BotCon 2000, the seventh annual US national Transformers fan convention, conducted in organizer 3H Enterprises' backyard of Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Grand Wayne Center from 28-31 July 2000, was a great success. My own reports, reviews and synopses on the individual components follow. Text is copyright Phillip Thorne and The Non-Sequitur Express, ©2000, all rights reserved. Page last updated 7 November 2000.
Tony Buchanan
Saturday, 13:00-14:00
I attended this panel at BC99, so I skipped it this year -- after fabricating name placards for the panelists, who included:
(S.Laborde ran the art show, and T.Finn had the "Ten Things You Didn't Know" panel.) The gist is: there is fandom beyond the Web. Some material is better presented in hardcopy. It's a labor of love; no-one makes a profit. Release schedules are erratic. There's news, articles, fanfic, comics, art.
Tim Finn
Saturday, 16:00-17:00
The first exhibit was a doubled set of five unaired "and knowing is half the battle" PSAs (public service announcements) featuring Bumblebee, Tracks, Red Alert, Seaspray, and Powerglide. The first set was raw animation and voice tracks. The second had been color-corrected, with music, sound effects and foley. He noted that another Marvel cartoon, "Jem," used a different phrase ("and knowing makes you a superstar!") so he'd hoped the TF spots would have yet a third motto, perhaps "and knowing, you are transformed."
Exhibit #2 was the TF:TM demo reel, with the "STII" music and a voiceover apparently aimed at theater chain owner. It featured not only test footage (Ultra Magnus in the wrong colors, etc.), but also a few unused seconds (Lithone being digested, Galvatron dropping through a trapdoor as Unicron transforms).
Exhibit #3 comprised many of the storyboards for TF:TM. Sequence #2 (over 50 panels) for unproduced "optical printing" (CGI) opening credits. Sequence #15 featuring Spike in an early (or off-model) exosuit design. A 36-panel sequence for an unproduced battle in which Prime enters and clobbers the Seekers who try to tackle him, and Devastator is fragmented by a concerted missile barrage. Further fighting aboard Astrotrain. "What'd'e say 'is name was?" "He didn't." Magnus holds an early version of the Matrix, is drawn and quartered by the Sweeps, and Wreck-gar overhears Galvatron's plan to confront Unicron with it. Explicit explanation that Unicron tears himself apart due to Matrix-induced pain.
Exhibit #4, additional production materials: A TF:TM call sheet that indicates on what dates the voices were recorded. (We could corroborate John Moschitta's claim that he didn't meet Eric Idle.) A 80%-page ad from the _New York Times_ on opening day. The evolution of the movie poster. A glossy one sheet from 1986 _Variety_ in which Sunbow advertises what packages stations can buy. A memo to TV stations with early TF logotype.
Exhibit #5 was a subset of boards drawn by Bob Forward for "Code of Hero," featuring his visual shorthand for Dinobot. Tim explained that (1) Forward defied union regs by doing the boards, since he was the ep's director and (2) it's unusual for one person to board an entire episode -- usually it's 5 artists and a supervisor.
And finally the miscellaneous: An ad for the Atari 7800 videogame system that aired during an ep of G1. A scene from the Japanese "Headmasters" series in which the Destrons gun down a crowd of fleeing humans. A scene from a G1 ep dubbed in Spanish. And Tim's own "Burn Rubber" project for animation class; it looked like a "South Park" filter applied to the first minutes of "More than Meets the Eye."
Interspersed were TV ads for TF:TM (Today, Now Playing, Opens August Eighth (teen version), International), the G2 show (Optimus and the Cybernet Spacecube, using TF:TM clips) and the toys (Micromaster bases, Monster Pretenders, Sharkticons (with TF:TM), Actionmasters, Mega Pretenders, G2 Constructicons and (grey) Dinobots, G2 Aerialbots and Combaticons, first BW with CG Megacroc and Batimus).
Sunday, 09:00-11:15
"I've got better things to do this morning than die laughing..." I thought, so I attended only the tail end of M.Sipher et al's annual homage to the worst moments of animated Transformeriania. After commentating on "The Dweller in the Depths" ("Sure, the scientist gets to hold the cute girl's hand,") one of the trio (it may've been three; it was very dark and I was wayyyy in the back) started repeatedly chanting "In the year two-thousand-and-one..." in a horrible, painful, quavering /a capella/ voice. (Only later, and entirely coincidentally while surfing channels, did I realize this was taken from "Late Night with Conan O'Brien.")
"Takara will introduce a toy so complex, it requires three grown men and a horse to transform. The attached cartoon will be aimed at five- to seven-year-olds."
"An issue of _ToyFare_ will finally feature more mentions of Transformers than of 'Star Wars,' but only half as many mentions as of the latest MacFarlane toy that looks like a diseased lung."
The credit sequence (projected on the room's big screen) including such /bon mots/ as "December 1996: Bob Forward pays Canadian censors $500 to allow "The Low Road" on the air."
Ravestrike
Sunday, 11:15-12:00
[Disclaimer: the following synopsis is to the best of my recall and scribbled notes. I've never played said game, or any title on either of these two platforms, so I've probably garbled terminology and capabilities. I worked as a concept artist for a *PC* game developer (Vicarious Visions) for a while, but even *then* I was largely divorced from the technology.]
The presenter, Ravestrike, was (is?) an employee of Capcom. His boss, a Mr.Suzuki, was attending the Tokyo Game Show and learned of "Beast Wars Metals" game (Japanese version only) for PlayStation and Nintendo-64. Hasbro Interactive declined to port the game to the North American market, so Mr.Suzuki formed a new company, GenAzea, and subcontracted to Ravestrike to do the proof-of-concept that would prove porting ability. (GenAzea itself has only two employees.) After they got the contract, they had one month for conversion, at a cost of $20,000 -- paid by Takara.
(While Ravestrike talked, Black Zarak dueled with all challengers on first the N64, then PlayStation versions of the game.)
The Japanese backstory suffers from conflicts with the BW TV continuity, so Ravestrike penned a new story. After "Nemesis," while being carried off to Cybertron, Dragon-Megatron sent a message through transwarp space to his earlier self, just before the planetbuster transwarp wave hit. First -- get out of the base! (Thus Terrorsaur and Scorponok weren't immolated, and when the Maximals pursued, Rhinox and Airrazor were transmetallized.) Second, the location of Rampage's stasis pod (thus he appears in a scene with the Golden Disk, before it was otherwise/when destroyed by Dinobot). Third, Transmetal2 data that lets him enhance Blackarachnia, and keep her loyal.
Ravestrike added four secret characters for the US market -- Tigatron, Ravage, Blackarachnia and Windrazor (the BC99 exclusive). Most of the Mainframe voice cast reprised their roles -- including Gary Chalk, Ian Corlett, David Kaye, Scott McNeil, Doug Parker, and the voices of the _Axalon_ and _Darkside_ computers. Ravestrike himself voiced Windrazor. There's also Starscream (a reskin of TM-Waspinator). The added US material boosts the cartridge size from 96 to 128MB.
The secret characters are only available in Versus mode. One way to unlock them is to hold all four buttons (L1+L2+R1+R2), then hit a directional button, then exit and re-enter the selection screen. Repeat three times.
On the N64, Ravage is just a reskinned Cheetor. Several elements didn't get into this version, including 12 G1 characters (reskins of a limited number of models: Seekers, Autobot cars, Optimus). The developer (WaveEdge?) stopped making N64 games and fired the relevant modelers. The limited production run was sold entirely to Blockbuster Video, so wait for the rental copies to appear in the bargain bin.
The Sony PlayStation's secondary palette is used. The CD-based game provides richer graphics and voice samples, but the N64 has deeper gameplay -- e.g. you can transform to avoid weapons blasts. Plus, it uses flat backgrounds, so it can dedicate extra polygons to the characters.
Future plans... There's no PC port of BWM planned, but Ravestrike supposes it might run on the available emulators -- he hasn't tested it personally. For 2001, GenAzea wants to produce a G1-BW crossover game for the PS2, with G1-style packaging; up to 4 players, battle-themed but not necessarily a fighter. They retain the rights to the unused actor voice samples (each character has 12 opening lines). It'll officially be developed for Japan (where market entry barriers are lower), but it's a backdoor plot for the US. Ravestrike hopes to have both Jetfire and Skyfire, plus Cybertron-mode Seeker tetrajets. The GenAzea website (not yet populated) will host a character poll. If the Sega Dreamcast (which is less capable than the PS2, but has higher market penetration) is still selling well in 2002, the game may be ported to it.