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West Coast Train Trip 2008
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Gaming's not only a hobby... It's a part of my face
One does not need to know others on the train to have a good time. Most of the people that went last year had not met prior to the train trip. There was only one person on the train last year that I knew from a previous PAX. Likewise with the roadtrip to PAX I went on in 04, I only knew one person on it as well(Which happened to be someone I knew in high school, and didn't know they were going too).
Bringing a Wii with Super Smash Bros Brawl, Super Smash Bros Melee, and (possibly) Soul Calibur II.
Possibly bringing a Dreamcast with Power Stone, Marvel vs Capcom II, and Gunbird II (among other games).
I'd say about 20% of people coming this time are first timers. Last year nobody knew each other. Tested by the forge of combat, we formed a bond unbreakable. Now we call new blood to the front. Come with us, and you will be as a comrade in arms.
By combat I mean getting our ass kicked in Super Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart DS.
Besides. This essentially turns PAX from a three day getaway to a week-long party. This will more than double your "PAX Time".
I'd like to get in on the 4e game as well. Also, as I mentioned over in the Gygax thread, I'm thinking about running a pickup wild combat game at PAX, if there's interest I might run it on the train as well.
Going by the list no but there has been 2 people that said they are bring other games that have not been mentioned for the list cause I am guessing they are not AAA titles and they don't want to make a list of every game they have.
If not I will trade a beer for a $3 DC game.
Seriously we got 3 Dreamcast systems and a metric fuck ton of games for it. And I am not even bringing my console so far.
All those people saying they got a Wii and a copy of Brawl should send me a PM covering what they got including their controller count.
Deal!
The Gamers mad-libbing edition
Main idea is we watch The Gamers with the volume muted. Participating people will each pick a character to act out whenever his/her lips are flapping or in The Gamemasters case when no one else is to keep the story going. We won't be going for trying to act out the movies script line by line we will just be making it up as the movie goes along and saying whatever we think is funny characters and the plot will be rewritten and names will be changed. Going by imdb the cast only has 11 people but 5 of them hardly have any lines. The main cast is only gonna be 5 guys + 1 girl. 1 guy can change his voice for the characters that only appear once then we just need some people to make up some sound effects and the BGM. Add beer and silly voices for win. In summary we (poorly) dub over the movie with our own script that we make up on spot while probably drinking and post the recording online.
The Gamers seems like the perfect choice due to it's short runtime and small cast, plus a lot of us are familiar with it to the point were some of us pretty much have the script memorized. But I am opening for another movie instead it just needs to be something with a cast we can fill and that we would be familiar to know when we are talking would work just as well.
Edit: Just hit me but if we are having a scheduled time for events like tournies and movie night a white board + dry erase marks or 2 so we could have something to write in the schedule would help a ton.
That'd be kinda neat. :P
It's a big assumption that the train would let us bring a bigass TV. A flatscreen monitor is one thing.
sobjw: I'm bringing Virtua Tennis
I'm going to try to bring like a 15-20" LCD, but in case I cannot (it's very possible since I'll be taking a different train to the PAX train and I probably won't wanna carry it), does anyone want to volunteer to bring me a TV/computer monitor? I prefer 4:3 of course since it's going to be used with a Dreamcast, and computer monitors (VGA) are fine since I have a VGA box.
Gaming's not only a hobby... It's a part of my face
Yeah after looking over this thread I'm going to definitely put some time aside for this train event, though I live down in San Diego and will have to decide on how to go about getting to LAX station. Also I wouldn't mind volunteering to bring my Wii/SSBBrawl and some controllers, but there is of course the TV situation. I'll keep an eye on this thread more often now.
Also, nobody steal my blanket this time
(you know who you are)
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
EDIT: I just talked to Jason and he is confirming that he is coming, AND running the D&D game. So far I'm up to three in my group. Two are as of yet unconfirmed. Still not taking names yet for the group, he's going to figure out how many people he intends to have.
(I'm assuming the train trip costs less than driving up, for the most part)
[edit] we would be getting on at the LAX stop.
So...$375 right there?
The train is definitely going to be more expensive AND time consuming than driving, though.
Time consuming yes, more expensive, not really with the way gas prices are going. A not quite exact Mapquest calculation says its 1,137 miles between Los Angeles and Seattle. Double that for the round trip and you've got 2,274. They say gas should hit $4 a gallon by the beginning of summer, by the end of summer who knows how high it will be, but lets just use an even $4 for this.
On a 2,274 mile trip, if your car averages say 25 miles per gallon, thats 91 tanks of gas, which would run $363.84, split between two people is about the same as taking the train which doesn't have the hassle of driving or the wear on your car. Granted that number fluctuates based on your cars MPG and the price of gas, but considering I was lowballing the gas prices at $4 when it could easily be higher than that by the time for PAX, driving just isn't worth the cost or hassle.
I've seen gas in the bay area spike up to $4 already at some places. Average gallon out here is 3.80 now, and it's been climbing steadily. I'd not be shocked to see a climb of 25 to 50 cents more in the next 6 months. Even if there's a premium here (and no doubt there is), that could still mean $4 gallons along the LA-Seattle path.
Trust us, we don't even want to live here.
Begging your pardon, comrade, but econimists forecast that we're looking at a real possibility of a 4+ dollar gallon by the summer.
That's right. I've never met someone who liked living in California. Unless they were rich. And even then, they would rather be somewhere else.
Hey, I like it here. But I'm new. I'm sure that new state smell will wear off in time.
So we've got what, ten people now heading up from Portland?
This website talks a great deal about the parlour you get access to with the roommette but without a timestamp I can't tell if he is talking about how it was up to 1995 or since Amtrak started using them again.
If this nice little quote is true then you won't be paying for anything except your booze and with wine except for what you take in during the wine and champagne tasting.
http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/Dining_Car_Menu.r5.pdf
This PDF let's you know that dining car meals can be a bit expensive. with about a $450 difference for 2 people to take the roomette you could get quite a bit of that money back in food and snacks.
Making me wonder if Amtrak cares how much I order or if they actually limit how much free food I can get from the dining car.
Edit: You also got car maintenance to consider in expenses as well. At the end of the week you added in over 2000 miles wear and tear to your tires and other stuff.
I was wondering about that myself. If it all comes with the roommette, then lunch for me will be the Angus Steak Burger with a Corona,
Dinner: 10oz New York Strip Steak and a Corona.
Then breakfast: Steak and Eggs with coffee.....and a Corona
Making a new thread in a few minutes. Complete collection of all existing WCTT data. Just gonna review it first.
I am up the challenge of eating all the bacon on the train. Are you?
Besides, all these calculations also don't include a significant factor in my personal attitude: roads. I've lost count of the number of times that bad directions, bad street design, or bad traffic have taken what could have been a leisurely journey and turned it into a nightmare. At least here in Portland the street designers have seen fit to mark most things with appropriate signage, so you at least know where you're lost.
I'm sad that I can't make it on the official train, but I'm sure that whichever of you I see on the lesser variant will be good to talk to. It's going to be my first year at PAX, and knowing a few people ahead of time would help with the "help, I'm lost and I don't know who to talk to" problem. If everything works out, I'll see a few of you awesome people on the train ride up to Seattle. If not, there's always PAX itself.