Updates
Events
Reviews
August 2007
Seattle, WA
All we want to do is eat your brains!
Like a bookend on the other side of summer vacation, the Penny Arcade Expo marks one of our favorite times of the year. PAX ushers in three days of extravagance and indulgence into our favorite pastime (gaming!), and an avalanche of great new titles, and a flood of fellow gamers to celebrate with.
The Expo (or, PAX as it is called by fans) marked ASTRO Gaming's first public debut of the A40 Audio System. We fielded a grand total of eight A40 Mixer/Amps operating in tandem in our four-versus-four Shadowrun demo of the A40's voice and surround technologies. Show goers put the 5.1 Dolby Digital surround enabled mixers to the test while strategizing with their teammates on the high-quality integrated voice comm channel.
One lucky person also won a free Toshiba X205 gaming laptop. If you entered our free drawing at the show, be sure to check the front page of the ASTRO Gaming website to see if you won a new computer!
An additional computer system was also available for a Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 demo that showed off the advantages of 5.1 Dolby Surround in single player games, and also revealed the latest beta-version of the A40 Headset -- a deadly combo, indeed.
If you've never been to the Penny Arcade Expo before, rest assured that it isn't all just exhibition games and hardware -- a full plate of activities awaits every show attendee. There are tournaments of all kinds to satisfy nearly every type of gamer: portable, tabletop, PC, and console game contests for casual and serious contenders alike (ASTRO Gaming's own Josh "Stormy" LaTendresse captained Team Effing Huge to a 2nd place finish in the Battlefield 2 PC tourney).
In addition to the widely varied tournaments, gamers held their PSP's and DS Lites aloft to nerdcore music acts such as the 579th best rapper in the world (MC Frontalot), hilarious geek/folk guitarist Jonathon Coulton, and the indomitable, hard rocking Minibosses.
The 'Bosses had a triumphant reprise during the opening act of the final round of the Omegathon, laying down an epic hardcore electric guitar version of what seemed like a very familiar soundtrack. The Omegathon is a ten game gauntlet comprised of 20 randomly selected PAX attendees played throughout the weekend. The Omegathon kicked off Friday night with a very tense game of Jenga, and the field of 20 was continually whittled down throughout the weekend until only two Omeganauts remained.
The final Omegathon game is always a closely guarded secret, unveiled only moments before the game is played. Usually reserved for a console classic, this year's final took a wildly different approach but did NOT disappoint -- a never-before-seen multiplayer map of Halo 3. The wild one-vs-one action was punctuated with the clanks and detonations of previously unknown weapons -- and the groans and cheers of 10,000 screaming onlookers. The tension could be cut with an Energy Sword -- the grand prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to the Tokyo Game Show for two, plus $5,000 walking around money.
Special thanks to Dolby for helping us kick off the first A40 Mixer/Amp exhibition at PAX, and to Toshiba for providing their awesome new X205 gaming laptop systems for use in our console-versus-PC head-to-head grudge match. Thanks especially to all the attendees who stopped by and played with us; to Gabe, Tycho, Khoo, Amber, the [Enforcers], and Grand Moff Fehlauer's fine hospitality; and finally to Porkfry, Team Effing Huge, and the Red Vs. Blue guys for keeping us entertained during the long show hours.
Can't wait for the sequel -- see you all next year!
Like a bookend on the other side of summer vacation, the Penny Arcade Expo marks one of our favorite times of the year. PAX ushers in three days of extravagance and indulgence into our favorite pastime (gaming!), and an avalanche of great new titles, and a flood of fellow gamers to celebrate with.
The Expo (or, PAX as it is called by fans) marked ASTRO Gaming's first public debut of the A40 Audio System. We fielded a grand total of eight A40 Mixer/Amps operating in tandem in our four-versus-four Shadowrun demo of the A40's voice and surround technologies. Show goers put the 5.1 Dolby Digital surround enabled mixers to the test while strategizing with their teammates on the high-quality integrated voice comm channel.
One lucky person also won a free Toshiba X205 gaming laptop. If you entered our free drawing at the show, be sure to check the front page of the ASTRO Gaming website to see if you won a new computer!
An additional computer system was also available for a Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 demo that showed off the advantages of 5.1 Dolby Surround in single player games, and also revealed the latest beta-version of the A40 Headset -- a deadly combo, indeed.
If you've never been to the Penny Arcade Expo before, rest assured that it isn't all just exhibition games and hardware -- a full plate of activities awaits every show attendee. There are tournaments of all kinds to satisfy nearly every type of gamer: portable, tabletop, PC, and console game contests for casual and serious contenders alike (ASTRO Gaming's own Josh "Stormy" LaTendresse captained Team Effing Huge to a 2nd place finish in the Battlefield 2 PC tourney).
In addition to the widely varied tournaments, gamers held their PSP's and DS Lites aloft to nerdcore music acts such as the 579th best rapper in the world (MC Frontalot), hilarious geek/folk guitarist Jonathon Coulton, and the indomitable, hard rocking Minibosses.
The 'Bosses had a triumphant reprise during the opening act of the final round of the Omegathon, laying down an epic hardcore electric guitar version of what seemed like a very familiar soundtrack. The Omegathon is a ten game gauntlet comprised of 20 randomly selected PAX attendees played throughout the weekend. The Omegathon kicked off Friday night with a very tense game of Jenga, and the field of 20 was continually whittled down throughout the weekend until only two Omeganauts remained.
The final Omegathon game is always a closely guarded secret, unveiled only moments before the game is played. Usually reserved for a console classic, this year's final took a wildly different approach but did NOT disappoint -- a never-before-seen multiplayer map of Halo 3. The wild one-vs-one action was punctuated with the clanks and detonations of previously unknown weapons -- and the groans and cheers of 10,000 screaming onlookers. The tension could be cut with an Energy Sword -- the grand prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to the Tokyo Game Show for two, plus $5,000 walking around money.
Special thanks to Dolby for helping us kick off the first A40 Mixer/Amp exhibition at PAX, and to Toshiba for providing their awesome new X205 gaming laptop systems for use in our console-versus-PC head-to-head grudge match. Thanks especially to all the attendees who stopped by and played with us; to Gabe, Tycho, Khoo, Amber, the [Enforcers], and Grand Moff Fehlauer's fine hospitality; and finally to Porkfry, Team Effing Huge, and the Red Vs. Blue guys for keeping us entertained during the long show hours.
Can't wait for the sequel -- see you all next year!