For those in and around Houston, TX

Sorry I didn't give more notice, but I hadn't remember until just now:

Houston Arcade Expo, the old favorite video games being shown and put on Free Play.

It's happening at Fitzgerald's 2706 White Oak on Saturday April 5th form 2PM to 2AM.

Next year I'll try to give more notice

Oh, and here's the website http://www.arcadecenter.com

Oooh, cool! I'm so there. Any other empeg people going? Maybe we can put together an impromptu lunch get-together beforehand.

Man, if this wasn't the one weekend I had free to do lots of past due yardwork, I'd be there. Crazy Climber and Galaga...

Dang It, gotta work most of the day probably...
Might try to get by late afternoon

Okay, it looks like we have two definites and one maybe. Allow me to hereby declare the 1st Ever Houston Empeg Impromptu Lunch Meeting (tm).

Where: Jax Grill (between Shepherd & Durham, a block or two south of I-10).
When: noon, Saturday.
What: decent cheap burgers, ogle each other's empeg installs, then head over to Fitzgeralds

I'll make myself vaguely recognizable by wearing some kind of loud Hawaiian shirt (or just go look at pictures of me on my home page).

BAKup and I ended up meeting up for lunch. He helpfully had his empeg in an empeg-labelled carrying case on the table, making him somewhat easy to identify.

The arcade had just about everything I might have wanted to play, in particular, they had working Tempest and Star Wars games, as well as a wonderful Addams Family pinball game. I even got to play good old, original Atari Asteroids (copyright 1979, it said).

Sadly, there was no Battlezone, Major Havoc, Frogger, Pac Man, or really much of anything of the really old games like Pong, Night Driver, and so forth. Still, they had Frenzy (the Bezerk clone), Gorf (but no Wizard of Wor), Gauntlet ("green elf needs food, badly"), Sinistar ("Beware, I live") and even Dragon's Lair (but no Space Ace).

As it turns out, another friend of mine showed up there who was an ace with Star Wars. He had mastered the whole "use the force" thing and happily got up to level 12 without firing a single shot in the final trench scene. I usually start crapping out around level 8 when the trenches get pretty harrowing.

Take all that, and add in a bunch of 80's music on the club's PA system and a full bar, and it was really just a fantastic way to spend the afternoon. When they do this again next year, I'll be there.

Sorry I missed the fun. I ended up working 12 hours yesterday & had to make do with a couple of games of Moon Patrol on my laptop.
Maybe we should plan a Texas mini-meet sometime before summer really gets going. How many Texans are there on the board anyway? Just the four of us? Or are there more lurkers like me?

Another Texan here.. i live in Houston too. Unfortunately i was pretty busy this past weekend with homework so i couldn't make it out to Fitz either. Sounds like it was a blast though.. i'll have to check it out next year..

I'm in San Antonio, though I just moved here from Houston so I'm back there a lot.

When they do this again next year, I'll be there.

Me too, with enough advance notice...

I am just north of Dallas, so could probably get to something in Texas provided I was given some notice

IIRC, we did try to get something together about a year ago. Unfortunatly I don't think anything ever happened. I was in Houston at the time and the idea was to go to Dallas which was kind of a long drive for those in Houston. Austin or San Antonio (I know, SA is not really an option, but I had to throw it in! Besides we could meet on the river walk . . .) would be fairly central locations for a meet, though I wouldn't mind driving to either Houston or Dallas. Of course, proper notice would be required.

I was actually in SA this weekend, as my folks are in town I thought we should go and do some touristy stuff, the drive wasn't too bad, and that was with 6 of is in an SUV.

I would think if we were to have a Texas meet something closer to the middle would be fairer for all of us, how far is it from Houston to Austin, as I know I can get there in a little under 3 hours.

how far is it from Houston to Austin, as I know I can get there in a little under 3 hours.

Having made the drive from Houston to Austin a few times, I'd say it's about the same. It's a tad quicker to get to SA from Houston, but only by about 30 min. Personally, Austin is great for me, as I live north of SA and could probably make it there in 45 min driving at an easy pace. (The added bonus of Austin is that I can drop my wife in San Marcos on the way up so she can spend the day shopping, thereby making this something she'd support without question )

For me, SA is another 100 miles after Austin, so that puts the journey over 4 hours each way, which means either an early start and a late finish, or an overnight stay, so if we were to vote on locations I would pick Austin (unless everone wants to drive to Dallas that is )

So do we need to start on organising things, so we don't miss another oppertunity??

So do we need to start on organising things, so we don't miss another oppertunity??

Yes, someone should. I'd love to finally meet some other Empeg owners. If it's going to be Austin, we should get someone there to organize things.

I should also add that I've been speaking for those who live in Houston, and they might not be as inclined as myself to undertake the three hour drive. We should probably hear from them before making the location solid (though a Houston meet would definitly rule out most people from Dallas).

I have just put Dallas to Houston into mapquest and it comes in at less miles than Dallas-San Antonio did, so for me I guess Houston is not a problem either, although I sometimes find it harder making the effort to meet people who are not prepared to meet me half way

I have just put Dallas to Houston into mapquest and it comes in at less miles than Dallas-San Antonio did

I wouldn't have guessed that, but now that I think about it does make sense. For some reason I always think of SA as North of Houston, though clearly it isn't. Why my brain doesn't seem to get it is beyond me.

although I sometimes find it harder making the effort to meet people who are not prepared to meet me half way

Which I'd guess is the reason the Dallas meet last year didn't end up happening (or if I did, I didn't hear about it).

Austin? Someone say drive to Austin? I'm there, no questions, no reasons needed Though the bonus of an Empeg meet would be nice.

Austin works fine for me. Somewhere on the lake maybe? How about it, Dave (and any other Austinites)? Feel like organizing a party?

How about it, Dave (and any other Austinites)? Feel like organizing a party?

I had a reply all ready to post when Nutscrape went BOOM! So I'll summarize my ideas...

Dave & Buster's - The new meet discussion arose from an arcade game post, so the D&B in North Austin has lots of parking, video games, food and drink. We can reserve a table and gather in the lot to show off our systems.

Lake - An idea excellent, IMHO! Emma Long Park on Lake Austin is nice. The have a pavillion we can reserve (need to check on any fees) bbq grills, I can create some BBQ at home to bring as well, and last time I was drunk at the park, there was no problem with bringing alcoholic beverages and there is the lake and plenty of room for frisbee etc. And the lake has BIG BASS in it so I'm there with my bass boat!

Or we can try for closer to downtown if an evening on Sixth Street is a popular idea.

Shall we start a new Texas Meet Thread to discuss dates ans places?

Shall we start a new Texas Meet Thread to discuss dates ans places?

Just started one in "General"