ISETV Los Angeles, May 23-24, 1998

I played ISETV with the Grey Team, captained by Todd Squire and also including Marc Lauinger and Mike Lyons. Frankly I spent most of the weekend being amazed. Not knowing what to expect, and bringing only a small duffel bag, I was shocked at what other teams carried in their vans. GPS, multiple cell phones with car-mounted antennas, walkie talkies with headsets ... we were a little less prepared, not even having a flashlight per team member nor the compass we needed for one of the clues.

ISETV started on the Queen Mary in Long Beach in a conference room. We then went south to Newport Beach, then northeast through Anaheim and Riverside up into the San Bernadino Mountains, then all around the high desert, completely encircling Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base and visiting a volcanic cinder cone in the metropolis of Amboy, California. We then headed back to LA via Barstow, visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame and finishing in Griffith Park. (Our minivan had over 1000 miles on it when we turned it back in—definitely the most mileage of any Game I've played.) The Grey Team was seriously in last place for much of early Sunday morning, not aided by a 1.5 hour wrong turn, but did recover to be part of the last pack. The Pink Team won by a hefty margin. (Results, and a LA Times article.)

Highlights:

  • Digging for a clue at Newport Beach, and swimming in the Pacific to get the next one
  • Envelope full of bugs
  • Karaoke in a redneck bar in the High Desert (Devil Went Down to Georgia)
  • A Laser Tag game vs. enemies with night-finder goggles (unfortunately we were so late by that point they'd gone home)

ISETV was hosted by the Yellow Team and has by far the most complete website of any Game. They can do a much better job describing the clues than I ever could.

John Owens | Game Home Page | Last updated .