VG Frequency

We think you need to. For the past two years, we’ve been attending this event called MAGFest (that is, the Music and Gaming Festival). Short of knocking on djpretzel’s, zircon’s or my (Liontamer’s) door, this will be one of the best chances to not only meet us, the crew behind OC ReMix, but also to meet a whole ton of OC ReMixers. Not only that, but you’ll get to spend New Year’s weekend with us and party it up. This will be the seventh time they’ve thrown this shindig!

If you’re at all into video games and music, this will be the place to be this upcoming year. There’s so many fun things to do, you’ll wonder where your weekend went! Video game composers like Howard Drossin (with several Sonic titles to his credit) and Jake “virt” Kaufman (Contra 4 and TMNT on the DS) will be around. And Friday and Saturday nights are filled with concerts from video game bands! The Advantage, Minibosses, and NESkimos have all performed there in the past. This year’s lineup of bands will be out soon, including some familiar names from OCR.

The best part is that even after all of that, you haven’t even experienced half of the event! You can hit the video room and watch game movies and cartoons, buy stuff from the people in the marketplace, go to video game panels and discussions (including our own OC ReMix bash), or just play games the whole time. There’s over 10,000 square feet of just console, PC, and even arcade games, and it doesn’t close AT ALL during the entire duration of the event. If you want to play Rock Band on a stage for hours on end with José the Bronx Rican, you can! Or if you wanna challenge James Rolfe, the Angry Video Game Nerd, go ahead and call him OUT!

Here’s what me and some other folks had to say about last year’s MAGFest:
* http://www.vgfrequency.com/magfest-6-from-alexandria-va-13-day-1-report/
* http://www.destructoid.com/magfest-vi-highlights-65679.phtml
* http://revver.com/video/625357/magfest-vi/
* http://www.megatonik.com/2007/12/18/we-rock-hard-we-play-hard-magfest-cometh/
* http://gamemusic4all.blogspot.com/2008/01/magfest-vi-wrapup.html

Now that you want to go, lemme mention the important stuff:
- It’s in Alexandria, VA, in a 5-star Hilton, which is a quick ride from DC (Reagan National Airport).
- It’s Thursday-Sunday, Jan 1-4, 2009. If you’re not free on New Year’s Day, you can come Friday and not miss too much.
- Like many good things, it costs money. But $40 isn’t too bad for all weekend!

And here are a few links for you:
* Their site: http://magfest.org/
* The info on the hotel and directions: http://magfest.org/info/
* The preregistration page: http://courtwright.org/magfest/preregistration

Preregister for MAGFest soon to make sure you’re there! Their hotel is already accepting room reservations, and they even got the rates down for us that aren’t so lucky in the money department. It’s only $99 a night to stay at the hotel MAGFest is in, and come on, it looks like the Citadel! Split it with a few friends and that price goes down VERY fast. If you’re already sold on it, call them up and reserve a room at 703-845-1010 any time of day (they’re a hotel, ya know).

Let them know MAGFest and OC ReMix sent you (and make sure to be at the OC ReMix panel), and we’ll see you there!

Larry “Liontamer” Oji
Head Submissions Evaluator, OverClocked ReMix
Creator, VG Frequency
http://www.ocremix.org
http://www.vgfrequency.com

Via the MAGFest 7 Facebook group, “Mr. MAGFest” Brendan Becker sent an important mailout on what to expect so far for next year’s MAGFest, set for January 1-4, 2009 in Alexandria, VA.

I’m actually attendee #3 this year. Not bad, considering that MAGFest pulls in thousands of people each year. Don’t be stupid. If you like gaming or music, or, dare I say, gaming AND music, you’d be foolish to miss out. Pre-register now to get in on the action. Here’s the deal from Brendan himself:

Hey gamer dudes and ladies,

Just wanted to give a heads up that tons of guests have confirmed their attendance for MAGFest 7, and you should too! Things are shaping up nicely, and we’re even at the same hotel this time!

This new years you can chill with people like game bands like Select Start and Armcannon, game video personalities like the Angry Video Game Nerd, X-Strike Studios, or PBC Productions, game musicians, programmers, and sound guys, and more. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll get two nights of game concerts in our usual style with tons of bands, and of course 24/7 gaming.

If you can’t make it for the first, don’t worry! None of the concerts are scheduled for Thursday — it’s our warmup day — so you won’t miss anything if you’re too hung over, have to work, or just can’t make it down until Friday. We do have some special stuff in the works for New Year’s Eve, though, so if you plan to come down early, you’re in for a few treats.

You can preregister on our website: http://magfest.org/

If you’re coming in a group or you’d like to sell as a dealer, the prereg page has all the info.

Be sure to check out our new gaming radio station, too! We’re playing tons of game music on shuffle out of our personal collections and we’ve linked some of the albums to our pals at http://vgmdb.net/ who have superb information on game-related CDs and music.

Game on!