This year was the biggest and best MAGFest ever. There were over 2100 people there, and every last one of them got their face melted off. We had a lot of fun putting it on, and we hope you all had an amazing time there. ZenAlbatross has put together a sampler pack of most the bands that played, and you can find it at http://magfest.org/MagfestSampler.

Check out the awesome press we're getting!
http://www.destructoid.com/what-you-missed-at-magfest-8-159706.phtml
http://terminalgamer.com/2010/01/05/recapping-magfest-8/
http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=6693
http://elder-geek.com/2010/01/magfest-8/

We're hard at work on getting all the details for MAGFest 9, and we'll blast out the news of that once it's ready. To keep up to date with the latest news, you can:
Sign up for our mailing list - http://magfest.org/ml/?p=subscribe&id=4
Follow us on twitter - http://twitter.com/magfest
Be our fan on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/magfest

SEE YOU NEXT MISSION!

(photo credit Chris Serani)

MAJOR NEWS! We just found out we have the ENTIRE HOTEL for New Year's Eve. This means we're throwing the most KICKASS New Year's Eve party of all time (OF ALL TIME!) while we set up with even MORE bands in the MAIN CONCERT HALL, GAME ROOM, and whatever else we have open at that time. This goes down at 8pm on Dec 31st, BE THERE.

UPDATE: At least the following amazing acts will be playing New Year's Eve:
- Double Ice Backfire (Shael Riley + co)
- BrentalFloss
- Jake Kaufman e.g. VIRT
- Renard

Stay tuned for even more announcements.

You see, until recently, we were double-booked for New Year's Eve at the hotel with another group (the James Bond guys from last year). Now that they're GONE we are going to throw our OWN Secret Agent party. We want to see everyone representin' with some Bond-approved attire (okay, okay, it's not required but have some fun) and high tech gadgets. (HAX if you pick OddJob). At the request of the hotel and the Alexandria Police Department, please do not bring any weapons, no matter how fake they are.

To attend, just pre-register! Folks purchasing a full-weekend badge on Thursday at the door won't be turned away, but preregistered ones will receive priority in line. Band announcements for NYE are coming shortly.

The deadline to register is quickly approaching!

Anything that is not a regular attendee registration will be completely gone by Tuesday, December 15. We need this extra time to make arrangements for the marketplace, send your name off to our badge makers for the supporter badges, etc. So, if you are planning to be a dealer, supporter, super-supporter, or register as a group, as a wise man once said, DOOOO EEEEET! Regular preregistration will be ending at 11pm on Saturday, December 26. At that point, we have to disconnect the registration system so we can take it to the hotel for MAGFest. Please don't wait; take care of your MAGFest registration right now.

Remember... MAGFest does not "run out" of badges, you will always be able to get a regular badge at the door at the full price of $45, but we do not do do dealer, supporter, super-supporter, or group registrations at the door. A limited quantity of our extra goodies from the supporter pack orders will be available for a slight increase in price at the door.

Still need a room? The Hilton is AWESOME. Even though we hit our projection on rooms (thanks guys!), they expanded our block so you can still get rooms at a discounted rate. Some amazing news is coming down the grapevine about the Hilton, so please keep checking back for it!

You've heard of TeamFourStar, right? They make Dragon Ball Z Abridged. It's like yu gi oh TAS, except with big muscly dudes. MasakoX will be joining us this year, and he might go down to LittleKuriboh's flat and get a pint with him while they talk about dog's bollocks. Check out the video!

MAGFest just keeps getting more and more chockful of internet personalities. The folks from Retroware.tv (including the Happy Video Game Nerd) and the Transmission Awesome crew from That Guy With The Glasses will be joining us this year, so you can expect kooky hijinks, wacky antics, live podcasts and more from all of them. The TGWTG folks even made us this great video!

Also, don't forget that tonight at 10:30 is TURKEY STOMP presented by SickDamage.com in Vienna, Virginia. It'll be a great nerd music night, and we'll be there representing and handing out badges. Don't miss it!

Well boys and girls, we have a couple treats for you. First off, we were trying to have a staff meeting the other day, but kept getting interrupted. Fortunately for us (or maybe for you), the cameras were rolling....



Also, it's our honor to proudly present Sid Meier, who will be joining us at MAGFest this year. Heralded as "The Father of Computer Gaming", he's created games for over twenty-five years that have captured the imagination of millions of gamers worldwide. Now the Director of Creative Development at Firaxis Games, Sid continues to deliver the most addictive gameplay on the planet. Sid and his teams at Firaxis have released a string of incredibly fun and compelling games, including Alpha Centauri, the Civilization series, SimGolf, Pirates!, Railroads, and many more. He'll be giving talks on game design, hanging out with MAGFest attendees, and you might even hear him jam a little in JamSpace!

We do believe you'll also enjoy our final four bands we're announcing:

• The OneUps - Some of the best fusion/funk/jazz video game arrangements you've ever heard in your life.
• Select Start - Six piece orchestra from Florida. Don't let that flute fool you, these guys know how to PARTY.
• The Megas - These brave musicians will journey all the way from california to personally deliver us a message from Dr. Light.
• Entertainment System - These guys suck. Just kidding -- they're a $*@#ing awesome metal powerhouse from Baltimore.

Zeiram and Tim will be running the 6th Annual Name That Tune game show at MAGFest. Typically, the contestants are selected randomly from the entrants, but we wanted to do a pre-convention contest based on skill this year. We've put together this compilation of twelve songs. Send an E-mail here by Dec. 18th with your name and the specific twelve games you think we used. The attendee with the most correct answers will automatically become a contestant in the game show. In the event of a tie, the first email received will be the tiebreaker.

Home to speedruns for over 500 games and counting, Speed Demos Archive -- the world's top source for speedrunning -- is about completing your favorite video games as fast as humanly possible! At their panel, SDA will showcase the skill and bravado of its runners with a compilation video featuring clips of speedruns all performed within the past year. Afterwards, there will be live demonstrations of some of the various techniques that speedrunners use to achieve their amazing times. SDA will also be hosting a two-day-long marathon featuring live speedruns of classic old school gaming like Mario, Sonic, Zelda, and more! Donations will go to CARE. Please show your support as SDA raises money for a good cause!

MAGFest always prides itself on having some of the best fan film production studios, and this year will be no exception. We've just added a bunch more filmmakers to this years guest list, and here are the latest additions:

• ScrewAttack - Watch tons of great gaming videos from their staff, or upload your own!
• X-Strike Studios - An independent movie company out of Western New York, destined to make quality, live action, video game parody films.
• Eddie Lebron - Writer/Producer/Director of the highly anticipated "Megaman" fan film.
• PBC Productions - PBC Productions, based out of NYC, is a pioneer in distributing higher-quality internet TV.
• Main Moon Productions - Cincinnati based production company ran by Ricky Henry. He's kind of a cool guy. He makes movies, artwork, babies cry, and lots of other things.

You can check out the full details for all of these guys on our filmmakers page.

You love to party, don't you? Yeah, of course you do. That's why MAGFest will be hosting a dance party and chiptune party after the main concerts on Saturday and Sunday, and in the same main stage area. Full lineup will be announced soon, but we'll be throwing a chiptune party headlined by Jake "Virt" Kaufman and a DJ party headlined by Renard. You don't sleep after the concerts, so why should we?

Check our Renard tearing it up with some Megaman 2 at last year's dance party:

We've also got two more video game cover bands for you:

A_Rival - Born in the recesses of Northern California, he grew up in a common American situation: single mother, low income, and plenty of in-house time to kill when school was not in session. What better way to use up your precious childhood years than submerging your mind in a video game console? Thus, the obession with the signature sounds of the 2A03 (that's Nintendo, folks) took hold, and now, after all of these years, he has finally garnered enough knowledge to be able to harness this sound chip for his own personal manipulation. Using all original compositions on this all-too-familiar sonic canvas, he combines his love for hip-hop rhymeplay with pseudo-retro synth techbeats which culminate the signature A_Rival sound.

The Smash Brothers - They banded together for the specific purpose of performing at MAGFest 2 and managed to pull it off despite having never performed together before. Ever. Since then, they've shaken up their setlist each year and arranged brand new material specifically for their performance at MAGFest. Last year, they even went so far as to serve hot dogs to the audience between songs in their set, and BACON the year before that. Koz dude. Bacon. -Bacon-. What bizarre things could they have planned this year? Make sure to come and see!.

It's dangerous to go alone, tell everyone you know to preregister.