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Originally posted by: vudu Are any of the winners regular posters in the forum? I demand you show yourself!
I was debating whether or not to say something, but I 'fess: I'm the grand prize winner (follow the link in my sig, compare names and it'll be obvious).
I didn't want this to sound like bragging or anything (especially since 90% of the prize is being given to friends), but vudu's right: if it's a regular poster, it's best to know about it instead of thinking some random guy just swept in, claimed the prizes and left.
I got the idea for it the same day the contest was announced. I initially thought about Nintendo having 7 console families out (to date) and that they should be having a party for PGC. At first I was going to have it at a table with a cake and a banner overhead, but the allure of having them playing SSBM on the couch like a group of friends was too much to pass up. Then I decided I could do both, especially with the SSBM "Loser Out" tournament mode.
I can't stress enough that luck played a large factor in this: I have a home business so the shipping boxes, lots of tape and table were available (and that table is insanely heavy as the base is filled with cement). I have a friend who could loan me all of the Nintendo hardware I didn't own, and one of my friends had left those mudslide bottles at my house on friday. I was pissed at him for leaving them at my place but now I have to
thank the bastard because the drunken virtual boy is one of the highlights of the picture, as is the Gameboy trying to shake him back to consciousness, or console him in his drunken stupor, I can't decide which it is (and hey, if you were the virtual boy, you'd drink heavily, too).
Jokes and references:
-NES dons a "Sword Play" t-shirt, featuring old-school Link
-NGC is wearing a FF: Crystal Chronicles tee.
-All consoles use their respective controllers for hands, except for the Gameboy which uses various Gboy models.
-If it isn't obvious, one of these consoles is (gasp) female!
-The N64, NGC and Virtual Boy are pissed (or pissed drunk) because they just lost the tournament last round.
-The Gameboy is attempting to shake the V-Boy back into consciousness (optional caption: "Dude, you OK?....Guys, I think he's DEAD!").
-The N64 is giving the camera the middle "finger".
Each console is represented in the SSBM game with an appropriate character:
-NES plays Mario for Super Mario Bros.
-SNES plays Ness, as it was his first appearance and just about the last game released for the console.
-GBoy plays Pikachu for the tremendous success of Pokemon on the console.
-NDS plays Samus for her multiple games for it and more on the way.
-N64 plays Fox for Starfox 64 (my favorite SF game, by far).
-GCN plays Link for his many appearances on the console (OoT, WW, Four Swords, TP).
-Virtual Boy plays Pichu because playing both is actually painful.
I almost dressed the v-boy in a Dreamcast t-shirt as an homage to fellow fallen consoles, but I decided it would be too distracting since the shirt is bright orange.
I did have some help in this. Don't get me wrong: it's my idea, I ordered and paid for the cake, the copper wire, assembled the fedex boxes, cut the copper wire using an inadequate pair of wire cutters (hernia time!), and did all the posing and dressing. I had a friend draw the Pictochat face on the DS (since I can't draw) and he's holding up the inflatable mattress you see on the left side to block out some things which would have distracted from the focus of the picture. I had another friend help in getting the lighting right. The balance between the TV and the candles on the cake was ridiculously hard to do. You can't tell from the picture, but the TV is insanely dim but needed to be that way so 3/4ths of a second exposure time would capture what was on the TV screen. I had to try 3 times (of unloading the photos onto a computer) to get the TV right, otherwise you couldn't read what was on it and that was half of the joke.
The picture is slightly blurred because I own a tripod but can't find the damn thing to save my life.
When I first took the picture, I was confident, but as one of my friends pointed out, it's all subjective and I felt like I didn't have enough PGC references in the picture. Like I said in the other contest thread, it's more of Nintendo throwing a party for PGC between rounds of SSBM (which I think most folks here can relate to).
So I spent all weekend having a hard time sleeping because I was so morbidly curious about the contest results. I literally woke up in the morning, having had dreams about checking PGC, and then woke up to check PGC. Anticipation sucks.
As for the prize, I'll actually be keeping very little of it myself.
The DS and DS games will go to a friend who can't afford one. The Famicom and accessories will go to another friend who actually HAS some Famicom games (die-hard collector) and will now be able to play them. I'll probably donate the GC to a charity for children or a toy drive. I was curious about the Naruto games so I'll try those before I give them to a Naruto fan who'll be visiting me come summer. I've heard great things about Ouendan so that I'll keep for myself.
So that's the story: it took a great deal of planning and effort to bring it together but I'm glad it was well-received. Thanks to PGC for giving me the chance and I hope I provided them with what they were looking for in a birthday celebration.
Topic: PGC 7th Birthday Contest Winners Announced! (Read 14578 times)
