Jared Rea

My weekend began the same way it ended with a viewing of The Dark Knight. After exiting our midnight showing, my friend Rory and I were at a loss for conversation. For what felt like the first time ever, we were both completely satisfied with a film. The most we could muster was, “That was awesome,” and “I just wish there were more Joker.” I noticed a few goofs the second time around (like how Marone was walking around perfectly find towards the end of the film), but really, The Dark Knight is brilliant. I’d tell you go to see it, but the chances are good that you already have.

After the opening night, I went home, got 3 hours of sleep and hopped a flight to L.A. for what would be one of the best gaming events of the year.

Capcom Unity’s Street Fighter club event was held in, quite possibly, the roughest place of any gaming function, ever. When I was looking into the location, I thought that maybe I’d finally get the chance to try out Twittelator’s panic function. This trip was completely spur of the moment and I hardly had a chance to tell anyone I was coming, but it was definitely worth it. Within the frightening compound was nearly a dozen of Street Fighter IV machines and a whole lot of pizza and Mountain Dew. You can check out my photos over at Flickr.

It was great meeting folks from both Capcom Unity and NeoGAF, but I was actually more surprised at who I already knew. Capcom folks aside, seeing Keystone II regulars like John and Ricky was real cool, though I’m pretty sure they were there for Mr. Wizard’s birthday more than anything. After that it was off to Arcade Infinity with Scott and Leo for a few more hours of Street Fighter and Pop’n Music.

After a whopping two hours of sleep, I boarded my flight back to SFO and landed by 9AM. I promised Alex that I’d go to California Extreme with him.

And what a year this was. Cecropia’s woefully canceled The Act was on display in what was easily the highlight of the show for me. If you haven’t seen it, The Act is a Dragon’s Lair style game played with a knob that controls your characters emotions (left to act passively, right to act aggressively). The animation, which is pretty much the selling point, is simply to die for. This was something I was planning to cover in the No Country for Old Arcades series, so I’m glad that I finally got to experience it.

Other than that, I played tons of Popeye with Miss Shelby and set the machine records on the Prop Cycle machine, proof enough for me that I’m still one of the better players in the world. I should really just set some sort of Guinness record and be done with it.

For now though, I rest. It’s been a long weekend and Civilization Revolution calls.