The Ghosts of Conventions Past

It's that time of year again. Time to start waffling about whether or not we can make yet another Gen Con. Time for me to write emails and blog posts about how it's That Time of Year Again. Time for me to wax nostalgic about Gen Cons past. I'm a nostalgic sort of humanoid, I love reading and writing about retro gaming, rambling on about movies I like and going on about awesome things from the past in general. I'm not one of these people who thinks everything old is better than anything new, and everything new sucks because it is new. Not all SNES games were brilliant, not all PS3 games are bad and not all past Gen Cons were equal. I've been to 13 of them, so my memories are all entangled like a ball of Christmas lights. I'm going to try to untangle them now. Having the day off work helps. I'm listening to Tom Waits and writing about gaming, soon I'll be watching the Red Wings playoff game. Saturdays are good.

A playing mat full of artists signatures and sketches from Gen Con 95

1995:

- Tom's only Con
- Seeing people dressed like GWAR, thinking they were dorks then finding out later that it really was GWAR.
- Staying at the Milwaukee Hilton with strangers
- Playing a 12 man melee game of magic in front of the elevator and quitting after one person lost (Tom was glad to point out that everybody won except him)
- Teaching Dan Frazier to play Magic poolside at the Hilton (he used my white weenie deck.)
- Walking in a skywalk, seeing a man on the street below drop a bunch of money, then running down and dodging traffic while chasing dollar bills in the streets

1996:
- Couch's first Gen Con
- Staying at some college campus and riding the city bus, which is awful
- Buying a bunch of Magic cards from Shoebox Man at highly discounted prices
- Our big wooden luggage sled thing. We had number 639, and after we duct-taped over the 3 it became our mascot - Rolly Sled 69.

SMASH.jpg

1997:
- This year was Couch and I at another campus, this time University of Marquette. Within walking distance of MECCA but just barely so.
- Couch knows Milwaukee like the back of his hand. Or does he?
- The sinister destruction of stuffed animals we acquired from Tilt. Absolutely terrible cleanup.
- Stop-motion wombats and twinkies video. As badass as it sounds.

1998:
- Goodbye MECCA, hello Midwest Express Center
- Couch, Billy and Jimbob at the Park East Hotel
- The Alright Guy Flag is born
- We should not give the flag to Billy, even if we are sick of carrying it.
- Flashing the cars, passersby and the hotel across the street with Jimbob's red laser light thingy. Rebel rebel!
- We attend the Unglued world premier tournament, Couch wins a Timetwister for being nuts. Fun as hell.

Smash.jpg

1999:
- Jimbob and I back at the University of Marquette dorms
- Playing Euchre with Carl and Terry who were down the hall from us
- The Rule of Two is born thanks to the man who had 2 rakes and his co-worker who had none
- Waking up in the middle of the night to find Jimbob sitting at the foot of my bed, playing Theme Hospital on the Playstation

2000:
- Couch, Jimbob and I staying at a hotel in a little suburb called Davison
- Hitting oranges with a baseball bat inside our hotel room and waiting 3 days to clean it off the walls and ceiling. And some of my favorite AG dialogue during Orange Ball:
"Where did that one go?"
"EVERYWHERE!!!"

2001:
- The same 3 of us at the Hotel Wisconsin (AKA The Dhamer Hotel)
- An evangelist preaches in front of the local mall, gets handcuffed, arrested and taken away while we laugh and take pictures.
- I hit Jimbob in the balls with a key lime, which is fun
- I believe this is the year we left the decapitated stuffed animals in the room and made the cleaning staff cry

Four guys and a toilet.

2002:
- BC joins Jimbob, Couch and myself making a formidable lineup
- Jimbob wins the poker tournament, netting a free badge for himself and free hotel room for all of us at Gen Con 03

2003:
- So long Milwaukee, hello Indianapolis
- Free, nice hotel across the street from the convention center. Hard to top that.
- Dipping our heads in the fountain to cool off
- Playing D&D poolside at the hotel complete with pizza and Mountain Dew

The Tuesday before Gen Con is a bad day to be a TV.

2004:
- Kat's first year joining us at the convention
- Another TV smashing session yields a classic pic and video of Jimbob putting a splitting maul through a television screen
- Our first year investigating the auction house
- Our first time actually damaging hotel property ("we" broke a picture frame in the room)

2005:
- We were nuts and had a good time, though there were no outstanding stories that I can recall. The Official Recap can be found here

2006:
- Couch, Jimbob, BC and I again
- We went this year
- I'm sure we had a good time
- I can't remember a damn thing. At this point we were no longer playing Magic and kind of in Limbo as far as what to do at the convention
- Actually, I do remember a damn thing: this year we discovered a nuts little game called Apple to Apples. What's humorous? Tidal waves, Schindler's List and Waco Texas, that's what.

The Catan table at the Mayfair Games booth

2007:
- BC, Jimbob, Kat and I made the voyage this year
- This year we kind of relaxed and took everything slow, and we had a great time
- Kat and I spent an afternoon running the Catan demo table at the Mayfair games booth; the four of us played Catan in the hotel by night
- Jimbob got thrown in the Klingon jail and had to sing
- We met D&D co-creator Gary Gygax at The Ram restaurant.