Mario Kart 64 at the Four Quarters pub
So last Sunday there was a 7-hour marathon over at the Four Quarters Bar and Grill. No, I’m not talking about running of course. I’m talking about the Mario Kart 64 tournament organised by the Aequitas Theatre Company, which was a very long event spanning the whole afternoon and evening.
The Four Quarters
So, first things first; I’d like to talk about the venue. I dunno, there’s just something magical about going into a place that specialises in retro games. I still find it a bit taboo to mention that I like to play videogames around people because there still seems to be some judging going on regarding that. So when I see a temple dedicated to retro gaming specifically, it always manages to wow me. The live arcade cabinets downstairs, some of which require US coins and others that need UK coins just makes it all look a lot more like a warehouse of salvage, saving refugee arcade games from all over the world. The Four Quarters Bar is amazing, I seriously suggest it for anyone who’s passing by London if you can navigate yourself to get there.
The Mario Kart 64 competition
I just realised how long the description was, so I collapsed it:
The first round was a 1v1 grand prix on the Mushroom Cup and the winners moved on to the 2nd round. The losers made it into a redemption round where the top 3 scorers on a time trial moved on to the 2nd round. This next round was a 1v1v1 vs match through the four courses of the flower cup. Those that scored in 1st and 2nd moved on to the semifinals.
The semifinals consisted of four 1v1v1v1 vs matches on the Star Cup of which the winners moved to the final, and the runner-ups went to the 3/4th place match.
So now that that’s out of the way, onto a bit of results. I got really close in the first round to winning, but lost by a small margin. Then I placed 3rd in the time trial, so I managed to get into the quarter finals where I got in 2nd. That got me up to the semifinals where I got one 1st and three 4ths so I was eliminated. It was a whole lot of fun, I never had my heart pounding so hard from playing a videogame before. Would try again!
In the two final matches, the races were very one-sided with not a lot of photo-finish endings. Congrats to Ben, winner of the 1st place and a Nintendo 64!
The Raffle
There was also a raffle that took place with a bunch of different prizes. These included a wine bottle (there is no such thing as a raffle without one), a £30 gift voucher for Retro Game Base, a Dr Who tour, a Peach Amiibo and a SNES with Donkey Kong Country. I ended up winning the SNES after the first winner didn’t show up (several times) but put it up for re-raffling since I already have one.
Overall, the event was a whole lot of fun. Ten out of ten, would lose tournament again!
Gallery
My upvote for the winners
The final results screen. Just note that the scores are the sum of other matches also played on this console, not just the four played in the final.
Race #3 of the final match: Special Cup’s Banshee Boardwalk.
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