This past weekend, I had a chance to attend the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo (aka PAX) in Seattle, Washington. I’ve always wanted to attend but it’s usually been on the same weekend as my anniversary so it just didn’t work out before now. PAX is pretty much SXSW for the videogame set….including conference sessions, a massive tradeshow floor and tons of nerds.
The exhibit halls were filled with computers and videogame consoles showing the latest games – many not yet available. People would line up for HOURS in order to get a few minutes playing a new game before the rest of the world gets to. Nearly every booth also had some kind of game themed swag they were giving away. I think I was handed seven different free t-shirts in the span of about 20 minutes.
The exhibit halls were massive…so many games to see and try….not to mention the overstimulation of so many booths and displays…including a new take on the mechanical bull ride complete with fog machine:
It was a lot of fun…next year I hope to go again…although will definitely have to make better arrangements that don’t involve leaving home way too early to get down to Seattle first thing in the morning.
I recently traded in my Nintendo DS Lite and some old games for a (basically free) Nintendo DSi so I’ve been playing around with it a fair bit lately (especially the cameras it has). I stumbled upon a Twitter client for it called DSTwitter that is actually pretty cool:
Of course, something like the iPhone is a much better experience for Twitter apps but not everyone has one plus the DS is sometimes more convenient to quickly check up on Twitter or play a quick game while your iPhone is charging.
The lack of a real keyboard is also kind of a pain on the DS but it’s no worse than fat-finger typing on the iPhone screen:
It’s still very much beta and it crashes a fair bit (or won’t even load any tweets) but that may have been due to other factors like a flaky wifi hotspot. It seems to be regularly updated by the developer so it can only get better with more features added.
It does require a flash cart or hacked firmware for your DS (or DSi) to use homebrew software like this but it’s worth checking out if you’re able to.
File this under ‘news any real guitar player already knows’ but thought I’d make a quick post to save you some cash if you have a bunch of plastic guitars piled up in the corner from RockBand and Guitar Hero.
Don’t buy the crappy stands from the videogame/big box electronics stores, go to a real music store. I went to a local Long & McQuade store and had a choice of proper guitar stands starting as low as $11…I opted for the $14.50 model since it had black foam instead of the orange that the cheaper model had. These can be had online for even cheaper if you shop around but you’ll probably pay shipping so it’s your call which is easier.
As you can see from my photo, it easily holds two guitars..possibly three.
Beats paying $20+ for one at Future Shop or Best Buy. Don’t buy their USB cables either….hit a dollar store instead.
