MAGFest 8

[Bahamut]

I just did whatever - people are all over the place, so the best way to ensure you're doing stuff is to get people's numbers and to try to call them. Even so, I spent some time hanging out with other people like SnappleMan or Larry, like when Larry and I were camping out the free food in the MAGFest staff room.

Also guys, that phoreslo post was a spambot post that just requoted pezman.

[Abadoss]

Well, I'm back at my mom's house until my flight leaves for Portland. I have to say that I had an awesome time at MAGFest. It was totally worth it.

I have a list of people I really need to thank. Without the following people, MAGFest simply would not have happened for me (in chronological order of good deeds):

Audio Fidelity

Theory of Nonexistence (and Danielle)

Level 99

prophet

OA

AeroZ

Escariot

Monobrow

Protricity

Starla

Rama

Arrow

Newt

nonsensicalexis

Bahamut

Thank you so much for making this possible for me. It's an experience I won't forget and will cherish the rest of my life... or at least until next year.

I also would like to include honorable mentions for Brushfire and djp. Thanks guys.

I also want to thank everyone I got to meet for the first time, hang out and spend time with, like (in no particular order): Audio Fidelity, Theory of Nonexistence and Danielle, BGC and wife, Level 99, prophet, OA, AeroZ, Arrow, Rama, Starla, Vilecat, nonsensicalexis, Cerrax, DrumUltimA, Bahamut, Mazedude, Will/Lukas, Harmony, Escariot, Larry, Cyril, Kizyr, Jenner, José the Bronx Rican, Halt, Geoffrey Taucer, Newt, SeattleOverCoat, Moguta(?)/Chris, DC13, q-pa, Brushfire, Dyne, djp, virt, Mustin, Diotrans, Palpable, Flik, Ashamee, Nekofrog, Monobrow, Protricity, Melody, Liz, D-Lux, Pezman, Garian, Walan, Skummel, housethegrate, Kirbopher, and many more that I may have forgotten to mention... Just as an observation, almost all of you that I met are way nicer and waaay cooler than you already are on the internet. Rock on!

[prophetik music]

whew, i really had a good time this year. too bad i was sick for half of it.

1) Prophet of Mephisto, awesome jams!

dude, you're like game music superhero or something, you know them all. i love jamming with you because i can say 'how about this?' and you've already got a sweet arrangement to try. also jamming props to the xenotones, piano guy, and the metulz drummer who was in there half the con.

As I am sitting here unable to quite sleep after a 12-hour (total) drive home (curse you random nasty weather) I have determined that there are at least five in each category.

was our drive not funnnn? =( =( =( seriously, though, anyone who can keep up a running conversation for seven hours with me and not recap old stuff is pretty awesome. i usually struggle on long trips to stay awake, but not this time! fourteen hours round-trip for me is pretty good.

yesssss we will. but smash bros was awesome too. (until someone tripped over the power cord.)

smash was a lot of fun! we need to get more people to play that game. the others are dumb, it's all about the original =) we will also definitely need to organize some more catan next time.

It seems that OCR just up and does some things without letting the rest of their homies know. I was there and was present for much of the madness, but I got pissed when I found out about all the business and outings that happened which I wasn't aware of.

the only reason i went to stuff is because i happened to be near someone who was organizing it. no reason to rage about it.

[Palpable]

smash was a lot of fun! we need to get more people to play that game. the others are dumb, it's all about the original =)

Oh whoa, SSB original? If I had known you guys were playing that, I might have tagged along. That's the game I have put the most time into playing in my life.

[Cyril the Wolf]

Everyone who was there who I didn't meet. Which apparently includes Upthorn. I didn't even know you were there bro. What the hell!

I only briefly met Cyril the Wolf but I think he was a bit sloshed at the time.

Who else was there that I never got the chance to meet?

I was NOT!!!!! (at least if I remember correctly) I think it was Shael who was drunkenly playing guitar while I was trying my best to play something nonsensical on bass and with Nekofrog in the same boat I was. I think you on the keys right behind me?

Anyway, for me drunk and really tired are almost the same. Except when I am drunk my motor skills diminish.

was our drive not funnnn? =( =( =( seriously, though, anyone who can keep up a running conversation for seven hours with me and not recap old stuff is pretty awesome. i usually struggle on long trips to stay awake, but not this time! fourteen hours round-trip for me is pretty good.

No, it was. It really really was, but that car ride made my back hate me for the rest of my drive. I seriously enjoyed our trip, learned a lot. You pedagogy master you.

Also, I think you left a Megaman hat-thing in my car.

[prophetik music]

weather didn't clear up? sorry, man. wasn't my megaman hat thing. looks like it's yours now. maybe that'll make you feel better =)

yeah, vinnie, it's all about the n64. i'm not that great myself, and the controllers were total shit (you couldn't dash at all), but it's a lot of fun. d-lux always owns me, though...damned kirby and your overpowered-ness. i play as dk, though, so it's my own damned fault i get hosed half the time.

[Diodes]

Oh whoa, SSB original? If I had known you guys were playing that, I might have tagged along. That's the game I have put the most time into playing in my life.

Sorry pie, next time we need to schedule our SSB at a time other than when you all are doing your judgey stuff. But of course I agree that the original's where it's at. I also would have liked to get in on some Tetris Attack.

[Level 99]

VERY LONG POST AHEAD!

As I sit here with my Fiber One yogurt and my Peanut Butter Granola Bar (sorry, I didn’t have any APPLE JUIIIIIICE! to bring with me today), I am reflecting on the past week or so, and all the insanity that happened then.

Warning: This contains massive amounts of MAG-gasms so if you’re sick of hearing about it for one reason or another, don’t read it. I’ve just got to get it out of my system before I lose it.

I wouldn’t dare try to list every person or describe every awesome activity, but I’ll exhaust all the things that stand out and apologize if I gloss over something or get names wrong or whatever.

Picking OA up from the airport with AeroZ as we’re all dressed in our bond outfits, holding up a sign that said “Rufus and Shinra Inc. ‘Taxi’ Service”. The look on his face was priceless, and we had wonderful man-hugs.

Rolled up to the hotel and got our badges and whatnot very quickly, no hassle with the hotel room at all, and prepared ourselves for the upcoming insanity. Aeroz, OA, and myself went to the game room to kill some time. As OA was playing DrumFreaks, AeroZ and myself stood bodyguard, and it basically looked like we were protecting Chris Doughtry.

As people started to show up, we all talked about what craziness would happen. Reminiscing about old MAGs and talking about community stuff was a blast, as is always putting names to faces. Ushering in New Years Eve with Duke Nukem and a kickass concert was unreal (all the performing artists were also awesome). Seeing how much weight Virt had lost in-person was ridiculous, and he’s still as energetic and amazing as ever. Meeting Prot and Mono was also a very special experience. All my perceptions of them were shattered in every way.

Hanging with DJP, Liontamer, and the crew in their room until Audio Fidelity showed up with Abadoss was a lot of fun. Throughout the entire con, I felt more of a part of OCR than I ever have before (probably because of the sheer physical presence of everything). The amount of beer-sharing bonding was staggering.

Day 1 was the least fun for me, probably, due to a headache the set on in the evening, but having the rest of the people show up for the bulk of MAG was great. I couldn’t go 200 ft. without seeing someone I knew or having someone yell my name, or just experiencing nerd-nirvana. Taking over the Subway for dinner was great, even if Busta wasn’t there to have a VR troopers love-seizure again.

Day 2 was probably the most hectic day out of all of them. It started with Sid Meier playing in Jamspace, with Brental Floss on the drums for a few songs, and then lead to the OCR panel, the OCAD podcast, the concert, and the DoD listening party. All made for a non-stop run of things to do…

The OCR panel was the first panel I’ve ever actually sat on, and I can’t thank the crew enough for letting OCAD up there for be represented. As Brushfire sat to my left, and Epicenter far left taking some video, I was exposed to an awesomely random slideshow and a few videos while passing jokes and facts along with my fellow community members. Having a slide for OCAD, even a botched one (which resulted in some good jokes, so I’m kinda glad it happened), was rocking. I also got to see, for the first time, the video that Jose had made for the podcast. Too cool, too cool. I don’t want to give away too much the panel’s antics in-general, because most of it was capture on video, but it was crazy and there definitely needs to be more time allocated to it next year.

The OCAD podcast was a sensation. We were told before the con that there was going to be a table in the vendor area for podcasting, but it was actually off to the side, in a lower area, where it was less crowded but also generally less space. Note for next year: we’re going to ask for a panel room to have it take place. Easier for all the people and equipment that way. We all were in our robes, and had a really great turnout despite numerous equipment failures. We had some awesome giveaways, and got lots of hopefully good audio and video material out of it. The comments and things people did were ridiculous. No spoilers here, as it’ll all be sifted through and uploaded sometime soon-ish. Thanks to everyone who had a presence there, you all rock.

Missed more of the concert than I planned due to dinner, though dinner was awesome fun. Caught some of it at least, and had more drinking fun. By the time the DoD listening party started, I had quite a few beers and shots in me. So many cool entries, and that video was a killer. I only made it to about 4:30/5ish, but I was able to witness the expected pictochat exchanges and seeing AeroZ dance with Prozax (both drunk), TWICE, was alone worth it.

Day 3 was mostly jamming and wrap-ups. Jamspace was awesome in the morning, and I vow to never play Ken’s theme again…until next year. We all kinda bummed around most of the day, doing small things. Made our rooms usual trip to Whole Foods to be filled with expensive yet delicious food, despite missing one of the roomies. Got back to do more jamspace and hanging out, some actual gaming and the last concert. The OCR staff and whatnot took over our hotel room (which is understandable, considering they didn’t have one this year and we had lots of delicious beer) for a few hours to discuss serious business, but it all ended in time for the end of the concerts and the costume contest.

I’d say at around midnight is when the final ramp-up began for MAG’s last day. The costume contest was awesome from what I got to see (Starla’s Mia Fey outfit was a killer) but I didn’t get to see her go up because OA and myself were informed, in mid-costume-contest, that we had won DoD. Rushed back just in time to get a few pictures and hugs: it was all a pretty surreal experience (considering the late hours and intake of beer). A bunch of people went upstairs to celebrate the evening with pizza and drinks. Mazedude is a CHAMP and the latter. That’s about the last I really remember of the evening.

After some necessary sleep, we all got together to do some last minute shopping and say our goodbyes. There are quite a few people still in the area, so PMD has yet to really hit in for me. AeroZ and I missed the IHOP trip while we took OA back to the airport, but a lot met up again at Dave and Busters later that night. Before Monday ended, DJP posted my first OC ReMix: a fitting end to the last official day of MAGFest 8, even though I was nowhere near the hotel.

So, to everyone I met, either new or old friends, I say thank you. To OCR, the remixing community in-general, and to the staff and all who made this possible, I say the same. With the amount of people now determined to make it next year, or make it BACK next year, I can say without a doubt that it’s only going to get better. I’m sure I left out WAY too much stuff, but that’s my experience.

Oh, and next year, there needs to be more Settlers games. I definitely regret not doing that even though it was planned.

[Diodes]

Hmm there's a lot of awesome I could write about, but there are basically just 2 things I want to say:

This was my first MAGFest, which is strange bc I had been considering going every year since like 2006 but didn't manage to make it until now. Anyway, I wasn't sure if anybody would really know who I am since I'm relatively new and have not done much of note on OCR. But all the OCR folk I met were very friendly and I felt very welcomed as a part of the community. It was really uncanny to walk around the convention and pretty much everywhere I went, there was somebody from OCR to hang out with. Above all the things I did, the best part was spending time with and getting to know the people I met. And by Sunday night it felt like I was saying goodbye to old friends.

The other part that was really great was jamming in jamspace or randomly in peoples' rooms. I don't have many musician friends outside of OCR to jam with, and I'm used to just either playing solo or making music on the computer. So this was quite a special experience for me. I'll have to learn more VG classics to play between now and the next MAG, and practice guitar a lot to make myself more useful in future jam sessions.

[Josh Whelchel]

3) Getting 15th (14th? 16th? 18th?) place in DoD was alright, but I especially enjoyed the warm congratulations and cheering and who could forget being randomly foisted into the air by drunk indie game composer panelists....

MAN - that sounds like my kind of family-friendly-indie-fun!! (;

It was wonder to meet everyone, you guys were all great, and another apology to biggiantcircles who crashed on our floor when the heat was broken. I was there too man, cold floors are NO fun.

I only took a FEW PICTURES - click here!

[OverCoat]

Back home. blaring metroid metal on speakers. wearing metroid metal t-shirt that I've wanted since pax but was sold out.

fuck yeah

I had an amazing time this year. Got to do everything I wanted to do.

[ella guro]

here's some more highlights of magfest for me:

- aforementioned hanging in DJP's room on NYE and talking about music was completely unexpected and awesome

- that damn power glove I brought and wore part of the week got a whole lot of attention

- hanging in the lobby after the fire alarm went off

- playing Contra with Larry and both of us sucked horribly and were made fun of by passersby

- Mono's brother Phil's repeated drunken retellings of running into matt pollard and them going out to try to find Ari (none of us except Phil ended up meeting matt though).

- Ari kicking my ass completely in basically every game we played

- The Metroid Metal concert was awesome, and one of the free cds that they threw into the crowd landed right at my feet and I picked it up

- The renditions of different videogame songs that we played in Will (bustatunez)'s room, including a version of Dragon Song featuring Harmony, bustatunez, Taucer, DrumUltima, audio fidelity, AeroZ, and others. I banged annoyingly on the drums with them for some songs.

- Katie (Mono)'s extreme drunkenness on the second night and high fiving of every person she walked by.

- The OCR panel and the not-so-surprise shout out to Ari. I was also happy to see OCAD up there.

- Meeting Mazedude. Both me and Ari were really happy about that.

- The poker tournament of 40 people that Katie won (after taking away my huge chip lead!) and I got third in (after taking Ari's money).

- The DoD listening party and SnappleMan's half creepy/half hilarious hitting on me.

- The gigantic fucking pizzas that Doug (DrumUltima) ordered brought a huge party into our room on the last night, and even Mazedude and the OneUps (minus Mustin) showed up and chilled.

- many others that I can't remember right now

frownyfaces:

- Sam (Shnabubula) was in the hospital so he couldn't come. I really really wanted to meet him in person finally.

- I was bugged out by my voice and other personal awkwardness.

- I'm sick now

- There are a few people I would've liked to meet that I didn't get a chance to, but there's always next year.

Thanks 10000000000000000 times to Ari (Prot), Katie (Mono), Justin (Neko), and Ash for convincing me to come to MAG and letting me stay in their room for free. You guys are saints!

And thanks to everyone else in the world who I met! I already feel like doing a billion different remixes now and can't wait until next year!

- Liz (aka ella_guru, formerly adhesive_boy)

[Harmony]

GREAT times were had this year. Way too many to list for me, but one highlight was meeting so many of the people I've interacted with online in one way or another over the years. I'm not going to piss someone off by forgetting to mention them in an attempt at a comprehensive list, but I will say meeting Mustin and Prot was pretty cool -- nice guys.

Best moments though were definitely the hotel room jam sessions that unfortunately only a few people got to see: BGC and I rocking out to some 90's alt rock classics, and the Xenotones rehearsal which had a surprise visit from Elaine from Select Start

I only took a FEW PICTURES - click here!

YES, my Nukem shot is here!

[Jillian Aversa]

It was honestly really weird being at an OCR meetup without Jill and Andy -- I think it's the first one I've been to that neither of them came to.

Definitely missed them both

Awww, we missed you too!

[José the Bronx Rican]

Which is the geekiest?

[Global-Trance]

And Global-Trance: PLEASE do come. Set up a PayPal donation site if you have to

I'm definitely going to try a little harder! :3

[prophetik music]

BGC and I rocking out to some 90's alt rock classics

hey man, do you know any metulz? after that whole homicide of homeless people showed up and were just smelling up the room, i'm glad we were able to jam for a while. it was mad fun, dude.

MAN - that sounds like my kind of family-friendly-indie-fun!! (;

It was wonder to meet everyone, you guys were all great, and another apology to biggiantcircles who crashed on our floor when the heat was broken. I was there too man, cold floors are NO fun.

YOU! i need to get in touch with you!

[Broken]

I'm definitely going to try a little harder! :3

You had better, man! We've gotta play melee together so I can see your legendary bird in action.

[danimal cannon]

"CAN I CALL YOU "BIG-LARE???"

Drumultima is amazing to jam with btw.

[Monobrow]

Which is the geekiest?

Haha awesome, but you forgot Ari's Abobo car.

[Josh Whelchel]

VIDEOS:

Armcannon (Danimal highlight):

Armcannon FF7 and more:

Jamspace with Xenotones:

A_Rival (on my cellphone):

[DrumUltimA]

"CAN I CALL YOU "BIG-LARE???"

Drumultima is amazing to jam with btw.

right back at you dude! That was some of the most fun playing with people I had at the con!

More detailed post following, my post magfestivities are still going!

[Bahamut]

Finally got back home! Got Halt sleeping downstairs right now.

So other than the 13 hour or so drive...damn I miss MAGFest - I don't quite feel like it's over yet, but that'll change by next week after Monobrow, Prot, Nekofrog, and Ashamee visit when PMD sinks in completely .

I forgot to add - fuck yeah, beat Taucer in our annual Tetris Attack challenge for the first time this year, so now I'm 1-2 against him. Crazy matches, since I dropped 2 games before rebounding in an almost complete sweep! Too bad none of you guys got video of it .

Pictures will be going up tomorrow!

[Dhsu]

I trounced both of you in 4-player VS.

[Bahamut]

I was hoping to get a 4 player game with you, Taucer, Mazedude, and I...maybe next year!

Also, I'm still hyper after a 13 hour car drive - those on my projects beware!