"Adventure" Fan Art

From Dale Crawford I recently received this:

"I have attached a photo I took of some items my son created after playing your iPhone app. We wanted toys, and there weren't any, so he made his own with Lego bricks!"




I love it! :-)

Happy Holidays everyone!

-Peter

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtimes (more air dates)

Jason Scott just send me a note pointing out additional airings of Chasing Ghosts. Yay! Big thanks to him!

If you read the actual Showtime Schedule, which includes ALL Showtime channels:

http://www.sho.com/site/sho/schedules/pdf/200812unlimited.pdf

It's actually on MUCH more. Here's the times:

December 3: 8:30am, Showtime Next
December 4: 7:30am, Showtime Showcase
December 6: 3:00am, Showtime Too
December 7: 12pm, Showtime Next
December 9: 12pm, Showtime Showcase
December 11: 2:30am, Showtime
December 11: 1:30pm, Showtime Next
December 13: 9:30am, Showtime Too
December 14: 12am, Showtime Too
December 15: 8:30pm, Showtime Too
December 16: 7:15am, Showtime Next
December 16: 3:30pm, Showtime Next
December 20: 3:40pm, Showtime Next
December 22: 12:00pm, Showtime Next
December 26: 11am, Showtime Too
December 28. 10:15am, Showtime Next
December 29: 12:30pm, Showtime Showcase

*****

I was also just informed that the screening on Dec. 11th at 2:30 in the AM will be in HD.

If you're going to Tivo it that would be the one to record!

*****

'Adventure' for iPhone / iPod Touch!

'Adventure' for the iPhone/iPod Touch is now available on the Apple App Store for free!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296563933

This is my first iPhone app (trust me, I plan others).

Enjoy!

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtime!

It's taken forever, but you will be able to watch the movie Chasing Ghosts on the Showtime channel in December. Yay!

They have the showtimes here:

http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?seriesid=0&episodeid=133953

For those that didn't hear me the other million times I reminded everyone - I worked on this movie. :-)

NOW GO WATCH IT!

August 23rd Benefit Game Day results!

Last weekend's Game Day was a MASSIVE success. I hope everyone had fun. I estimate that over 150 people were in attendance. It was definitely the biggest Game Day yet.

Thank you to all who donated. Thanks to you, over $3000 was raised to help with Shawn's medical expenses!

Here is the video!



I only got to shoot video when things were just getting started. The video doesn't show the full extent of how busy it really was!

The local TV station came out to do an interview. Unfortunately they didn't even mention the benefit. Ummm...huh??!



The "Luna" Bounce.



Here are some photos that were taken by others and sent to me:



And some others:

http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/mikemc3/Game%20Day%208-23/

http://www.documentone.ca/?p=324

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/lunacityarcade/

A huge thank you to the following people who provided crucial help during the event!

Fred and Darrian Stoki
Carl Haines and the extended Haines family
Jacob Rose
The Young Marines
The VFW (for loaning the tables and chairs)
Michael Verrechia
Sam Blackburn
Jim Talbot

Benefit Game Day - This Saturday, August 23rd

Game Day is just around the corner folks!

DATE & TIME:
August 23rd - 12:00pm - 8pm

EMAIL ME FOR THE ADDRESS AND DIRECTIONS

You can download the flyers for the event here! Please refer to the flyers for more details.

http://lunacityarcade.com/dl/Game_Day_Flyer_Aug23_2008_Page_1.pdf
and
http://lunacityarcade.com/dl/Game_Day_Flyer_Aug23_2008_Page_2.pdf

Toy Collector Magazine Article - "Game Not Over"

"A quarter keeps the fun going at Peter Hirschberg’s Luna City Arcade"

The August issue of Toy Collector Magazine has an interview with me about my arcade. Read the full article online here!

Toy Collector Magazine - "Game Not Over"

The article says I've been collecting for 6 years which is totally wrong. I've been collecting for around 20 years.

Visit from David "Auric" Hernly of Tron Sector

David "Auric" Hernly of tronsector.com paid a visit to Luna City Arcade yesterday.



It was a pleasure having you David! I know we could have chatted for days. :-)

Think Geek Game Day

Several weeks ago I hosted a private Game Day for the company staff of Think Geek. Everyone had a great time! A really nice group of people.



They even brought a cool custom-made poster for me that they all signed. [photo coming]

They recently started up a blog and here is their posting about their visit.

ThinkGeek Travels to Luna City Arcade

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

Greetings all. This Game Day is shaping up to be a big one! I've had many offers
from people to help out during the event (THANK YOU!). I will definitely be taking
you up on your offers. I'll need people to tend to the Moon Bounce, help out crediting
machines, coordinating the Chasing Ghosts movie showings, quarter collectors to
empty the machines out, etc. If you want to help, I can definitely find something
for you to do!

I've also been overwhelmed with emails, so I apologize if you asked me a specific
question and I haven't gotten back to you. It's just been more than I can handle.

Here's the current rough plan --

Saturday August 23rd
12:00 noon until 10pm

Over 60 vintage arcade games playable for free
Moon Bounce
All-day free screenings of Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
BBQ, Burgers, and Hot Dogs will be for sale, with food sales benefiting Young Marines Organization
Donations will be invited to benefit the medical expense fund of Shawn Haines (more info below)
~No donations will be accepted on-site for insurance reasons~

My friend has set up a website for Shawn.
Shawn's Battle Against Hodgkin's Disease
http://mysite.verizon.net/cshaines/shawn.htm
~Donating is invited but completely optional~

If you would like to attend and need the address, please send me a private email!

More details will be posted here as they become available

Arcade Tiles in France

My friend Dan emailed me these photos that he took while in France recently.

"These tiles were on buildings near the basilica Sacre-Cour in the Montmartre district of Paris."

Strange but cool!

More upcoming Game Day info

My friend put up a page about Shawn, who I'm doing the Benefit Game Day for in August. Here's his page:

Shawn's Page

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

I have settled on Saturday, August 23rd as the final date. I apologize to those who can't make this date!

The response has been, literally, overwhelming. Thank you to all who have replied. So far it looks like 200 people may be in attendance, with almost all of those wanting to see Chasing Ghosts. This is presenting some logistical problems, as I can't fit that many people where I was planning on showing the movie (the upstairs of the arcade). I'm working on several solutions, including giving out tickets to specific showings and thereby limiting the number of people at each screening, and also perhaps renting the theater in town to show the movie.

More details will follow shortly, but I wanted to get the final date out there.

UPCOMING GAME DAY

GAME DAY!

It's been a while since the last Game Day. I'm currently planning on having the next sometime in August. The dates I am looking at are August 16th, 23rd, or 30th. I will be sending out an annoucement when I settle on the exact day, but I wanted to give people a heads up.

This Game Day is going to hopefully be something extra special. First, I am planning on having this Game Day be a "benefit" Game Day. I am going to *suggest* that people donate something. Donating will of course not be mandatory. Those who know me or have been to previous Game Days know that I have never asked for *anything* in return. Here is a chance for me to do something good with the arcade. All donation proceeds will go to a Trust Fund for Shawn Haines, the son of some close friends of mine. He is currently undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's Disease Lymphoma. I am trying to set it up so that donations can be made directly into the Trust Fund. More info to follow.

As a special treat, I am also planning on showing the popular indie film Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade. This film made the festival circuit last year, including Sundance, the LA Film Festival, and also screened at the 2007 California Extreme event. Some of you may know that I worked on this movie, providing some graphics and computer animated sequences. I tentatively have plans to have the Producer of the film, Michael Verrechia, to attend and do a Q&A afterwards and I'm going to try and get some of the film's stars to attend. For those who have not yet seen this still-unreleased movie, here is another chance!

Snacks will be provided for free, and food will be for sale. We are doing a BBQ cookout at the event with all proceeds for the food sales going towards the local Young Marines organization.

Finally, we are investigating getting a Moon Bounce for the event.

And of course there will be arcade games! There have been some new additions to the collection since the last Game Day. I will also have a Vectrex console and an Atari 2600 console in operation in the party area for a change of pace.

The full list of games in the arcade is here:
http://lunacityarcade.com/games.htm

In order for me to start planning, please email the following questionnaire to mail@lunacityarcade.com within the next week or so.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
LUNA CITY ARCADE - AUGUST 2008 BENEFIT GAME DAY


NAME _____________________________

I WILL BE BRINGING _____ ADULTS AND _____ KIDS (just roughly estimate)

[_] THE BENEFIT IDEA IS NICE, I WILL TRY AND DONATE
[_] BENEFIT? DONATIONS? BAD IDEA.

[_] THE MOON BOUNCE IS A COOL IDEA
[_] NO MOON BOUNCE FOR ME, THANKS

[_] I WANT TO WATCH CHASING GHOSTS
[_] I AM NOT INTERESTED IN THE MOVIE
[_] I'll BE THERE FOR THE MOVIE ONLY

YOUR COMMENTS:



-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please return the questionnaire to me as soon as possible! I will be finalizing the exact date in August as soon as I can and will send that info along when I have it.

Linux Theme

Does anybody know offhand what Linux theme this is? I kind of like it.

Lost & Found

I found this in the gameroom yesterday while straightening up. It's about 3" across and has a clip on the back. It looks like it probably lights up.

Anybody know who this belongs to?

Battlezone trivia article that mentions me

I thought this was a little bit odd (but still flattering). I found a cool trivia article on Battlezone, and one of the trivia items mentions me and my Battlezone animation.



Check out the article here:
"It's 1980, And You're Commanding A Tank On Another Planet"

I am mentioned in the last trivia bullet.

Virtual Luna City Arcade 3D model

"Spanner" has been working on creating a 3D model of Luna City Arcade for 3D Arcade (a MAME front-end that lets you walk around in virtual space and select games by walking up to them)



Pretty freaky isn't it? :-)

Here's his work-in-progress posting with lots more pictures...

http://echo.messageboard.nl/2243/viewtopic.php?p=21767#21767

Radio Interview is up!

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/04/episode_32_april_9_12_2008.html

Radio Interview

I've been told the radio interview recorded Sunday before last will be aired this Wednesday. They have a posting about it already:

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/04/welcome_to_the_luna_city_arcad.html

Additional stations will most likely follow, but more details to follow...

Adventure: Revisited on Youtube

It's always thrilling to me whenever I find stuff like this. Here's a Youtube video that somebody posted of themselves playing my Atari Adventure 'emu-simulator-clone" Adventure: Revisited.





The description of the video reads: "What is the best use of the extreme processing power of a dual quad-core Mac Pro? Playing Peter Hirschberg's port of the old Atari 2600 game "Adventure", of course!"

Man, and all I can notice is how SLOW the game is running at that size window. I had a lot of drawing performance problems on the Mac port that I left unfixed. They were due to how OS X handles double-buffering to the screen. I need to switch the program to have it use OpenGL, which should make it blindingly fast on the Mac.

Mini Interview with the designer of the Tron arcade cabinet - George Gomez

Back in February I received an email from George Gomez. George explained to me that he had designed the cabinet for the coin-op version of Tron for Bally/Midway back in the 80s. Wow! He said that a colleague had forwarded my computer animated Tron short to him, and he was absolutely thrilled by it. I was so flattered! Over the next couple of months we sent a few emails back and forth, and I thought I'd compile that here as sort of a "mini interview". George gives some fascinating details here.

I'll start things off with a vintage photo that he emailed me (click for a larger version). From the date on the calendar, you'll notice that this is from 1982.




GG: I designed the TRON that you modeled and one of the guys at work sent me your movie. Awesome job!

Peter: Holy crap. Seriously???

GG: Yep!

Peter: I grew up totally in love with the Tron cabinet. It's just gorgeous! That's why I decided to model and animate it. I've always considered the Tron cabinet to be the absolute pinnacle of arcade game cabinets - everything before just built up to Tron, and everything after went downhill.

GG: What did you use to model it? I was blown away that you picked up the surface textures that I etched into the control grip. Talk about bring back memories. Also the vacformed cockpit looks like the real deal. I've been staring at the thing all day. Awesome job. How long did it take?

Peter: The Tron animation took about 4 months to model and set up, and about 6 months of rendering time on a single Core 2 machine. I modeled most of the machine in Truespace, but the monitor shroud / cockpit and the joystick I modeled in Maya using subdivision surfaces. I'm trying to transition to using Maya exclusively, but it's challenging.

GG: If you look closely at the wall behind me in the photo that I sent you, you can see my original storyboard for the light cycle wave hanging on the wall. Somewhere I have my hand carved original control grip. I will take pix and send them to you.

Peter: And thanks for the awesome photo of you from 1982. I love stuff like that. I absolutely MUST blog about you on my site.

GG: Peter, i'm working late on my latest game(NBA Ballers:Chosen One) for PS3 and X360, not as cool as the old days but its the business today. I'll definitely dig up some stuff for you. Blog away, I dont mind. I'm glad you guys grew up enjoying the work that's really the greatest satisfaction.

Peter: I was restoring my Gorf machine last week and found myself wondering if you designed the cabinet for that game as well. It definitely has a lot of similarities with to Tron cabinet.

GG: I did the control grips, but not the cabinet. If you look closely at the red and black plastic insert on the back of the stick you'll find my name hidden in the red and black "pixel" array. The reason that there are similarities is that I started out with the basic Gorf shape when I mocked up the first one.

Peter: That makes sense. I always assumed the Tron grips came first, but I guess Gorf did come out before Tron. I'll have to go look for your name in the Gorf stick insert. :-)

GG: Yes, Gorf came out first. I had a Gorf cabinet laying around and I wanted to mock up the TRON cabinet quickly. The Gorf cabinet was designed by Dave Nutting. I designed the grips for Gorf and we were actually having a problem with the internal switch. I asked the molder to make me a set of clear grips so that I could see what was happening with the switch. I had those in my office years later when I started working on TRON. I was fooling around with a black light in order to get the cabinet to glow like the guys in the movie. I was leaving work one day and I turned off the lights in my office and I noticed that I had left one of the black lights on and I looked at the grips and they were glowing blue! So I turned right around and started working with the black light directly into the front of the control panel to glow the grips. The next problem was overcoming the fact that when you add UV inhibitors to the plastic for durability it kills the fluorescence of the plastic. So I worked with the vendor until we came up with a material formulation that was durable but still glowed.

Peter: Ah, I love the details! That's great! Thanks so much! Let me know if there's anything I can ever do for you!

Thanks again George! What a thrill! The Tron cabinet is truly one of the nicest video game cabinets ever designed, and holds a very magical place in my memories.

---

UPDATE: I was asked to see if George could tell us what it was he was working on in the photo, above. His answer was: "Yes, turn the photo upside down and you will see that I was proposing that the company go get the StarWars licence. I am working on a sit down cabinet that looked like a TIE fighter. It turned out that Atari got the license. Also on my table notice the gun prototype. I designed that gun that for a space themed gun game that never made it. I took a standard gun handle and frame and made the scope, barrel and stock in order to change the look of it."

---

Luna City in EGM Magazine

EGM ("Electronic Gaming Monthly") Magazine has a shout-out to Luna City in this month's newsstand issue.



In a graphic titled "Retro Road Trip", one of the stops featured on their "tour" is Luna City Arcade! See the area circled in red, below (click the image for a larger version)




Thanks to all who pointed this out to me!

Game Day

WOW! I can't believe how many people came for the impromptu Game Day last Sunday! I'm still recovering from it. Something like 60 people were in attendance. The last of the guests left at around 10:30pm. Visitors were for the most part people I hadn't met before. It was pretty cool seeing so many people showing up in tshirts with Atari, Pacman, Space Invaders on them. It almost felt like a convention.

I think the radio interview went well, although I'm a little concerned about my daughter being somewhat coached to say "my dad is crazy" on tape. Thanks.

Jason Scott made it out again. He actually flew out just to be interviewed, and ended up arriving after the journalist had left. Sorry Jason! I wish the timing had worked out better. He did have this to say about the visit, and posted some nice photos of the event as well!

I'm interested in any photos others may have taken. Especially photos of all the cars in the driveway!

Finally, here's some video!

Impromptu Game Day - Next Sunday, March 30th @ 2pm!!

I will be having an impromptu Game Day - Next Sunday, March 30th @ 2pm!! All are welcome!

I'm sorry about the short notice, but I just found out the final date yesterday. Sharon Pettigrew, a journalist for NPR, will be there on the 30th to interview me for a documentary that will air on The Canadian Broadcasting Corp as well as affiliated NPR stations. They have requested that I get as many people there that I can so they could also be interviewed for the documentary. Here's your chance to be on the air and explain why you love the classic arcade machines!

Hope you can make it and show your support! :-)

Please email me for directions if you are interested in attending!

Gameroom Magazine Cover Story

My family and I made the cover of the March 2008 issue of Gameroom Magazine. There's a nice interview with me, and another article written by Julie. And of course lots of photos of the gameroom.

March 2008 Gameroom Magazine

"Silver Sue"

Yesterday Luna City Arcade was visited by Susan England, who from the mid-'70s until 1981 ran an arcade called "Silver Sue" in Chicago, home to such industry giants as Bally, Gottlieb, and Williams. Sue, her husband, my wife, and I all sat down for a nice chat about the good old days. Sue shared many vintage photos of and magazine articles about the arcade she ran, and she told me a few stories about the various classic game programmers and other celebs from back in the day. She has promised me some scans of the arcade photos, and I'll share those here when I have them.

Thanks for taking the time to visit Sue! It was really fun having you out to talk shop!

Jason Scott

I was very honored the other day to get a visit from Jason Scott. Jason, who runs the website ASCII and who I respect a great deal, made a trip out here to see the arcade.



From left to right, that's Dan Moniz (one of Jason's buddies), Jason Scott, me, Nick DePetrillo (another of Jason's buddies), and my wife Julie.

Be sure to check out Jason's blog post about the visit as well as an album of photos he took while here!

- "Face to Face with Luna City"
- Jason's Photos

Another Kotaku.com Article

Kotaku.com added another article about me. This one links to the DigitalLifestyle.tv interview.

"Video Tour of the Luna City Arcade"

http://kotaku.com/357388/video-tour-of-the-luna-city-arcade

More Radio Interviews

Here's a couple more radio interviews with me. The first one is about 20 minutes long and the second one is about 5 minutes long.

97X FM: "Dwyer & Michaels in the Morning: Interview with Peter Hirschberg"
KNIX Country: "Ben & Matt: Interview with Peter Hirschberg"

I also added these to the "Press" web page on my Luna City Arcade site.

The Atari 2600 Television Set

A friend of my neighbor Fred donated this retro TV set to me. It makes a perfect television set for our Atari 2600!

Cub Scout party - Part 2

As promised, here's the video I took when we had all the Cub Scouts out for a Game Day party last week. Refer to my previous post.



Make sure you watch for the cute little "victory dance" a couple of the kids do near the end of the video.

I also received a really sweet Thank You letter in the mail from one of the kids, and another from one of the parents.

DigitalLifestyle.tv Video Interview

Here's the video interview that DigitalLifestyle.tv did with me a couple weeks ago.

Interview with 'The Digital Lifestyle'

On Saturday, a crew from The Digital Lifestyle, a 24-hour online video network dedicated to technology news, rumors, and lifestyle, did a video interview with me. I'll let you know whenever the video is online!

Here is a picture of me with the 2 people from the show that came out.