For those of us of a certain age there is still an undeniable magic about walking into an arcade. This provides another excuse to send anyone who hasn’t done so off to watch Wil Wheaton’s PAX 2007 keynote speech in which he talks about that very subject more eloquently than we could hope to. This past weekend we went to the NW Pinball and Game Room show and got a healthy dose of that magic. In addition to enjoying the amazing collection of arcade games and pinball tables we also had the opportunity to talk with Steve “The King of Kong” Wiebe, Scott Herald, the co-founder of the Seattle Metro Arcade Collectors (SMAC) and Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day.

We also have a review of Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Plainswalkers, which is newly out for the PC through Steam and, as always, we have the weekly geek news and Seattle area geek events.

Our Geek Week

• Listened to audiobook of Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
• Watched The House of the Devil (2009) on Blu-ray
• Read Black Summer by Warren Ellis with art by Juan Jose Ryp
• Watched premiere of True Blood

Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show

• Iron Man Pinball by Stern
  

• Steve Weibe
  
  

• Seattle Metro Arcade Collectors
  

• Walter Day and the International Video Game Hall of of Fame
  
  

• Walter Day on Facebook
• Twin Galaxies

Review: Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers

(trailer for the XBox Live Arcade version, PC gameplay is essentially identical)

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is an amazing adaptation of the card game. It is ideal for those interested in learning the game or for those who have been interested in playing but have been daunted by the investment required in buying the actual cards. The computer opponents are challenging but not prohibitively so and the controls are very intuitive even if you aren’t familliar with the rules of Mgic. The same faults that we found with the Xbox version are still in the Steam version, namely the inability to fast forward through turn phases in which nothing happens and the lack of a way to concede a game that you know you are going to lose. Still well worth picking up.

Dare Shannon to Watch a Bad Movie

This week’s movie was Lo (2009) Dared by Kristen of the Geek Girls Network

If you want to dare Shannon to watch a bad movie, e-mail us at seattlegeekly@gmail.com or call us at (206)201-2352

Check our Dared Movies Page to see what is on the list and what Shannon has already watched.

Next week’s movie will be eXistenZ (1999) – Dared by Trey

News

• NeverDead, a new Rebellion game for Konami
• Robert Rodriguez’s Machete comes to comics in September
• Animation Magazine opens it’s Pitch Party voting!
  1. Listen to our interview with the creators of Scottish Ninjas in Episode #62
  2. Check out the clips and other cool stuff at the Scottish Ninjas site
  3. Go vote for their pitch to be in the SDCC issue of Animation Magazine!
• Terry Pratchett enters parallel worlds of science fiction

Events

• Conventions
  • June 18 – 20, 2010 – Crypticon – Seattle, WA
  • June 18 – 20, 2010 – PaizoCon – Bellevue, WA
  • June 18 – 20, 2010 – Go Play Northwest 2010 – Seattle, WA
• Events
  • June 14-20, 2010 Seattle WA, Market Theater 1428 Post Alley Seattle – Unexpected Productions International Festival of Improv. For the true fan of improv and world culture, improv comedians from all over the world perform together in your home town! Details at UnexpectedProductions.org
  • June 18-19, 2010 Midnight Pacific Place Cinema 600 Pine Street, Seattle – Midnight Movies: The Matrix
  • June 22, 2010 7pm UW Bookstore 326 University Way NE, Seattle – Clarion West presents Michael Bishop. Michael Bishop’s characters are compassionately drawn, his prose elegant and poetic, and his subject matter always thought-provoking. He seeks to humanize the alien, to tackle political controversies, to explore the mythic, and delivers the results in his unflinchingly honest and sometimes satirical voice. The recipient of multiple Hugo nominations, Bishop has won two Nebula and four Locus awards.
  • June 24, 2010 7pm UW Bookstore 326 University Way NE, Seattle – David J. Williams – David J. Williams reads and signs his latest book The Machinery of Light. The Machinery of Light is the conclusion of David Williams’s trilogy. The world stands on the brink of Armageddon as lasers blast away at one another in an attempt to open up a hole in each other’s defenses through which nuclear devastation can be unleashed. Can the rogue commando unit, Autumn Rain, find out who engineered this war—and perhaps stop it?
  • June 25, 2010 7pm UW Bookstore 326 University Way NE, Seattle Fantastic Fiction with Connie Willis & Gregory Frost. Connie Willis has won more awards (19) than any other science fiction author for her insightful, witty novels and numerous works of short fiction. Celebrated as a humorist with spot-on comic timing, she also uses her fiction to examine larger questions: the nature of God, the persistence of suffering and loss, and the role of love and redemption. Gregory Frost is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. He has been a finalist for every major award in science fiction and fantasy literature. His latest work, the fantasy duology, Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet, received starred reviews from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. He directs the fiction workshop at Swarthmore College.
  • June 26, 2010 8pm The Crocodile 2200 2nd Ave, Seattle Discs of Fury and Death*Star. Discs of Fury performs live at The Crocodile with special guest Death*Star!
• Plan Ahead
  • July 3, 2010 Fremont Outdoor Cinema 3501 Phinney Ave North
    Seattle – Red White and Dead. With summer just around the corner, Seattle welcomes the return of warm summer nights, boating afternoons, barbeques and…zombies? Yes, thousands of zombies will again return to Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood this Fourth of July weekend to walk and dance their way back into the history books during the second annual Red, White & Dead zombie walk. At stake? The zombie walk Guinness World Record currently held by the Big Chill Music Festival in England. More details at the Red, White & Dead Facebook page

Music

Music this week was a selection of sounds from some of the games we played at the Pinball and Gameroom show.

Next week’s show will be Episode #67, our Crypticon Wrap up show! There are some big names in the world of horror that are going to be at Crypticon this year and we’re going to talk to as many of them as we can! Remember that Seattle Geekly is taking a summer vacation which means there will be NO SHOW ON JULY 1 or July 8!

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