BGTG 44b - Nov.23, 2005 - My own BGG.con impressions (part 2)

[Nothing went wrong when I published the last show without a full proof-listen beforehand, so I'm doing it again. This isn't supposed to be my regular practice, but the holidays are upon us, family is coming to visit, and I fear if I don't publish this show now it will be another week before I get the chance. So out it goes. As before, if something is wrong please let me know immediately and I'll do what I can to fix it. -Mark]

The second part of the show about BGG.con itself is where I get to talk about everything but the games. Of course, the games still work their way into the discussion somewhat, but this is mostly about transporting to & from the con, the hotel, the local restaurants and public transportation, as well as the organization, facilities, and schedule for the convention itself.

-Mark

P.S. Forgot to say in the podcast that I could certainly do without the guys dressed in costume. I think they were all associated with a publisher who was marketing a particular fantasy-themed game. Call me a curmudgeon, but I don't think much of adults walking around in court jester and pirate costumes. There's way too much of that at geeky American cons already. You want to start getting more wives & girlfriends into this hobby? Seriously? Ditch the costumes.

Links
Dealy Plaza
DART (Light rail system map--BGG.con was right at the Pearl station)
Chuys (Tex-Mex restaurant)
Games: Verräter, Die Fugger, Travel Settlers of Catan, Ballast, Havoc, Tempus, Mission: Red Planet

BGTG 44a - Nov.16, 2005 - My own BGG.con impressions (part 1)

[Against my better judgment, I'm posting this show before I've had a chance to listen to it. Someone please email me if there's something amiss, and I'll correct it ASAP. I don't have the opportunity to go through my normal recording-proofing-publishing routine, but want to get this out rather than sit on it. -Mark]

Two shows ago I had an interview with Aldie & Derk about Boardgamegeek.con. At that time I mostly let them do the talking, explaining their experience with the first event and plans for subsequent ones. This show is a chance for me to say what I thought of the time I had at the convention. In this first half I talk just about the games I played. Mostly new ones, despite my personal preference to play older favorites, but happily they were generally good experiences. Some were quite good. Plus, I got to play some oldies-but-goodies, too.

In the next half I'll talk about my overall experiences at the convention.

-Mark

Links
New: E&T Card Game, Shear Panic, Mission: Red Planet, Mall of Horror, Lucca Cittá, Kaivai, Ark, Elasund, Il Principe, Tempus
New to me: Wongar, Memoir '44 Overlord
Older: Entdecker, Hansa, Exxtra, Honeybears, Verräter
Didn't get to: Kreta, Caylus, Hazienda, Carcassonne:The Discovery, Havoc, Australia, Byzantium

BGTG 43 - Nov. 6, 2005 - All About Euphrat & Tigris (with Greg Pettit)

At last! Another All About show, and one I'd been planning to do for some time. My buddy and BGG.com roommate Greg Pettit has played the game a fair bit, and shared his opinions about the game's strategies, reputation, graphic production, and more. Also, we managed to play the newly-released card game adaption of E&T at the con, which gave us even more to think about.

-Mark

P.S. Pretty ridiculous that I forgot part of my own call-in number. The part I forgot? The "BGTG" part! Sheesh . . .

P.P.S. This podcast is too long to fit onto a single audio CD--for those of you that listen to BGTG that way--and I didn't figure that out until after I'd uploaded it. In the past I've split longer shows into two parts, almost as two separate podcasts. This split is more of a hack job, but should work for those of you that need it. Here are separate links to download part 1 (~75 minutes) and part 2 (~25 minutes).

Links
Tigris & Euphrates
Euphrat & Tigris Kartenspiel (card game)
Greg Pettit's BGG profile (Gregarius) . . . and his imdb.com entry :-)
Tigris & Euphrates online at BGG
Fawkes' Geeklist about Game Themes (E&T is first)
Wikipedia entry for Mesopotamia
Acquire
Samurai
Through the Desert
Puerto Rico and San Juan

BGTG 42 - Nov. 6, 2005 - Boardgamegeek.Con (with Aldie and Derk)

My listeners will know that I wanted to record something at Boardgamegeek.con, and I finally got that chance in the final hours of the event: an interview with Aldie and Derk about the convention itself. Aldie had agreed to it as early as Friday, but those guys were just so busy throughout the weekend that we didn't get an opportunity until the very end. They were pretty fried, but probably pretty satisfied, too.

To have three voices on my podcast was a new technological development, and it turned out to require no more than an extension of my existing low-ball recording equipment. Remember how I just connect a $15 PC headset to my laptop's audio-in jack to record . . . and for the second voice I only need a $3 splitter and second audio headset? Well, what do you think I did for the third voice? Another splitter and headset. That's right, a splitter into a splitter. No mixer required. What do you think of the audio?

This is the first of a couple shows I'm doing on the con. The second will be my own impressions of the games I played, what I thought of the convention itself, etc.

-Mark

Back from BGG.con

Last night I got back from a great time at BGG.con. I'd write about it here, except that . . . well, you know . . . I'm going to record it in a podcast. I've actually got a number of podcasts coming out pretty soon. It'll just take me a little while to finish them off. Also, I think when I've got a bunch it's better to spread them out by a few days rather than broadcasting them all at once. Here's what's in the pipeline.

• BGTG 42 - BGG.con part 1: Interview with Aldie & Derk
• BGTG 43 - All About Euphrat & Tigris (with Greg Pettit) [recorded at BGG.con!]
• BGTG 44 - My brief stint with Steve Jackson Games ('88-90) [recorded on the way to BGG.con :-) ]
• BGTG 45 - BGG.con part 2: My impressions of the con and games played

All but the last have been recorded already. They just need editing, cleaning up, shownotes, etc. Like I said, it'll take me several days between each one, but they're coming!

-Mark

Update: Change in plans, but just a minor one. The SJ Games story show didn't sound too hot with airport background noise, so I'll re-record that one later. BGG.con part 2 will move up to show #44. I plan to get show #42 out within a day. Bear with me!