If you aren't aware what Magfest is, it's basically a music and video game festival. It started up a few years back, and I remember first hearing about it on a Screwattack podcast way back in 2007. I was psyched that the convention was close to me, but due to a lack of funds and it being at bad times (new years, conflicting with work/school, etc), I never had the opportunity to attend one. This years Magfest was actually at a new location and was almost guaranteed that it wouldn't sell out this time.
With that said, I did some planning, and managed to make it for 1 of the 4 days (Saturday), since Saturday almost always has all of the big events planned on it. One of the first things I did was attend a panel for a site I heard of a few years back known as Retroware.tv. These guys are somewhat similar to the current trend of websites that are a sort of portal to gaming related shows. The guys were really laid back, but they also knew their stuff. They showed off some videos (with a rather amusing Pro Wrestling inspired announcement to their new free app), and even a preview of their upcoming big show, The Video Game Years. It looked really interesting and I'll check it out in the future.
That said, I think the most interesting show that stuck out to me (between all of their shows) was the one called The Game Chasers. Basically a group of two friends go around Texas searching for rare video games. I found this pretty interesting since I've done like this myself (see my Pawn shop review posts in 2009) and I was really wow'ed at all of the things they did to obtain retro games and systems. The guys aren't just all about business though, the show also has some really amusing moments such as Jay (one of the Game Chasers) running around a town with a Tigger costume on. Sure it's random, but the duo joking around with each other actually gives the show some very good comic relief, not to mention the small arguments they get into when they debate on who will buy a certain game.
Later on, one of my favorite game related bands, The Minibosses did a live show at the convention. I only got to listen to two of their songs due to The Angry Video Nerd's (James Rolfe's) Q&A being only a few minutes after their concert ended, so I left the concert early so I could wait in line. While I was in the huge line, I saw Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu, and his new band, the Earthbound Papas. I managed to snap a quick picture of them before they went back into the back room.
James Rolfe's Q&A was pretty cool, he answered as many questions as he possibly could. I thought of a random question for the heck of it. I asked him how he made the replica cartridge for the Nintendo World Championships review (he tricked the audience in a review that he broke the game). If you don't know, the gold cartridges of the game are referred to being one of the most rarest games of all time due to them being at the only Nintendo World Championship that was held over two decades ago. He later had an autograph signing at the dealer's room. I got him to sign my NES copies of Mega Man 2 and Friday the 13th.
The last thing I did was seeing the main event: The Earthbound Papas concert. This concert was insanely awesome, especially if you are a gamer. Nobuo Uematsu and his band rocked their hearts out and played many memorable songs from the Final Fantasy games and various other games/shows that Uematsu and his band have worked on. One minute, gamers were furiously headbanging and throwing each other around, and the next, they were holding up lighters and cell phones. I was actually near the end of crowd so I couldn't see much of anything, but was still really awesome to have the chance to see them in concert.
All in all, Magfest X was a real awesome experience for me. I'm glad that I got to go this year, and I'm looking forward to see what Magfest XI will deliver to gamers next year.
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