A celebration of (mostly) old games in Austin.
July 27-28, 2019
Palmer Events Center, Austin
This was the third (or fourth?) CGF I’ve attended. Like last year I stayed all of Saturday (VIP admission for the early shop buys) and a fair amount of Sunday.
Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube) LAN Party. Managed a 3rd place showing. I guess my driving skills have atrophied pretty badly here.
Mortal Kombat II (Arcade) Tournament. This was played on a proper cabinet this year, though in single elimination format. This was without doubt the funniest tournament I’ve been in; I just started making dumb comments like “fireball delivery service” and we were all laughing. Best part was fighting on the Portal and getting a Toasty on an uppercut – my instincts took over and I slammed the start button, getting the Smoke fight. Naturally, we all had a huge laugh and luckily I didn’t have to give up a round.
I defended my title from last year. Some guys from 2018 were back, but the Mileena I lost to back in 2016 (?) hasn’t shown up since. There was a pretty good Kitana player there, and we ended up timing out a couple rounds. I tried getting some “combo video shenanigans” going (fan lift in corner, walk under, continuous low kick) but that didn’t pan out.
Mario Tennis (N64) Tournament. EON was showing off their HDMI adapter for the N64 this year, and had a Mario Tennis tournament to show it off. I paired up with someone else who hadn’t played it before either, and we managed to still place second. We should’ve just picked balanced characters…
Mario Bros. (Arcade) Tournament. There was going to be a Super Mario Bros 1-1 speedrun challenge, but that was replaced with a Mario Bros. tournament. I came in second on this, ironically losing (barely) to the guy I was partnered with on Mario Tennis.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo Tournaments. Shenanigans ensued (not the fun ones, either) – on Saturday I won my first round, but I guess it didn’t get reported and I didn’t have any further matches. Sunday I lost fairly quickly (I blame distractions, but eh). Guess I’ll have to practice up here; this hasn’t been a game I’ve been great at.
Shops. I picked up fewer things this year but still got a wristband, some buttons, some patches, and a necklace. It seemed like all the stores from last year returned, plus a few others.
Games. Pick up matches of Killer Queen were pretty fun. Texas Gamers Lounge also had a neat modified Dreamcast, but no one seemed interested in some Street Fighter Alpha 3, sadly.
Everything Else. CGF was great fun again, even if there were some things from 2018 I wish were there. If I complain about anything, the bands are too loud.
