Ugh, I'm feeling pretty ill today, but I thought I should mention just how rad CA Extreme was.

CA Extreme was very rad.

Memorable things include:

Playing Dand Dance Revolution with Ami, and actually getting pretty good at the 2 feet (out of 10 feet) difficulty level, after having only played it a dozen times or so, then having my DDR aspirations crushed by watching Ernie glide across both pads like some kind of whirling nerd dervish. Damn, but that boy can lay down the feet fo shizzle.

Walking up to the Point Blank machine, earning the #1 high score on my first try and walking away. I've got my skillsets too, of course. I'm just more handy with a gat than a dance floor.

The Two Tigers machine. Oh, oh, oh, it was so sweet. It was modified to play Prodigy's "Fat of the Land" while you were madly droppin' bombs and blasting B-52s. It's a good thing I played my fill early. Dave and Ernie set up camp at the control for the latter half of the afternoon. It was on sale for $150, and it was extremely tempting. Dave was also thinking of purchasing it, but we both wussed out in the end. Where the hell am I going to put an arcade machine in my house?

I played the legendary I, Robot for the first time. I have to say I didn't like it very much. Though it marks a historical moment in filled-in ploygons, I found it to be alittle too complex for an arcade game.

I also played the legendary Warlords for the first time. Now that is a dope-ass game. I was playing four player with Ernie, Belle, and Ami and pretty much got worked, but it was still very fun. Ernie said that people were laying down twenties on it earlier. I would have liked to get in on that action with a game at which I was actually good.

The laserdisc game display section had pretyt much every laserdisc arcade game ever made, I'm pretty sure. Even the goofy-ass Thayer's Quest. Why the hell did they make a laserdisc game with a keyboard? I also tried my hand at Cliff Hanger, the game with animation cobbled together from scenes out of the excellent Lupin film series, and found it to be pretty damn lame, aside from the killer animation, of course. Essentially, every time you reach a new action to perform, you just die over and over until you gues the right one. It's a good thing it was set on free play. I'd neevr bother shoveling quarters into that.

kc! and I were getting hypnotized by Tunnel Hunter, which is an old game which throws multi-colored squares at you in a low-tech simulation of flying through a tunnel. The effect is very hypnotic, or nauseating, whichever works for you.

The only pinball machine I tried was this NFL game. I managed to shoot the ball and get it stuck behind this plastic linebacker. I have the worst luck with breaking games. I guess that's why I'm tester.

It was cool to see all the gamers enjoying themselves, and all the dork couples running around playing games together. There were a number of rugrats camped out on some of the machines, but nothing too annoying (except for that one kid who was hanging out by the Prop Cycle machine and kept saying "my turn!" whenever I finished a level. Not yet, you little brat, learn some manners... rrrrr....). I can't wait for it to come around again next year. I think I need a yearlong break besides, the convention gave me a total arcade hangover, but it was worth it.