MAGFest 8: The Best 4 Days of Gaming I ever did. (56k Warning)

[Jkid]

On January 1st through the 4th I have attended MAGFest. Also known by its full name the “ Music and Gaming Festival. I’ve been to the past two MAGFests as a visitor, staying for up to two days because at the time I was 19 and 20, and I could not get a hotel room because I was under 21. But I had a ton of fun at these conventions even if it’s just me playing video games. Normally this would be the same with this 2010’s MAGFest but due to circumstances beyond my control, I get to stay for four days at the hotel where the festival was at. I consider it a Christmas present of the highest order.



Before I explain what I did, I need to give you some details. The festival is more like Woodstock of video games than an actual convention. One good example is the general area where the Marketplace is at (similar to a anime convention’s dealers room), it’s around the same area where the video game arcade is located. Another, is that while they do have panels, they are not scheduled end to end. Finally there are not much people cosplaying in the festival because it is not a Cosplay oriented event. While there is a costume contest, it’s more like a roasting of the characters.

The festival was held at the Hilton Mark Alexandria in where else, Alexandria, Arlington County, Maryland. The festival these for 2010 was modeled after Half-Life 2. This theme extended to the map (Hilton Mark Citadel) and convention badges.
The arcade itself is full of classics games from the 70s and 80s. Fighting games such Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, and Tekken 4, and others such as Pac Man, Ninja Garden, a version of Galicia, and bullet hell and shooting them up games imported from Japan. There’s even an X-Men six person cabinet that everyone can play. And all of them were free to play.







The market place itself is where you can find old and new and used games and fan made creations of related to games. That is where I bought 8 used games, two of them Xbox 360 games, 4 of them PS2 games including (Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance), and two PSone titles. Also I bought two fan films and for some reason one comic perfectly like-new complete graphic novel of V-for-Vendetta.



What’s really special about the Festival is the Huge Console room that opens from the morning of the first day of the convention and does not stop until closing ceremonies end! They had the classic to modern day consoles. Some of the games I’ve played is the Beatmainia series (DJ Troopers, and the Arcade version of SIRUS which is currently in arcades in Japan), Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi and the lost version of Half Life for the Sega Dreamcast, Blazblue, Super Monkey ball, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors.





The festival has its own LAN room, that is actually has it’s different identity than the rest of the Festival. I did not do much LAN gaming despite a decent laptop, but I did socialize with people who have better machines than I do. I also watched a few fan films of video games, saw a video game cover band concert or two, and socialized with friends from anime conventions, and went to a few panels, especially one regarding the history of video game novelizations.





I practically had sleepless nights with the convention, staying up until 3am or 4am and waking up at 9am. But it was worth it, for the fun I had. I will be attending this convention again next year, even though I don’t play video games as much when I was a young teen.