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Earlier this week, I helped out with Futurelooks and Kingston Technology at the BCIT Tech Days. The British Columbia Institute of Technology hosted the event, which gives students the opportunity to check out and discuss some of the latest and greatest in tech, gaming, and gadgetry. Among the attendees were NCIX, Kingston and Compu2000, as well as the three exhibitors I’m going to highlight here today.

Retro Gaming with Press Start

As much as we like playing newer games like The Walking Dead on Xbox 360, there is absolutely something to be said about playing classic games on some of the legacy consoles too. That’s the target market for Press Start, a video game shop in New Westminster, BC, just outside of Vancouver.

They set up a casual gaming lounge at BCIT Tech Days. They had the original NES running with games like Double Dragon, the SNES with Street Fighter II, and the GameCube with Mario Kart: Double Dash. One of the biggest draws, though, had to be Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. They also drew a crowd with SSB Melee on the GameCube.

In talking with the Russ, the “boss” of Press Start, he says it’s actually quite easy to fix your old consoles. I still have an NES kicking around that only works sometimes, but the folks at Press Start can fix it so that it runs as good as new. I could really get into some old school Dr. Mario and Contra action.

Speaking of retro gaming, we at MEGATechNews partnered up with Press Start for a fun contest during BCIT Tech Days. They set up several Game Boys with Tetris and ran a high score competition. The winner, with a score in the 160k range, was Victor. He took home an awesome Western Digital USB 3.0 500GB hard drive for his efforts. Congrats, Victor!

Are You the King of the Iron Thumb?

A casual gaming lounge is certainly fun, but what if you want to really put your skills to the test? Finding a middle ground between casual play and hardcore tournaments is a local organization called King of the Iron Thumb.

They host video game tournaments about once a month, offering a variety of games for a variety of gamers. They had a projector set up with a PS3 and Street Fighter X Tekken at BCIT Tech Days. Despite having a name that’s clearly inspired by the Tekken franchise, “KOTIT” actually challenges players to a variety of genres.

In fact, the next event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 26 at Professor Mugs Pub and Grill on the BCIT Burnaby campus. Free play starts at 5pm with the tournament commencing at 6:30pm that night. With “awesome prizes” up for grabs, some of the planned games include Puzzle Fighter, Super Mario Kart, NBA Jam, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Sam and Fuzzy (and Cool T-Shirts!)

There’s tech, there’s gaming, and then there’s the culture that goes along with all of that. One of the other exhibitors at BCIT Tech Days was Sam and Fuzzy. While he’s probably best known for the web comic of the same name, the bigger draw for me there had to be the cool t-shirts.

He had a variety of really creative designs, including several that parodied Super Mario, Sonic and other iconic games. I picked up a couple tees myself, because these are really original designs that you won’t find anywhere else! Hit up their shop to see if any tees, books or prints tickle your fancy. Artist Sam Logan is also available for commissioned work.

Supporting the Local Community

As with our partners at Futurelooks, we here at MEGATechNews are more than happy to support the local community of tech enthusiasts, gadget lovers, and video game players. Check out the photo gallery below for more from BCIT Tech Days and we look forward to attending again next year!

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