March 10, 2001 Meeting Highlights

Ladies and Gentlemen! Rob W. and Geoff V.: "Lords of the Dance Dance Revolution!" (Geoff nearly killed some innocent furniture, but it was good for a laugh.)

On March 10, 2001, SC3 had their spring meeting in North Hills. The thing was also webcasted on the http://www.oriole.net website. We had a blast enjoying all that he had to offer in his game collection –from classic rarities to import curios that had to be played to be believed. Some of the biggest highlights were:

The MAME HDTV setup! Imagine playing Wizard of Wor, Robotron, Super Pac-Man, Rip-Off, and Star Wars on a screen as large as roughly a Showplace cabinet!

The PS2 stuff: Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke (With the Ultraman theme!) and a construction game that simply has the largest curry bowls ever seen in a game. It's a real pity that none of these games will ever see an American or other release.

The Bally Astrocade finally had two of its biggest proponents meet. Adam Trionfo and Ward Shrake were able to add "new" Bally ROMs to the list of Astrocade carts that have been archived: Pirate's Chase, Sea Devil, Ms. Candyman, Treasure Cove, Coloring Book and ICBM Attack. ClassicGaming.com should have the ROMs for these in general use soon enough. Look for an announcement regarding "the Vault" soon! If you're interested in Bally Astrocade developments, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ballyalley and join the discussion! This was also the first time that many of us saw Muncher, the Astrocade Pac-Man clone that is as good of a stand-in as The Incredible Wizard and Galactic Invasion are for their respective arcade inspirations, Wizard of Wor and Galaxian. We only wish this cart was easier to find...

Chris "Intvman" Neiman showed off some more prototypes for everyone. There was a complete Robot Rubble available for play, and League of Light made its return to a SC3 meet after an archiving-related absence. There were also final-stage protos of Intellivision Beamrider and Popeye on display.

Not to be a slouch in the proto department, Mitch Orman showed off his attempts to burn 7800 carts of NTSC KLAX, Sentinel, and his developer's card. The developer card wasn't burned, but it was there for us to ooh and ahh over.

It was great fun, and the next meeting is scheduled for late June or early July. We're open to ideas at this time for events, so if you've got an idea, tell us!

Photos

Ward S. and Adam T. show how to archive old Astrocade (and other) carts.
Mitch O. Shows off his latest project to Adam T: a copy of 7800 KLAX. Really good version.
A group shot at Gamedude, one of the more select game shops in all of So-Cal. L to R: Mitch O., Geoff V., William C. (back toward us) Adam T., Jason W., Aileen H., Christopher B., John A., and Jeff.
One of life's beautiful moments is seeing MAME run on HDTV. Mitch O., William C., Rob W., and Jason W. watch the wonder of Omega Race on a screen larger than a cocktail cabinet.
John A. showing of a vintage Ad for Power Lords. "Now out for the Odyssey² and coming soon for the ColecoVision!"
A screenshot of the unreleased Activision Intellivision game Robot Rubble; which should be available on the "Intellivision Rocks!" CD.
Intellivision League of Light, also unreleased.
Some of Rob W.'s game collection. This is just the domestic part!