Star Tech Journal

ACME '89 Reno Exposition
Bill Johnston
Johnston's General Store
Buffalo, New York
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Sharon (the Vendress) Johnston and I looked forward
to the February ACME '89 show ever since Novem-
ber's AMOA '88 ended. We laid our American Airline
flight plan ($283) with Alamo rental car ($79) and
Bally's Reno accommodations ($56) in place at the
tail end of December, to be sure to book into the hotel
of the event and grab the airfare bargain seats before
the Lake Tahoe skiers did, and it worked out well,
except for Chicago's O'Hare Airport ice on our depar-
ture day, Wednesday ...
Neither of us had ever seen Vegas before, so we
planned to grab a cab and quickly buzz through town
to see the lights during our 90-minutes between
connections. As we stepped outside the airport, there
was a big black limo with a cardboard sign hanging on
the window that said $30/hour, so we grabbed it, hit
the liquor store for a six-pack of new Michelob Dcy
(great stuff and it doesn't bother my allergies !) and we
were first class tourists gawking at the Las Vegas
strip and downtown casino lights, just like we'd seen
in the movies. Back to the airport in time to catch our
flight to Reno, only to board and sit and wait an hour,
delayed on the ground waiting for the carrier mail ...
(I'd rather be at a casino).
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
TOUCHDOWN RENO
Ready to takeoff at 5pm from Buffalo International
with carry-on bag packed in preparation for an over-
night stay (the airlines love it when you volunteer
your seat when they oversell seats, and compensate
you well too). We were ready for our 75 minute flight
to O'Hare, a change of planes then San Francisco,
and another change to Reno. The weatherman had
different ideas though, as ice closed all but two
O'Hare runways and left our plane waiting on the
Buffalo runway for an hour and forty-five minutes
until takeoff, plus an extra half hour to circle O'Hare,
waiting to land. That left plenty of time to read the
airlines timetable book for alternate planning. Know-
ing that we'd missed our connections unless the
entire O'Hare lineup had been pushed back as late as
we had, we picked over all westbound cities in search
of an alternate connection to Reno, but there ap-
peared to be none. Where would we want to spend the
night? Second choice San Francisco, hoping for a late
night restaurant visit with a friend there and an early
flight out, but our first choice was Las Vegas with its
24-hour action ...
Finally hit Reno at 3:30 AM Pacific, 13-1 /2 hours
after our Buffalo departure, luggage-free of course,
and dog-tired with jet lag. Bally's Hotel surprised us
with a free upgrade to a mirror-canopied roun~
Hollywood bed (so I can see my round figure?) as the) _
did many late-arrivals, and after a room service
breakfast and some deep slumber, I was on the
telephone in search of our elusive luggage. American
Airlines determined in 60 seconds that.America West
Airlines had it, and they delivered it in 15 minutes (no
lie!) to our room.
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THURSDAY (DAY 1)
Time to test a 97. 5% payback slot before we hit the
show (same machine I enjoyed at last years Reno
show) ... $20 in $90 out! Working great! I decide to test
play this coinsucking device for $20 evecy day till we
go home Monday ... The first day is my parts and
suppliers day: to visit and search for new items and
prices, while Sharon hauled in two trips/three bags
of literature from evecy video game related booth.
Mam.ifacturers Firing Ltne was already 30 minutes
As soon as we landed, instead of waiting in line with
100 other sheep waiting for some poor overwhelmed
agent to untwist our connections, we checked the
overhead monitors and spotted a Las Vegas depar-
ture in ten minutes at a nearby American Airlines
gate. Second in line, we checked in, seats available,
and shufiled our tickets with the agent who also
continued our flight plan onto Reno via.America West
after a 90-minute layover in Vegas. We were joyously
airborne out of Chicago on a big 767. joining other
passengers on a flight which itself had been delayed
two hours, in just minutes . .American, we love you!
under way when I arrived at 4pm, and it was getting
bogged down already. I've always described myself as
"the little operator with the big mouth" and I was in
good company as we let the panel have it with two
hours of our complaints. When the moderator asked
for a show of hands to the questions "How many of
you have received dedicated games out of the crat~
that did not work: What percentage of your games'i'
100/4?" Evecybody's hand was up. "20%? ... 30% ...
40% ... 500/4 ... over 500/4?" There were still hands in the
air! As I then pointed out, the good old days of quality
components, quality cabinets, quality control, and