On Jan. 1, 2018, my buddy Greg and I started a new podcast called Hooked On Geek. Every Monday morning since then, with the exception of June 4, a new Hooked On Geek episode came out. I had a great time doing it, but unfortunately, the time commitment was taking its toll on me, and this morning’s episode was my last one.
I got the chance to go to BGG Spring in Dallas for the first time at the end of May. My lovely friends from Phoenix, Ohio and Atlanta wanted to meet up somewhere in between all of them, and we all stayed at an airbnb near DFW Airport. I had an amazing time with these guys, and it was just what I needed to de-stress from a chaotic few months. We usually met up yearly for Friendship Con, which I’ve written about here and here.
There’s a misconception among a few people (namely some men I’ve dated) that I’m horrible at math. But in reality, I’m actually pretty decent at math; I just can’t for the life of me do it in my head. Give me some writing utensils and/or my cell phone, and I’ll be able to calculate things and cruise into board-game victory any day.
The first time I encountered Sentient from Renegade Game Studios was late last year, and I was so blown away by it that it immediately made the list for my top 10 games I played for the first time in 2017. Sentient is a clever set-collection, area-control, dice-manipulation game that sometimes involves math. I seriously squealed and said, “That’s FOIL!” when one particular card came out in that first game.
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I first encountered No Motherland Without last October at GMT Weekend and immediately fell in love with the game. Game designer Dan Bullock was there, and I had the pleasure of gaming with him and a few other folks I met that weekend. I was drawn to No Motherland Without because it’s a card-driven game similar to Twilight Struggle and 1960: Making the President, both of which I love, plus it also has some unique elements that make this game stand out. It’s set in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the game is now on Kickstarter! (Edit: The Kickstarter has since been cancelled, as the designer is deciding how to progress. Stay tuned!)
Last weekend, some friends and I went to the sixth-annual ZapCon Arcade and Pinball Convention at the Mesa Convention Center. It was my first time attending, though they had been telling me for years that I should come check it out. And it did not disappoint!
My memories of playing pinball growing up were limited to hanging out in the arcade at the mall with friends or at the local pizza place after sporting events. And I’ve been to a few of the barcades that have sprung up in the Phoenix area in the past few years, but if I’m being honest, I don’t have that big of a connection to those kinds of machines like other folks. Nonetheless, I still went to check this out — and it ended up being so much fun!
Badges for the weekend were $40, or $30 for Saturday and $20 for Sunday. Kids’ badges were at half price. The convention was held in Building C at the Mesa Convention Center, its biggest building, and it was just endless rows and rows of vintage arcade games and pinball games.
The whole hall was dimly lit so that you can see the games clearly, and the convention was packed, but not too packed that it made you feel uncomfortable. People politely waited in line behind a person playing the machine they wanted to play. I even saw a bunch of parents carrying stools so that their little ones could see the screen. I wouldn’t have even thought of that!
The convention had a bunch of tournaments scheduled, which had cash prizes. There was also Pingolf. It’s like golf but with pinball games! Nine machines sat in one corner of the hall for “Pingolf” in which you play all machines and rack up your score like golf. There was a label on each machine, which showed your target score, and you played until you hit that number. If you go through all four of your balls and don’t hit that score, you check the sheet to see where your score fell into the number of strokes, and write your scores for that machine, just like a hole in golf. I ended up getting 56 for the nine machines. It was a lot of fun trying to get to those scores and frustrating when you fell super flat!
One of the big super video-game machines was Killer Queen, which plays 10 people simultaneously. The Gold and Blue teams battle each other on screen, trying to achieve one of three victory conditions: killing the Queen Bee, moving the snail to their side, or filling your team’s hide with berries. It’s super fun, especially when your team wins! I personally just liked jumping onto the snail and moving that sucker to your goal.
Outside the main convention floor was the Retro Living Room. In here were retro video-game consoles hooked up to old TVs, where you can sit back on a couch or lounge on a bean-bag chair and play some games from your childhood. Or you can try your hand at giant Super Mario 3! And they were selling beer in this room, so it totally felt chill and loungey.
On Saturday night, Minibosses performed in the Retro Living Room. They’re a local band who plays 8-bit video-game scores, and their most-famous song is Metroid. I’ve been going to their shows for over a decade, and it totally made me fell old when it seems like some of their kids are now part of the band. I had a great time listening to them.
Another cool thing about the convention was that there were food trucks hanging out outside of the building. They seemed to rotate every few hours, so that was pretty cool having food options on site. Or you could just drive off to a local restaurant, which there are plenty of in and around Mesa.
Overall, I had no idea how the hours would fly by playing pinball over the course of two days. I learned that I don’t like gun-trigger pinball starts (which show sup in games like Jurassic Park and Guns ‘N’ Roses — yep, those guys), and I’m not a fan of the digital screen either, which I played a game of Archer on. It was dizzying to me. My favorite pinball machine I discovered there was the Adam West Batman one. If only I had $7,000 to buy it!
My friends and I also discussed the recent dethroning of Billy Mitchell, villain extraordinaire and “record holder” of “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” and one booth even had these Game Over T-shirts. I was greatly amused by them. Overall it was a good time, and I’m glad I went!
Last week, I mentioned to a friend that I was “just heading to L.A.” for the weekend, and he sarcastically responded, “Oh, is that it? No big deal.” To me, it’s just hopping home, the city where I grew up, for the weekend, but there are probably some of you who haven’t been, so I’m going to recap my quick two days there and share some of my favorite places. And by the way, there isn’t any board gaming in this post. Stay tuned for next week instead!
For the past two years, every time there was a board-game garage sale or flea market, I’d always be on the lookout for Wasabi! It’s an older Z-Man game from 2008, and it’s on my list of grail games that I wished I had a copy of. Recently, my Hooked On Geek podcast co-host Greg randomly mentioned in an episode that it was a grail game of mine, and then two weeks ago, Mike said he was going to send me his copy because it never got played. Wow!! The board game community is seriously just so frakkin’ awesome.
So Feudum has arrived on our table, and, despite its whimsy artwork, it’s quite a beast. A behemoth to be exact. And maybe a sea serpent. My buddy @idontknowrules has been seriously talking about this game since forever, and we got it on table pretty much as soon as it hit his doorstep. The game mechanics aren’t too difficult to learn, but understanding how the system works is quite brain burnery and puzzly. ‘Tis super excellent.
Hello, friends! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I’d like to say I’ve been busy gaming and just haven’t been writing but it’s been a combination of life events that has slowed down all the gaming I’d like to be doing. Inspired by Jamey Stegmaier’s personal blog, I thought I’d share some personal updates with you all. By the way, have you read how much that guy writes on his work and personal websites? It’s pretty amazing.
Arizona Game Fair happened last weekend, and I’m seriously still on a high from all the whirlwind weekend of gaming, hanging out with old friends and meeting more new ones. This is the second year of Arizona Game Fair, and I already can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year. Save the date, folks — March 29-31, 2019! …