DP Goes to PhillyClassic 3
| April 26th & 27th, 2002: The DP staff and many members from the DP Forums (Retrogaming Roundtable) took a short trip to a central location in King of Prussia, PA. We noted the sign on the door, "PhillyClassic", and realized we must have been in the wrong place. But before we went to the Philly show we decided to check out this "KingOfPrussiaClassic". Turns out, we never left. | ||
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| When we first arrived the place we knew it was going to ROCK. We just love open spaces. | "Watch, I can make this cartridge LEVITATE!", Sean told the unsuspecting customer as he quickly swaps price tags on his goods. | Let there be games! And free money in the unlocked coin boxes! |
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| This scene from "Soylent Green" was cut because the Computer Space machine was accidentally green, signifying that IT was made of people. | Atari 2600 Bugs Bunny game designer Bob Polaro (left) explains to AtariAge.com's Albert Yarusso the hidden "easter egg". Tee hee... he fell for it! | Who's the happiest guy in the room? Why, the guy who owns Eli's Ladder now, of course. |
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| A YoungProgrammer eyes up the goodies. That's right, Jaime took this picture. | Find me a picture of John Hardie WITHOUT a beer in his hand and I'll be impressed. Pictures of him passed out after drinking them doesn't count, either. | Everyone stands clear so the Atari carts can grab yet another photo op. |
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| Matt (Tempest 2084) Reichert shows why he's known as "Master of Prototypes" as he mentally sucks the code from this machine and later transfers it through his eye sockets to an EPROM. | YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO USE CAMERAS IN HERE! | Mike from Collector's House told us that taking pictures of him for websites legitimizes his gaming addiction for his wife. Glad we could help, dude. |
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| As everyone knows, King of Prussia is well known for its rattlesnake population. So Pitfall Harry was called in to jump over them and stuff. | ||
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| A few pictures that prove a point: video games are de-sensitizing our youth. Excellent! | ||
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| A YoungProgrammer plays Atari's Night Driver. Did you know that this is the only Atari coin-op made out of fiberglass? | And the winner of the "coolest people that are here award" goes to... DIGITAL PRESS! Woo-hoo! OK so that didn't really happen. | |
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| There's a reason why his nickname is "Sly". It's because he can hide even the most potent of explosives in an ordinary Pepsi can. | Soylent Green is PEOPLE! | |
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| This particular tournament involved staring at one pixel for the longest amount of time before going into seizures. The kid in the hat won. | My fly was unzipped. Fortunately no one was looking. | At this here table we had arcade machines shrunken with a shrink ray! Amazing. |
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| Dance! Dance little sister, dance! | ||
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| The place really filled up! It took me all afternoon to personally aggravate each and every guest. | ||
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| Here's a picture of me blinking, through my eyes. | ||
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| It's normally frowned upon to stare at your customer's breasts, but at PhillyClassic, EVERYTHING GOES! | This giant mechanical cat chased me around the show floor wailing electronic threats at me. "Club Drive" was especially threatening. | If you look closely you'll notice that these are NOT the Atari 5200 systems you grew up with. They're ultra-rare "System X" consoles, Atari's original design on the system. |
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| These three kiosks... PROPERTY OF CLASSIC GAMING EXPO. Bwahahahaha! | ||
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| Rare "Discs of Tron" were the first thing auctioned off. Dangerous, but collectible! | The crowd seems nonplused despite the fact that there was a nude woman up for auction (just off camera, right). | |
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| Show organizer David Newman explains the entire history of Microsoft while soothing melodies blare from his accordion player. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. | Meanwhile, DP guy Al Backiel (far right) turns his back, hiding the tears that were welling in his eyes from the graceful, lilting music. | |
