Nerdy Interlude: A Little Disney at PAX Prime

Yesterday, Girl Scout Fiancée and I headed into the city (Seattle, o'course) to attend PAX Prime, one of the best and largest video game (and gaming in general) conventions in America, and certainly one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest. As a side benefit of my job as a game designer, I was able to obtain passes for the both of us, and together we headed into the city with my old pal/houseguest for the weekend, Air Force Tom.

PAX, for the uninitiated, is a massive convention organized by the fine folks at the webcomic Penny Arcade. Heading up to the convention, I had no responsibilities, so we met some friends for lunch at Gordon Biersch and then went to the exhibit all. Potentially interesting trivia: Gordon Biersch is a chain owned by the same company that own Big River Grille, which is one of the restaurants at Disney's Boardwalk; that company is based out of my hometown, Chattanooga, TN, which features its own Big River Grille.

Once over in the exhibit hall, we wandered around and checked out some demos. One of the games I stopped to play was the new Duck Tales Remastered from Capcom, an update of one of my favorite NES games of all time. The original Duck Tales is literally in my NES right now, hooked up to the TV in my living room, and so I wanted to give this a try and see if it was worth the purchase. I came away impressed, largely on the strength and frequency of the new voice acting (featuring the original cast of Duck Tales, the cartoon). We also came across the remaster of Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion by Sega, which was on display at the Sony booth. Never having owned a Sega Genesis, I've never played it, but it looks to be a lot of fun, and may find its way into my collection.

I also got a chance to try out the Oculus Rift, the new VR headset that has been in development for the last year. Maybe I'm going to embarrass myself here, but I predict that within 5 years this technology will be the standard way that PC gamers play games. It was amazing. The demo I experienced was an F1 racing simulator and I was blown away. The image filled my vision, the 3D effect was flawless, there was an amazing depth to the game, and it was so realistic that I found myself leaning into the turns. I was blown away, and I'll be an early adopter for the commercial version once it becomes available.

Well, it's no Virtual Boy...

The one big disappointment from the show was the lack of any presence by Disney proper. I had really been hoping that they would be there to show off Disney Infinity, especially with how much I'd been anticipating trying the game out before buying it. I fear that the game could potentially drain my wallet, but it's gotten mixed reviews so far, so I don't want to blind buy...even though I probably will, because I'm a sucker for all things Disney.

I was also fortunate to run into a former coworker and fellow adult male Disney fan, Jungle Cruise Guide. I call him that because for many years he was a guide on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, and is a community manager/improv comedian here in Seattle. I've seen Jungle Cruise Guide perform a few times, including as a puppeteer in Manos: The Hands of Felt, and am actually seeing him again in a show tonight at the Triple Door, a swanky music venue near Pike Place Market. Jungle Cruise Guide is an awesome guy who I wish I got to hang out with more, especially because he is basically my West Coast Disney geek counterpart; he is to Disneyland as I am to Disney World (though he has the advantage of actually having been a Cast Member), and both of us are huge Disney fanboys. Jungle Cruise Guide is also about to get married (two weeks from the day I'm writing this post!) so, for now, we're both grooms to be.

I've never been on the VIP list for anything! Photo by Jungle Cruise Guide.

PAX Prime was fun, and tonight's show should be good (Girl Scout Fiancée and I are special guests tonight, since I worked with the creators of Cards Against Humanity on their Tabletop Design Deathmatch contest). It's great that Girl Scout Fiancée was willing to indulge my geekery for the day, and it's just one of the reasons why I asked her to marry me.