Trivia contest

[DanAmrich]

I liked the trivia showdown last year and I'm hoping to do it again this year. I came in as a lone player and found two other guys who were also stranded, so we formed the Mercenaries. We got further than we thought!

So, two questions:

1) What day will the trivia contest be this year? Last year it was Saturday.
2) Will it be the same format as last year, a three-person team?
3) Anybody wanna form a team? I am light on pin knowledge but very good with the vids.

[jkoolpe]

Dan,

Yes, we are definitely planning on another trivia contest.  The person who ran it last year is busy this year (he's set to become a new dad during the same week as the show!), so I and probably one other staffer will be running it this time around.

In answer to your questions:

1.  The contest is tentatively planned for Saturday in the later afternoon.  Another staffer is busy almost literally as I type this finalizing the show schedule so this is still potentially subject to change, but barring something odd, the contest will be on Saturday.

2.  The contest will be conducted as it was last year (very similar to VH1's "World Series of Pop Culture").  Teams of 3 again will be the order of the day.

3.  Can't help you there (since I'm running it)... .  But I'm sure you can find someone!

Thanks for attending, and good luck in the contest!

Jon

[jkoolpe]

More on the Arcade Trivia Contest:

Arcade Trivia Contest:  The CA Extreme Arcade Trivia Contest returns for another exciting round!  Think you know it all when it comes to video and pinball arcade games?  Test your knowledge and pit your mind skills in a true battle of wits against fellow arcade enthusiasts in another rousing round of arcade trivia competition.  Participants will compete based on their arcade and pinball knowledge of games spanning over 5 decades, from Gottlieb to Atari to Williams to Capcom and more.  Join the fun by forming teams of 3 with your fellow arcade hounds and see how you stack up against your peers! 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We've come up with some great questions for both the pinball experts and the video enthusiasts.  We're even planning a "Name that Tune" segment wherein we play a music clip from a classic game, and you try to identify it .

So start forming your teams folks!  We're hoping to have another fun-filled and challenging round of arcade trivia!

For those wishing to be proactive and form a team before show time, please send me a PM or you just email me directly at jkoolpe@hotmail.com.  I'll be more than happy to register you.

Please note that there will be a nominal $5 per person which is simply to cover the costs of the trophies .

Jon (and the Extreme Team)

[DanAmrich]

I had fun with this -- thanks for putting in the effort guys! I do think that early questionnaire was too pinball-heavy, and yeah, we ran late -- but overall, I saw a lot of people in the audience who wanted to check it out but didn't want to try it themselves. Cowards, all! 

[jkoolpe]

Yes, we hope the participants had fun.  We'll definitely confer a bit now that everything is over and we can breathe a bit...figure out what went well, what needs fine-tuning, etc., etc. with the goal to make it even more fun next year !

One thing I would like to do for next year is to change the beginning to make it a Q & A session with us asking some set questions and letting the teams confer and answer verbally for each one.  That way, the initial part will grade itself (without a pause for grading on paper) and also stay interactive from start to finish.

Any other ideas for improvement are welcome certainly!

Jon

[Ken Chaney]

I think last year the initial round was written answer questions with multiple answers, teams having fewest correct answers being eliminated.  It went fine.

[DanAmrich]

I didn't mind last year's on-paper structure; I thought that worked pretty well. I'm only concerned that it ran long, and we knew other people needed to use the room -- so anything to tighten up the pace would be good. If going verbally for the first few rounds helps that, cool.

I'm glad to hear that there will be a trivia contest again in 2009, and I'm once again looking for a team. The last two years I found random folks who were looking for teams at the show, and both years, we made it pretty far -- last year to the final two teams. In 2007, our pick-up team was called the Mercenaries. In 2008 I remember one teammate was also named Dan and was a pinball savant. I believe we called our team after whatever was written on his Galaga t-shirt. If you are alumni of either of those teams, wanna go again?

If you need a refresher, I'm the guy with the lazy eye. 

Dan

[bkerins]

This year's competition will not have an on-paper structure for the initial rounds, simply because of the crowd factor.  We will be using a similar style though -- multiple-choice questions, with each team holding up a sign to give their answer.

As before, four teams from the initial round will advance, and will play head-to-head in multiple trivia categories. (The format is borrowed from the TV show "World Series of Pop Culture".)

We will also be reducing the cost of entry from $5 per player to $5 per team, in hopes of drawing a much larger number of teams!  I'm sure you'll find plenty of mercenaries...!

- Bowen

[DanAmrich]

Thanks for hosting the trivia contest again! I had a lot of fun again this year, and the new "three strikes and you're out" early elimination round worked well and kept the pace brisk. Of course, once I was eliminated, I knew everything!    The champs pulled a three-peat this year, so congrats to them...but I am determined to try to foil their dynasty in 2010.

However...the first question out of the gate was "What color was Sue in Ms. Pac-Man?" Based on the machine at my office, I answered orange, which was deemed wrong -- purple was what the judges were looking for. But I just checked the ROM I've been using for years and several other sources (XBLA, some YouTube videos of championship runs), and darned if Sue isn't orange! I was going by the US version; is Sue purple in a different edition or something? Was the question about the cartoon?

But...that wasn't exactly the difference between winning and losing for me, and I had fun playing along in the audience. I thought the monitor burn-in challenge was fantastically creative and unexpected.

[Ken Chaney]

Sorry about the confusion on Sue.  I don't know the situation, so all I can do is say sorry :/

Heh, glad you liked the monitor burn-in section   (smug mode on)