Dear Friends:
Back in February, I returned to San Francisco, one again. This time, it was for two reasons. First, was the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), and the second was to visit my daughter and grandson.
GDC is the annual gathering of just about all the people involved in actually making games. The audience has grown quite a bit over the years - I've been attending the show irregularly since the 1990s. This year, I wasn't attending on behalf of any company. I was actually just wanting to connect with old friends...and do a little job-searching ; )
Since I was paying for the trip on my own, I utilized public transportation a little more than usual. To get from the San Francisco Airport to downtown SF, I took a trip on the old BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). This is a system that's been around since the 70s, and many of the train cars smell like it ; ) However, it did the job and brought me to downtown
The weather was exceptional, especially for San Francisco. This is a snapshot of my hotel, as well as Yerba Buena Gardens, located just a block away:
Turning to my right, this is the view of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art:
I quickly grabbed lunch. My first stop was the Buckhorn Grill, where I had my absolute favorite salad - the Roadhouse. It has tri-tip over mixed greens with crispy onions, string beans, tomatoes, and bleu cheese crumbles tossed with honey basil vinaigrette. Yum!
Over the next couple of days, I spent time around the Conference show floor. The event took place at the Moscone Center:
Inside, there was the traditional trade show "feel" of having booths lined with people. With 45,000 people attending, most of the well-known booths were packed.:
One of the hottest trends in gaming this year is "virtual reality". Usually, this means that you put on a set of goggles that shows a 3D display. The video displayed in the goggles will change, depending on where you turn your head. Lots of companies are trying to make either virtual reality devices - or games that can be played on these devices:
Facebook spent $2 billion on a leading company in this part of the industry. Yeah, that's "billion". A company decided to take the "virtual" a step further. The created a mini-treadmill that works along with the goggles, to give the user a feel that they were really inside of a game:
A traditional part of the GDC is a "classic" gaming exhibit. They usually drag out a ton of old game machines, and you can actually play them. My favorite? The classic Atari 2600 which was my very first game system:
I also saw this old system - and Atari Jaguar. This came out around the same time as a console that I was working on for a company called "3DO". I remember getting dragged into federal court to testify agains Atari, when they made some pretty bold claims in advertisements. I had to tell the judge about the technology, to prove our case. I had totally forgot the experience until I saw this:
After a couple of days at the show, I was excited to go and visit my daughter and adorable grandson. They live on the Peninsula, which is a distance away from San Francisco. Once again, I resorted to public transportation. I walked about two miles to get to Caltrain, a system that runs from SF all the way to San Jose. Walking there took me right past AT&T Ball Park - the home of the SF Giants:
Once onboard the train, I climbed upstairs, so that I could see the view from the train a little better:
After the train ride, I caught up with the cutest little guy. My daughter is holding him, and he cracked this smile for the camera:
He's a little bit of a handful right now, as his little digestive system is still trying to work through some issues. When he's happy, he's absolutely adorable. We played a little dancing game:
To distract him for a little while, so my daughter could catch up on work, I took him into the bathroom so he could watch himself in the mirror. Apparently, this is something he really enjoys ; ) My apologies for recording the video in the wrong format - something that I caution others not to do...but I was trying to hold onto the baby:
Even though I only spent an afternoon with them, it filled my heart with a lot of joy. I wish I lived closer to both of the grandchildren. But for now, I love all the chances that I have, to spend time with them. I'm a lucky guy!
Thanks for reading....
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