Tuesday, July 12, 2011

California Extreme 2011

This weekend the good DoctorC and I went to Santa Clara for this year's California Extreme.
California Extreme is like a giant arcade game and pinball convention that is held every year in northern California. This was my first year going and it was hands down the best arcade I've ever seen in my life!
The scale of the thing was just completely massive and the sounds......the sounds were overwhelming :)


I took a bunch of pictures. You can view the entire set HERE.

Our press passes ^.^


Pins
A homemade Video Pinball TRON mod.
Missile Command...is it the fast cursor or the slow cursor?

PONG Doubles

Spy Hunter pin
Punch-Out's!
Gold Neo-Geo
Baby Pac-Man
Big Six
A happy, bustling arcade :)
Finally got to play TRON Legacy :) It has steep ramps.
They had like this whole section of auto playing ragtime instruments that was mind boggling!
Ragtime Piano
A row of Candy Cabinets.
A deadly Berzerk game :)
A deluxe Super Sprint?!

A cockpit Star Wars and a Spy Hunter.
They had lots of merch tables selling all kinds of cool stuff!

There was a huge amount of vintage pinball games at the show. They all looked SUPER classy and were really fun to play!
The oldest pinball games were all very pretty with great sound!

Alice in Wonderland
The vintage pins ended up being my favorite part of the show I think :)
Most impossible games ever :)


Aside from the arcade itself, they had a bunch of bands playing in the hotel!

Playing were:
Jean Baudin
Survival Guide
Gnarboots
A_Rival
The Phenomenauts
ComputeHer
8 Bit Weapon
The Megas
crashfaster
Awkward Terrible

 Here's part of 8 Bit Weapon's set



DoctorC shot some video footage which has yet to surface. In the meantime ccyrus77 shot some video of the show for everyone to enjoy.
This video isn't even half of the arcade though, the place was seriously huge.





We also picked up a copy of Doctor Kong: Cutting up the Competition at the show. Although the movie is only 18 minutes long, I thought it was very good and worth the ten dollars I paid for it. Hank Chien is very funny in the film.

Overall, California Extreme was one of the funnest places I've ever been to and it is now a mandatory annual show for me :) If you haven't gone yet, you're missing out on the coolest arcade ever.
THANK YOU to everyone who put the show together! See you next year!

Discuss this topic on the forums!