We had a great episode on Anamanaguchi earlier but our entire interview (which ran about 20 minutes) was so interesting we wanted to release the entire thing uncut. So here it is. There’s some great insight in to how they make their music, what’s compelling about the chiptune scene, what Anamanaguchi means, and the stage graphics they use in every show.

The only disappointing thing about the entire night was that I don’t think our episode can really convey how cool their live show is. If you could crawl in to a game of Megaman and have a dance party there, that’s what it’s like to watch them perform.

We had the really cool oportunity to meet Anamanaguchi during their record release show in Brooklyn. They were promoting their recently released album Dawn Metropolis. The entire interview was really great and about 20 minutes long so we’ll be putting it up on the blog over the course of the next week. I’ve really wanted to meet these guys since they tore the place down at PAX last summer.

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David did an outstanding job as our host for the New York Comic Con and we are all really happy to have him on board. He has the terrific ability to get people talking about the things they are passionate about, which comes in handy at a website about geek culture. The only problem is we can’t get half of the great stuff David does in to the time limited Geektro episodes. Fortunately, we compiled a few of them in this video. Enjoy!

I know almost nothing about Magic the Gathering. I played a few times in the seventh grade but once I was beat by the same guy seven times in a row, I gave my cards to another kid and gave up. I think he was cheating. How one cheats at magic, I’m not sure but I definitely think he was cheating.

Whether it was a lightsaber or a scabbard or in my case, a broomstick, no young boy (and some girls) ever got through childhood without playing some version of swords with your friends. The only difference between you and the members in NY Jedi is they never stopped. NY Jedi is a group of performers that combine martial arts, stage fighting and a lightsaber to recreate the coolest imagined fights of your childhood.

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My friend Omer has played Dungeons & Dragons going back a long ways. The way he describes 4.0 is that they took the some of the traditional role playing elements from D&D and revamped the combat system to be similar to popular MMORPGs. The WoWization of Dungeons & Dragons. I certainly understand why some of the more traditional players would be turned off by this and continue to play traditional 3.5. But I’ve never played before 4.0 and now, I can’t stop.
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Everyone has played Jenga, but very few people have played Jenga in front of a room of two hundred people. This event was, by far, the most intense of the tournament, perhaps the most intense table top game of anything I’ve ever seen. The first match, Joey Geko v. Amandl went on for almost a half hour. I was so sure the match would end at the twenty minute mark I lost $20 in a bet. At times it seemed that even by getting close to the table the game was on would topple the tower. And yet it kept growing.

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The Omegathon is an interesting competition in that, no one, even the creators of the event, think that surviving round after round makes you the best gamer. There is a lot of random chance in the competition that make the outcome of game difficult to determine. As Tycho explained, the competition is like a reality television show that tortures its contestants, nothing is proved and much fun is had.

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Last year we traveled to Seattle to catch the world’s greatest gaming convention, the Penny Arcade Expo. In addition to being held in a really awesome town, PAX had an amazing vibe from top to bottom and we couldn’t be happier with the experience we had there. We spent most of our time covering the Omegathon and while there were definite draw backs (the events were scheduled at some of the least convenient times and in least convenient locations) it was definitely worth it to watch the event unfold from beginning to end.

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