Mitch's Gaming Goals

[stella_blue]

DeLeo Bros. Pizza, one of the places I frequent for some good pizza and a game or two (usually with my wife, for a fun date night) is celebrating its 5th anniversary of being open. They posted a quick video (for those who cans see it) to their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=862966560408243&set=vb.107537549284485&type=2&theater

The closing shot from that video:



Who manages that pizza place?

More importantly, does anyone affectionately refer to him/her as "The Governor" ?

[marinomitch13]

Had to look up the reference... apparently you are referring to The Walking Dead, yes? (Edit: I see now that the PB machine is The Walking Dead -doh! But I didn't know who "The Governor" was!)

The guy that runs the place is named Nathaniel. The Pizza place is in Woodbury, Minnesota (just on the eastern edge of St. Paul). 

[marinomitch13]

Just thought I'd mention (for those who who may not have seen the couple brief times I've posted this in the shoutbox) that I will be going to the CAGDC tourney again this year, in Cincinnati. I intend to leave MN sometime on the evening of the 8th (Wednesday) and and drive through the night to get there around noon-ish on the 9th. I'll be staying until probably Monday evening.

I'll be going into this tourney with almost literally no practice. I may watch a few BT INPs in my hotel before I do my BT one-hour attempt(s), but, other than that, I just haven't had time to prepare on any games. I'm going mainly for the gaming camaraderie. It'll be really fun to watch some of the best CAGers duke it out (especially 2-3 of the people in the world who are better than me at BT!) as well as have a chance to finally take a road trip out east (kinda... like part way there -more than I've done before, in any case ). I'm also looking forward to checking out The Place Retro Arcade and getting to know its owner a bit better (I've seen him and his family at a couple other CAG events and just haven't had time to chat as much as I'd like). Should be a fun, relaxing time. Hopefully, some of the people on Thursday can set some new WRs as well!

Is anyone else from DKF planning to be there (I know Estel will be dropping by -it'll be fun to finally meet him!)?

[marinomitch13]

This post will be for me to edit in my scores for some games I've never played before as I play them at the CAGDC tourney.

Ice Cold Beer: 5170
Death Race: 27 (kept getting 25 and 26 over and over...Estel and I figured out some strategies)

It's also official: I want an Atari Football.

[marinomitch13]

Ran across this town on the way home from Cincinnati:

[TheSunshineFund]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa,_Illinois

Also:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

[marinomitch13]

This is the instance I (with my studies in greek) most frequently run into: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa

[marinomitch13]

This coming weekend I will be in Chicago with the seniors from my church youth group. I was able to convince the church leadership to let one of the stops we make on the trip (the whole trip is kinda meant as one, last, fun, going-away event for those graduating) be GGA! I'll be there on Saturday from 11am to about 2-2:15, then we leave for the Twins/White Sox game.

[ebinsugewa]

fk i'll be missing you by like two days

[marinomitch13]

Unfortunately, the timing doesn't quite look like it will line up for me to be able to attend the celebration at Level 257 for the 35th anniversary of Pacman on Friday evening/night (which is literally 15 mins from my hotel -what a coincidence!). I have responsibilities to watch the youth, but if I can figure out a way to get there without violating my responsibilities, I will swing by. Just thought I'd let peeps know in case they will be around that part of Chicago (Elk Grove Village).

[marinomitch13]

So, a few updates.

Semi-bad news first.

Turns out all my plans for making a mancave once my dad moves out have gone down the drain. Long story short, the landlord has decided to help out some people who are struggling and rent to them instead. No hard feelings, as that's a kind thing to do on his part, but I would have liked to know more than 3 months in advance.

That said, my wife and I have decided to move in with her parents (who are struggling financially) in order to help them out. It also seems wisest in terms of our finances as well. Therefore: No mancave (at least not for a bit longer).

Good news:

Remember that hip-hop club (33rd Realm) I visited a while back that had 6, then 12 or so games?... well, they finally opened up their back storage room of arcade games (it's actually all the games that were part of Hidden Treasures Arcade), and I had a chance to swing by (sadly, for only 1.5 hours) this past weekend, and it was awesome. Here's a video a guy who was at the arcade that day made of the place:

https://vid.me/K5si

tl;dr: No mancave, but probable new local arcade.

[marinomitch13]

Alright! I just got my 60-in-1 cab working the other day (finally!). After a whole bunch of work rewiring it (my cab is the most jerry-rigged thing I have ever seen), I finally have it almost completely set up to start gaming again. I just have to adjust the monitor and finish wiring the x-axis of my trackball before making sure the settings are correct for each game and I will be back in action. I will soon be populating my first post on this blog with a bunch of first-attempt-like scores just to get something out there and then gunning for mastery of most of them (I will also post update posts to coincide with these edits for book-keeping purposes for my own sake). I also hope to soon (within the next few months) get a new laptop and camera for better streaming purposes. Let's hope it all goes as planned, as I'm supper pumped to be hanging out with my CAG mates on Twitch again! Woot!

Edit: For my personal records, I played Warp Warp today for the first time and got to the point where I was averaging 20k a game. My best man was 16k, and my highest was 23,xxx. Very fun and simple game.

[marinomitch13]

Finally got a chance to swing by Mike's Carnevil Arcade while down in Iowa. I'm waiting for him to put up the photo on FB, but I got 253,xxx on Bubbles.

[marinomitch13]

Here's some pics from my trip to Mike's Carnevil Retro Arcade. The DK score was me just barely beating the current highscore to try to get the local guy motivated to keep at the game.

[marinomitch13]

I've started branching out and playing some of the games I've never played before on my 60-in-1 cab. Today I played some Congo Bongo and The End, while the other day I played some Phoenix, Pengo, and Qix. My scores on these titles are so low that I didn't even bother remembering them yet, but I'll probably be posting some soon once I get the hang of them more. I've also started training my 10-year-old brother-in-law on DK. I'm hoping to get him up to 100k as fast as I can.

Other than that, I've mostly only been slipping in some study time on Chess. I happened to find one interesting line all on my own in the classical Ruy Lopez, if anyone is interested:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 Bb6 (the other main option rather than 5. ...exd4, but not quite as precise) 6. Nxe5! (a move that most books mention as an option, but I have yet to see say is as good as it seems to be -though it is quite sharp, given the remaining line) Nxe5 (the majority response, though 6. ...Qe7 is probably slightly better) 7. dxe5 Nxe4 8. Qg4 Bxf2+ 9. Ke2! (keeping pressure on the bishop, unlike 9. Kd1) Qh4 10. Qxg7 Rf8 11. Bh6! (rather than Nd2; keeping the attack on black's f8 rook). In the end, it is a sharp game for a few more moves, but much easier to play as white (even though the king is exposed). White will end up gaining a pawn (most likely the h8 pawn) as well as trading down to an endgame with a significant advantage. The particular move I "found on my own", was 6. Nxe5! up through the double-attacking move Qg4. When I checked it with an engine and a database I was pleased to find it was both sound and rarely ever played.