2OLD2PLAY
Search

Boston ComicCon, Cool Gaming Events in NE and a Little Wii

W
Waterborn

Boston ComicCon


I went to this event for the second time since moving to the area about four years ago. Though this event is much smaller than its NYC cousin, and there a few CosPlay folks in attendance, it is still a cool time and a good place to find some rarer items if you are searching for that special addition to your collection. I did pick up some cool Chrono Trigger buttons. I also had a chance to speak with Jayme of Game Universe (www.gameuniverseonline.com/) and learned that he and his team are putting together a pretty big gaming convenition in the Boston area, scheduled for sometime in the summer or fall. I will keep everyone posted on any official announcements and plan to attend and cover the event for 2oldplay.


PAXEast


The Penny Arcade folks are bringing PAX to the East Coast and Boston in 2010. This is exciting for those of us who miss out on much of the game convention goodness that occurs on the West Coast. I will be attending a meeting next week set up by the PA folks to get input on what we would like to see at PAXEast. I will keep you posted on what I learn about their plans.


11th Annual International Classic Gaming Tournament


I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was hoping to attend and cover the 11th Annual Classic Gaming Tournament to be held at Funspot in Wiers Beach, NH on May 28 - 31 (www.funspotnh.com/) Well, I was forutnate enough to be able to catch up with Gary Vincent, one of the founders of the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot, and am working to set up an interview with him and his partner Bob Lawton to lead up to the event. I am also talking with Gary about covering the tournament for 2old2play and should have some more details shortly. So if you live in the NE and would like to join me for this event, shoot me a PM. I hope to do several audio interviews from the event that will be posted here at 2old2play.com following the tournament. It should be a great time.


Wii


So my girl and I went over to some friends' home for dinner this evening and got some time on their Wii. I haven't played with this console much, but had fun just messing around with some of the ballance mini-games that come with Wii-fit. We also played a little Super Mario Galaxies, which is one of the strangest Mario titles that I have ever played. All in all a good time, though I am in no hurry to run out and buy a Wii anytime soon. Too much gaming goodness to catch up on via my 360 to justify buying any new systems (other than classic consoles) anytime soon.


Classic Gaming Find of the Weekend


Speaking of classic gaming consoles, I was lucky enough to come across a Sears "Heavy Sixer" today. For those of you who might not be familiar with this system, it is a clone of the Atari 2600 that was sold via Sears Departments stores in 1977 and early 1978. This particular version, called a "Heavy Sixer" due to the rather weighty heat shield that housed the original motherboard, was the only verion of the 2600 (along with the Atari-branded six-switch version) to be produced in the US, in Sunnyvale, CA. In 1979, Atari moved manufacturing of all 2600 untis to Singapore and soon pared down the original design, removing the heat shield and relocating two of the switches onto the back of the unit, resulting in the classic four-switch "Woody" that most of us owned as kids. Though the Heavy Sixers are rarer, they typically are not worth much more than the normal Atari 2600's these days, as they were still produced in realtively large numbers for the time period. However, it is always cool to find one of these in the wild.


View Image


Heavy Sixer Sears Telegames 2600 (Atari 2600 clone)


View Image


Sunnyvale Label


Winner - Wolverine Shirt


And Finally, congratulations to RogueRose  winner of the Woverine Shirt from my last blog. Since I am such a nice guy, I will put one more of these very cool shirts up for grabs. So as always, simply post a comment in reply to this blog to enter. Only one prize per person per 30 days. Enjoy the shirt Rogue.

Comments (5)

L
Lbsutke·
did you pick anything up at the Comic Con?
B
br1ckt0p·
Oh wow...classic almost doesn't do justice to that!\r Reminds me of my old Odyssey² with Pick-ax Pete.
W
Waterborn·
LB, not much, just some Chrono Trigger buttons. I try not to go too crazy at the ComicCons.\r \r Brick, keep an eye out for Issue #2 of Digital Memories. There will be a Odyssey 2 in there.
S
Science·
Since when does classic = old + knock-off :)\r \r Does that make my old Go-Bots classic Transformers?
W
Waterborn·
Sir Science, the Sears Video Arcade was actually produced by Atari specifically for sears and only varies from the Atari-branded version by its label. So even though this system is considered a \"clone\", it is hardly a \"knock-off\". In fact, I would argue that this particular iteration of the Atari Video Computer System is historically significant because it marks the first time that a major industry leader (Atari) partnered with a single retail outlet to sell a specific version of a given console. In esssence, this is the grandfather of all the EBGames/Amazon/TRU special bundles and deals that we see today.\r \r Oh yeah, and old eventually does = Classic, Always.