Father and Son Defendering launch: T minus 1 day

No pics of arriving at the hotel, so you get
another zoo picture!

After arriving early to town, we went and had breakfast and killed some time at Butterfly's, and it was pretty good. When we were done, we headed to the hotel.

They did have a room here at the hotel we could get in early, but it was a smoking room and having had a lot of experience in the Midwest with a wife that used to smoke, lol - no thanks! :)

Since we wanted to wait for a no smoking room, we slept in the car until 30 minutes ago. We're currently in the lobby waiting for someone to check out "on time." So the room can get cleaned.

We're not upset; we made the call to skip getting a room last night ourselves to save cash, and that is just how things go sometimes.

It was fun driving all night while he slept like we used to do. It makes the trip shorter for him. We think of it as a time machine. :)

Not sure what's in store today after we get our room besides a damn good shower and nap, but it is going to be awesome whatever happens! I feel the love here! Matt's already pushing to go to Star Worlds. What do YOU think we're going to be doing tonight?

We'll update our adventure here after a while. Who knows what will happen!

Father and Son Defendering launch: T minus 2 days

We had to run over and take this - didn't
want the security guard to get upset!

Waking up in the Dallas, TX, we loaded up the car and headed over to our first location: the Market Hall where the First Annual Texas Video Game Championships were held in 1982. We approached the massive building and learned that there were no visitor parking spaces. Apparently it's not a big hotel; it is a secure building now, and you can't just walk in. We find a security guard and get approval to snap a pic in front of the main entrance. 

Cool. But man, the guard agrees... that ballroom is huge. And it was FILLED with arcade machines during the finals.  You would think that someone would have pictures of it with all those machines! I only have one Polaroid and dang, there are only people in that. :)

Couldn't ride the real ones, but these'll do

Next on the day's activity list is the Dallas Zoo. Matt is a huge nature lover and I am trying to find outdoors things we can do together on this trip. Most require a lot of planning, like hunting and fishing, but walking and zoo visiting? No problem.

We spent five hours at the zoo, took a ton of pictures, watched a few live events, and headed out for lunch. We remembered to check in in Four Square as we exited to find that they were giving away a half cup of Blue Bell ice cream for a check in. Matt had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. :)

Having fun, Matt?
Don't worry, you'll get plenty of sleep in the car.

Afterward, we found a lunch buffet and took to the road pretty hard. The decision was made to drive through the night so we could check in early in DeKalb and save the money on the hotel room. Matt said he'd stay up with me and we prepped to make a long night of it. About an hour after he started the "he who yawns first loses" contest, he was sawing logs. I guess I won?

I called the hotel and they said to just call them in the morning. I went ahead and drove all night and when we were about an hour short of the hotel, I called and they said that we'd need to wait until noon before they can assure that we'd be able to get in early.

More on the next update!

Father and Son Defendering launch: T minus 3 days

Prepping for today's trip has been interesting. Some of it is game preparation and other parts have been trying to clear the deck of life and work issues.

He hates hugs. Not!

The best part of this for me is that I am getting uninterrupted time with my son. Tomorrow will have work happening, but everything else is just him and me. No laundry, dishes, etc.

What a blessing to have this opportunity.  The crew at Star Worlds have been amazing and have made us feel so welcomed. It really feels like we are going to see old friends rather than meeting in person for the first time.

Pat wants me to speak with kids and parents about how to find a job in the video game industry,  and that is something I love doing. It is so great to help someone find out that their dream is really within their reach if they just know where to look.

Mark Hoff deserves a SPECIAL credit for making this happen, from first putting me in touch with Pat to putting all of the details together online. Mark, you are a ROCK STAR!  Thank you!

The starting odometer

This am, Matt and I put the finishing touches on our luggage and gear and while I got some last minute things done, I found out that he had set the Stargate to tournament mode, which was why he was topping out at 40k or so. I set it to regular settings and told him if he could break 75k I'd give him $5 and for 100k I would give him $10. By the time I had packed up, he hit me up with an 88k score. I figure it's just spending cash for the trip, so what the heck. He earned it.

First up was dropping off a borrowed paraffin wax heater I was using for my hand (I broke my left ring and middle fingers earlier this year) and some new paraffin with our kids' "Deathmother," Greta. She got that nickname because the kids know she is their mom if we die. They didn't like the term "Godmother" since that isn't what she actually is to them. Kid logic. Makes sense to me.

So after catching up, Greta gave Matt a cool dragons and guitars shirt and some National Geographic mags and we were on our way.

In front of the old BigSky Interactive studio

Our next stop was at Whole Foods where I got some vegan pizza and Matt got some cheese pizza. He also talked me into some fruit blended concoction that was pretty good. We ate our pizza on the way north on MoPac. Then we hit the toll road. Since Matt is the navigator, we learned together how to turn Google maps to ignore toll road and we were navigated around the top end of MoPac around Fry's. This took us on a back road shuffle, popping out to IH35 near my first videogame studio's location. I co-founded BigSky Interactive in 2001(?) and this was where we did SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius for THQ. We stopped and took a picture together. Matt was 2 when it shipped. Probably doesn't remember much more than I do about that time. It was so weird turning into that driveway... I hadn't accessed that part of my memory for a long time, but it kicked back in. And a lot of it was great, great stuff. Can't forget all of the pain, though. Bringing a great game into the world seems to always have its fair share.

Getting back on the road, we decided in Waco to stop and figure out some plans on how far to drive tonight. Stopping at one of those weigh your own yogurt and toppings places, we figured that maybe we could think about the Dallas Zoo. I am just not going to rush this, so to break up the driving, we found a movie we wanted to watch and zipped over to the theater.  Matt is getting very good with Google maps now, so he was making sure to feed me better data than the GPS voice. Bonus points!

We saw a movie and Matt and I laughed. That was the gist of it.

Afterward, we wanted to visit West, TX, the town with the fertilizer plant that exploded, devastating the town (at least that is my impression - I don't live there). It was getting late and it was dark, but we went anyway. It was eerie.

I grew up in a chemical plant so I understand dangerous situations. I know how horrible this must have been. I wanted to show it to Matt first hand as a learning experience. 

When we pulled off IH35, the road wasn't lit with streetlights. We reached a lit intersection and headed into shady areas under tree cover.

West is a small town that has stop signs and a lot of small houses, all seeming very nice. The night time just made the experience more real to me. It always unnerved me in my hometown at night, although that was where I spent a LOT of my time. It's calm and creepy at the same time, especially under mercury vapor lights with that brownish tint.

These were placed all
around the city

As we went further into the town, small stars were appearing on street signs or were standing on stakes. They were brightly painted, clearly memorials to the event. When we reached the point where we could see the football field, I wanted to cry. So much juxtaposition to handle. A joyful center of the community turned into a place filled with pain. Brief, yes, and the love absorbed the pain well. The field was well-kept, which tells me about the ongoing love there.

Past the field is the railroad track, which we passed on the way to the road leading to the plant. More stars.

We turned down the plant's road and you can plainly see that cleanup is no where near complete. Every bit of the plant is surrounded with chain link fence. And it is lit by some powerful halogen bulbs on stands. More stars.

We traveled down the road, eventually stopping in front of the main gate. I assume it was the main gate because the whole plant was all fenced up and this looked to be the biggest entrance.

Right across from
the plant entrance

A local church had erected a cross directly across the road and it had handwriting on it. And there were more stars.

Just two of the devastated vehicles on the lot

Nearby were huge masses of iron and steel, bulldozed together, a few auto carcasses, and some seriously destroyed vessels.

For anyone living near a chemical facility, this is a worst nightmare landscape.  I have had these nightmares ever since I learned that my father was a welder and he worked in these environments 24/7. Seeing it before me was devastating.

While I was telling this to Matthew, a couple of cars drove by. I had my flashers on and waved them on so they didn't think I was broken down.

An unbelievable mass of metal and detrius

I took a bunch of pictures, and a few minutes later, a security guard drove up. I explained how much this site meant to me and how personally I identified with the people of this town. He was very understanding and let me know that I would be more than welcome to come back in the morning... in fact anytime during the day. I thanked him and went on my way.

The police asking for my id, etc.

Matt and I headed past the plant entrance and toward another exit to IH35. I turned down the wrong road and discovered it was a cul-de-sac. I turned around and a policeman blocked my way out. Long, long story short, I found out there was a curfew at night and the police normally put up barricades on the streets. They had not gotten to the one I had turned down yet. I apologized, told them my story, and they let me go.

It scared the crap out of me, to tell you the truth, but as I told the police, I appreciate all they are doing for the community and how my heart aches for them all.

The security guard had told us that the government is getting the city $10 million for the accident; didn't know when. And that the plant is shut down. He did not indicate if it would reopen.

Something is wrong with America. I am not afraid to say it. Texas is in its third special session. What are they doing about fertilizer plants? They are actually real problems that need solving.

Okay. Enough of that. I think Matt got the point.

Then we ran into traffic, got gas, got a hotel, and a plan to go to the zoo in the am. Before it gets hot.

And just down the road from here? The hotel where the First Annual Texas Video Game Championships was held. We'll go try to get a picture in the original huge ballroom.

More tomorrow!
bjc and MTC

Defender once saved my life. What's it done for me lately?

This weekend, I'm driving with my son up to DeKalb, Illinois to visit Patrick O'Malley at Star Worlds Arcade and hopefully set some type of world record on the arcade game Defender. Matthew's going to set a record on Stargate Defender. Together, this father and son road trip should be pretty epic. (At this point Matt would tell me that an epic is a story... And I would say, you're exactly right. This is an epic story waiting to unfold.)

The gentlemen working on this event had asked me to put together some background details, so they gave me some framework to use. Here are the results.

Defender saved my life as a kid and gave me something to focus upon and stay away from any of the usual distractions in a small, blue collar town. My local “arcades” were a 7-11 with a Defender and a series of constantly rotating machines, and Girouard’s, a hardware store with 4 machines, one of them a Defender. One of the owners of the hardware store, Sagness, would challenge the kids to beat high scores he set for them. If you beat his challenge, he’d give you $10 in quarters, which we’d pump right back into his machines. Kept us all safe and sound.

Early exposure to arcade games. 
My father was an alcoholic. No shame in it; it's just a fact. He would take me to bars with him and in order to give me something to do, he'd load me up with dimes (!) and I'd play all of the old school BB games and Baseball games. You know, the ones with pinballs in them. I don't even remember a time that games were not part of my entertainment regimen. This went on to Pong, Gunfight!, and all the rest. I grew up in the golden age of arcades and I could probably write a short story on all of the things I saw and experienced.

Early exposure to Defender. 
The first day that Defender showed up at the 7-11, I saw immediately that it had "Today's Greatest" and "All Time Greatest" high scores. The machines prior to Defender had high scores that reset upon completion. The moment I saw that, I was determined to be on the top of that "All Time Greatest" high score list. And wow, it was brutal. Especially since at the time there were no other players that could show you how to play. You'd play, get roundly defeated, and then watch someone else get trounced. Then you'd have to create strategies on your own by piecing things together. It was like climbing a mountain!

Why was I drawn to arcade games and Defender specifically? 
Let's put things into perspective. There was no internet. There were three television channels. There were no cell phones. And there were no microwaves. My home town was boring. Your choices were limited to say the least. Video games literally kept me off the streets. No doubt about it.

Defender was a huge draw because it was unbelievably difficult and you could play it however you wanted. No "maze." No "patterns." Just you versus the machine. You had to react and attack and defend however you could, and you could develop playstyles that were yours and yours alone. I played with people that had drastically different methods of play. I loved that so much!

Were there any crowning glories in the First Annual Texas Video Game Championships within the Defender competition? 
The competition itself was just crazy awesome. Brought a friend with me, my cousin came up from Austin, and family members were there. It was at a huge hotel ballroom in a Dallas Hotel and they even had some Dallas Cowboys there. They brought in EVERY arcade machine from EVERY 7-11 in a 50 mile radius and put them all on free play. It was the best thing I have ever seen. We played as many games as we could, while my mom went around and got Dallas Cowboy autographs.

What happened in the years away from gaming, after the competition? 
Hah! Years away from games? When was that? I went from the Atari 2600 up to Commodore 64 and then into Apple ][ and on up. Just because arcades took a hit didn't mean that video games went away. Plus I took those arcade machines with me everywhere. My friends suddenly became "busy" when I needed to move.

What kind of educational and professional experiences might be affected by your arcade experiences? 
I have started playing Defender again in the last couple of years and I have noticed that my play style mirrors how I live my life. It's weird. I take chances but keep my mind on the big picture. There are times where I'm fast and furious and other times where I take my time through a measured response. You have to size up your enemies, and know their patterns to expose their weakness. In order to get through the chaos, sometimes you have to deal with one "knowable" and "manageable" thing at a time until you can quiet the chaos. Being able to enter a very chaotic environment and start nailing down one thing at a time has been invaluable in my life and my career.

Weird. I think I might see the nucleus of a self-help book there.

Of course getting a job in the video game industry was just unbelieveable. All of my experience in the industry has been backed by decades of game playing. I try to bring my emotional experiences from those games to my players, whether it's a new multi-stage game mechanic from Gorf, the surprise of a cut scene in Ms. Pac Man, or the feeling the excitement of getting the top score of Defender. It's all in there.

Any family or life views you share in your world as a result of arcade experiences? 
Unlike many parents I have met over the years, I love playing video games with my and other kids. I am not afraid of games of any sort as a form of escape or learning. Video games hone your critical thinking skills, and they help your hand/eye reflexes. They can train you to drive a car or experience things that you could only dream of. They can make your dreams come true. I make the kids play games that are cooperative when I can find them. When they compete I make them be good sports. Many parents think games are a complete waste of time. Not me.

What does your family think? Do they share your passion for competition? 
My son's into Defender. That's exciting. I think he's neurologically wired like me, so that makes sense. And he's pretty dang good for the amount of time he's invested in it. If you're thinking about getting in game competitions, nothing like that has come up yet. We don't really play a lot of competitive games at the moment, so that may never be on our path.

How did you meet up with the Facebook Williams Defender Players Unite page and eventually the historical epicentre, Star Worlds Arcade? 
Wow. I think the Twin Galaxies Texas Trading Card Event got me hooked up with the FB WDPU group, but I don't recall offhand. I have been fortunate enough to have the universe put me in the right place at the right time, so I don't really question it too much. I am truly blessed to have met amazing people that believe that the right people should know each other.

Man, that makes me try to remember how I got in touch with Pat O'Malley... I don't even remember. You see, once we started talking, it was like we had known each other forever. I couldn't even tell you how long we've known each other. We have so many shared experiences and things we like, it seems like a lot longer than it probably has been.

Any thoughts on the new era of global Williams communication about these gems of development? 
The availability of reaching the people that made the games is CRITICAL to the survival of the human race. We have to talk. We have to discuss our thoughts and our "aha" moments. The fact that the people that brought us these treasures are not going to be around forever are now able to share their wisdom so easily and freely is proof that we have a chance as a species. Now someone just needs to document it and get it off Facebook. Hello, archivists!!

Any musings on the influence of DeMar/Jarvis domination over the early culture? 
I don't think I have enough knowledge on all of their titles, so maybe I have some wrong, but I will say that Gorgar Pinball (it was at my local hardware shop, Girouard's, seen above) / Defender / Stargate / Robotron / Joust / Smash TV / Narc / NBA Jam / Cruisin' USA and all of the others were seminal to the arcade's success. They were all different genres, each with a new trick or two. Some of the gameplay was borrowed here and there, but I don't think many people noticed or cared.

They made games that were more difficult. It added a level of frustration to your play that once you mastered a machine gave you some serious respect points. You either put up or shut up at their challenges. Bring 'em on!

Anything you’d like to share with them (as I will be forwarding to both to see if they’ll add some comments to post in your story)? 
I think I've told them this, but if I didn't... Defender saved my life. I have no idea what would have happened to me in that toxic town. You gave me a place to become a master and gain confidence in myself in ways that didn't exist in my "regular" life. I had friends with the same interests and we all helped each other survive by playing Defender. And you also gave me a chance to have a lifetime of opportunities based upon that confidence.

What in the heck motivates a man to drive half way across the country to compete at Star Worlds arcade (the home of Williams/Chicago area)?Love.
What is your view of the legacy of the early 80s and Defender, considering our generation will be over the hill and in our 60’s within 2 decades? 
Wow. That's, like, deep. The golden age of arcades just cannot be described well enough. I was trying to describe is just the other day to my son. Everywhere you went had a machine of some sort. There were local groups that played in arcades. I would travel around my area and play on all the games. My initials were everywhere. I had to leave my mark. It was like I was "tagging" territory. The games were all significantly different for a long time. No two games felt "alike." That was the crest for me. The noise, smells, and feels of all the different game controls were tangible. The sound of tokens from a coin changer was music to my ears. Being out of quarters was devastating. I still have my token collection. I'm bringing it up there with me. No one will really care, but it's a treasure chest for me. You'll see.

Defender held its own place in the arcade. You would see people that would get killed off immediately and then some players that could go for a while, but wow, when you could play all day for a quarter... you were a master. And people knew it.

The other day, my son and I went to a classic game expo and they had a Defender there. I played it and got 999,975 (the highest score you can set without "flipping" it, and set the all time high score. 

No one at the expo noticed. Except my son, who was beaming. I think this next generation has a chance.

Pathetic amount of practice / High School Defender Reunion!

Over the last (I don't want to think of how many) months, I have been involved with launching and maintaining a Facebook game, Fantasy Kingdoms. This has eaten ALL of my free time, save trying to maintain a relationship with the family. 

Soon, the Defender and Stargate machines will be out of the garage and into the upstairs Rock Band Infinity room. Then, there will be NO excuses!

999,975 x 2

Over the weekend, I went to my 25th (OMG) high school reunion, where I reconnected with one of my good friends from the neighborhood, Keith Matejowsky. He and I used to play ALL DAY on a 2-player game, until we just got tired of it. There is no way to calculate the number of hours, days, and weeks we logged into that game.

We used to have contests to see if we could pop a million on our first ship. And we both won.

Keith reminded me that the best number in the universe was 999,975. And he's right. :)

The other people that had
to put up with me in school

Class of 1985. God, we're old and it's only getting worse.

BIG BANG / International Video Game Hall Of Fame

I have been in communication with the team there to try to figure out if there will be Stargate and Defender machines that have been approved for World Record-ness.

Planning to head out there in early August pending a positive response! Very exciting!!
bjc

FINALLY Back in the space saddle!

Okay, so it has been a LONG time since I updated this. Over the last FEW months, I started a new company and have been working on a new Facebook game called Fantasy Kingdoms. If you happen to play Facebook games and want to give it a try, click here: http://apps.facebook.com/fantasykingdoms/?scr=defender

Now, the game and company are reaching a better work/life equilibrium. This is good.

In the last few weeks, I actually spent time playing and I went ahead and set the game back to 'regular' settings so I can get up to the higher levels and experience the madness of the 300k-over a million gameplay. Things get super hairy around there and I need to get comfortable there.

I am not saving any 'regular settings' scores on the High Score list. Just in case that ever comes up.

I have to say that the guy that got 550k on Tournament Mode must be fricking amazing or is using a technique / strategy that I have NEVER seen or heard of. I want to see that video. That will be amazing. Who has that?!?

The plan right now is to get a few minutes of play a night to get back up to speed. I think my brain just isn't up to the speed it used to be, but who knows. Maybe it's just practice!

Excelsior!
bjc