The Stacks – New Zealand Stacks Up in Singapore
by: Aston Talbot
COMEX and the IT Show are two of the biggest electronics shows in Singapore, run together at Singapore’s massive SunTec Convention Centre. It’s a mix of a trade show showing a wide range of the latest and greatest gadgets, and a sale with some hard to beat PC and electronics packages on offer with loads of giveaways and accessories.
While not a gaming convention per se, hardware, and your rig are important. With the 4K consoles and Dolby Atmos hitting the market, with a splash to upgrade your entertainment set-up. I can say my Project Scorpio edition XBox One X that has only just been able to pump itself out of a new 50” 4K TV (courtesy of being in a new Singapore electronics market) is a massive change compared to the hardy brick of a 500gb XB1 on a measly 32” 1080p screen, and that was the bees knees when I finally upgraded from my XBox 360! The older 360 titles like Forza Horizon now looks like a new game built for the late HD/early 4K era… such is a testament to the industry developers whose games contain so much, that it was only the hardware throttling the resolution.
Anyway… I digress.
With me setting up a small chapter of The Stacks in New Zealand after winding up my career up in the Regular Forces, an opportunity came up for myself and the family to move away for a two to three role back in the Navy, based in Singapore… hey, someone’s gotta do it, standing rough and ready on the wall etcetera. Eager to make it a good opportunity for Stack Up, this first foray into the Singapore scene was a great way to get the lay of the land and find out what sort local and overseas brands are active in the area, and to gauge what sort of effort they put into pushing gaming in a larger tech sector.
It was great to see a lot of PCs specced for gaming and a lot of large TV and Sound set-ups pushing their suitability for consoles. There was also an area that looked like it was being set up for a mini eSports tournament but sadly the screen was only streaming some Twitch gamers. Sony had it’s VR and some driving setups and Microsoft was running a Forza 7 lap challenge on a massive 4K set-up with the daily best lap time nabbing the game and the show winner getting a One X. Secret Lab had a PC chair in the driving rig on gas struts that rocked and rolled along with the driver on the circuit.
In Singapore; we have US, UK, Australian and New Zealand Forces posted in various capacities supporting their Navies. The initial visit to COMEX and the IT Show was a good precursor for the main booking in the calendar in October, GameStart 2018 and also good to gather some intel. GameStart is South East Asia’s largest eSports/Gaming convention, and I’m hoping this first event is the start of some Stack Up representation activities around base for the deployed forces and their families.
This months Call to Arms might be a quiet affair here in Singapore but hopefully, you will all hear more in the future while a couple of the team in New Zealand keep things ticking over back home.
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