Festival of Games recap

Festival of Games recap December 13, 2021

Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Aviation, Christmas, History, Internet, Media, Personal, Photography, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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Saturday, for the first time in two years and four months, I made the pilgrimage to the Cradle of Aviation Museum along Museum Row in East Garden City. The event was Festival of Games, spun off from the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. The main expo returns next August, but video games were calling for me. So, I bought a ticket to the Festival on November 23.

My plan Saturday was to attend for two to three hours, walking through the vendor hall, free play zones, and ticketed arcade zone. (Patrons were given a ticket with their wristband at the front desk.) If any arcade games caught my eye, I’d play them. Then, I’d go back to the vendor hall and pick up games. I followed that plan to the letter upon my arrival just after 12:30. Here are the photos:

A R.O.B. quintet “dances” to Christmas music.
Computer Space is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month (and last month)!
Ah, Tetris. As I noted in my recap of the 2019 LI Retro (the expo’s preferred shorthand, rather than LIRGE), I have fond memories of playing the Tetris arcade game at Kutsher’s Hotel and Country Club in March 1995. It was the third of four years in a row of weekend retreats with my fellow congregants of Union Reform Temple. We went to Kutsher’s in ’95 and January ’96, and prior to that, the Nevele Grand Hotel in January ’93 and ’94. Sadly, URT and the two resorts are now defunct.
The next arcade machine I played was Street Fighter II. I picked up where the previous players left off, but didn’t realize they were in two-player mode until I had my way as Guile with Dhalsim.
After this, one-player mode kicked in and I was summarily defeated by Ryu, despite somehow winning round 2.
I am better with the NES port of Donkey Kong Jr. than with the arcade original.
“Body blow! Body blow!”
Out of privacy, I chose to remove the boy’s face from this photo.
I’d heard about Rolling Thunder, but never played it until Saturday. Again, I didn’t get far.
After that, I gave Double Dragon a go. Yet again, I didn’t get far, but it was far enough for me.
I could not get a handle on Arkanoid, nor am I the best at its spiritual sibling Breakout. I’m great at Alleyway on Game Boy.
NFL Blitz isn’t the same off N64.
Last but not least, another game I saw in the arcade room at Kutsher’s: NARC.

I didn’t play NARC then (or now), but I videotaped two of my friends playing, per these vidcaps (12/27 UPDATE: I upscaled the vidcaps with Bigjpg):

I left this out of the stacked gallery, but one of the free play TVs was connected to a Famicom Disk System, which ran a festive program:

Back at the vendor hall, I picked up 33 games for various consoles. I don’t remember what I bought from which vendor, but the business cards show they were Geek Guilt, Flashback Gaming, The SemiCollector, and Joega’s Comic Chaos. When greeting one of the vendors, I inadvertently said “hello” like Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons‘ character from The Big Bang Theory (and Iain Armitage‘s from Young Sheldon). Noticing, I repeated and got a laugh. As I edited Saturday’s photos, I noticed I missed a couple of vendors over the course of my shopping spree. Oh, well.

As I shopped, I checked my video game collection Word document to make sure I didn’t buy a game I already had. I didn’t.

While waiting for a ride home, I photographed my haul: