Atari Video Club/Jaguar Community 2001 US Tour
2001 marked the first time AVC/JCU was able to be present at two events for that year (Philly Classic 2k1 and Jagfest 2k1)
Here's a brief report from Philly Classic 2k1:
The East Coast’s answer to
the CGE is over.
In its wake lay one bewildered Sheraton Suites Hotel and approximately 200 very
happy classic gaming enthusiasts.
Merely one year removed from infancy the PhillyClassic 2001 featured an
array of tables, set-ups, prizes
and auctions that kept the buzzed crowd plenty busy for what seemed like an
all-to-brief 8 hours of
fun and excitement. Systems on hand to either watch or play included
Vectrex,
Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800 plus XEGS and Jaguar. Colecovision, Intellivision,
Sega, Vectrex, and NES were also on hand. Throw in some Amiga, Playstation ,
PC games etc, and, well, you get the idea. Did I mention Vectrex?
Even though Battlesphere was at the show, Vectrex was the main attraction, and
Christopher “All your Vectrex belong to us” Tumber (http://members.home.com/christophertumber)
was there to make sure everyone was well informed as well as entertained.
Other table owners included
Big John Hardie (www.cgexpo.com),
Al Backiel(Classic Gamer Magazine), Curt Vendel (www.atari-history.com),
Joe Santulli and the rest of Digital Press(www.digitalpress.com) to name a
few.
The only thing missing from this event was room, even though two separate
rooms were available;
one for consoles and one for stand-ups.The action was shoulder to shoulder,
a far cry from the PhillyClassic’s debut last year of not quite 50 attendees.
Jagfest 2001 held in Milwaukee,WI on June,30tjh 2001
Here is a report from Jagfest 2001:
This event is what I would call
big success.
My day started out by getting my Jaguar and various Atari Video Club/
Jaguar Community United stuff ready for the event. Being that Atari Jaguar
Festival being in
Wisconsin It was an easy 2hr drive for me so I left my house in IL around
8:30am.
I arrived at the location (after passing it up twice) around 9:45am.
I met up with Fard Muhammad AKA as The Ultimate Atarian and
I finally met up with Randy Femrite at the entrance table
(with the sign up sheet I made for him it was also nice too see
people wear tags with the graphic I made for it)
I did meet with Dan Loosen and Gary Heil at the Goat Store table
across from that table was the Classic Gaming Museum exhibit
by Marty Goldberg which was laid out nicely. Upon entering the main section
I saw Terance Williams table with his PC FX system running.
Along side the wall is I saw Kevin Moseley’s table
playing some proto Jaguar games, next to that was Miach Rowe’s table also
displaying some Jaguar items including a proto of Brett hull hockey
CD using Songbird’s Protector SE cart with the bypass for the Jag CD.
Which now brings us to Atari
Video Club/ Jaguar Community United
table where I met up with Randy’s wife Nancy;
Randy had a nice layout on his table displaying various
Atari Jaguar items including the T-shirt with above mentioned
graphic design on the front and the jaguar ten commandments on the back.
He also had displayed Jaguar overlays that somebody else has made.
I had enough room to show the fest issue and the Atari Zone PDF collection
as well as the back issue binders of the fanzines,
I thought I would have a television and a power strip at my
table but they must have forgot so I couldn’t have AVC’s
tourney as scheduled or even play the Pac-man fever CD.
I did manage to set up a mini-Atari tribute table next to the AVC/JCU
main table that went over pretty good.
Next table was Carl
Forhan’s Songbird tables where he displayed Protector SE
as a game first which was pretty cool to see than he later on showed the bypass
feature for the Jaguar CD (which took about three tries before it got working,
reminded me of Fest’99 when sky hammer didn’t work until after 5 tries) using
Brett Hull hockey CD.
The final table was where Clint Thompson showed off his Jag VR set up and a
Demo of OMC games new game being developed. Later on three people from
Japan were showing Japanese style of Atari items (sort of the Japanese version
of my tribute),
which was pretty cool. This also the first time that Atari Video Club IL chapter
members got
together (Me, Clint, Fard, and Ted Rusniak).
Speaking of Firsts, this also
marked the first time in history since Battle sphere was
produced that a ten-player network was done. Also it was the first time that
Jagfest
attendance has doubled since its start on July 18,1997
(a record 87 people have attended which is considered good being that it
was being held the same day as Ohio’s annual CCAG (Classic Computers and Games)
was being held (June 30th, 2001)) so to sum it up I would say that
Jagfest 2001 would be remembered as day of First’s:
First time it was held in WI,
First time people from over seas attended.
The first time a 10 player Battlesphere network was
done and the first time fest attendance passed the forty mark.
It was too bad I had cut out
early at 7pm(right before they started passing out the prizes
(I heard that Fard won the tempest tourney (which I donated the color issue of
the fanzine
and a subscription to The Atari Zone)) since I had to work on Sunday at 9am.
Over all I would say that Dan L, Gary, Fard and Randy did a good job at this
event
(I would liked to helped out but I was busy watching my table).
Would you like to see the fifth Jagfest
issue of Atari Zone?
go to AVC's website and go to the back issue page to find out how.
(while you are there view Vol. 10 #6 of the fanzine for a full report on
Philly Classic 2001 and Vol 11 #2 for the issue after
the fest )
Click here to view pics from philly classic (pdf reader
needed)
click here to view pics from jagfest (pdf reader needed)