See Them! tonight on Fremont St

For the Vegas locals out there, don’t forget that tonight is the Cinevegas screening of 1954’s colossal killer ant classic, Them!.

Join me at the mock drive-in, set up just off the Fremont St Experience. The Neonopolis garage is probably the best place to park for the night.

Fremont St and 3rd St
9:00 PM tonight

Tickets are on sale at the Cinevegas Box Office at the Palms, and the screening is expected to sell out. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get these tickets online, but there will be shuttle service from the Palms to the screening location.

Video Games Live Las Vegas.

The show opened with the video of “Yuri the only one for me” by the Leetstreet Boys. This, friend reader, is one hell of a nerdy song.

The Las Vegas stop was held at the Henderson Pavilion, a somewhat intimate outdoor amphitheater with seating for 2500. The Las Vegas Philharmonic accompanied Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, giving an extraordinary performance all evening (and playing through some not-quite-extraordinary sound mixing), and pianist Martin Leung was amazing as usual. Vocal artist Dee Baker was also onstage for a segment, performing his staggering Berserker routine.

For me, the highlight of the evening was Frank Klepacki’s performance of his C&C classic “Hell March.” Great tune, and timely with the upcoming releases. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it as well, and I hope they bring him back to do more next year. I’d love to see “Divine Intervention” live.

Aside from the VGL touring regulars, special guests for the meet & greet were the local folks, Westwood alumni and Petroglyph staff, and they stuck around for another hour or so after the concert to sign autographs and say hello to the fans.

Ich Liebe Comics

So the TMNT action figure bit in my last post has led to a hunt to see what back issues are going for (fairly cheap, if you don’t insist on 1st printings), if there were ever any trades released of the original Mirage issues (there were, and they are long out of print), and what the online comic book industry looks like these days. Everything in life is a potential rabbit hole to be lost in, for me.

Comics are one of the rare things I tend to always buy in person, and that’s mostly thanks to Ralph Mathieu, progenitor of Alternate Reality Comics, a shop I’ve been visiting off and on since the mid ’90s. I’ll drop by once every few months, he recommends a book or two, and off I go. Ralph reads pretty much everything and has a great eye for quality, so his recommendations tend to be pretty much spot on.

I just discovered that Ralph has a blog, an outlet where he can now share his comic book wisdom with the whole of the world. Go read through the archives, and find yourself a new gem or two.

link love 06-11-08

On photographing your anime and game figures. [via tomopop]
And somewhat related, taking better photos for etsy and ebay.

Also somewhat related, I’m sold on the NECA release of action figures based on the original Mirage Studios version of the turtles. My dilemma is deciding whether I want the current release or if I should wait for the black & white series 2 coming later this year.

Not counting the brief performance at the Spike VGAs, Video Games Live finally makes its way to Las Vegas this weekend. VGL is a great show, and someone we know well may be making a surprise guest appearance. Need tickets? Here’s a set on ebay going for cheap.
Update: They’ve posted the news, get ready to see Hell March live!

And finally, that didn’t take long.

link love 05-23-08

Computer Space sells for $10,000
One of the top five cabinet designs of all time.

China’s MMOs go dark for three days of mourning.

I can’t wait to play Infinite Line. More here and here. Also, the new trailer for the unrelated Infinite Undiscovery.

In local news, tickets are now on sale for individual showings during Cinevegas. No I must see this films for me this year, but I’m sure the outdoor screening of Them will be a blast.

New additions to the regular readlist: Games Journalism or Bust!, Sexy Videogameland, & chewing pixels.

Better late than never - MarioKart Tour

Okay, last batch of photos from the events that already happened and aren’t really news anymore pile.

The ongoing Mario Kart Wii Driving School Tour made a stop in Las Vegas last month, and as video game related events are a somewhat rare local occurrence, we thought it’d be fun to go check things out.

I met up with Josh and his son Corbin, and the three of us drove downtown to the Fremont Street Experience, where the Nintendo crew had set up for the day.

The rest of the goods, after the jump.
Full story, after the jump »

Better late than never - 2008 ASI

On the weekend of March 29th, Adam and I spent a day at the Amusement Showcase International, a coin-up vendors’ convention held here in Las Vegas. While Street Fighter IV, the primary reason for our attendance, wasn’t anywhere to be seen, we did come across a pleasant surprise or two.

Adam’s much more timely account of the event can be found on his site, and my own assortment of ASI photos, a month after any of this may have possibly been news, after the cut.
Full story, after the jump »

GTA IV midnight release.

Here’s the line at one of the flagship Gamestop stores here in town. While there are more people standing out front than I remember at the Halo3 launch, that may be partially due to Gamestop being the only shop in the area holding a midnight release. On Halo3 night, everyone was open.

As for me, I just dropped by to grab pictures. Too many games on the play list right now to consider adding another. Hell, I haven’t even unwrapped Lost Odyssey.

Swap Meet Day

This morning we hit the Broadacres Swap Meet, a large outdoor swap meet on the northern end of Las Vegas Blvd, well beyond the Strip. Sitting on 40 acres, this place has pretty much everyone you’d want, especially if everything you want is toiletries, Mexican wrestling masks, and tv remotes.

One of many cable tables.

Along with my first sunburn of the year, I came out with the following:

While there were tons of video game merchants, most were overpriced and I didn’t want to drive my fiance nuts as I dug around for the occasional jewel. Almost picked up an ESPN Dreamcast, but it was missing the modem/broadband bits, so I passed. Sega Saturns were strangely common for some reason, saw more Saturn consoles than Saturn games.

ASI Coin-Op Olympics

A bit last minute, just found out about the show from Adam this morning:

The public is invited to try cutting-edge arcade games before they even appear in local entertainment centers! The Amusement Showcase International is pleased to announce that for the first time in its history, it will open its doors to the public on its final show day, Saturday, March 29, from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Members of the public who attend will be the first outside of the industry to try exciting new games from well-known arcade companies. Tournament play will be available on many new games with prizes awarded to the highest scores of the day. Local Las Vegas celebrities will be attending to compete in a special celebrity tournament with prizes going to their favorite charities.

“We want to give the public a chance to try the newest, hottest games on the market,” said Michael Rudowicz, President of the American Amusement Machine Association, which sponsors ASI. “The consumer’s opinion of the new games is important to the game manufacturers as well as to the buyers who attend the show. Who better to help an entertainment center operator choose which new games to buy than the people who will be playing them?”

Public admission to ASI is available only on Saturday, March 29, from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $10 per person. Children under 10 are free. Registration will close at 3 p.m.

Pre-registration is recommended. Please click here to download a registration form.

The Amusement Showcase International will be located in the lower level of the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall S1. ASI is the annual spring trade show for distributors, operators, manufacturers and suppliers of coin- operated amusements, music and games.