ECC Day 2: Opening day and Shorty's

I was staying with my buddy Tuan in Renton, which is about 30-40 minutes away from the Seattle Convention Center. He forgot to do two very important things before I arrived. He forgot to tell me he had a roommate, and then forgot to tell the roommate I was coming over. Imagine if you will the awkwardness of walking into the house, and seeing someone in a room you regularly stay in lounging. He also forgot to mention that I call him Tuan to his roommate. In other words, his roommate was facing some random white guy who had just walked into his house. The thought crossed my mind that Tuan owed someone money, and was paying it back with his own apartment. I could see the bookshelf, and other stuff pretty easily. It was a very awkward couple of minutes before I mentioned Tuan’s other aliases.

Tuan works at the Starbucks coffee factory at nights, so he let me sleep in his bed while at work. That was probably the most comfortable night’s rest I have had in a long time. There was no light, and everything was incredibly calm. Needless to say, I woke up ready for the day invigorated.

Seattle is well known for being cloudy, and rainy. When I drove to the SCC it rained so much that I even needed windshield wipers for the tunnels. This was a surprised because most of the time when I visit the Emerald City, its fairly sunny. There was a reason why so many windows at the Sheraton didn’t have curtains, no need.

I found parking easily, and specifically chose the top floor out in the open. I knew that few people would park in that area, so my minivan wouldn’t be too hard to turn around.

Arriving at the third floor of the Sheraton, the first thing I spotted was a poster telling people to not oggle.

I hope I didn’t make any mistakes, but there was one incident on Saturday that I feel sort of dumb about. These posters are all over the convention floor, and any area where a visitor might go. The incident will be written about on Wednesday among other things.

The room the arcade had been given, was set with a lot less power than promised. This meant that a breaker fault was expected. An entire wall in the arcade was down because of too much power taken. Luckily, we had an extra outlet right next to the booth I was at. So, two extra arcade games were placed at the wall.

It turned into a boon though, because Asteroids and Frogger caught everyone’s eyes. This would lead others to the next part of the wall, and then I would tell them about the full arcade. It dropped a few minds.

I had arrived a bit early, so Minions and Security Guards were walking around trying to figure out what to do.

The displays at the gaming area were being put up, along with things to buy. We were no less preparing.

The shirts, hoodies, and posters were from previous arcade shows, and we were trying to get rid of them. Everything was kept locked inside the arcade until a few hours before the doors were officially opened.

While I was at my booth, I was given a three day pass.

Since it was the first day, I spent a lot of time chatting with the people for the North West Pinball and Arcade Show. I also tried to give all the initials for NWPAAS as best I could. For me, the best move was to step back, and watch others try to grab attention and talk.

At lunch time I was told about a classic arcade bar and grill called Shorty’s. I decided to go there, and check out the ambiance. It was only a few blocks away, but Seattle has a lot of hills. I think I passed 5 Subway shops, and who knows how many Starbucks.

I will make sure to have a bigger essay on the place, but I really enjoyed it. Seattle has really changed since I was a teenager. It used to be dark, and colorless, with angry people and teams that never quite made it. A common joke was how the home team would blow it that year. Today, it looks nothing like that, and the friggin Seahawks won the Super Bowl! Shorty’s has more of the older feeling, it was dark, and had pictures of clowns everywhere. It also had amazing hot dogs.  I had a German dog with cheese sauce.

While walking home, past the unknown amount of Starbucks, and Subways I saw some cool shops.

When I got back to the Sheraton, I found a sign to a game library.

It’s a pretty smart system of setting up all sorts of board games for people to try out. Every game you play is also for sale by some of the exhibitors. You had to hand over an item, like a shoe, or a wallet to check out a game, and that was it. The room was a really cool idea.

The gaming area was full of people playing various games at every single table.

There were things brought in that I simply did not expect. One vendor was selling 3D printed gaming items.

I did a small tour, and then back to the display area for the arcade folks.

I sort of came into my own during this time. There were made up catch phrases.

“If you like this, you should see our full arcade. If you like that, you should see the 400+ arcade game show. The price is the cost of admission only.”

“See a game you want to play? Go ahead, they’re all free to play.”

After a while my head sort of spinned, and I took another break. I went and played some GalakZ in the main gaming hall. It is a fun game, but because I had been playing Asteroids all day, the controls sort of messed me up. In GZ, you point in the direction, and thats where your ship points. In Asteroids, you slowly turn your ship to where you want.

During this time someone watching started talking about old arcade games. I mentioned the arcade folks, but never saw the person at our display. I really hope I didn’t insult her.

We continued to sell until I got pretty hungry. One of the arcade guys handed me a $20 bill and wrote down what he wanted from one of the many Subways in the area. So, I went looking. I did not find a single one of the Subways I had passed by earlier.

I asked for directions, and found out there is a literal subway in Seattle. This was a bit of a shock to me because Seattle is not a place to put an underground anything. The city sinks. I finally did find a Subway restaurant, but it was closed, as was the next two I found. Needless to say, it was weird.

There were guys selling CD’s who saw the money in my hand. It took some blunt statements that I was not going to give them the money, because it was not mine. Not a joke 3 guys surrounded me. What is funny is I recognized one of them from an earlier visit to Seattle. Heck, I bought his CD then.

I got back to the arcade display an hour later, with no food. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but a bit frustrated. Another arcade guy went out, and found a Subway to take care of the sandwiches.

By this time it was late, and people were still playing.

In fact, they continued to play until 10:00 that night when we turned the machines off. It seems at 7 the Convention Center closed, and they forgot to mention the gaming area was still open. As you can guess, this annoyed the gaming exhibitors.

The convention goers continued to arrive, and the entire place began to get full. The restaurant on the first floor of the Sheraton was packed, and full of people speaking loudly.

I found where I was parked, and drove home. It was a satisfying but tiring day. I actually missed a couple turns, and had to double back. It must have been from being so tired. Still, an amazing day.