I don’t like to brag, fellow geeks… but I’ve had a fantastic geek week. It all started last Saturday when I went downstairs at work and visited the garage sale we were having in our warehouse. There, I spotted… this:
Yes, an original NES. And I scored it for $20, including two original Zelda games, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! and Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. I also got a few other games and some controllers.
Also on Saturday, I attended the User Created Content birthday bash at Hi-Tech Gaming. I competed in two tournaments – a Super Mario Bros 3 tourney and a Bomberman tourney. Other tournaments were Street Fighter 4, Rockband, and Call of Duty 4. (None of which am I any good at.) I was second in the SMB:3 tourney, and completely suicidal in the Bomberman tourney. In my defense, it was the first time I had ever played Bomberman.
After purchasing my NES, a fantastic hero on Twitter, @adampatterson, offered to sell me his old NES and games as well. I picked a huge box of games up from him in exchange for mere pocket change. More on the amazing-NES (ha! Amazing-NES) later.
Because that was Tuesday, and next comes… Wednesday! And a trip down to Calgary to see Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, LIVE at the Vertigo Theatre! (If you have never seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog… watch it NOW!) The adaptation was pretty good, but I was left wondering if the actor playing Captain Hammer had ever seen the musicial. He seemed to not understand subtley.
Phew. I haven’t even mentioned Adam Rozenhart‘s amazing Q&A with YegGirlGeek Dinners founder Shauna McConechy yet! You can read the post on the Unknown Studio’s website. My favourite part? When she mentions the Buffy-bot.
Thursday I drove back to Edmonton, and attended the fantastic event Pecha Kucha for the first time. It definitely, definitely will not be my last. It was inspiring, and it’s great to be in a room with so many talented and brilliant people. I’ll echo Jeff’s remarks, it gives me hope for the future of our city! You should absolutely read Mack‘s post on the evening at his blog, and follow the presenters on Twitter.
Which brings me to Friday, where I caught up on some much needed sleep, had a great pre-Girl Geek Dinner meeting with Shauna, and then took the NES for a test drive with new friend Matt Bisson.
You can get the full rundown of the evening’s events by checking out my flickr stream – but here are some highlights.
We played Super Mario Bros 3, Excitebike, Captain America and the Avengers and Track and Field II.
To get the cartridges to play, we had to jam The Beatles White Album into the console to hold down the game.
We MacGyver’d the games, and in the end, there were many wins by a certain player 2. (That would be me!)
So that’s been my awesome Girl Geek Week… how’s your week been? Any rad geek moments?
And anyone know where I can get my hands on some NES games on the cheap to free scale?
Are there specific games you are looking for? I have a couple random ones you could have if you want, plus I can ask around at work.
Otherwise, there’s the used game stores – ‘Play ‘n’ Trade’ out in the Park, NexWave near NAIT, I think Whyte Knight even carries some. Anywhere other than EB, essentially.
I know the large flea market on 111 Ave and (?) St – kiddy corner to B-Street Bar – has lots of SNES games. I’m sure they would have NES games too!