Photos From The April 2010 Southern California Classic Collectors Arcade Party!
by: -RoG-

I've been attending the SC3 (Southern California Classic Collectors) arcade parties since I moved out to California some years ago. It's a gathering of classic gaming enthusiasts who bring in truckloads of arcade cabinets, consoles and other rarities from yesteryear and set it all on free-play for one awesome night. Whether you're looking to test your skills in a frantic four-player game of Warlords or try out some homebrew games on a Vectrex, SC3 has you covered.

Last Saturday night was the most recent gathering, and this time, I took photos of the arcade games, consoles and trade / sale items that could be found at the party before the sun went down and all the gaming began. I thought you guys might enjoy a look at it all, so let's take a looksee:

A cart within a cart within a cart. Come, you could've squeezed a MicroSD into there to take it one step further.

POWER.

The sun was out, but the tent above ensured we gamers felt as though we were still indoors.
After all, you can't exposure our kind to the great outdoors without serious repercussions.

Dr. Boogie is happiest when there are many, many games in the near vicinity.

This was the first time I ever saw Death Race in person and it was an absolutely beautiful cabinet.
And yes, it was included in my 50 Greatest Arcade Cabinets article.

It looked soooooo nice when night fell. That just might be the greatest arcade marquee ever.

Another game I had never played before, Omega Race was a lot of fun and quickly became hard as hell.
I highly recommend trying it out if you can track it down.

Homemade Pac-Man white chocolate lollipops.

Kong... you so crazy!

The game gavel raffle table was ripe with nifty prizes once again. But wait, what's that I see?

ALF STICKERS! What classic gaming enthusiast wouldn't want a box of vintage ALF trading cards and stickers??

Some more old carts and random handheld games.

I didn't win the Ms. Pac-Man board game, but I did win the regular Pac-Man one.
Looking forward to trying that one out, pending I don't lose any of the THOUSAND marbles it seemingly comes with.

An old computer numbers game rests behind some PC classics: Battle Chess II, Life & Death, and Leisure Suit Larry!

In addition to some I-Mockery pixel posters, they also had an Intellivoice in the mix.

Some of the bigger prizes from that night were a sealed Dreamcast, a mobile Sega Genesis unit and two VG Pocket systems. By the time the raffled concluded, myself and Dr. Boogie each walked away with one of those pocket systems.
Pretty decent lil' units and the games totally ripped a bunch of sounds from classic NES titles such as Contra.

I love me some Intellivision, and the old box artwork for the games is one of the many reasons why.

A ColecoVision system with a 128-in-1 cartridge.

One of the absolute greatest and most unsung classic gaming consoles - The Vectrex!

A miniature TRON tabletop game by Tomy. The arcade game is better, but this thing is still pretty entertaining.

Games, games, games...

Inter Stellar Laser Fantasy.
It looked interesting at first and reminded me of Space Harrier, but the controls were pretty awful, so I stuck with TRON.

Turkey Shoot. This is without a doubt the LOUDEST game there.
It makes a crazy mechanical clanking sound any time you fire the gun, but sometimes real feathers pop up
from inside the machine, so that at least makes it worth suffering through the deafening gun noises.

For the second event in a row, that Atari Crystal Castles cabinet wasn't working.
Time to swap it out for another game, guys.

Before you had 4-player Ninja Turtle games, there was Warlords! Such an addictive game that should be in every arcade.

It's true. I saw a pickle murder somebody for bringing their soda over near the arcade cabinets.

Can't go wrong with these classics.

Or these...

Or these...

Or these...

I love Mad Planets. It's a great game and it would've been fun to play again this time if the firing trigger was working.
Kinda hard to play the game without that little feature.

Cliff Hanger will easily take care of all your hot pink arcade cabinet needs.

Tank II. Another really old one and it's a bit hard to control, but still amusing when
you continuously fire at your opponent while he struggles just to turn his tank around.

Warrior was another game I hadn't played before.

Basically, you play as two warriors (crazy, right?) who have sword fights on stairs while trying to avoid being knocked down into pits. Definitely one of the stranger vector graphic games I've played. Glad I had a chance to give it a try.

I was pretty bad at Cosmic Chasm. I'd make it to the end of the first level, but could not escape before it detonated.
Very cool game concept though.

A Virtual Boy complete with a molded case! A really nice find for sure, but $120 was wayyy too pricey for something like that.
After all, this is the system capable of blinding a person.

I think somebody needs to combine "Shark Attack" and "Strawberry Shortcake"
to make the most satisfying gaming experience ever.

More Nintendo goodness, including the Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES.

Rated M for Mature.

I was really hoping they'd let us beat the Mario piñata, but it never happened.

Some very nice system mods including a Neo Geo and a Sega Genesis with a switch that changes it from PAL to NTSC.

Despite all the rare classics on hand, there are always a few people who just want to play Rock Band.

Gotta love those crazy bootleg combo carts. I'm sure the nude lady helped sell that blue one eventually.

Shiny Nintendo award stickers, Giant Garbage Pail Kids stickers, Nintendo standees and classic boxed NES games.

I'm a sucker for R.O.B. the robot. At only two bux, that was one hell of a deal I wasn't about to pass up.

Journey!

For the first time ever at SC3, a table top filled with... table tops! One guy actually
had them all custom wired together and feeding off a single power source!

The traditional SC3 cake with classic video game artwork reads:
"SC3: Where a cranky adult can be a kid."

And that pretty much wraps it up for my pics of the April 2010 SC3 party. The warm glow of all those classic arcade cabinets will always be a welcome one to me and I hope you enjoyed all the photos!

Have any questions or comments about this piece?
Email -RoG-