Summer of Sonic 2010

Haha, that was some furious Pac-Man session, huh? I don't think anybody noticed, hahaha.

 

Never had so much fun in all my life. Was so much fun going to SoS and meeting some of the Retro-ers. ^^

 

I love this. This is hilarious. "Oh the whole thing was totally shit but I'll still sponge you for free gigs and games and merchandise next year."

Yeeeeeeaaaaah. I'd just rather you didn't bother coming, dude. I don't make it my mission to bust my arse to try and satisfy ungrateful tossers.

 

Hey, I'm not actually complaining. I did have a great time and I thought the last part of wording made that clear. I was just being a "Sonic fan" and pointing out all the negatives. It wasn't organised too well, and other bad points I mentioned... but it was still definitely worth going to. Sorry you misinterpreted me.

EDIT: In fact, I'm going to go back and edit that post to make it a lot clearer, because I just read it again and I'm ashamed.

 

You did manage to get back then, Dread. Good to see.

 

Well, I feel like an idiot. Sorry mate - I've been feeling a bit weird this morning on account of the fact that I have seen some messages from people that are truly ungrateful. My sincerest apologies - I know if you go to an event you enjoy, it can be easier to just label things that didn't work out so well and such. I guess I'm just passionate about people enjoying themselves, and if they don't I want to know why. And if the reasons aren't really valid, or they sound a bit "Well I expected THIS" then I get a little passionate myself. No hard feelings.

I was in the middle of writing this actually - a sort of behind-the-scenes viewpoint explaining exactly why shit went down with the queues and heat and whatnot (don't worry, despite the tone of your original post you made some very valid criticisms that I agree with, have noted in big black marker and making sure it won't happen again next year) I'll just finish it and put it here.

Thanks for coming and enjoying the event, or at least make the most of the heat and such. We had all sorts of problems with the venue the moment we arrived on Friday to set up. Things that never reared their heads when we visited it back in May. For a start, when we arrived all the junk and crap that we didn't need from other events were still lying around - had to wait until the venue people had finished putting shit in their vans before we could start work on the floorplan.

Then you had sound technicians that didn't turn up, or actually fucked off halfway through C40's set to stand in the fucking audience (FYI, that's why the sound levels dipped round about All Hail Shadow and then rose dramatically shortly afterwards - the dickhead left his station. Funny when volunteers who aren't being paid can do a better fucking job than the professionals).

Add in some blatant thievery - Roareye's tech equipment went 'missing' the Saturday morning, which is why we opened late (as well as catering for Nintendo, who inexplicably contacted AAUK on the Friday and expected us to jump over a million hoops to satisfy their camera crew). At 10.30am, when we should have been opening doors, I was desperately trying to work internet sharing on my Mac to a netbook (the venue's internet connection was, in actual fact, total shit - amazing we even managed to get video online at all) across the hall because wireless connection direct to the venue's office router was so weak that we kept getting thrown off. I was doing this, while the sound guy finally woke up (!!!) to help C40 sound check, Nintendo wanted to use a huge ladder to set up a camera to the fucking ceiling (at 10.30!?) and the venue manager asked me to cut the actual allowance of people to 500 (you can imagine my rather rude and frustrated response to that idea - if we're paying for 1000 people space, we expect to use it).

So yeah, apologies that we opened late. Because of this, the actual stage schedule fell out of kilter, and we never really recovered. There was nobody manning Colours and 4 - this is a valid criticism, something to take on board (along with the heat, although to add insult to injury we were actually told that the venue had air conditioning). The worst point of the day for me in fact came when I had to stop the queue for Crush 40 signings. If I was just a cold-hearted member of venue staff with no affiliation at all, it wouldn't have been an issue, but being a huge Sonic fan myself (obviously) and seeing people just in front of me beg for a photo... cutting stuff, dude.

Anyway, I've seen some real positive comments, some real valid points of criticism (queues, air con, signings) and some quite frankly bullshit-mental negativity (comics are too expensive, no wheelchair access [er, ever look to the side of the venue at all?], the expectation of free refreshments when there are a million corner shops outside and your ticket would have got you back in [I even announced this twice on stage] and moaning about not being able to buy MERCHANDISE WE ACTUALLY OWN from the cabinets [like, seriously? Piss off - you're not buying my 10th Anniv 'bling ring']).

The most important feedback to me, naturally are the valid comments on things that could be improved. But not in the way that is ungrateful for the fact that you just got handed a free gig, like some people have been doing. We could have easily charged £40+ for a ticket anyway, but we didn't. Because the point of Summer of Sonic wasn't to play Sonic 4, and it wasn't to play Sonic Colours. These things, while awesome, are simply there to help provide entertainment and added atmosphere for the real reason - to meet new friends and fellow Sonic fans.

I managed to say hello to a good few Retro peeps on Saturday, all of them awesome people (and I never even noticed that someone tried to get a photo of OL. That man has some ninja defence skills). DD, I don't know if I met you, but I hope not to miss you next time. It was great to see that some of you guys that turned up enjoyed the company of fellow forum buddies as well. That's what makes it worth it for me, that you guys are able to congregate in one place and geek out to Sonic and shit. If it wouldn't make a difference to attendance rates, I would have just had Summer of Sonic 2010 be an empty bloody hall and told you all to 'talk amongst yourselves.' But alas, lol.

Anyway, glad to hear you had a blast, hopefully this has provided some insight to stuff. So many things went wrong, but I think the motto for this year's SoS was 'victory in the face of adversity,' lol.

I did, only just. XD

 

Nah, sorry, it was my fault. I didn't tone my post very well at all. I thought the "definitely going next year" thing would show that I actually did enjoy it, but I didn't put enough emphasis on it.

Yeah, Overlord can turn his head so quickly that even if you do get a shot of his face, it'll be so blurred you can't recognise him. I was definitely there, and you definitely met me, but I spent most of my time with the rest of the Retro gang.

Sounds like a lot of things went wrong; hopefully you'll have better luck next year.

 

Personally, both myself and the missus thought the comics were fucking cheap! Especially if you're buying the rarest ones, for at most £6.
Anyway, I'm very happy with how everything went! I think you did a great job Dreadknux, considering all of the setbacks you had. Well done. =3

 

That's fucking horrible Dreadknux. Hopefully you get decent A/V people for next year's event if that happens, along with a venue with a stable internet connection. =P

 

Wow. Reading all the crap that went wrong/weird behind the scenes only serves to make SoS '10 even MORE impressive. XD

It was good to meet you Dreadknux, even if it was for 30 seconds as I was on my way out of the door (Sadly before C40's set, but buses sadly won't wait for us XD)

 

Blessing in disguise.

I must also voice my lament regarding all of the missed opportunities with Jun. Someone could've asked him what he was thinking when he decided to resurrect that boss tune. They could've pointed him in the direction of one of the myriad Genesis synth substitutes as I'd suggested. Better yet, they could've shown him Crackers again, but with a camera present this time. I hear it's a sight to behold.

 

Ohh yeah, I got a pic of OL.



I think this album should be viewable to everyone also: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4743...5366&ref=mf

 

SoS'10 - where I got crapped on by a pigeon and played a NGPC link game!

Seriously though, the event was absolutely fantastic. Obviously the queues and heat were an issue (particularly the former, as I made pretty clear), but I still walked out of the hall with a smile on my face having had a great time. It's a credit to the staff that things worked as well as they did, and I can totally appreciate the effort you guys went to in order to pull all this together. My job has shown me that it's hard enough to run a show for a hundred people in a purpose-built facility, let alone something as ambitious as SoS was this year.

I can definitely agree on the high points - the games, the people and Crush 40 (haters can piss off, that free performance was easily better than some bands I've paid to see). Also: the free stuff was genuinely awesome. It's possibly the only event I've been to which has come close to the level of goodies given away at the Playstation Experience show back in 2003 (the genesis of the Cult:UK events that led to Retro meets). All credit for securing it, I don't know how you guys managed.

The only contrary thing I'll say is about the disabled access. It definitely was there and would usually be adequate, but the tight spacing ensured that I inadvertently became an obstacle to access at times. I reckon it could definitely be solved without too much fuss, though.

Guys, it was awesome to see you all, new and old friends alike. The drunken fun of the afterparty is totally why you should come to the next barcade run! That, and arcade games of many. Do it!

 

Wish I actually visited here bfore I went to SoS. Could have bumped into a lot more people from Retro than I thought... well I'll be going to SOS 2011 with some really big plans! If anyone planning on going again, I'll be sure to give you a good old Liverpool slap on the arse and what not...

But I thought it was a really good event! It's the first con sort of thingy I've ever been too. The big problem was the heat. That was a disgrace... I felt so ill from it

I was also sitting with a couple of people who would't leave me alone but I won;t go into it lol <3

 

Man, internet connectiong sharing on OS X is so annoying, it's seriously like 4 clicks on windows.

 

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I'm posting here. Re: Overlord:

I enjoyed your write ups on both Sonic colors and Sonic 4. I think they're well written and I appreciate you taking the time to try both kinds of play styles in Sonic 4 specifically. One question I have is about Sonic colors - I've heard there is confusion about how to rail switch on the GCN controller. Someone said power ups was mapped to the triggers, but you said it's mapped to Z. So am I right to assume the left trigger makes you switch left and the right trigger switches right, and Z activates them? Or is there a different mechanic at work?

Also, maybe I missed it, but how do you drift with the GCN controller in colors? How did it feel compared to the 360 version of unleashed?