I’ve done most of the prep work for (what was to be) this week’s show, but between recovering from my trip, adjusting to two time changes, and spring allergies I haven’t quite found the oomph to finish it off. I should be able to record this weekend, which means it should be up by Tuesday.

To satisfy your need for vintage games until then, I’ll point you to the latest episode of my friend Jason’s podcast, Random Signal, where he spends part of the time reviewing the Schmidt Spiele/Parker Brothers game Survive!/Escape from Atlantis.

More from the Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California. This covers the remainder of the conference, focusing mainly on the MMBG I mentioned earlier and the game developer’s rant. As before, it’s presented raw and wrrrriggling.

Update: added pictures to my Flickr account.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week I’m at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California. Schmoozing and learning are on the schedule this week (yes, in that order), but I’m taking a little time out to do a few podcasts. This one is mainly about the first three and half days of the conference. There is a little content here for vintage console game players (in the the Nintento talk).

A few caveats: I would have pictures, but apparently the drivers for my camera didn’t end up on this laptop, so I’ll upload those later. And I recorded this one outside using a small hand-held mic and an iRiver, so audio quality will be a bit different than normal as well. And no editing — just me in all my raw glory.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

As I was listening to music today I realized that I missed an opportunity to play one of my favorite songs of recent times, so I’ve sneaked in and added to the end of the file. If you’ve already downloaded, I’d encourage you to go to Jonathan Coulton’s site and listen to Skullcrusher Mountain. And if you like it, drop him a dollar. He’s worth it.

Many of you have probably already seen this, but Joe Scoleri (The Maverick) put up a BGG geeklist on Sunday which points to a series of geeklists on old wargames and collectible games. Yet another set of lists for me to draw from (besides the old Games 100s). Good stuff.

I’ve already ordered a German copy of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Hopefully the English conversion will be smooth.

Just a quick [formerly audio] note to say there’s no show this week — I should have something up next week, though, and it will be about Diplomacy.

For those who are curious about the sound quality on this one, I was trying out a new mic so I can take the show on the road. Needless to say, it won’t be with that one.

[Edited to remove enclosure – new listeners don’t care, I’m sure, and it frees up a slot for a real show.]

Since I covered the Games 100 list in my introductory podcast, I thought I’d point people to this. Stephen Roney has posted a Geeklist on Boardgamegeek, consisting of entries from the original Games 100 list in 1980. The rating spread is quite broad: Monopoly and Parcheesi at the bottom, to Go and Acquire at the top.

Across the Board: Around the World in 18 Games is an exhibit sponsored by the British Museum that is currently touring Great Britain. Being shown are artifacts of such ancient games as Senet, Nine Man’s Morris, and Ur, as well as the Lewis Chessmen. If you click on the Games link, you can actually play the first three online as well.

It doesn’t sound as extensive as the Asian Games exhibit that was in Washington, D.C. last spring (missed it, alas), but it might be worth the trip if you happen to be close by one of the stops. And it sounds like a lot of the artifacts are from the main collection of the British Museum, so I suspect that if you were to go there after the tour is over you could see them there, albeit spread through the various halls.

[Edited for clarity]

It was my full intent to get a new podcast up tonight, but two things happened. The first is that after looking at some of the games I planned to talk about I realized that I could really only recommend 1 of the 4, and that one only with some reservations. I may bring them back later but only when this podcast is a little more established. The second is that after planning a new one, I spent most of the afternoon sleeping instead of recording (I have the day off from work today). So tomorrow hopefully, Wednesday at the latest.

In other news, I had a great time Saturday at PodcasterCon 2006. I ran into a lot of people that I had met previously at Dragon*Con: Patrick McLean of The Seanachai, Derek and Swoopy of Skepticality, and Steve Eley of Escape Pod. I also met a lot of new people: Rob Walch of Podcast 411, Dave Warner of Dave’s Lounge, Madge Weinstein of Yeast Radio, John Ong of Ongline, Rich Sigfrit and Davey Beauchamp of Requiem of the Outcast and Mister Adventure, George Smith of Eclectic Mix, Anne Bramley of EatFeed, Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway of the Balticon Podcast and the ADD Cast, Jason Erik Lundberg with Lies and Little Deaths and finally, John and Elizabeth Edwards with their One America Committee podcast. A big thank you to Brian Russell (of Audio Activism) for setting this up — it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to hobnob with other people in the hobby/industry/whatever this is.