Treasure Trove: Mad Gear

I've already mentioned the awfulness that was e-for-all 2008, but there were a couple of redeeming experiences there. One was a tiny partial-booth tucked away in the back far-right corner of the hall, Mad Gear.

Mad Gear is a privately-owned import and vintage games seller, kinda like Play Asia, but smaller. I had the pleasure of chatting with the shop's owner, ???, who was able to provide me with plenty of good recommendations based on my gaming preferences.

There were plenty of great things to look at, try out and purchase at Mad Gear's booth, including mint-in-the-box Famicom, Super Famicom, Sega Master System, Saturn, Game Gear, PC Engine and various other games. I made two purchases before leaving the booth, but believe me, had my wallet not been so light, I would have walked away with much, much more.


My two purchases included Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie for Super Famicom and a rare NES Metroid soundtrack mini-disc, released as a promo for the Gameboy Advance NES Classics series in Japan. Both are in outstanding condition, and I plan on making future purchases from Mad Gear with great confidence. Be sure to check them out!

E-for-all, or n-for-none?

Despite warnings all over the industry that it would be a joke, last year's e-for-all gaming event was a pretty decent event. The first of its kind, e-for-all is an open-to-the-public gaming expo, not unlike E3 (which is an industry-only event) or Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), except smaller. I attended last year's event at the Los Angeles Convention Center with some skepticism, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found there.

This year, e-for-all is back, and I went again, meeting up with my brother and one friend. What did we encounter? A whole lot of nothing.

We entered the L.A. Convention Center South Hall at 10:36 am, concerned that we were running late and might end up waiting in some long lines both at the doors and the booths inside. We couldn't have been more wrong. As we approached the outside entrance, it felt like a ghost town. No lines, no crowds of avid gamers eager to see what's next for the industry, no outdoor booths featuring energy drinks and new gaming peripherals. Nothing.

We passed Staples Center on the way there, and a modest line had formed outside its doors, formed mostly by middle-aged women waiting for something or other; the line was longer than any we saw inside e-for-all. I joked at the time that there must be Laker Girl tryouts going on inside, and given the demographic of the people in line, that would have been more entertaining than almost all of the exhibits we saw in the South Hall that day.

Last year, as we hesitantly entered the South Hall, we didn't know what to expect, and were overwhelmed on entering by the massive booth put up by Nintendo. EA had a good sized booth, as did Activision, THQ, Ubisoft and Namco. There were smaller booths featuring a host of other developers and publishers, various merchandise booths, tournaments, contests and other fun stuff. E3 it wasn't, but it was definitely fun.

This past week, upon passing through the doors, we encountered an atmosphere equivalent to some convalescent homes. I nearly expected an orderly or nurse to approach and whisper, 'Shhhhhh'. Underwhelming was the order of the day.

The odd thing is, I had been reading up on e-for-all during the months leading up to it, and hardly expected this. While Nintendo had recently revealed they would not be attending, along with Activision and some others, I had read confirmation that Sony and Microsoft would both be present, as would EA, Ubisoft and several other major publishers.

Apparently, I was in error. No Microsoft, no Sony, and the handful of major developer's booths we found were primarily host to games that have already been out for months, if not years. Sure, Ubisoft had a whopping four kiosks dedicated to Far Cry 2, and four more for Tom Clancy's Endwar, but aside from the Gears of War 2 booth, there was very little to whet anyone's gaming appetite for the upcoming holiday season.

Yes, there were highlights; I tried out Shaun White Snowboarding on the Wii at the largest booth in the hall (Target), and Mushroom Men was playable at a little lounge dedicated to indy game development. But other than these and the tiny little booth in the far back corner selling quality vintage and import games (props to you, Mad-Gear!), we found very little of interest.

Will e-for-all return next year? I'm doubtful, but if it does, there will need to be a cavalcade of awesomeness to lure me there.