Flynn
Lives, page 2
page 1
|
|
|
You have
to be clever...and click the image for a larger
version.
|
We theorize that the demarcated boundaries of the game area
must be there for a reason, and thus head for the borders
and find 2 of 3 in the window of some German techno bumping
ruffie emporium at the northeast corner of the playing field.
Blacklights
aglow we hit a snag. Nothing is showing up. All the other
posters have glowed just fine, but I quickly realize that
Club Bump, Grind, & Grope has UV treated windows which
are killing our ability to read the secret messages. I start
calling for the fearless Greek member of our party to get
inside and get us a poster only to have his wife direct
my attention inside where he has already formulated the
same plan on his own, elbowed past the revelers and removed
the poster from the inside glass.
Back
outside he mounts his trophy on our side of the glass and
we get our last set of alphabet soup which we start to realize
make a path of straight lines and right angles (like a certain
method of Tron-sportation) on the vellum grid that when
overlaid on our game map lead from the starting cul-de-sac
around the area to another corner outside of the search
area. Needless to say, we headed that way.
At the
end point we were greeted with a glorious sight. On a brick
facade was a bright neon sign for Flynn's and a line of
eager code solvers. We cued up and made some friends. The
sounds from inside sure sounded like an arcade and many
theories were bandied about including a concern that we
may have to surrender our tokens to play something inside.
Most
agreed that this would be unacceptable and we hoped for
an available change machine. The line snaked back on itself
and moved in fits and starts of about 50 folks at a time.
We passed our new friend TV's Paul Scheer and I hit him
up for a snap so that we might compare the size of our gaps.
He won.
It
was now time for us to enter the fabled Flynn's and it was
all we could have hoped for. Old school arcadey goodness.
Air hockey, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Track and Field,
Super Mario Bros., Gauntlet, Tron, and even a few Space
Paranoids cabinets.
Yes,
Space Paranoids, like in the Tron-verse, but not
ours . . . until now.
Game
play looked cool, but I opted for the open Mr. Do machine
instead of watching someone else work the stick and trackball.
All was well until the lights began to dim.
The
overheads wavered, the Home of Tron neon flickered and buzzed,
attention was smoothly orchestrated to the back wall and
a Tron machine when suddenly the machine moved towards us
and a hidden door in the brick wall beckoned. We filed through
into the dark, curtained hallway adorned on one side with
backlit shadow boxes showing us concept sketches of a new
flavor of light cycle. Everyone shuffled around the corners
trying to take it all in while what to my wondering eyes
should appear?.
|
|
|
"face-to-face
with a full-sized, honest-to-god,
could-totally-touch-it-if-there-wasn't-security
lightcycle slowly rotating on a showroom style turntable."
|
Around
the last corner all came to a stop as we found ourselves
face-to-face with a full-sized, honest-to-god, could-totally-touch-it-if-there-wasn't-security
lightcycle slowly rotating on a showroom style turntable.
The
shape of a rider built into the design and the sheen to
the whole thing made it completely believable as a virtual
construct made real. It was a pretty impressive sight and
the crowd was obviously diggin' the whole thing like a ditch.
A few
more turns of the light cycle and we headed for Barnum's
Egress where we were rewarded with Flynn Lives posters (complete
with black light info embedded like the one's we'd been
searching for) and our choice of Flynn Lives or Flynn's
Arcade shirts.
All
in all it was a viral marketing event that got it right
on so many levels I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't
been there myself. It was such a fantastically nerdy thing
from when it showed up on the RADAR and yet it delivered
all the way to the end.
|
|
|
memorable,
memorable swag...
|
Saturday
the word was that Flynn's would be open all night, but just
going to a fun arcade and all that just wouldn't have been
as fun as running around playing Encyclopedia Brown and
the organizers obviously got that.
So detailed
was this event that while doing a bit with the black light
on one of the Flynn's Arcade employees we spotted two words
hidden in the printing (which we also on the Flynn Lives
shirts): “Slash Derez.”
Upon
further inspection http://www.flynnlives.com/derez/
should whip anyone reading this site into an extra lather.
So that's how I learned to stop worrying and love ComicCon.
|
