Last Friday(June 21) SGC 2013 started in Dallas Texas and ran through Sunday. We were not sure what to expect because we had never been before and its hard to gauge how large an online community is. For those of you that do not know what SGC is; SGC stands for Screw Attack Gaming Convention and is put on the Screw Attack Web site. SGC is no comic-con when it comes to size but it did have a large and dedicated fan base.
SGC takes place at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas Texas. It uses all of the ballrooms for panels, vender hall, and of course games!! I don’t exactly know what the other guests staying there thought, but the hotel was taken over by nerds, geeks, and fanboys for the weekend. I think most onlookers were more intrigued by the unique variety of individuals at the event. People were dressed in everything from Tuxedo Suits to Halo Suits.
Unfortunately I did not get there for the opening which I am sure would have been a blast, but we did make it in time for something that is very dear to us. Video Game Collecting is a past time that a lot of gamers get into as they get older. A lot of it is brought on by nostalgia, gotta catch em all, and sometimes you just want to play that old game on the original console. James Rolfe, Mike Matei, ProJared, Pat the NES Punk, and The Game Chasers put on a panel and discussed the positives, shortcomings, and strategies for video game collecting.
The next panel we saw consisted of Screw attack team members battling it out with Mega64 team members in a handful of video games. Smash Brothers Melee, Wheel of Fortune, Shaq Fu, and Mike Tyson Punch Out were the games selected for the tournament.
This concluded our Friday for the panels at SGC. We wanted to unwind and drink some beers so we went down to the bar. If you like beer I definitely recommend the Deep Ellum ipa, an SGC favorite of ours. After we had tossed a few of these back we noticed someone had come up and sat next to us at the bar. I think anyone who has ever watched a video game review will know this guy
We were pretty blown away at first but eventually worked up the courage to say hi to the great Adam Sessler. We didn’t want to come off as annoying or anything but we wanted to say something. Just to be clear there have been 3 prior times when we could have stopped Adam to talk to him and tell him how much we appreciates what he does for the video game world, but he has always seemed busy so we left him alone to tend to what ever he was up to. I think this was karma’s way of saying good job because he was dropped literately inches from us. We said hello to him and told him we were fans, but did so in a fairly laid back manner. Mr Sessler seemed to appreciate our our attitude towards the situation and while ordering a drink proceeded to sit down and talk with us at the bar for roughly 15-20 minutes. A couple other fans came up to say hi to him but he was genuinely interested in talking with us and would politely meet and greet them and then go back to talking with us. He was was very nice and even ordered us each a bourbon(Bullet, never had it but before but it sure was tasty) to drink with him. It was a great first day to SGC for sure.
Saturday came around and we got to see the Adam Sessler solo panel where he talked about video games, his job transitioning, and some fun past ventures. As we got to sit and talk with Adam the night before we all ready had a precursor to the panel. We were able to see him again but with Jim Sterling from destructoid. It was another free form panel and it was hilarious. Jim Sterling was very animated and does a very convincing Freddy Cruger impersonation.
We went to the vender hall a few times and then went back the room to relax for a little bit. We got up to check out 2 events we wanted to see. Mario Part after dark and DJ Cutman. Lets just start this one off by saying that DJ Cutman puts on one hell of a show. My energy level was personally a little low for what we walked into, but it was very entertaining none the less. Mario Party after dark was something I did not know what to expect. We know they were going to play mario party but that was about it. What we walked into was insane.
