James McGovern, Sunday, 01 October 2006
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Otronicon 2006 - Exclusive Pictures! Commentary, Pictures, and Video by Mike Quinlan The Ultimate Video Game Experience exposition in Orlando Florida dubbed, "Otronicon" is nearly over. If you won't be heading out to see the displays, RetroBlast reader Mike Quinlan has your fix. Mike was kind enough to supply these videos and pictures for the RetroBlast readers to enjoy. Inside you will find a projection racing simulator, interactive projected displays, and a host of classic arcade games and console systems. Many of the machines featured are part of the Videotopia traveling arcade and video game museum. It is great to see that display in the images below as the folks at Videotopia really set the stage for a faithful recreation of the 80's arcade experience. Sadly though, I have heard this time around it may have been too faithful as many machines were inoperable for at least some of the show. Ahh..such was life. Without further ramblings, on to the images! -James McGovern Videos Avi's will open in new window | Computer space wasn't working. Someone broke the coin acceptor so it was just running a demo. The ships moving around are enemy ships. When the game is playing, it has a rocket that you can rotate, thrust and fire at the enemy ships. | | Mini-Dome Immersive F1 Racing Simulator Powered by Alienware computer systems. | | The interactive display is projected from the ceiling. There's also a camera in the ceiling that detects people and alters the image accordingly. There were too many people on the display to really see it working well. If you look close at the water, it ripples where the kids step on it. I removed the sound track on that clip too because there was a women yelling at my son telling him to get off the floor. |
Videotopia and Other Exhibition Photos Click the image below in order to open a sideshow in a new window. 
It was kinda sad, when I went back on Sunday, many of the arcade machines were broken. I'd say more than half had signs on them saying they were not working. I have annual passes to the Science Center so we got to see a preview of the show on Thursday. Thursday most machines were working. By Sunday many were dead. Panoramic Photograph of the Videotopia Display

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