The Northeast's Largest Convention of Science Fiction, Fact, and Fantasy
Friday, March 28 - Sunday, March 30, 2003 at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook,  NY 11790
(click here for directions)

Electronic Gaming

The Electronic Gaming track is proud to welcome computer game pioneer John Carmack of id Software and Armadillo Aerospace as our guest speaker this year. Best known for his work on the groundbreaking Doom and Quake series of games and game engines, this founding father of the First-Person Shooter category has recently turned his hand to rocket science, and is leading the Armadillo Aerospace team onward and upward toward the coveted X-Prize.  Mr. Carmack will be participating in programming with both the Electronic Gaming and Science & Technology tracks.  He will be presenting on both game engine technology and Armadillo Aerospace's X-Prize pursuit on Saturday afternoon, followed by a Question & Answer session in the early evening. See his biography in Gaming Guests.

The PC Multiplayer game room is back, and better than ever. With support from Activision, Vivendi Universal Games, and LucasArts, we are able to bring you several of the hottest games.

Tournaments will be held for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, WarCraft III, and Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Signups and First Round are Friday evening and Saturday morning.

We have a wide variety of panels this year, working together with several other tracks, to cover a range of topics from "The Appeal of Bad Boy and Bad Girl Heroes" and "The Agony of Vaporware" to "The State of the Virtual World: MMORPGs" and "User Interfaces for the Physically Impaired". Panels are scheduled across all three days.

Our first annual Amateur Game Programming Showcase will be making an appearance alongside the tournaments. Through special cooperation with the Console Gaming track, we are also able to bring you a Flashback Zone in the Console Game Room, where older players can find the systems they grew up with, and younger players can play the games that started it all.

Players of EverQuest, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth and Beyond, and the newly-released Shadowbane can find each other at the User Meets on Saturday afternoon. Members of the Shadow Clan from all games are invited to a special User Meet on Saturday evening. For the Administrators and Game Masters of MUDs and Neverwinter Nights servers, we are pleased to announce our first ever "MUD / Neverwinter Nights GameMasters' Conclave," to meet other Admins and GMs and discuss the joys and sorrows of running an online game.

HELP WANTED:

We are still looking for hosts for the Asheron's Call and Ultima Online User Meets, as well as a few extra hands for game room staff. If interested, please contact e_gaming@iconsf.org ASAP.

Sponsors:

Sponsored by Vivendi Universal Games, Activision, Electronic Arts, and LucasArts. Special thanks to Raven Software, id Software, and Totally Games.

03/26/2003