You know what the "M" stands for in MAGFest, right? If you guessed "malt liquor", you'd be technically right, but it's actually MUSIC. Specifically that of the video game variety. Since MAGFest is all about the appreciation of the music that raised us, we'll be joined this year by some of the people responsible for the soundtracks of some classic games that we all know and love .

Hiroki Kikuta - Best known for being the composer of Secret of Mana.
Alexander Brandon - Epic Games veteran composer responsible for Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, Tyrian, and more.
Dan Froelich - Classic PC composer and fellow Epic vet who is known for Jill of the Jungle, Solar Winds, and a bunch more.

Not gung ho about video game composers? Thas coo, yo. We have some great personalities from THE INTERNET joining us to make the party just that much bigger.

Scott Ramsoomair - Creator of the hit webcomic VG Cats. He's Canadian, but then again, nobody's perfect.
Ashley Davis - She's the driving force behind Once Upon a Pixel, a web video series that retells the stories of video games as if they were children's books.

Check out more information about them and the other guests coming to MAGFest at our guests, filmmakers, and musicians pages.

We have to cap registration at 3000 this year, so hurry up and pregister before it's too late!
Don't forget to get your hotel room!
And please, for the love of god, we need HELP HELP HELP! So, volunteer to staff!

A quick reminder to those going to Penny-Arcade Expo (September 3 -5, Seattle, WA) - Just like at PAX East, we'll be throwing a full fledged jamspace, and also hosting chiptune concerts. If you don't stop by, it probably means you're sick or dying, so let us know and we'll call an ambulance for you.

Hey kids, did you miss us? Planning for MAGFest 9 is well underway, and this year is looking to be friggin huge. We'll be returning to the Hilton Mark Center once again to rock it until it crumbles crumbles crumbles to the ground. It's going to be Jan 13-16, 2011, so MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Recent studies have shown that not going to MAGFest is the leading cause of H1N1. Just check out these awesome guests that are going to be at MAGFest 9:

Ashly Burch and Anthony Burch - Creators of the web video series "Hey Ash Whatcha Playin?"
Grant Kirkhope - Video game music composer famed for Goldeneye 64, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, and more.
Wes Johnson - Voice actor featured in Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and others.
Dr. Chris J. Hazard PhD III esq. - Creator of the game Achron, and full of ideas that will make you a better person just from listening to them.

Also, making his triumphant return is the one, the only, the magnificent, the well hung, the voice of duke nukem...

JON ST. JOHN

He liked you guys so much that he wanted to come back and see you again. Don't let him down! Make sure you do everything you need to do to come to MAGFest!

Pregister!
Get your hotel room!
Volunteer to staff!

Also, we'll be participating in a bunch of cool events coming up. Come check us out!

Artscape (July 16-18, Baltimore, MD) - MAGFest is providing classic arcade machines and gaming at BETASCAPE, Artscape's new tech/gaming section. Artscape is a MASSIVE free music/arts festival that takes over several blocks of Baltimore City. MAGFest is also providing videogame cover bands Entertainment System, Rare Candy, and The X-Hunters for Geek Chic, a late-night party taking place from 10pm-4am on Saturday, July 17th. Don't miss it.

Otakon (July 30 - August 1, Balitmore, MD) - Come jam out with a bunch of the MAGFest crew at a JAMSPACE that we're hosting at Otakon. You'll even see a few MAGFest bands performing there.

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds (July 30, Vienna, VA) - This is an orchestral tribute to the final fantasy series that you absolutely cannot miss.

Bit Gen Gamer Fest 5 (August 14, Baltimore, MD) - HUGE GAMER ROCK SHOW at Sonar in Baltimore. Do not miss this HUGE vgmusic rock showcase of 10+ bands including Powerglove, The Protomen, and The OneUps. MAGFest is providing Arcade Machines, Gaming Consoles, and tons of other insanity there. If you like MAGFest, you NEED to be at this event.

Penny-Arcade Expo (September 3 -5, Seattle, WA) - Just like at PAX East, we'll be throwing a full fledged jamspace, and also hosting chip tune concerts. There will be a few more surprises, too!

With 9 months to go until Magfest 9 (which is January 13 - 16 2011, Thu - Sun), you're very likely thinking to yourself: "Hey! Those hardworking and extremely attractive Magfest guys are probably taking a well deserved break from convention activities after the epicness of Magfest 8."

And while I'm the first to admit that we're an unrivaled group of lazy slackers, we've got a news flash for you, Katie Couric: Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend in Boston. Did you hear those rumors from your old classmate, Nancy, that the Magfest crew is not just attending PAX East, but in fact running some videogame music events out there?

WELL, NANCY WAS RIGHT!

The Magfest crew will be out in full force at PAX and running a full-blown, legit Jamspace. We'll have keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, and lights to play with. In addition, in association with BOSTON8BIT, Boston's new chiptune scene, we're throwing down TWO legit chiptune concerts at PAX East, featuring our very own ZenAlbatross, A_Rival, Boston's own ActiveKnowledge, and a slew of other chip artists.

Check out more details in this thread on the PAX forums. See you guys there!

-Dom

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!