Classic and modern video game fans will find entertainment of their liking at the 2008 Video Game Summit on Saturday, July 12, at the Heron Point Building, 645 W. North Ave., Lombard. Admission is free.

Event organizer Dan Iacovelli of Westchester said the Summit is a great opportunity to play games and meet other gamers from the area.

Gamers nostalgic for the video game consoles of the late 1970s and 1980s will discover there is still a contingent of “retrogamers” who will buy and sell classic games, controllers, systems and memorabilia. In fact, a group of programmers, including Iacovelli, still make new games for the Atari 2600 system, which first came out in 1977 and was discontinued more than 15 years ago.

Iacovelli, chairperson for the Atari Video Club, said he tried the Nintendo and Sega systems that came out in the 1980s but always preferred the Atari consoles — the 2600, the Atari Lynx handheld system released in 1989 and the Atari Jaguar released in 1993.

“I just didn’t care for the other systems,” he said.

This is the fifth year of the Video Game Summit, which took last year off.

“It started as someone posting on a forum that they wanted to get together in Illinois, and it’s grown since then,” Iacovelli said.

Approximately 50 people attenteded the last summit in 2006, although Iacovelli said there could have been more because he was not able to keep a strict attendance record.

The Summit will have several attractions for gamers old and new to enjoy.

Professional video gamer player Todd Rogers, known as “The King of All Video Games,” will referee high-scorers on games and try to set a record on “Gorf Classic” for the Atari Jaguar CD. According to Twin Galaxies, the official scorekeeper in the video game community, Rogers holds 264 world records.

Former Electronic Gaming Monthly writers from the early ’80s Terry Minnich (Trickman Terry) and Ken Williams (Sushi X) will talk about fond early video game experiences.
Winners of a raffle drawing will get the chance to play in a game show, solving word puzzles with a video game or computer theme.

The Atari Jaguar Festival, known as Jagfest, will set up several Jaguar, Lynx and Nuon systems for gamers to play. Attendees are welcome to bring any of those systems to set up.

The Summit will hold a Nintendo DS party for more modern gamers in the Deli room of the building.

Finally, gamers can experience a modern take on a classic game with a video pinball tournament for the Nintendo Wii.

Tournament organizer Paul Zimmerman was a referee at last year’s Midwest Gaming Classic in Wisconsin. He said he liked the idea of having a theme for a tournament and noticed the traditional pinball machines were popular.

“So, I decided for the Video Game Summit to combine both types of games, video games and pinball machines, into one tournament so that we can have the best players from both types of games compete,” Zimmerman said in an e-mail interview.

Zimmerman has coined video pinball as VIDpin and said if this tournament is a success, he will continue it in future years on different systems.

Register at www.avc.atari-users.net/VGS.html or at the event. Entry is $5 up 10 minutes before the first round at 10 a.m. and $10 after that.