I missed out on signing up for the Smash Bros. Tournament by a half hour, so I decided to try some of the games they had that the public could play, as well as meet some of the celebrities. Checking out the old school games was a real blast. Seeing as I’m the resident old fart here at Planet GameCube, I had played all of these original games a long, long time ago (but MAME sure works great!). Watching some of the experts play their respective games, or checking out video’s of recorded high scores was a lot of fun. Plus they were selling the actual units, as well as these sweet PC Mame Home Arcade units.

Respect the old School!	The Sweet PC MAME Arcade units

God bless wood paneling!

Even though I love the new stuff, old school will always have a place in my heart. Going to the arcade, listening to Buckner and Garcia (on album mind you), and dressing...well we won't get into it. Old school isn’t NES by the way. We’re talking Pinball, Odyssey, Astrocade, Pong, and the Atari 2600. It even goes further than that, but at least a majority of you reading this should remember Atari. Back in the day, I was a real hardcore Pac-Man junkie. I was a serious junkie. Like Pac-Man underoos junkie. I remember hearing about a kid that got a perfect game in Pac-Man. How do you get a perfect game you ask? You eat every dot, every ghost on every energizer and every bonus on every board until you reach the kill screen. The game just dies. The original way to beat a game. His name was Billy Mitchell. Billy meets Billy.

Unknown, Dwayne Richard, Billy Mitchell, and me	Dwayne Richard and Billy Mitchell at work

Racking up another high score!

Billy is basically the best video game player ever. If there’s a Michael Jordan of the video game world it would be Billy Mitchell. I also met Dwayne Richard who was the Canadian Champion, who had won championships in 1986, and 2001. Meeting these guys was really cool, and they were basically just hanging out, playing games. And then I asked a very simple question.

“So what do you guys think of the new stuff coming out?”

They looked at me like I just kicked their dog or something. I decided it was time to move on. I mean, I embrace the classics and everything because I grew up with them, but some people really embrace the classics. To each their own I guess! Not that I’m bashin’ the classics but…there’s something to be said about expanding your horizons. Hey, even I played a PS2 today (and waited 15 minutes for the b—ch to load)! I played some Star Wars Starfighter and SSX while I was waiting for the Mario Kart Tournament. Unfortunately, it just made me want SSX Tricky and Rogue 2 on GameCube more.