Gamerpalooza

The weekend and, what we have lovingly dubbed, Gamerpalooza, is over. We had gamer friends Mike and Kimiko (aka Solid Mu) come in this weekend from Indiana to join us for a video game concert at Jesse Auditorium called Video Games Live. For those of who don't play video games, there is a lot of work that goes into making a game, especially a good one. And, believe it or not, there are actual music composers and songwriters that use their skill and talent to create music for video games. It's definitely an unappreciated field, with the exception of gamers of course. But that concert wasn't until Sunday evening, and Mike and Kimiko arrived at our place on Friday.

Corny Scary Movie Night
Mike and Kimiko arrived late Friday evening exhausted from an expected 7-hour drive that accumulated 2 hours due to St. Louis traffic and accidents on Interstate 70. Still, the couple looked forward to joining us for our planned events that night. The guys went off to Booches, a local pub in downtown Columbia that has great hamburgers and chili. And, Kimiko and I met up with the girls at Sarah's house for Corny Scary Movie Night. We arrived in the middle of Shawn of the Dead, which was entertaining, to say the least. We then watched Halloween 2 and clips of Creepshow 2 while enjoying yummy-not-so-good-for-you snacks. We threw in a bit of Guitar Hero 2 also.

We arrived home at about 1:30 a.m. The guys had just finished up some Halo 3 gaming. Matt, me, Mike and Kimiko sat in the living room and talked until 3:30 a.m. After hanging with them for just a few hours, we thoroughly enjoyed Mike and Kimiko's company.

Saturday Night Lights
Saturday started off a bit late. I woke up about 10:30 a.m. and put on a pot of coffee. After chatting with Mike and Kimiko, I made up a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and toast. We then headed into the living room and began our first gaming session of the day. We started off with some Guitar Here II and finished off with some Halo 3.

Around 3:00 p.m., Matt and I got up to start on the Carne Asada meal planned for linner (lunch, dinner). We were expecting a few more friends for great food, drink, and fun. Everyone started arriving around 4:30 p.m.

At about 6:00 p.m. we all discussed heading to Woodcrest (our church) that evening. They were highlighting a special service called Creative Arts Weekend, a combination of music and drama to tell a story. After a bit of talking, we all decided to head to the 6:30 p.m. service. That way, we could get back home in time to play and not have to worry about getting up early on Sunday.

The service was excellent! The music was wonderfully written and performed and the video was a great addition to the show. Mike and Kimiko are musically inclined so they enjoyed themselves. I took them over to Kidcrest after the service to show them around.

After the tour, we headed back to our place. Sarah and Chris joined us. We played Halo 3 until about 2:00 a.m., when Sarah and Chris had to go home to let their puppy out. Mike headed to bed at that point. But, Matt, me and Kimiko stayed up to play some more. We nearly completed the game, with one level remaining when we looked up at the clock. It was 7:00 a.m.! We went to bed at that point.

The Columbia Experience
Sunday morning was off to a later start than the previous day. I woke up at 12:30 p.m. I think Matt and Kimiko were up at about 10:30 a.m. (crazies). We chatted a bit and nibbled on some snacks. Around 2:30 p.m. we headed over to meet Sarah and Chris at Shakespeare's (the new location). We ate and talked for over an hour and stopped by Best Buy on our way over to Matt's mom's house. She was going to watch Isa so we could to the show this evening. We grabbed the Guitar Hero III bundle that included the game and the new wireless guitar. Now, Matt and I could play together.

We hoped we'd have some time to play before the concert, but after dropping off Isa it was way too late. Mike and Kimiko were going to volunteer to help at the show and needed to be there no later than 5:30 p.m. We arrived and they headed off to their assigned spots and Matt and I hung out and watched the local crowd.

Matt caught a glimpse of an arcade that had Space Invaders, a game he loved as a little boy. So, he headed off in that direction. I walked around and took pictures of the people in costumes. I figured it would be great for Matt and Todd to put up on Short Attention Gamer. We ran into a woman who was nuts about Halo 3. So nuts, that she actually had a tattoo of Master Chief, the main character, on her arm. I'll include photos a bit later so you can see it for yourself. Man, is she dedicated.

Video Games Live
Once we had enough of the madness in the lobby, we made our way to the auditorium and found our seats up in the balcony. We could see the blank big screen and the orchestra and choir preparing for the show.

The evening was great. We were taken through the evolution of gaming music from basic bleeps and blops to the symphonic arrangement of the Halo trilogy. Also featured that night was a phenomenal piano player named Martin Leung. This young phenom played the greats, Nintendo and Final Fantasy. Many in the YouTube community know his as the Video Game Pianist.

The show was capped off by the 3-part arrangement from the Halo trilogy. This was outstanding. The combination of instruments and choir singers was just incredible. It's definitely something all gamers should see and experience.

Side note: Matt missed winning the Space Invaders competition by 130 points.

After the show, we walked over to MSTA, where Matt and Todd work, and also do their podcast (Short Attention Gamer). Kimiko wanted to see the setup. Once there, we took pictures of Mike and Kimiko pretending to be Matt and Todd.

We then headed home and played Guitar Hero III. Note: They've been having issues with the guitar, and, just our luck, the green button on our guitar didn't work. Luckily, Mike and Kimiko brought theirs. Crisis averted. Off to bed about 3:00 a.m.

Farewell Stinks
Monday morning Matt and I called into work. I was going to take the morning off and head in later. Matt, was feeling off and on all weekend so he just stayed home. After a bit of chatting and farewells, Mike and Kimiko got in their car and headed back home to Indiana. You could actually feel a let down in our house. Matt, me and Isa were a bit saddened that they had to leave.

We talked about meeting up again in St. Louis when VGL is there in January. Time to put it into the budget.