M@CC Throwback Event
The Minorities at the College of Computing (M@CC) held its annual Throwback event on Tuesday, February 16th. Each year, Throwback is themed to give a certain era or genre of gaming -- board games and video games -- the spotlight once again. Previous years have highlighted 80’s-90’s videogames games and last year’s event was centered on multicultural board and video games from around the world (Throwback International). This year, M@CC focused on music gaming with games like Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Rock Band -- inspiring the event’s title, Throwback Hero.
Throwback Hero was arranged as a pick-up-and-play arcade, with TVs lining both sides of Klaus 1116 and consoles occupying both projectors. Thanks to many student volunteers from around Georgia Tech, a large spectrum of consoles was represented. There were a few Xbox360s, a few Playstation 3s, a Wii, and a Playstation 2, all of which offered students a number of platforms for game play. The list of games included Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band 1 and 2, and DJ Hero. Groups of students typically played in teams of four on the projectors in Klaus tackling Rock Band 2’s song list with one particular student exploring his vocal skills with Blink 182 -- many, many times. Students enjoyed being able to play with similarly-skilled teammates, as evidenced by the moments of synchronous head-bobbing and finger-twitching every student displayed during Expert play.
Attendees enjoyed the variety of games, pizzas, drinks, and snacks available at Throwback Hero, with many of the refreshments disappearing within the final fifteen minutes of the event. A number of students reported having played games they had never had the chance to play before Throwback Hero, and they appreciated the relatively short wait times to play all of the games. As advertised, students had the opportunity to win prizes at Throwback Hero by participating in the “Throwback Score Attack: Guitar Hero 3” challenge. Contestants could sign-up in-person during the event or online, using the event website -- ThrowbackHero.com. Students were given one chance to play pre-selected songs on Medium, Hard, or Expert difficulty competing for the highest score amongst the contestants. Each difficulty level corresponded to a particular prize, rewarding the higher skilled players with better prizes. Although many students participated in the score attack challenge only three skilled players walked home with new speakers or headphones.
M@CC hopes to continue to provide its annual Throwback events to the College of Computing and Georgia Tech population, and is always looking for ideas for events. If you have any ideas for Throwback, events in general, or want to be more involved in the College of Computing community, feel free to join M@CC on Tuesdays at 6pm on the third floor of the College of Computing, Room 354. For more information, email terris@gatech.edu.
