Anyone going to PAX Prime?

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DaMadFiddler
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Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by DaMadFiddler »

I'll be there Saturday and Sunday with my fiancé. Anyone up for a DCEmu meet-up?
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by DaMadFiddler »

...seriously, nobody?

Leaving first thing in the morning for Seattle, and I'll actually be at the convention Saturday and Sunday. Ping me here or on Facebook if anyone here will be at the show and wants to meet up.

If I come across anything Dreamcast-related, I'll take pictures for the news feed.
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by S. Thompson »

I think Brandon Parker (from S&F) said he was going.

How was it? Everything you hoped and more? :)

- Steve
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by DaMadFiddler »

So. Many. Street Passes. :o
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by DaMadFiddler »

Seriously, though, it was a lot of fun. In no particular order:

I got to take a look at some interesting hardware (I'm in the market for a new laptop right now; why doesn't Apple make something like the Razer Blade Pro?), play with an Oculus Rift, try out the new Smash Bros (which also led to a free Smash Bros.-branded towel), and try out a number of indie games I never would have heard of otherwise.

Eva entered a MarioKart tournament, but she was out after the first round due to an unfortunately timed attack. We also spent a fair amount of time just talking with people and playing games. I took a few card games with me, as well as my 3DS and my SupaBoy. (Side note: apparently, I am *not* the only person in the world who actually uses a SupaBoy.)

I got my Mega Man 2 NES cartridge signed by Keiji Inafune, and I got several of my CheapAss Games--including my long out-of-print copy of Lord of the Fries--signed by their creator (after trying out a few of the new ones). During the Mega Man signing, they gave everyone in line free download codes for Mighty Gunvolt, so I've played through that a couple of times. I was *going* to get my copy of Tengen Tetris signed by Alexey Pajitnov, but we ran out of time.

We went to a couple of local museums, including the Seattle Art Museum and a traveling art show.

I traded a spare Genesis with Sonic 2 and FIFA Soccer for a couple of NES games, and I sold my copy of Dracula X for Super Famicom. (I still have the US SNES version.)

We sat in on a panel about good DMing hosted by Chris Perkins, which was surprisingly entertaining.

I tried to buy a ridiculously overpriced Mega Man jacket, but they sold out right before I got up to the register, so they gave me a free inflatable arm buster. I *did* end up buying a MadCatz Dreamcast controller for next to nothing, and posing with it in the middle of the PlayStation booth a few minutes later.

Eva gorged on plushes, jewelry, and t-shirts. Most notably, she got a watercolor-style Pikmin t-shirt, a cat Luigi doll, and a Tingle doll [shudders]. We also got a Metroid poster done in the style of 19th century medical illustrations.

Had an interesting conversation on the train from the airport to the convention center about D&D rulesets and the advantages/disadvantages of each, only to find out that the person I was talking with is one of the creators.

Yes, Street Passes. I'd never really messed with the Mii Plaza on my 3DS before (I've only had the thing a few months), so I didn't even discover this until the last few hours of the convention. Even so, at PAX, the queue fills up faster than you can possibly empty it. Eva and I both got hooked for a bit, and now she has started carrying her 3DS in her purse in the hope of keeping it going.

We tried out the alpha version of a neat new service called HeroForge, which is a browser-based tool that lets you build a custom miniature for tabletop RPGs and order 3D-printed copies of it. The service is set to launch around Christmas, and I have a sneaking suspicion it will end up taking a chunk out of both our wallets.

I know a lot more than that happened, but I'm still sort of decompressing from the trip, and that's all I can remember offhand. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good vacation.

The only downside is that it also reinforced a lot of "gamer" stereotypes, judging from the overall makeup of the audience. Not exactly the most diverse group in the world :P
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by |darc| »

DaMadFiddler wrote:I got to take a look at some interesting hardware (I'm in the market for a new laptop right now; why doesn't Apple make something like the Razer Blade Pro?)
Isn't the Razer Blade Pro pretty much a MacBook Pro clone with a bigger screen and a weird gaming keyboard?
It's thinking...
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Re: Anyone going to PAX Prime?

Post by DaMadFiddler »

|darc| wrote:
DaMadFiddler wrote:I got to take a look at some interesting hardware (I'm in the market for a new laptop right now; why doesn't Apple make something like the Razer Blade Pro?)
Isn't the Razer Blade Pro pretty much a MacBook Pro clone with a bigger screen and a weird gaming keyboard?
And much better specs. The fact that you have to get the very highest-tier MBP just to get a discrete GPU (and even that is a year-old chip) is very distinctly not-pro. Over the course of the last few years, they've slowly turned their premium laptop offerings into middling consumer-grade machines with premium pricing.

The Blade Pro (the larger Razer model, though it "only" has a 1080p display) has a block of programmable LCD keys to the right of the traditional keyboard, in addition to an 800x480 display inside the trackpad. I can see uses for both of these--particularly the latter--if you game or do a lot of multimedia work, which I'm looking to get back into. It's also got better specs than any of MBPs, particularly in the GPU department, even though it's slightly older than the most recent 14" Blade refresh.

The Blade (the 14" model) does basically look like a black MBP, but its specs absolutely smoke any of Apple's consumer-grade gear, its screen resolution bests the "retina" display significantly (3200x1800), and it's got a touchscreen (which I don't particularly care about).

Of course, they are still lacking some of the "smaller" things that are now missing from the new MBPs: separate headphone and line in ports, optical drive, ethernet port, etc. (though they DO have removable batteries, unlike Apple).

The Razer models aren't the only well-built, viable alternatives to the MacBook Pro, either. There are actually quite a few well-crafted, high-performance gaming laptops out there right now that significantly best Apple's offerings. Almost all of Apple's best ideas--the high-res display panel, the protective glass, the keyboard, the sturdy aluminum construction--have become relatively easy to find on higher-end systems at this point, and Apple hasn't really introduced anything new to stay ahead of the game. Yes, their customer service is still the industry leader, but their systems are woefully underpowered and underfeatured compared to similarly priced competitors, and the gap in build quality (one of the things that drove me to Apple in the first place) has narrowed significantly.

I can provide a list of compelling machines, if you're interested. The one that looks the MOST compelling is the Alienware 17, but I'm not sure I'd want to deal with that honking behemoth.

Aside from the MagSafe, the only truly unique feature the MacBook Pro has at this point is a vastly superior OS. Getting OSX up and running on most of those other systems ranges from "somewhat painful" to "impossible," and Apple's software really does beat the crap out of Microsoft's.

Apple's software (and the close integration of said software) is really the main sticking point that keeps me from switching back to PC. This looks to become even more compelling with Yosemite, and it would be a tough decision to leave OSX behind. If the "Hackintosh" route were more practical and... well, less hacky, I'd have bought something else a long time ago and been done with it.

As it stands, I'll have to choose between hardware I like with software I don't care for, and software I love with hardware that is missing lots of small features I want. We're in a weird spot right now where Apple's software has never been better, but their hardware has been kind of a letdown for the last couple years. I'm feeling very much stuck in the middle right now.

I'm really hoping Apple's event next week will reveal enough to sway me one way or the other.
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