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Kong Off Brisbane Trip


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My son and I headed up to Brisbane last Friday to check out Kong Off 2 and Supernova.

 

I've really been looking forward to this weekend for a while. I knew the DK was going to be a bit of fun but I am only a casual player of this game and was happy to just drop a score in and then watch some of the DK masters. What I was most looking forward to was meeting some of the mates that I have come to know over the past few years both here on AA and on various other online forums.

 

And meet the mates I did!

 

@Barra was first on the meet and greet list, picking me up at the airport, a generous offer from a guy I haven't met. Barra and I have spent hours watching each other's games live on Twitch and have communicated online for years. This was no help to Barra at the airport entrance as I received a message from him - "I have no idea who I'm looking for". He didn't need to worry, it was pretty easy for me to find the guy in the Netherworld t-shirt with the big grin.

 

After getting to the hotel and getting checked in, my son headed off to Supernova and I met up with Barra who was now joined by Ethan (f-symbols) and Estel (DK_madness). These guys flew in from the USA for this event. I have watched a lot of live gameplay of these guys on Twitch and it was great to meet them.

 

We grabbed a car and went to check out Pincadia. This still hasn't reopened but we were given a private session and were given a look around by Tanya and had a few games on the pins and arcades. Tanya was really friendly and obviously enthusiastic about the collection. This looks like a great place to enjoy a few beers and have a few games.

 

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From here we headed out to Newstead Brewing Co for a brewery tour and to try a couple of beers. I have already worked out that Barra really likes his beer and is keen to try as many different varieties as possible. We met up with a few more mates here and enjoyed a cold one before the tour.

 

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The tour must have been thirsty work for some as it required us to sit down again at the end and enjoy a couple more coldies. I was able to match up some more online user names with real people and here I met Gerry @djflask , Johnny @Fliplismc, Adam and Kibbey. I soon discovered that it is pretty easy to find Gerry anywhere, you just have to wait and few moments and listen for some to call 'Geeeeerrrrryyyyyyyy'. He seems to be pretty well known and that call just follows him around.

 

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It was time to head back to Netherworld. I hadn't had a look in here yet other than what I had seen on live streams online I have watched, mostly hosted by @Jimmy Nails.

 

Wow! What a great place. A large selection of beers on tap, good food and games and pins all around.

 

I met Allen (muscleandfitness) and his son Ky. I was surprised that Allen wasn't in a rage beating up one of the DK machines as he seems to do everyday online, he is much calmer in person. The event poster listed Allen as 'Worldwide DK Royalty' and it is easy to see why, he is known by everyone and is clearly passionate about DK.

 

Netherworld have some really cool pins (I mean actual pins, not pinball machines) that you can collect by achieving target scores that have set on different games. The games change regularly and there have been a lot of pins to collect. I managed to collect a few of the current ones.

 

BurgerTime

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Tapper

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Total Nuclear Annihilation pinball

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Crazy Taxi (my son got this one)

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Johnny was keen to get the BurgerTime pin and went through a few credits aiming for it. This game is a favourite of mine so I enjoyed watching him progress. It is very cool watching Johnny play any game. He really gets into whatever he is playing, there is a lot of movement and jumping around and he is very vocal when things go good or bad. I was happy for him when he found me later in the night and told me he had the pin.

 

I was not surprised to see Barra playing Tapper. Who wouldn't want to pull a few beers and win a pin. We discussed some strats for extra points and he put them into practice very well, winning himself the Tapper beer pin.

 

I spent the night playing games, watching games, talking about games and enjoying a few beers. My son found a Virtual Reality place a few doors up the street and spent some time there. Good times!

 

Saturday was qualifying day. I got in reasonably early to set a score. The DK cabs looked great set up together and the stage was set up nicely with the commentary area and merch for sale. The posters, t-shirts and marquees looked great.

 

I bombed out quickly on my first couple of games and then submitted a score just over 200K. I then watched a lot of skilled gameplay with Ethan scoring 848K and just missing a kill screen and Allen putting a 722K. There were plenty of other big scores put up throughout the day.

 

I spent the day watching and chatting and meeting a few other AA members and others. It was good to meet you John @John73 Shane @Mameshane Sean @outrun86 Rob @RMacauley Dave @zanderzone Jon @Tanna94 @shiner

 

I decided to go and visit 1up arcade in the afternoon to put a big score up on Mr. Do! I did not find this experience very enjoyable. I was never going to challenge the world record of 30 million. I was ready to smash the 1up record of around 50K.

As most people know, I love the game and in recent weeks pushed my PB to 1.6 million and then further to over 2 million.

The first thing I noticed was how awful the screen looked. The colour was terrible and the screen image was squashed on the right hand side. The monitor was too big and had the top of the screen cut off. The worst part was the colour was so washed out at the top of the screen that it was difficult to tell when you had highlighted a letter in the extra box.

It was ok for an observer to see but not good enough for high level play when you must know in an instant what letters you need.

 

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I mentioned this to a staff member and his response was 'Do you know how much these monitors cost?'. I told him I did not. He then asked 'Do you know how hard it is to find these monitors?'. Again, I told him I did not but I was just pointing out to him that if you promote yourself as a place to set records then you should have equipment that gives that opportunity.

I played around 10 games and did not score over 400K. I think this a reflection of the cabinet quality rather than ability.

 

I asked if I could get my name on the cab for the high score (all cabs have cards on them listing the high score). When I asked for bigredbird to be the name listed he refused stating they only put real names. I explained that nobody knows my real name and it would be great if he could put bigredbird because I knew some of you guys would recognise it. He responded that if he allowed that then the next person would want to be 'pink unicorn' or something.

In the end I told him not to worry about the high score and just leave it at the 50K where it is. Personally, I don't see why someone can't be recognised for who they want to be. When I see 'John73' 'Barra' 'OOO' or 'Tan' on the Netherworld scoreboard I know exactly who they are, and if someone didn't, what would it matter?

 

Anyway, I left there disappointed that I didn't leave the million plus score I had planned.

 

My disappointment didn't last long when I arrived back at Netherworld. The place was packed and full of energy and people having a great time. I met Rob @Pessimeister and was amazed at his knowledge of C64 gaming. I really enjoyed our chat and listening to him reel off trivia about the C64 and of the games that we both used to play back in the day.

My son arrived back from Supernova and we had a great night together playing pins and arcades.

 

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We took a bit of time out on Sunday and visited Movie World. My son rode all the rides and coasters and the highlight was the new DC Rivals Hypercoaster. This is the tallest, fasted, longest roller coaster in the Southern Hemisphere. At 1.4 kilometres long it gives a lot of thrills.

 

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I tuned into the live stream a few times throughout the day and watched the progress of the finals. A great effort from everyone and congratulations to Estel for the victory.

 

We called back in to Netherworld on the Monday morning to check out the set up for Jon's Space Invaders and Kibbeys Nibbler World Record attempts. These guys are so disciplined and show great endurance to perform at the level they do.

A few of the mates were in and we had a chat and a few games.

 

We had a few hours to kill before our flight home so we first headed out to Sliders Go Karts. You would think that with a name like 'Sliders' I would have guessed that this wouldn't be a normal karting experience. I didn't even notice as we were getting ready and into the carts that the track was not grippy asphalt but was in fact a very slippery, metallic type surface.

I was very surprised as I slid into and out of the first corner.

Driving these karts was great fun and a totally difference experience to the 'regular' karts you can drive. I have convinced myself that my son was able to beat me because of his extensive Mario Kart training and power sliding abilities. His best lap time was one tenth of second better than mine!

 

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From karts we went to Laserforce Laser Tag. This is the most high tech laser tag centre I have been to. The game modes and fun and the laser guns are far more advanced than I have seen anywhere else.

I even got to pick a big red bird for my armour.

 

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We headed back in to Netherworld to check in on the WR attempts and to say goodbye to the mates before it was time to head to the airport.

 

The highlight for me was being able to meet a few of you guys. I'm sure a met a few others from here on AA but can't remember any other names.

 

 

Good company, good gaming, cold beer, good times.

Overall we had a great weekend.

 

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Edited by bigredbird
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I can't believe I didn't really get a chance to have a good chat with you.. So many first time IRL meet and greets! I must have been too concerned with drinking and playing Kong... Sorry. [emoji28]

 

Great write up.

 

It was an amazing weekend.. So many great chats, great gaming and just all round good fun. Will be definitely putting in for a leave pass for next year ;)

 

Sent from my HTC 2PZC100 using Tapatalk

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