Top 10 Things I Did at PAX East

As a follow-up to the Top 10 Things To Do at PAX East, I present to you a recap list, showing my personal favorite moments of the weekend.  Just because something didn’t make this list doesn’t mean it wasn’t awesome.  It is more likely that I just didn’t get to it, as there were so many things going on at the same time, and I am just one man!  Without further ado, here are my top 10 moments:

#10: Video Games & Hardware You Could Never Afford

One of the coolest things I saw all weekend were various freeplay gaming setups that used hardware you could never justify spending money on, but could play for free at PAX.  Professional Street Fighter arcade sticks and 3-screen racing game setups where just the beginning of it.  How about the chance to play a super-rare 1990 Nintendo World Championship NES cartridge?

The star of the show, though, had to be the 10 Steel Battalion stations.  This game requires the player to operate a walking mech, or vertical tank, using a $200 controller with 2 joysticks, foot pedals, and over 40 buttons and switches.  During the first half of PAX, the Steel Battalion room was open to anyone who wanted to learn, after which you were allowed to sign up for the 5 vs 5 or free-for-all tournaments later in the weekend.

#9: Mega Man 2 Speedrun Challenge

Two professional Mega Man 2 players, two systems side-by-side, and a huge crowd cheering them on.  This was the scene in the Classic Console Freeplay area on Saturday afternoon, where these two pros went neck and neck, racing through Mega Man 2 at a lightning pace.  The competition was intense, and the crowd was into it, giving huge cheers every time a boss was defeated, and gasps of surprise when a player fell victim to a rare mistake or death. Part of the appeal for this event was that is was never listed on the schedule, and many similar events popped up over the weekend due to the great staff running the Classic Console area.

#8: Waiting in Line

I know that sounds weird, but lines for entering Main Theater events were not so much waiting experiences, but parties.  The PAX crew brought in Evil Genius Designs and their Get In Line Games product to entertain the large crowds, and it worked flawlessly.  Throughout the line, there were large projector screens displaying games, polls, and message boards, all of which you could interact with by logging onto the local wi-fi via your smartphone or laptop.  Some of the games were very creative too, including a crowd game similar to Doodle Jump where cameras where used to detect whether the crowd was leaning predominantly to the right or to the left, and used that input to direct the motion of the player on screen.  If that wasn’t enough to keep you entertained, every person in line was given a free Magic: The Gathering starter deck to help pass the time.

#7: Perfect Dark Tournament

The 15-year-old version of me almost wet himself when I found out about this, so I couldn’t help but enter the tournament.  For the unfamiliar, Perfect Dark is an N64 game and the successor to GoldenEye, one of the most console first-person shooters ever made.  While I also haven’t played this game in about a decade, it existed in an age before Xbox Live, where hooking your console up to the internet was just a dream.  PAX is the sort of forum where dreams come true.  Even with the rust, I made it to the semifinals, so it is needless to say that I had a blast.

#6: Rock Band on Stage

You could not avoid Rock Band at PAX, whether it be the multiple small setups in the freeplay areas, or the completely decked-out Rock Band Lounge, furnished by Harmonix themselves.  We settled for the middle road, which was the stage set up on the second floor.  Not as cool as the lounge, but also not as long of a line.  As an added bonus, the stage came equipped with plenty of toys for the singer, included a tambourine, claves, and a cowbell!

#5: Meeting Other Geeks

There is a huge focus at PAX on people being friendly and following Wheaton’s Law.  It’s something that we where not sure would carry over from the very friendly west-coast PAX, which has been running for 5 years now, but even in it’s inaugural year, PAX East has kept that same spirit.  I don’t think I met one person the entire weekend who was a dick.  Everyone was on the same page and happy to chat, with no reference, no matter how obscure, going unappreciated.  Wherever you went, people we willing to just hop in a game, whether it be a quick pick-up game of Mario Kart or Tetris on the DS, or a board game they’ve never played before.  I broke out a board game, Red November, and promptly left out one crucial rule, making the game impossible to win.  After an hour we realized this, but everyone was cool about it and just had a good laugh.  Thanks for not getting pissed and flipping the table, guys!

#4: Action Castle

The most interesting “game” I played all weekend had to be Action Castle.  After the quick preview we were given during the Penny Arcade Q&A session, and strong urging by the GeekNights podcast we listened to on the way up, I knew I had to attend this game.  If you’ve ever played a text-based adventure game, then you will love this.  If not, skip down to #3!  Action Castle is a text based adventure game with no computer, no pen-and-paper, only you and the host.  The whole game is narrated by the host, and each person playing gets 1 turn at controlling the actions of the character.  Watching a room full of people try to figure out how to control this character with no direction, only relying on their knowledge of these old text-based games, was definitely a recipe for humor.

#3: Penny Arcade’s Make-A-Strip Panel

The funniest thing I was witness to all weekend had to be the live creation of Monday’s Penny Arcade strip.  This panel had all of the great humor that a normal PA Q&A session has, except that instead of both guys responding to the questions, it was mostly Jerry (Tycho) talking, while Mike (Gabe), dazzled the audience with his Photoshop skills.  Over the course of 90 minutes, Mike took a hand-drawn sketch of the strip, and using his Macbook and Wacom tablet, turned it into art.  That’s not to say he didn’t get off track a few times and say… draw a penis on someones face.  I swear that didn’t happen.

#2: Concerts

Every concert at PAX East was a hit, but I definitely had some favorites.  On the first night, MC Frontalot, who I have some trouble getting into from just listening to his mp3s, proved to me why he is so popular.  The man is a performer, and he puts on a top-notch show.  Anamanaguchi also played that night, and broke the news that they will be recording all of the music for the upcoming Scott Pilgrim video game.  They even  debuted the theme song for the audience.  The second night of concerts did not let up, with Wil Wheaton joining Paul & Storm to open up their set with a hilarious Trololo parody.  The best concert moment had to be Jonathan Coulton’s on-stage remixing of “Mr. Fancy Pants” using what can only be described as a soundboard worn with a guitar strap.

#1: Wil Wheaton’s Keynote

This speech set the tone for PAX East in a way only Wil Wheaton could.  A great storyteller of tales from his childhood, Wil delivered a great speech about what it’s like to grow up as a geek.  His story started with being introduced to Dungeons & Dragons by an Aunt back in the early 80s, and he continued to rattle off key moments of his early life, taking time to explain how each of these contributed to him being who he is today.  He wrapped everything up by saying that to him, PAX is home, and encouraged to everyone to go out and have the weekend of their lives.  The thing that stood out to me, though, was how sincere this speech was.  I mean, the guy even got choked up just telling some of these stories.  If you’ve got the time, I recommend you watch the video of his speech here.