My PC5 review.

[portnoyd]

Since the other thread got locked asap, and I wanted to chime in, because I went, I figured I'd make a new post.. that'll probably get locked within 5 replies.

So anyway, I went Saturday, stayed overnight, and stayed for half of Sunday. Overall, I thought the show was kinda of weak. My reasoning as such:

Generally, the vendor selection was kind of stiff. For what I was looking for, I found little, what I was looking for others, I found little. Every table seemed to have the same things, common or not. Also, the prices were kinda high. This is nothing on the show itself, it's just that compared to last year, there seemed to be more and a better selection of stuff the year before. And that's what I go for - I see PC5 as the country's biggest VG flea market.

The show was too crowded. A higher attendance aside, the tables were too crammed together, walkways were less open. They seemed to be jammed in, just to get them in there period. The only open comfortable area was the AA booth of all things! The arcade machines were packed like sardines. I think anyone who went can also attest to the Gamestop area being EXCEEDINGLY tight. Next year, they better scope out bigger digs like CGE did for this year.

However, the arcade machines were great. Nice selection, and I got to play a lot of games, and was the highlight for me. Playing Timber, Quantum, and Tapper on dedicated cabs was awesome. Only downside was that it seemed like the world champions were bogarting the machines like crazy! I doubt I would have been able to play Joust, has there not been 2 machines. Also, your average problem with machines with no freeplay, etc etc - minor gripe, as I have to deal with that on my own machine.

The hall where the show was about 10-15 degrees hotter than the area immediately outside. That really sucked, btw. Maybe it was all the cosplay geeks - yikes! Last year there was 4, no there was like 40. Scary shit.

Tommy Tallarico is pretty fucking short. I expected him to be much taller. I was stoked to get Sid Meier's autograph last year, but I didn't even bother with TT. I dunno... I was just expecting someone on, or above the caliber that Sid was from last year, this year.

In my opinion, there was little improvement on the show from last year. It was in the same convention center, same hall, just rearranged differently. More sponsors, yes, but did T-Mobile need to be there? You could have chopped up that booth and given the GS ppl there. It just needed more, but less. Does that make sense?

Combine this with the vendor weakness, and that's my reasoning. I have no idea if I'll go next year.

dave

[NE146]

Only downside was that it seemed like the world champions were bogarting the machines like crazy!

That's because that's the only time they'll have to show off their mad l33t sk1llz to everyone! Why let everyone play when you can show off how good you are at a game you've been practicing for 20+ years

[Kid Ice]

Troll Bait! Troll Bait! Red Alert!

(errrrnt....errrrnt....errrrnt)

Shields up!

[wberdan]

this is why i didnt go this year- i just had a bad feeling...
it seemed like the show was ok last year, but it wasnt very exciting, and a lot of the prices sucked.

i have an opinion that the larger a show like this gets, the worse it will be to find deals, and the tighter it will be in general.
like with theives and stuff- i heard a couple people comment about that..

shit, last year i left my table unattended a few times with no blanket over it and i had nothing stolen- same with the year before that.

oh well- i wasnt at "5" so i cant really comment i guess-


willie

[Cafeman]

I missed last year's , went to PC5 though.

I was disappointed by the goods. I didn't find much that I wanted. But there were tons of things available (tons of CVand 2600 games, commons). I was looking for Saturn and Sega CD and 5200 games I didn't have. For example, I didn't find one Fractalus for 5200, I was surprised. At PC3, 2 years ago, there were so many 5200 games I couldn't afford to buy them all. I even got a Zaxxon, I remember!

Another thing that you mentioned -- I also noticed the arcade champions hogged a few of the machines, namely Defender and Joust. I barely found opportunity to play Joust for that reason. Thankfully, I did play lots of Zaxxon even though the tourny score was hundreds of thousands of points higher than I'd get.

[GrandAmChandler]

My Official PC5 Review: By Grandamchandler, a vendor's perspective

Well, Here is my review, take it how you want.

Vendors set up was Friday afternoon, and lasted until the early evening. Vendors got first pick, and I got some NES uncommons I had been searching for.... Met some cool people. K3V is one of them, that NUON stuff is incredible! We will be lucky if we ever see that stuff on display again!

Saturday was great. Yes it was crowded. Yes it got hot. But who cares?!? It was ONCE a year. where else are you going to cram 2500+ video game fanatics in one room on the east coast???

Arcade was great, although some machines had to be restocked with credits quite often. The quantum machine was good, and the Playchoice. (Played those Friday night too ) The Philly Classic MAME machine is incredible!!! I can't believe I was playing simpsons!!!

Vendors had good stuff, a lot of rare stuff floating around, definitely a lot of common and uncommon stuff too. I saw plenty of Sega CD / Saturn stuff for reasonable purchase, and there were a decent amount of 5200 carts as well. I got my Sunmark multicart of atari 5200 (Atari XE Cart which has every 5200 game on it (excluding homebrews) Packrat games had incredible homebrews.

Atari age had a wonderful display, complete with Adventure II kiosk. That game is incredible folks, make sure you get one!! That game was hogged all weekend!

Manci games was there demoing their new magazine, cool stuff. And there also was someone from PennState university showing teens how to create their own video game characters!

There was a theif in the building on Sunday, but luckilly I helped catch him and 4 or 5 vendors games were returned (including mine)

Tournaments were everywhere, gamecubes being given away, ninja gaiden for xbox, multiple $180 gift certificates to EB games.

Sunday was pretty chill, crowded, but no where near the attendance on saturday. Around 4pm, gamestop had all their games at 50% off, great deals to be found.

The flat screen TVs setup with all different games was a great touch. DDR, house of the dead, Donkey Konga, Beatmania, etc. Dave and Mark did a wonderful job this year, and I am sure PC6 will be even better, and on a grander scale, especially considering the incredible attendance this year.

Pictures to come!

-Chris

[Kim Possible]

Philly was GREAT! Maybe the best show yet. There wasn't AS much for me to buy, but then again my collections are getting pretty fat so that is to be expected.

My NES collection got QUITE a boost, especially when GameStop went 50% off late Sunday. There were TONS of NES and SNES stuff to be had. Some decent Atari finds if you got there early enough and knew who to by from.

The bigger hall was a definite plus because there were a LOT of people there Saturday afternoon, and thusly it DID get a tad bit warm, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Classic arcade machines, top of the mountain stuff.

They really need to start holding those auctions late Saturday instead of Sunday. Nobody has any money at that point!

All in all a great show. Philly Classic has never let me down.

[drwily008]

I had a great time. Dave, what do you look like? I was looking for you but had know idea (wanted to show you my FF orb). I was a liitle disappointed with selection of stuff for sale (vendors next year...more imports and neo-classic, like Turbo Grafx stuff)!! All in all I had fun though!

[Vigilante]

I wanted to just add my 2 cents about PC5.

I went to the show for 3 main reasons:
To see the guys for atariage and check out what was new.
To add my name to the raffle of that sweet orange custom arcade machine.
To find the vendor who sold arcade marques.

I was VERY dissapointed that the people who ran the show decided not to raffle off that arcade machine after it was posted on the web site that they would. Not one vendor sold arcade marques. I picked up a few during PC4 and wished I had more to add to my collection, oh well.

I have to agree that the vendors all had the same stuff and the prices were very high. I wanted to buy a few carts for my atari 2600 and I picked out 3 carts from one vendor. When they told me it was $33 I wigged, then I walked.

I also feel that a few of the other high end vendors (I can't recall who they were) had no place there. The show was for retro old school players, not the newest greatest xbox stuff (what was with that tent thing?) I passed it all up and went to the arcade.

Don't get me wrong, it was a cool show, but I drove 250 miles each way to be there and walked away dissapointed.

PS: if anyone reading this knows how I can get in touch with the guy who created that orange arcade machine please let me know.