<( '_' )> (>'_' )> <( '_' )> <( '_'<) ^( ^_^)^ (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} yeehawmckickass) wrote,@ 2009-05-11 13:09:00 |
|
ACEN report: Gaming Related Stuff
I think the best way to sum up ACEN is by what I told NappyJin at the end as we were coming back from the Wisconsin crews traditional pre-home Giordano's dinner.
"The slogan for ACEN for next year should be, 'Something Happened'." Because it's true. Something big happened for pretty much everyone, but a lot of times people just don't even know WHAT IT WAS that happened to them. It seems to sum up working at the convention too, a whole bunch of shit happens on your watch, and you really can't do anything about all of it.
So what happened for me? A lot.
Might as well start with the whole reason I even went.
The Pump Machine held up to about 99% of expectations. Moving the pads shifted all the accumulated dirt and dust around and created some odd sticking and over sensitivity that I had to tweak out late thursday and early Friday. My modifications were still a bit oversensitive, but by the time the tournament came around most of that was worn down to working dead on. People were posting awesome scores. The other problem was something like 8 or 10 eaten quarters, but I know exactly what causes that and I can't really do anything about it. Basically, both coin slots are on the same circuit. If two people try to put money in on both sides at the same time, one of the quarters doesn't register. And anything NX2 or higher doesn't register COIN2.
I did get some huge props on the machine though. DarkLink looked at it and was impressed, gaming staff save Melissa (since she'd seen all of it) was impressed. I even had someone who'd pretty much never seen a cabinet before come through, look at it and say I did an awesome job rehabbing it. I guess it shows that I took the time to work on it. Oh yeah, the LED's and new bars helped too.
I did incur some damage with my pad umbilical, and a screw that was loose kept coming out from the cabinet, but I expected those.
As for numbers, here's the Bre\-/k Down! (ddr pun :p)
Friday: 102.50, bookkeeping showed 101.00
Saturday: 104.50, bookkeeping showed 104.00 (also tournament day)
Sunday: 19.50, bookkeeping showed 19.50
Total: 226.50.
How does it compare? I know for a fact that IIDX made something around 236, considering Brian got something like 118 for bringing his Gold kit. I was told I changed more cash in than ITG, and DDR/Pop'n combined on Friday too. No clue really on Saturday numbers, and the game room was only open for something like 3-3.5 hours on Sunday. The DH thinks I probably completely outearned ITG (DarkLink claimed making about 300, I have doubts), and counting costs, I MIGHT have outearned DDR (Peter had to pay for his transit, also had to comp back on two tournaments).
Speaking of Touranments, Pump went awesome. Dread won speed and WhiteDragon won freestyle. Melissa's made huge strides in freestyling in the last couple years. Sean K ended up taking second over WinDEU in the finals, with WhiteDragon rounding out the top four for what could be called an overall win. Everythign went fast, nobody had any complaints about any of it, and people had fun.
I wish I could say the same for DDR. That was a level of faggotry that WILL NEVER BE REPEATED AGAIN for an official ACEN tournament because they're not going to be running any more official tournaments on DDR. DDR players bitch and moan about the ruleset not being in thier favor all the time then whine about ITG players doing the same thing. On top of that, they claim ITG is a, "vastly different game." One of them actually tried that argument with me, my response was simply, "I'd listen to your argument if you were talking about the difference between either four panel game and pump. You're still playing a four panel game with the same basic skill sets and the same basic game play. The only differences are that ITG is more stamina based and DDR hasn't changed since 2002." They promptly shut up after that. I'm seriously considering calling out the top eight players as reasons there won't be an official tournament anymore.
The "two consecutive ties" thing pushed me over time too. Honestly, there are far more people there who want to just PLAY THE DAMNED GAME than try to win a free ACEN touranment for a fucking ribbon. I should have just disqualified everyone who got single digit greats and done a bracket from the top eight after that. Those assholes ran their own touranment right afterwards anyway.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to comment on the shape of the other machines there. Peter's DDR and Pop'n were in great shape. DarkLink's ITG was in great shape except for the bars and the fact it's a hacked monstrosity that I wouldn't pay to play. Doug Fowler's 4-slot neo-geo lacked marquee glass for some reason (played fine apparently).
Forrest's machines sat the worst with me. Guitar Freaks looked like ass, it was dirty and banged up. DrumMania's monitor was VIBRATING IN THE GOD DAMNED CABINET. IIDX kept going off sync. None of his uprights were in very good shape, the non-showcase one had multiple coin slots taped off, his puzzle fighter had the wrong marquee, and they all looked like hell. His MvC2 Showcase cabinet looked ok, but apparently had joystick problems all over (source NappyJin). Aside from a candy cabinet that either didn't work or never got turned on, I can't really complain about those.
Honestly, his game selection is awesome. It's just that they all look horrible.
In terms of non-arcade gaming stuff, I picked up DJ Max Clazziquai. Wanted Black Square, but the only place selling it there was out. Played it a bit at lunch, pretty good.
I do plan on bringing Pump again next year, I'll likely have the newest version at that point. I'd like to see about securing a second cabinet of some sort of game that would go over well there to bring. Two cabinets seems to be the minimum threshhold to make things even more worthwhile.
The cabinet and pads come back home on tuesday, I told the gaming DH to take a day off and decompress from the whole thing. I have the marquee and bars home already (they fit in my trunk/back seat respectively).
I'll make another post later tonight about the other stuff. Gotta go deliver, since I'm at work and John's back.
I think the best way to sum up ACEN is by what I told NappyJin at the end as we were coming back from the Wisconsin crews traditional pre-home Giordano's dinner.
"The slogan for ACEN for next year should be, 'Something Happened'." Because it's true. Something big happened for pretty much everyone, but a lot of times people just don't even know WHAT IT WAS that happened to them. It seems to sum up working at the convention too, a whole bunch of shit happens on your watch, and you really can't do anything about all of it.
So what happened for me? A lot.
Might as well start with the whole reason I even went.
The Pump Machine held up to about 99% of expectations. Moving the pads shifted all the accumulated dirt and dust around and created some odd sticking and over sensitivity that I had to tweak out late thursday and early Friday. My modifications were still a bit oversensitive, but by the time the tournament came around most of that was worn down to working dead on. People were posting awesome scores. The other problem was something like 8 or 10 eaten quarters, but I know exactly what causes that and I can't really do anything about it. Basically, both coin slots are on the same circuit. If two people try to put money in on both sides at the same time, one of the quarters doesn't register. And anything NX2 or higher doesn't register COIN2.
I did get some huge props on the machine though. DarkLink looked at it and was impressed, gaming staff save Melissa (since she'd seen all of it) was impressed. I even had someone who'd pretty much never seen a cabinet before come through, look at it and say I did an awesome job rehabbing it. I guess it shows that I took the time to work on it. Oh yeah, the LED's and new bars helped too.
I did incur some damage with my pad umbilical, and a screw that was loose kept coming out from the cabinet, but I expected those.
As for numbers, here's the Bre\-/k Down! (ddr pun :p)
Friday: 102.50, bookkeeping showed 101.00
Saturday: 104.50, bookkeeping showed 104.00 (also tournament day)
Sunday: 19.50, bookkeeping showed 19.50
Total: 226.50.
How does it compare? I know for a fact that IIDX made something around 236, considering Brian got something like 118 for bringing his Gold kit. I was told I changed more cash in than ITG, and DDR/Pop'n combined on Friday too. No clue really on Saturday numbers, and the game room was only open for something like 3-3.5 hours on Sunday. The DH thinks I probably completely outearned ITG (DarkLink claimed making about 300, I have doubts), and counting costs, I MIGHT have outearned DDR (Peter had to pay for his transit, also had to comp back on two tournaments).
Speaking of Touranments, Pump went awesome. Dread won speed and WhiteDragon won freestyle. Melissa's made huge strides in freestyling in the last couple years. Sean K ended up taking second over WinDEU in the finals, with WhiteDragon rounding out the top four for what could be called an overall win. Everythign went fast, nobody had any complaints about any of it, and people had fun.
I wish I could say the same for DDR. That was a level of faggotry that WILL NEVER BE REPEATED AGAIN for an official ACEN tournament because they're not going to be running any more official tournaments on DDR. DDR players bitch and moan about the ruleset not being in thier favor all the time then whine about ITG players doing the same thing. On top of that, they claim ITG is a, "vastly different game." One of them actually tried that argument with me, my response was simply, "I'd listen to your argument if you were talking about the difference between either four panel game and pump. You're still playing a four panel game with the same basic skill sets and the same basic game play. The only differences are that ITG is more stamina based and DDR hasn't changed since 2002." They promptly shut up after that. I'm seriously considering calling out the top eight players as reasons there won't be an official tournament anymore.
The "two consecutive ties" thing pushed me over time too. Honestly, there are far more people there who want to just PLAY THE DAMNED GAME than try to win a free ACEN touranment for a fucking ribbon. I should have just disqualified everyone who got single digit greats and done a bracket from the top eight after that. Those assholes ran their own touranment right afterwards anyway.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to comment on the shape of the other machines there. Peter's DDR and Pop'n were in great shape. DarkLink's ITG was in great shape except for the bars and the fact it's a hacked monstrosity that I wouldn't pay to play. Doug Fowler's 4-slot neo-geo lacked marquee glass for some reason (played fine apparently).
Forrest's machines sat the worst with me. Guitar Freaks looked like ass, it was dirty and banged up. DrumMania's monitor was VIBRATING IN THE GOD DAMNED CABINET. IIDX kept going off sync. None of his uprights were in very good shape, the non-showcase one had multiple coin slots taped off, his puzzle fighter had the wrong marquee, and they all looked like hell. His MvC2 Showcase cabinet looked ok, but apparently had joystick problems all over (source NappyJin). Aside from a candy cabinet that either didn't work or never got turned on, I can't really complain about those.
Honestly, his game selection is awesome. It's just that they all look horrible.
In terms of non-arcade gaming stuff, I picked up DJ Max Clazziquai. Wanted Black Square, but the only place selling it there was out. Played it a bit at lunch, pretty good.
I do plan on bringing Pump again next year, I'll likely have the newest version at that point. I'd like to see about securing a second cabinet of some sort of game that would go over well there to bring. Two cabinets seems to be the minimum threshhold to make things even more worthwhile.
The cabinet and pads come back home on tuesday, I told the gaming DH to take a day off and decompress from the whole thing. I have the marquee and bars home already (they fit in my trunk/back seat respectively).
I'll make another post later tonight about the other stuff. Gotta go deliver, since I'm at work and John's back.
