PAXEast in Boston at the end of this month. For every message that you retweet, you will receive one entry into the drawing. We will have Carlos Ferro draw the winner at our event.

REMEMBER: To be eligible to win the Gears of  War VIP Pass, you MUST be present at the Gamers Gone Wild Party, brought to you by 2old2play and SFX-360 on Saturday, March 27th at Lir in Boston

 

Posted by Waterborn @ 8:01 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments