Jolt Country

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:20 pm**

http://www.kansasfest.org/2011/09/john-romero-keynote/

KansasFest 2012: July 17th to July 22nd

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 — KansasFest 2012, the Apple II convention scheduled for July 17?22 in Kansas City, Missouri, comes just two months after the twentieth anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D, the first-person shooter that, when released for MS-DOS in 1992, defined a genre that is still popular today. Not only did the game, which was later ported to the Apple IIGS, use as its inspiration the Apple II game Castle Wolfenstein; Wolfenstein 3D's creators got their start working at Apple II disk magazine Softdisk.

To commemorate that anniversary and heritage, KansasFest 2012's keynote speech will be delivered by none other than Wolfenstein 3D co-creator John Romero.

Romero, whose Apple II credits include Dangerous Dave and Dark Castle, has been a pillar of the electronic entertainment industry for nearly as long as the Apple II has existed. Popular Apple II magazine inCider published Romero's first program in 1984, with many more of his titles to appear in both inCider and Nibble. Romero later joined Origin Systems, publisher of the Ultima and Wing Commander games, as a programmer, after which he co-founded Inside Out Software. At both companies, he ported software to and from the Apple II and Commodore 64. With KansasFest 2008 keynote speaker Lane Roathe, Romero also co-founded software company Ideas From the Deep, where he developed the Apple II game Zappa Roidz as well as the InfoDOS operating system for Infocom's Apple II games.

WELL WELL WELL. Perhaps I should go to KansasFest this year. Anyone else going?

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:40 pm**

It's a 5 hour drive north for me, but ... I dunno. I guess I would go if you were going. I'm more a Commodore guy than an Apple guy. I think it might be interesting for a few hours but I could quickly see myself either (a) getting bored after about 2 hours, or (b) spending a shit-ton of cash on a bunch of things I would regret purchasing the following Monday.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:43 pm**

Shit. I was only gonna go if you were gonna go. Well, whatever, the OVGE is a short time away from that and I am still fackin PUMPED for that.

It would be nice to shake John Romero's hand and tell him I'm sorry the Internet said all those things about him. Oh, and that I would like to work with him someday.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:27 pm**

OVGE takes place sometime between June and October. It has changed venues three times, and so a lot of it just depends on availability and pricing.

2003: 9/20
2004: 9/20
2005: 6/18
2006: 8/19
2007: N/A
2008: 8/09
2009: 10/24
2010: 10/24
2011: 7/9

Unfortunately there's no guarantee it'll be in July again this year. If it's not, would you plan on attending both events?

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:13 pm**

Sure. I really liked Oklahoma. Look, here's the thing. There is a scientist that thinks we're all going to live a THOUSAND YEARS, because of how kick-ass science is going.

It would be nice to spend some time in my mid 300s or 400s in Oklahoma.

I'm already brainstorming possible themes, Flack:

The Greatest Debacles in Software History

My brother got me a copy of Battlecruiser 3000AD for Christmas once, so we're covered there. We can run Cornerstone in emulation. I've been meaning to get a copy of Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3. I'm sure there's a C64 or Amiga game out there that ruined everything. We put those games out and let people play the worst games in history. I'm not saying that there's got to be a 3D0 there. I will ensure there is a 3D0 there.

Artificial Intelligence: Smarter & Smugger Than You, Asshole

A machine with Eliza, a machine that has Galapagos game where you pretend to be a spider that knocks into things, some Molyneaux abortion and - get this - we put one of your kids in a metal box and he or she pretends to be a chess machine. The best part is, it's OK if their chess is a bit shit! Ha! Ha ha!

(I'll try to get or make a kid in the meantime so we can alternate shifts.)

An Interactive History of Breakout

Get this, Flack. We have a system playing Arkanoid and Breakout and stuff, but we literally put up a brick wall in front of our stuff on the table. And we sell balls for $1 a throw. The best part is that the balls are nerf - not strong enough to make the bricks fall over. Fuck you, people with money!

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:27 pm**

A couple of people have already done tables featuring the worst games. One of the guys there last year actually had a bad game tournament. I think Shaq-Fu was one of the games, but I'm not sure what the other ones were.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:22 pm**

Flack wrote:A couple of people have already done tables featuring the worst games.

Did they cram their kids into a small, confined box and force them to play <strike>chess</strike> chinese checkers, though? That one's still ours, right? Yours?

Posted: **Fri Nov 04, 2011 6:01 am**

I would say "ours", at least until the cops arrive. Then it's probably "mine".

Themed game tournaments have done well in years past. My friend Paul did a "monster-themed games" table and had a tournament and his kid even dressed up as Godzilla (or maybe it was Yoshi ...).

Posted: **Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:14 pm**

I'd go KFest if Jonesy and/or Flack would be there.

We could show up, get drunk, pay semi-attention to the Apple II stuff, then go to Arthur Bryant's.

Bruce

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:51 pm**

I think we have a good chain of trust here. I'd go if you two went, and it looks like the feelings are ... somewhat... mutual?

God, if the Blue Jays were in town we could also get drunk at Kaufman Stadium, WHICH I KNOW you guys could give a shit about, especially since I am sure the drinks will be $8 a beer.

Luckily, we live in a world where all the four major sports have teams play their division rivals 30 times a fucking season. So the odds of Toronto being in Kansas C- you all have stopped reading. :(

Posted: **Wed Nov 09, 2011 4:39 pm**

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I think we have a good chain of trust here. I'd go if you two went, and it looks like the feelings are ... somewhat... mutual?

God, if the Blue Jays were in town we could also get drunk at Kaufman Stadium, WHICH I KNOW you guys could give a shit about, especially since I am sure the drinks will be $8 a beer.

Luckily, we live in a world where all the four major sports have teams play their division rivals 30 times a fucking season. So the odds of Toronto being in Kansas C- you all have stopped reading. :(

Well, shit, let's find out.

Bruce

Posted: **Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:25 pm**

Fuck baseball - jscott said he may very well be coming to KansasFest 2012. This is looking like a very fun lineup! (Whoops, I said fuck baseball and then I started talking about lineups.)

Bless baseball.