Matt and I have had a stressful couple of months and really needed some time away.  This weekend is the Houston Arcade Expo.  We got ourselves a VIP package, which included two all-weekend passes and some swag.  A friend of ours rented a hotel room for us next to the expo and we have been able to forget everything for two days.  It has been great!  It’s all games, all the time.

The expo heavily favors pinball, which is great for me because I’ll take a pinball table over an arcade cabinet any day.  They also have a section with consoles and old computers, which Matt has been enjoying a lot.  There are plenty of good arcade cabinets, though, such as Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, Tempest, Joust, Rampage, Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I play a lot of pinball video games (Pinball FX2 and FX3 are my favorites) and I’ve found that they have helped me a lot with my physical pinball game.  I see the tables really well now and I am able to concentrate on the ball much better.

There are loads of great tables here – Addam’s Family, AC/DC, Ghostbusters, Apollo 13, Harley Davidson, Fish Tales, Bugs Bunny Birthday and The Simpsons, to name a few.  It has been so fun to play through all of these games and so many more.  They are all on free play, so we have play to our heart’s desire.  The expo was open until 2AM last night and is open until 2AM again tonight.  It’s a lot of standing, so we only play for a couple of hours at a time.

This was a great idea, though, and if something like this comes to your town, I suggest you check it out, even if it’s only one day.  I may post a day two post here as we do some more gaming tonight.

I live in Dickinson, TX, which was ravaged by Storm Harvey.  That’s a picture of my house, but that’s not as high as the water rose – it actually rose 30″ inside.  We had to evacuate the house.  Before the water started to rush in, I did my best to move everything up to higher shelves, but many of my games weren’t high enough.  I think I can salvage the cartridges, but so many cases and manuals are ruined.  I’ve put my life into this collection and although it may sound petty compared to everything else we’ve lost, but it really bums me out.

The first time we entered the house after the flood, I went in my office and saw Bravely Second for the 3DS floating in the water.  I left the office after that and didn’t need to see any more.  We have had overwhelming support and a couple of folks worked their hardest to dry out each and every wet game.  I truly appreciate it.  But still, damn.