Comments on: California Extreme 2010 report

By: David Cobb

David Cobb — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:33:00 +0000

They have one of those PAUL BUNYAN machines at Café 50s, right next door to my place here in Sherman Oaks. Been there for at least two decades. Always loved that awesome artwork.

Thanks for the great run-down and pix! :)

I think I sent you the link to my pix already, but here it is just in case:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davecobb/sets/72157624485404771/

By: » We are making a video

» We are making a video — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:43:39 +0000

[...] The show was a blast anyway, but the video shoot made it extra special. I don’t want to give too much away about exactly what is in the video because I want it to be a surprise to anybody who wasn’t there. I can say that we made good use of over 400 classic arcade machines — everything in the song was on the show floor except for just two games (Daytona USA and Ladybug). Also, several members of the GamesRadar/TalkRadar crew helped us out and stayed up in the wee hours of the morning while we lip-synched with the best of them. We are forever grateful to the CA Extreme gang for trusting us when we came to them with this crazy idea and we hope the final video will do them proud. [...]

By: Tjbeyer

Tjbeyer — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:28:25 +0000

The Grid is awesome. I bought 2 of them, and decided I needed more (because there aren't any computer players in multi-player games, so if you only have 2 cabinets, it's 1 vs 1 and nobody else to hunt down = not very fun).

By: Tjbeyer

Tjbeyer — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:26:31 +0000

I nicknamed Lucky & Wild as “The Drive-By Shooting Game”

Player 1 drives and shoots, player 2 shoots.

By: One of Swords Podcast 026: Pet a Nonexistent Cat — One Of Swords

One of Swords Podcast 026: Pet a Nonexistent Cat — One Of Swords — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:01:42 +0000

[...] What you missed at California Extreme [...]

By: Joe A Garcia

Joe A Garcia — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:05:17 +0000

In that case I definitely have to go, if only on the off chance that I'll ever play that game again.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:06:55 +0000

* Alex is at work at an Activision studio and checks the latest blog update from Activision's blogger.
* Alex sees a comment from Bowen.
* Alex wonders if this is the same Bowen from Newport who used he used to see at the local arcade back in the 80s.
* Alex does 30s of internet research and confirms that, yeah, it almost certainly is.
* Alex is amazed at how small the world is.

By: Dan (OneOfSwords)

Dan (OneOfSwords) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:08:46 +0000

Hey, I wanna earn it! :)

By: Dan (OneOfSwords)

Dan (OneOfSwords) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:08:28 +0000

I've played Lucky & Wild, and I think there was one at CAX one year, but not this time. The size of the machines is secondary; there were plenty of large ones there — I didn't show DDR, Magical Truck Adventure, Prop Cycle, or the prototypes Motor Run and Space Lords, both of which are huge. Ferrari 355 Challenge is visible in one of the cocktail-row photos above, and that has three monitors.

By: Joe A Garcia

Joe A Garcia — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:54:11 +0000

My favorite arcade had The Grid for the last few years of its life before it closed down, definitely one of my favorites. They only had four cabinets, though it didn't make the game any less fun for me.

I was just 5 when Lethal Enforcers came out, but they had it at the Chuck E Cheese's I used to go to. It's aged terribly, but I still have a soft spot for it.

My absolute favorite arcade game growing up, though, was Lucky & Wild. I have no idea if you've ever heard of it or if it was at CAX (doubt it because of how huge the machine was), but it was a buddy cop rail shooter where one player would drive and both players would shoot. Once I stopped going to Chuck E. Cheese's over 10 years ago I've never seen the game again, but it's burned into my memory.

Destructoid wrote something about it: http://www.destructoid.com/games-time-forgot-lu...

And I'm mad that this is the only YouTube footage I can find of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPp1k1vX8f4#t=3m10s

Long story short, I have to get to CAX one year.

By: Bowen

Bowen — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:30:59 +0000

Someday we'll let you win the trivia contest… someday…

Thanks for the kind words and see you again next year!
- Bowen

By: Jkoolpe

Jkoolpe — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:23:22 +0000

That's me in the photo carrying my HUO Sinistar :) . I'm one of the organizers, and I just wanted to acknowledge your kind words…we work our collective tails off and then some each year so it's nice to know folks enjoy the end product.
And just a fun FYI…it actually takes more than 1 day to set up and then tear down…it's 2 days on each end when all is said and done. And that's almost without stopping for sleep, either ;) …

See you next July!

Jon (and the Extreme Team)

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:06:53 +0000

I was able to go this year and it was an absolute blast! As someone mostly ignorant of old school arcade gaming, seeing the entire evolution and all that history in one location was amazing. I loved playing the old pinball games and comparing them to the newer ones. The Grid was so much fun; I could've played that for hours.