New Year Revolution

Each passing new year potentially opens the door for new possibilities, more opportunities, and (most importantly) a fresh start. As the march forward into the unknown future begins we bring with it the hope that this year will be better than the last. We attempt to leave the troubles and problems of yesteryear to our memory as we set our focus on committing to yet another long journey around the sun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL!

With that said, hopefully 2014 will prove more fortuitous for everyone in the months to come. I know for me that 2014 has already gotten off to a great start. For the last three years I've attended a small (but quickly growing) gaming/music convention known as Magfest. It's usually held during the first weekend of January and it has been an absolute blast every year that I've gone. In fact it has sort of become a recent New Year's tradition of mine. This year's festivities though were of notable account and were certainly one for the record books!

It's a secret to everybody.

Luck of the Draw

I've never considered myself to be a "lucky" person in any form of the conventional sense. For instance, I tend to avoid entering into such things as raffles or lotteries because I almost always inevitably come up short. Granted, most people come up short, but when you know the odds are not in your favor, why bother? This year's Magfest though seemed intent to prove that very notion in me wrong. Serendipity was apparently on my side for this particular weekend, as almost everything worked out differently from my usual norm in more ways than one. Who knows, I guess even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, or the universe just finally decided to throw little old me a big juicy bone.

First, upon arriving and traversing about in the atrium of the Gaylord Hotel (in the Marlyand National Harbor) I happened to cross paths with none other than famous actress (and convention guest) Ellen McLain. For a bit of back story, she is the voice of world famous videogame personality GLaDOS from Portal 1&2, as well as the voice of the Jaeger A.I. Gypsy Danger in Pacific Rim. At a previous Magfest I had the privilege of attending her Q&A panel to which I asked Mrs. McLain if she could personally berate me for having killed GLaDOS so many times in Portal. Apparently she never forgot me from that encounter and we talked for quite a bit of time. Thinking that her schedule at the con must have been packed with autograph sessions and interviews, I decided to see if I could (by chance) interview her as well. Turns out she had no real interviews set up yet, and was more than willing to give me her time of day. Needless to say, my mind was thoroughly blown. One of the most famous people I've ever had the honor of meeting in person was more than willing to do a sit down interview with me! On top of that, not only did she give me an interview with her, she also set it up so that her husband John Patrick Lowrie would be in the interview as well!

Weekend Warriors

Pidgey contemplates the meaning of existence at Magfest.

From there the rest of the day was just me trying to comprehend what had just happened. I went down to the famous 24 hour arcade/merchant hall of Magfest and attempted to clear my head by just playing some videogames. My spirits were so high that I even decided to enter into a raffle for a gigantic Yoshi quilt (more on that one later) and it was then that I came across a Metal Slug 3 arcade cabinet.

Another bit of back story. As a kid my brother and I would go up to our local arcade quite often and would burn a good deal of coin on games. One of those games was the Metal Slug series. I don't really know what it was about the franchise that attracted me to it as a child, as I was never really that great a player at them, but dammit I loved those games! Now for some reason or another I don't know what happened, but somehow I got in a zone and just beat the brakes off that game like it owed me money! For five levels straight in Metal Slug 3 I ran through killing all of my opposition without getting hit once! It wasn't until I finally died that I noticed I had begun to attract a crowd behind me. They were bearing witness to what I will say was the best run in a Metal Slug game I've ever had, and will probably ever have!

Even the Silent Hill nurse loves the arcade!

I will honestly say one of the best parts of Magfest is its arcade. Contributors from all over the country bring in their arcade cabinets and pinball tables to help bring back the glorious days of those neon filled halls where so many of us spent our week's allowance. Only here it seems am I able to relive playing some of my most favorite quarter eaters of old. Classic beat-em-up titles like Dungeon & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara, The Simpsons Arcade Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade Game, Alien vs. Predator, and X-Men The Arcade Game were all available to play.

As a child these were some of the most fun games I played with my brother, and they are the soul reason that the beat-em-up genre has remained one of my absolute favorites in videogaming to this very day. Experiencing that comradery of defeating the evil Red Dragon of D&D, stopping the Xenomorph invasion in AvP, or crushing Mr. Burns' maniacal plans for world domination in The Simpsons was just as gratifying now as it was then. Having the opportunity to play these classics (the way they were meant to be enjoyed) put me on a nostalgia high like you couldn't believe. Even though this was my third Magfest, I still couldn't get enough of playing the old-school greats!

Tekken's Eliza at Magfest!

The nostalgia didn't stop there either. Like I mentioned before, there were also quite a few pinball tables there too. I'm not one to brag, but back in my day I was a bit of a pinball wizard, and I got a chance at Magfest to see if I could still work my magic on the plunger. After a few warm up rounds on the likes of Dr. Who, Simpsons, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, I got my fingers limber and my incantations ready. I went head to head with my uncle on the Hook table and only barely lost the game by a mere 1 million points. Not wanting to settle for defeat though I turned back to The Simpsons and Dr. Who tables only to land the high score for the Dr. Who table on my second ball! I was certainly glad to see that even though I've gotten older, my powers haven't faded when it comes to racking up a good score!

I even got to play some of the newer game releases such as Knack and Resogun on the Playstation4, and Killer Instinct on the X Box: One. My friends Jason and Rob went several rounds with me in KI only for Rob to thoroughly whip me like an ice cream bowl. While Rob isn't normally the greatest at fighting games, it turns out the dude certainly knows his Killer Instinct and was certain to make me aware of it.

Rise of a Digital Nation

These. Guys. ROCKED!

It was easy enough for me to drop numerous hours into just playing games, and that's how it was for the first two days of the four day convention. Even though I was immensely enjoying playing everything from the likes of King of Fighters to River Raid, there has always been more to Magfest than just videogames. You see Magfest is an acronym for Music and Gaming festival. With several musical guests such as The Megas, Those Who Fight, Mega Ran, Urizen, DJ Cutman, and many others, Magfest was one of the most rockin' conventions on the east coast! But almost nothing could have prepared me for the face melting awesome that was the main musical guest Machinae Supremacy!

More back story time! Machinae Supremacy is a Swedish metal band founded all the way back in 2000. Self-defined as "SID Metal" due to the fact that they utilize a SIDstation in most of their music that is equipped with a SID Chip from the Commodore 64, no other bands really sound quite like them. They pull inspiration for their material from older videogames while their lyrics tend to focus on social and political issues. Until this recent Magfest they were yet to hold an American concert.

I only recently discovered the band myself back in 2010, but ever since I've become a very big fan of theirs. I've always been a sucker for the old bleeps and bloops of videogame music and having a band that combines my love for deep lyrical content and a slamming guitar had me painted interested all over. It was a top priority for me to witness these guys play live the Saturday of the con, and frankly I couldn't be more happy that I did just that.

Check this riff!

Performing numerous tracks from across their discography such as "All of My Angels" their cover of Britney Spears "Gimme More" and (one of my personal favorite singles) "Player One" these guys made it a point to give it their all. The light-show was extremely well coordinated with the music, giving off the right amount of ambiance and power when needed. The band themselves had excellent stage presence throughout the set, with no one side of the stage feeling neglected.

A good deal of crowd interaction and participation was encouraged by the band, with stage dives, the crowd breaking into clap- a-longs, and even a mosh pit (that I got into for a bit) Items such as t-shirts and drum sticks were thrown out into the crowd, helping to always keep the energy going. Lead singer Robert "Gaz" Stjarnstrom made the comment early on that they adhere to the ancient philosophy of "Less talk, more Rock!" and they certainly made good on that with little to no breaks.

Seriously, while all the other performers were great in their own right throughout the con, it was Machinae Supremacy that truly rocked the joint. With their crunchy flowing guitar riffs, heavy yet insightful lyrics, and amazing use of chip tunes, no one could really match up to their concert. For the better part of two hours these guy poured their hearts out and on to Magfest's main stage, and when it was finally all over they had a standing ovation for almost fifteen minutes. Amusingly enough it turned out that not only was this the band's first American venue, but it was also the largest concert that they've ever held so far! I can only hope they're back for next year's festivities!

And the Beat Goes On

When the convention finally came to a close I was pretty much done. I had managed to score my interview with Ellen McLain & John Patrick Lowrie, I played tons of games both old and new with my friends, and I saw a personal favorite band of mine make its American debut. Honestly, even as I am writing this I'm still trying to choke it all down, wondering if it all was in fact real. Hell, I even managed to make a few great worthwhile purchases from the guys who run Mad-Gear. Nabbing up such great titles as the incredibly rare Elemental Gearbolt on PS1 and an unopened factory sealed copy of Perfect Dark for the N64! Even though it's an entire year til the next Magfest, I'm already making plans to return there once more come 2015. This truly was one of the best ways to bring in a new year filled with new possibilities!

Oh! And that Yoshi quilt I entered the raffle for?

I gave it a good home!