It's a few minutes before seven, and I'm dressed up - not to the nines, but maybe in the low sixes. It's not a suit-and-tie thing, but I've packed slacks, my best [read also as "only"] halfway-dressy pair of loafers, a decent shirt and a vest for the occasion. It's a whirlwind of new faces, new names, trying to associate one with the other, trying to muster up the balls to go and say something to somebody. I meet Joe, John and Sean for the first time, and I'm sure I've got a serious case of deer-in-the-headlights going on by now as Joe hands me a VIP badge - not a weekend pass but a VIP. I stick with Larry Lamb and we both look around, just floored. There's Dan Kramer, who invented the consumer model of the trakball for Atari for the 2600, the home computers, and the 5200. The Intellivision guys occupy a couple of whole tables. There's Robert Brown, instrumental in the design of the 2600 and the Starpath Supercharger. In short, there's damn near everybody here - and I have to admit that I'm just petrified. I'm normally pretty shy anyway, but stick me in a room full of my game-programming heroes and I'm a tree stump.

Until Steve Woita spots my name tag, drags me into the fray, and promptly introduces me to Dan Kramer and quite a few others. Steve had asked, a few weeks before, to use my news blurb about his new Clickum PC game on the back cover of a special limited release just for CGE, so he's returning the favor. The alumni instantly bombard me with stories of the old days at Atari - the good old days, the bad later days, and everything in between. In the dark days following Ray Kassar's sudden departure from Atari, James Morgan (referred to in this conversation as "cigarette guy" owing to his previous promising career at R.J. Reynolds) was installed as the company's president by Warner Communications, and was immediately assailed by marketing department research indicating that the home market wanted a trakball. Dan Kramer was already on the case, and decided to introduce his prototype unforgettably: he gate-crashed an executive meeting wearing a home-made blue-and-red superhero suit, and, as Trak-Man, personally delivered the prototype trakball to the boardroom table. And left. In a big hurry. A really big hurry.

Dan Kramer and Steve Woita introduce me to Atari coin-op designer Franz Lanzinger and some of the Intellivision guys, and a bit of nervousness sets in once again. As much as I loved a lot of the stuff that came out of Atari's labs in the 70s and 80s, I also admired the tenacity and ingenuity of those who had the guts to take on the biggest video game company in the world. The Intellivsion guys, the Odyssey² guys, they rock - they were up against it and they knew it. I can relate to that struggle, and yet I'm still in awe.

Which brings me nicely to meeting Bill Kunkel, one of the troika of editors who founded Electronic Games, the first video game magazine in the world - and still my favorite. I introduce myself to him as one of Chris Cavanaugh's writers from Classic Gamer Magazine - a publication which Bill joined toward the end of its too-brief existence - and at the mention that I was the guy who did a lot of CGM's Odyssey² coverage, I'm regaled with stories of the 1983 Knoxville World's Fair and the bizarreness that was the Pick Axe Pete Pick-Off. Dinner is finally served, and Bill Kunkel insists on me sitting next to he and his wife Laurie. Larry Lamb is also there, as is Dan Kramer, providing MST3K-worthy commentary on the proceedings. I swap more stories with Bill about the old days, what's happened that's changed the market, and his adventures (and misadventures) in the specialty market of outsourced strategy guide research and writing. I'm trying to be businesslike and attentive the whole time, and trying not to let my guard down and go on a spiel about how that magazine he co-founded was one of my big inspirations for getting into writing, which is now how I make a living.

It occurs to me later that I probably should have - I just didn't want to do it right then and there, this is really their moment, not mine. As Dan Kramer cracks wise from our table 2/3 of the way toward the back of the dining room, Joe, Sean and John hold court, giving out the CGE alumni awards to several people. Walter Day's there too, introducing us to the newest video game high score world record holders. Holy cow, but I can't envision playing anything long enough to rack up that kind of score! Then John drops the bomb by revealing the special event he had hinted at earlier quite vaguely.

Nolan Bushnell is coming to CGE for the first time. Holy cow. I'm in on the secret half a day earlier than most other guests, but I hold my tongue to preserve the surprise - unnecessary, really, as Nolan's name is all over the keynote schedule posted first thing Saturday morning - though in listening in on the crowd banter Saturday, I hear some people expressing their doubts that he'll show. As big a catch as that is for this event, I have no doubt - I don't think it would've been announced if it wasn't certain to happen.

My one regret about the alumni dinner: I have no pictures. When I originally got the invite, it was made clear that this is an occasion for the alumni to relax and let their hair down without being "on display." I felt it wouldn't have been appropriate to bring a camera - then I got there and realized that all the alumni brought their own cameras! So somewhere, Steve Woita's got a picture of me laughing my ass off at Dan Kramer's Trak-Man story.

After that announcement, it's still a whirlwind. The party and the guests disperse, and I wind up talking to Ian Baronofsky, trying to sell him on the wonder that is the Odyssey². As I'm talking with Ian, people I've never met before are calling my name, and it's time for a round of introductions - in person, for the first time ever - with Jaime ("Punkoffgirl"), Mat ("Mayhem"), Kristine ("Queen of the Felines"), Nathan ("Anotherfluke," and the whole reason there's an NES section on this site, by the way), Keith ("Raccoon Lad"), Tim Snider (a.k.a. "Sniderman"), Matt Reichert ("Tempest," the webmaster of atariprotos.com), and others - sorry if I can't even remember. I met so many people that night - people I felt like I'd known forever and yet have never met. That also goes for Mark Holtz, who I've known for some eight years and yet have never met despite him having written for my site many times (in fact, he originally hosted it); he showed up briefly before the alumni dinner.

I go upstairs later to look in on a party attended by most of the Digital Press folks, spread across three adjoining rooms. By this point, I've been awake for nearly 60 hours. I think I stay for about five minutes, meet Laura ("Atar1g1rl") and her husband Michael while I'm there, watch a game of John Woo-style NES Duck Hunt in progress (which basically involves taking a flying leap across the room while trying to draw a bead on those pesky ducks with the light gun), and decide to call it a night.