Issue 45: Jul 2004
Features
- | Foreword
- | JagFest 2004 Mini Report
- | Tip of the day
- | Jaguar Multitap
- | Tempest 3000 Tournament Results
- | JagFest UK 2004 Tournament Report
| JagFest 2004 Mini Report by Matthew Bacon As many of you will know, MyAtari is run with military-like precision, however, with one thing and another, our preparations for JagFest (UK) 2004 didn't exactly go as planned. In early May, (Sergeant-Major) Shiuming and I began to discuss our plans for JagFest 2004 as we wanted the MyAtari stand to be bigger and better than it had been the previous year. E-mails flew back and forth among the MyAtari team as we agreed what each of us would bring, but it soon became obvious that fate was conspiring against us. With less than a week to JagFest 2004, my laptop (which I was intending to use to work on the forthcoming July issue and more importantly this report) unexpectedly died and Shiuming's inkjet printer once again ran out of black ink. As a result, our carefully planned kit list now included my PC tower and monitor... which didn't exactly leave a great deal of room in my car for everything else. Following a longer than expected day at work, I finally made it home on the Friday evening and began packing my stuff for the following day.
Finally packed up and ready to go.
After a few hours' sleep, I woke up (slightly later than planned), threw my things into the back of my car and raced over to Shiuming's. There I found Shiuming and Mad Butscher waiting for me outside in the cold - sorry guys. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but after some ingenious packing, we managed to fit everything in and we were soon on our way. Shiuming and Mad Butscher slept most of the journey (which was understandable as Shiuming had collected Mad Butscher from the airport in the early hours of the morning and as a result had not yet slept). Thanks to relatively light traffic, we arrived at JagFest in just over an hour.
The Medway Manor Hotel, Rochester.
When we arrived we were greeted by Richard Stevens and Rob Perry who had arrived a short time before us. After some exploration, we worked out where we should be - identified by the presence of Matt Preston's Atari XE - we unloaded my car and began setting up the MyAtari stand.
The MyAtari table shortly after we arrived.
With most people still either asleep or eating breakfast, we took the opportunity to take a look around to see who had already arrived the night before.
Shiuming and I checking out the Commodore stand which was next to us.
Within an hour or so, those that had stayed overnight had found their way downstairs and joined the others that had braved the motorways and public transport. JagFest was now in full swing!
Matt Preston and Shiuming beating each other up on International Karate. Kapow!
Left to right: Nico Hofer, Stone and James Haslam.
Although Shiuming and I had been to Rochester before (last year for JagFest), Mad Butscher had not. As Mad Butscher had to exchange some Euros for UK Sterling, he and I decided to do a bit of sightseeing around Rochester before we became too engrossed. Although relatively small, Rochester is a pretty town with some rather impressive attractions including its cathedral and castle which is built on the Roman city wall - formerly the Norman Bishop's castle and royal stronghold (I bet you didn't know that!).
Rochester Cathedral. | Rochester Castle.
Once back at the hotel, I took the opportunity to wander around and meet as many people as I could.
The boys from the Portfolio (UK) Club.
Rob Perry of Gamebase ST fame.
It was great to see so many new faces as well as lots of those I'd seen last year. This is one of the many things I enjoy about events such as JagFest as it allows me to finally put faces to so many names and e-mail addresses! Sadly, I couldn't see a number of expected faces including James Joell of Nexus Gaming Magazine and our own Elliot Swanton. After a spot of lunch, I took a short break from chatting with the other attendees and started work on the July issue of MyAtari. However, with Matt Preston playing his XE chip music as loud as he could in my right ear and the Commodore boys (brave chaps!) in my left... concentrating on writing my foreword for the July issue was a bit of a challenge. As the evening approached, rumours of a barbeque began to spread - which sounded good to me as I was beginning to get hungry. A short while later, the rumours became true as Nick Harlow (the event organizer) took the role of head chef and proceeded to cook a selection of sausages and burgers for the hungry crowd. After dinner, things settled as down as some of the attendees decided to call it a day (as many had long journeys home) while the remainder chilled out and enjoyed an evening of game playing on the collection of consoles and computers.
The night is still young!
As the early hours of Sunday morning came and went - as well as the result of the early start and several beers - my eyelids became too heavy to keep open, so I admitted defeat and made my way up to bed leaving the others to struggle on. Refreshed and recharged from a good night's sleep and full English breakfast, I made my way downstairs to join the party. No sooner had I sat down at the MyAtari stand than Ryan Edwards, equipped with a clipboard and pen, appeared asking if I wanted to enter in the Tempest 3000 contest he was organizing (and hosting on his rather rare Samsung Nuon player). Although I've never been any good at Tempest 2000 on my Jaguar (I use the technique of holding down the fire button and randomly moving left and right without any direct purpose) I thought what the heck and signed on the dotted line. As Ryan turned his attention to the others I was sitting with, I noticed Shiuming was starting to unpack the A1 sized art folder he had only just managed to squeeze into my car the day before. To my surprise and delight, it turned out to contain some fantastic original Jaguar prints and concept drawings previously unseen that were sold off when Atari UK closed its doors. Within minutes Shiuming had drawn a good crowd as everyone wanted to take a peek at the highly prized artwork (offers should be made to shiuming@myatari.net - only kidding!). As my Tempest 3000 timeslot approached I thought it wise to go and check out the competition. In the first round of the tournament, a time limit of 15 minutes was imposed (if you lasted that long) during which you had to score as many points as you could. By the time I had to take the hot seat, Tyrant (Nick Turner) had managed to rack up a healthy 185,258 points and was sitting in pole position.
Tempest 3000 Tournament poster designed by Gaztee.
Not one to turn down a challenge, I took the helm of my T3K ship and Ryan began the stopwatch. After 15 minutes of blasting, Ryan announced that my time had run out and I was to pause the game - which I thought was unfair as I was just getting into it and had loads of lives left! Once my eyes managed to focus once again on my surroundings (if you've ever played T2K you'll know what I mean), I vacated the hot seat for the next contestant.
Richard Stevens playing T3K.
I'm proud to report that, by luck more than skill, I had managed to push Tyrant out of pole position with a rather impressive 194,232 points. However, my victory was short-lived as both Moobaa (Pete Muller) and Stone (Nick Bamji) trounced my score pushing me into third place. A short time later, Ryan announced that the next round of the tournament was about to commence in which the top four contestants had to battle it out head to head. Suffice to say that my form returned to normal and I was beaten kicking and screaming into fourth place. As a result, the final results of the T3K tournament were as follows: 1st - Stone (won a boxed Lynx 2) 2nd - Tyrant (won a copy of T3K) 3rd - Moobaa (won two 2600 games) 4th - Matthew Bacon (won RealSports Soccer game for 2600)
4th prize - RealSports Soccer 2600 game. Thanks Ryan!
As the T3K tournament came to a close, I realized that I had been so wrapped up in the competition that I had not noticed that lunch had long since passed and some attendees were already packing up. As I had to go to work that evening, I returned to the MyAtari stand and began to reluctantly pack up my equipment. However, before Shiuming and I could begin our journey home... there was just the little matter of the raffle. With the first prize on offer being a rather splendid 2 MB Alpine board and development Jaguar with CD, we all stood around in the vain hope that our ticket number would be called out. Alas it was not to be... never mind, maybe next year.
Gaztee helps Nick select a raffle ticket.
The winning ticket which at the time of writing remains unclaimed!
With the raffle over and our bags packed, Shiuming and I jumped into my car and headed home. I had a great time at JagFest 2004 and look forward to next year. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Nick Harlow for once again organizing the event and, of course, Ryan Edwards for organizing the Tempest 3000 tournament. See you next year! matt@myatari.net
Useful links
JagFest UK 2004 http://www.jagfest.org.uk http://www.uk.jagfest.org 1632 Systems http://www.1632systems.co.uk English Heritage (Rochester Castle) http://www.english-heritage.org.uk
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