Day 1 --- Friday
Alright, so I had a HECK of a time during the last few days. It really felt like it all happened over a week's time, but in reality, it was only about 36 hours. I just feel that I couldn't NOT describe my entire experience with everybody. I'll include pics with whatever story I have, if I have them!
Okay, so I had to leave my house at 4:00 in the morning, here in Ottawa to catch my flight at 6:50. I went to Washington DC, where I had a 4 hour layover (good time to play A Link to the Past on my GBA), and then flew to Knoxville, where I landed at 3:30 or so in the afternoon. Sounds like a big trek, but I still can't get over OSG's 18 hour bus ride and, worst of all, transfer in Detroit.
So I get there, and NGD is picking me up. He wasn't going to show up until 4:10 or so because that's when Dr. Morbis' plane was arriving, and we were all going to go together. So I'm sitting there playing my GBA, and I look up, and I see this sasquatch walking towards me. Of course, it's NGD. We had to wait for Dr. Morbis to get off the plane for a bit, which was awesome because I got some good quality one on one time with NGD. And, in his words, I love me some NGD.
So Basil (Dr. Morbis) comes, and the three of us head to the Clarion. The drive (about half an hour or so) was awesome, because we were all so gitty to talk to each other about NES, and NA. We get to the Clarion, and before we could even get inside, Dain is there. It was really cool to finally meet Dain, and it was especially cool to see husband and wife (Dain and NGD together). All joking aside, the four of us hung out for a bit, and then they were saying that OSG and xtremegamer were around as well.
We went to get OSG and then to get xtremegamer (and his wife) from his room. We talked for a bit, and then we all (the seven of us, Dain's real wife/kid, and the magazine guy and his kid) went to IHOP (which we don't have in Canada) for dinner.
We were eating, and then Dain was talking to Thor on his cell phone, and he said that Thor was coming to eat with us. A little while later, Thor walked in, and everybody looked in awe. I didn't get to talk to him all that much at dinner, because he wasn't sitting around me, but the first impression I got was that he was just this quiet guy that was overwhelmed with all of us "collector" type. We all talked for a bit, and then headed over to the Lube bar for a drink (but not me, of course, I got my water).
All of us were hanging out, and then some more NA people starting filtering in. First Mewithoutyou52 and all of his badges, and then burger. They joined in with the conversations and we talked for a while.
Unfortunately, there was a live band playing (not that they were bad), and we were really close to the speakers. This kind of sucked because we all wanted to talk to each other, but the band made it difficult. We all decided to head into the hotel to get a quiet place. A few more NA strays joined us, and then wives left their husbands, and we all headed to the pool area to talk.
Sitting by the pool and talking was really fun. We would all talk about whatever, and then Thor started talking about all of his history/dealings/experiences with the NWC, and its aftermath. When he did this, everybody stopped talking and listened to exactly what he had to say. I can't really get into everything that he talked about (theres just to much) but the story's he would tell were amazing to listen to. He was still really quiet, and he was really soft-spoken, but he had so much to say, and there was so much history in what he said. We all finally split up around midnight or so... at which point I was telling Basil "Man, I could listen to that guys stories all night long." He agreed.
Day 2 --- Saturday
(Money?.... Check. Boxers?... Check. Zoidberg picture?... Check)
After going to bed around 1am the night before (and, the day before that, waking up at 4am), Basil and I woke up at 6am to get in with the "set up crew" for the Expo. Technically it was only vendors that were allowed in at 7 (the doors opened to the public at 10), but Basil and I being friends with Dain and NGD and all, we got hooked up. Plus, we offered to give our services to help out with the moving of stuff.
We got there around 7am, and vendors started showing up. Player 2 was there already.. and... you wouldn't believe how much stuff he had. Not just the games, but signs upon signs upon signs upon signs upon authorized Nintendo documentation... If I had more money, and more space in my suitcase to bring stuff home with me, I could have went to town with his table. DreamTR came in, and it was nice to meet him again... he had some nice stuff, some of it (self-labeled) crap, but all with good prices. Sosafan also started setting up, and it was really good to finally meet him. We talked a lot throughout the day, and you can really see why his store is such a success on eBay. He's genuinely a nice dude. I bought a few hundred dollars of stuff off of him throughout the day (CIB NES upgrades, empty NES box upgrades and CIB GBC stuff).
When the show opened, there were a lot of people coming in. I really can't say all that much that happened during the expo itself, because it honestly all went by in a blur for me. It was great to finally meet all of you that I hadn't met before: sosafan, langenfeld, Dain, mb, ant, mewithoutyou, Quack (or was it Penguin?), Vito, xtremegamer, dangevin, tall_guy, burdger, PSerge, Roth.
Here are some random pics of the time during the Expo:
Dikta:
Mb and Dain:
Burdger, Morbis, NGD, Roth
Dangevin:
Langenfeld, mewithoutyou, Jumpman!
Sealed NES:
Langer, Morbis:
MB, Dikta :
PSerge, MB, me
Q&A with Thor:
Morbis, Vito:
MB, cash
Vito, me:
Thor and Morbis:
Everybody:
I wanted to do something cool with the proto Sudoku, and the concept cart Sudoku that I had, but couldn't figure out what to do with them. I eventually came up with a NES/NES collecting trivia game that I would run. I got everybody (everybody that wanted to compete, anyways) to come stand around me. I had 10 questions that I wanted to be answered (I would ask the question, when I was done posing the question, you would have to raise your hand), and the 10 people that answered a question would move on to the next round. In the second round, I asked the group of 10 people 3 questions, and the 3 people that got the questions went to the finals. The questions in the first 2 rounds were both hard and easy. Examples of some were:
What was the last US released licensed NES game?
How many Gold NWC's has DreamTR had?
- Bonus – How many did he have at one time?
What is rarer: loose Stadium Events, CIB Myriad, or sealed Win Lose or Draw?
What is the code to get to Mike Tyson in MTPO? (DreamTR ran over and yelled this one out, it was pretty funny... I wish somebody would have gotten that on film).
The final round was: NGD vs. Penguin/Quack vs. DreamTR. What I did, was I asked all three of them a question, they would write down their answer, and if you got a question wrong, you were eliminated.
First Question: What two games are misspelled on their cart end labels?
NGD knew it immediately, Penguin and DreamTR both knew the obvious one (Eliminater Boat Duel) but couldn't get the other one.
So that meant that NGD won the proto, but Penguin and DreamTR would have to battle it out for the concept cart.
I asked: What was the last city, before the final round, to host the NWC?
Obviously DreamTR knew it immediately. I didn't think Quack would know this, but I guess I underestimated him. He thought about it, but he got it (Tampa)
Then, I kind of asked the question incorrectly, but I asked: What was the only euro-exclusive to come in 5-screw.
DreamTR got it, and won the cart.
The auction was cool too. It was really funny watching NGD bid against System Freak via telephone:
Battle:
NGD: $200
System Freak: $500
NGD: $550
System Freak: $555
NGD: $560
System Freak: $580
NGD: In the thickest Tennessee accent you could imagine: "Ah mayy be crazy, but Ah aint stewpid!"
It was also really cool watching Thor play the NWC, sitting on the floor, with kids around him. Me and Basil were watching him in the Tetris round, and, man he can move those blocks.
The expo was pretty much over, but the fun wasn't. We got back to the hotel, and Basil and I went out for dinner with xtremegamer and his wife. Honestly, those two are seriously two of the nicest people I've ever met. I had a really good time hanging out with both of them, they're a cool couple for sure. He/they helped me/us out a lot over the weekend...
After dinner people starting heading out to that Lube bar or whatever it was called. Hilarity from that, here:
There was a big table of people, but then there was this smaller table with me, burdger, Vito, PSerge, and Thor.... Which was definitely the cool table. They were all drinking and stuff, but I had my cup of water with ice (I swear the waitress liked me because of that). The 5 of us talked a lot then, which was really cool. I tried to set Vito up with this girl from another table, but he wasn't going for it. Thor and I really started talking at that table. We talked about video games a lot (the guy knows a LOT about different games and how they play and why they're cool and stuff like that).
Even though it was really cool to hear about all of his stuff with the NWC and all that, him and I talked a lot about other stuff. Just everyday general stuff, which was really awesome. He's such a nice guy, and he was really understanding and appreciative of what we collectors had to say. We were talking so much, he invited me to come up to his room and hang out with his girlfriend. I talked with my NA buddies a little bit longer and then was getting a little tired (my throat was getting sore from screaming over the loud band all night) so I headed up to Thor's room. He, his girlfriend and I hung out in there for about an hour or so, which was really cool. His girlfriend's a musician and she was playing some music on her guitar. I play a little bit of guitar, and I was trying to show her/him the Super Mario Bros. theme song, but I must have gotten nervous, because I completely forgot how it went. Either way, we talked about all different kinds of stuff, and then I wanted to leave them alone, so I went up to bed.
I walked into my room, and Basil was just getting in, we went to bed, but probably talked for another hour about NES stuff... good for another 5 hour night, for when I got up this morning at 7am.
Hell of a fun weekend, guys. Thanks so much for putting this on, Dain and NGD. I really had a blast... and I'd do it in a heartbeat again if there is another one next year.
Jumpman Jr.
Between the contant crowd at my table and my nearly complete lack of any contact with you guys outside of the expo room, I feel like I missed out on much of what this was all about. I need to get out of the biz so I can enjoy this stuff.
Proud replier of post #1000 in the infamous Joel thread 
