[atariparty-news] Atari Party 2010 status

[Bill Kendrick]

Hi everyone!  Thank you for your interest in the Atari Party.
I wanted to let you know where we are in terms of planning:

* Scott West Productions has given us permission to screen their
  documentary on the early days of Atari: "Once Upon Atari".
  (I'm also looking into the possibility of screening another film, too!)

* We've been promised a bunch of prizes to raffle off at the event:
  - Video game hacking & game programming books from O'Reilly Media
  - Atari CX40-style (the classic 'plunger' style) USB PC joysticks from
    Legacy Engineering (who worked on the "Atari Flashback 2")
  - Three $100 gift certificates from ThinkGeek.com (who have a lot of cool
    toys and retro video game stuff, among other things)

* 9 people have offered to volunteer so far, and many of them are
  bringing equipment and games (4 are confirmed, and you can already see
  lists of their games and systems on the website)

* I'm still wracking my brain on where and how to host this event.
  There are two City of Davis facilities that I could rent for a day
  (two rooms at each location: 5800-6400sqft, capacity for 450-520 people).
  Each cost just under $1200 to rent on a Sunday.

  I contacted both the Linux User Group I help run (a 501(c)7 non-profit)
  and the Computer Science Club at UC Davis about helping out with the event.
  The price gets cut in half for non-profit or student groups.
  Unfortunately, the Linux group can't help due to tax laws.
  No word back on whether the CS Club could help, or if they'd even want to.
  (Though if they could, they might be able to get us free space at UC Davis;
  something the Linux group did with them for workshops for a number of years.)

  If all else fails, I'll either need to pay $1200 for a facility, or
  scale back on the size and/or length of the event.  (Last year we had
  one room[*] for 5 hours; 3 of which we were open to the public.)


If you'd like to help with this year's event, let me know if you can:
donate money towards renting a facility (helping find a cheaper suitable venue);
volunteer to set up, run and/or break down; bring systems and/or games;
donate give-aways for the raffle.

Thanks, take care, and wish me luck!


[*] That room was at the Public Library building in Davis, which is currently
    closed as it's undergoing renovation through mid-to-late-2010.
    It cost $10/hr to rent after-hours, so I think we paid $40 total.

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer