E3 99: Kenn's First Day

The Electronics Entertainment Exposition has always had a history with the FiringSquad crew. E3 1997 was the home of Mplayer's Red Annihilation Ferrari Tournament Finals, where Dennis eventually won first place, and John Carmack's Ferrari to go with it. The next year, E3 1998 was the host of TEN's PGL Season 2 Finals, where the top of the Quake II and Total Annihilation elite fought for the league championship. Both of these previous expos were held in balmy Atlanta, Georgia, and the show always felt like a reward after the cross-country flight.

Close Quarters

This year, E3 is being held in Sunny Los Angeles, California. Besides being several thousand miles closer to our collective homes, the PC and console sections are separated, it would be much easier to keep the heathen throngs from the true gamers (depending on which camp you hail from, of course).

Hoping to save a few bucks, we decided to drive down to LA from Berkeley. 350 miles well-spend on a five to six hour drive down south. The Northern/Southern California is a common one in both directions, and if we didn't have to pick up Wayne "soso" Chiang, we would have been home free. Unfortunately, due to a spiraling string of circumstance, we ended up taking the long way down. Ugh.

Day 1

The Expo began yesterday on Thursday, May 13. The first day us traditionally the most harried and disorganized, and this year proved no exception. Dennis was going to be holed up in the Activision booth for Quake 3 Arena, and Bob, Wayne, and I hurriedly learned the lay of the land in order to reach our meetings on time.

E3 madness and mayhem