ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL CALIFORNIA EXTREME COIN-OP CONVENTION
You wish you were here.
Posted by Spanner on Jul 22, 2010 07:27 (Jul 22, 2010 07:27)
Remember when arcades were so much more than insipid mechanical grabbing machines and ticket dispensers? When the Space Harrier's death knell could be heard from Blackpool's north pier to the Pleasure Beach? When 10p bought you a hard hitting digital fix that was more addictive than crack cocaine dissolved in Red Bull?
The guys who run the annual coin-op convention California Extreme certainly do, and they're currently celebrating another massively successful gathering of arcade addicts from around the globe. The convention is a celebration of what the arcades used to be, with hundreds of coin-op games and pinball machines from the vaults of dozens of private collectors - all beautifully restored and with hungry coin boxes (although the machine are free to play, apparently).
The conference is held every year in July, and alongside the hundreds of machines there are guest speakers, exhibitors and tournaments so you can get your old skool on in proper pixelated style. This year's event appears to have been the biggest so far, and has received massive media coverage thanks to the bucket-fulls of ageing games journos all desperate to get there on the company coin. And who can blame them?
Check out the official California Extreme website here, and keep an eye out for official coverage of this year's convention. And since all those machines are free to play, you can start filling a jar with all those spare 10p pieces and save up for a plane ticket. In the meantime, check out Giant Bomb's video taken on the show floor.
It is. That's one of the first cabs I'll have in my home arcade. One day. One sweet, wonderful day. It won't be set to free play, though. No way. Not on my watch.
Aug 2, 2010 19:47:55 (
Aug 2, 2010 18:47
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