California Extreme, the pinball and classic video games show held at the San Jose Convention Center, is gearing up for its eighth annual show. It will be held on August 7 and 8, 2004 and show organisers have said they are working to make this the biggest and best year yet. Some of the highlights for this year are set to include a Play the Pinball Rodeo and a Tag Team Pinball Event. The Play the Pinball Rodeo allows players to view and play a wild collection of modified pinball games, last seen at the Wild West Pinball Fest of '97! Customised pinball games for the Rodeo range from those where a player must step their feet onto the flipper buttons, or use a remote control or one hand to play. The Tag Team Pinball Event will be the first since Wild West! At the show visitors will have the chance to meet some true classic video game experts such as Dwayne Richards and Billy Mitchell, who will be holding a new "How to Play Video Games" seminar where they will reveal some of the secrets and strategies behind their remarkable scores. Mr Richards can achieve some amazing scores at games such as Joust, Robotron, Centipede and Millipede and Mr Mitchell has to his credit such classics as Burgertime, Dig Dug, and the PacMan series. Indeed, Mr Mitchell is the first player to achieve a perfect score in Pac-Man, which involved eating all dots, fruit, energizers and blue men through 256 screens - without dying even once! It took six hours and was videotaped at Funspot in Weirs Beach, NH, in 1999.
The popular "How to Play Pinball" seminars will also be held during the 2004 show. Keith Johnson, game designer for Stern Pinball Inc., will be on hand during California Extreme to talk about how pinball games are made. He has been the lead programmer on Stern's Lord of the Rings and Simpson's Pinball Party machines, and has many years experience both at Stern and Williams. The show will boast a full schedule of speakers on both the pin and video side, including many of the big names behind the biggest games. Past speakers have included Atari video alumni Mike Albaugh, Ed Logg, Al Alcorn, Owen Rubin, and pinball legend Steve Ritchie. Prizes for this year's raffle include pinballs and video games, with the opportunity to win prizes also available to players competing in Division B of the show's pinball tournament. Players who compete in Division A battle the best players for fun, and there will also be a new No Limit Pinball match-play tournament on Saturday night. For more information and to visit the official show website, click
this link.
