December 22, 2014 / by Eric

We’ve still got a week more of holidays for you to enjoy and get in on.

December 22, Monday

open

We’ll be open. All day. That’s a holiday in itself. Right?

December 23, Saint Netrunners Day

This is one of those new fangled holidays that the kids are all into these days. Something about the battle of Saint Eisenstein of the Jesuit Technorati against the dark forces of the Oligarchic Corporatocracy. Or something like that. Anyway, we have the latest data packs in and will be hosting our last Netrunner casual play of 2014 that evening.

source

December 24, Christmas Eve


A Podcast for All Intents and Purposes
‘s Andrew Asplund will be joining me for an evening of mirth and merriment as we cohost our annual Christmas Eve show. We’ll be slingin’ deals, wrapping gifts and making dreams come true all night long. All while performing some of our best comedy and dance routines, like, “Cumberbach was a terrible Khan,” “What ever happened to Castlevania?” and, “Yes, the A-Team was totally a caper show.”

the big show

December 25, Christmas

We’ll be with our friends and family. And we hope that you will be too.

xmashulk

December 26, Boxing Day

We’ll be back with hard hitting deals like making All Gift Cards worth 50% More for one day only. Boom.

Super Ali

December 27, Karate Day

Unlike most game stores, or stores in general, we don’t stop at Boxing Day. Oh no. Ohhh no no no. We show proper respect to our brothers in the East with a Buy a New Game and get a Used Game for FREE deal that’ll knock your socks off!

street fighter
December 28, Ninjitsu Day

But the deadliest of all holidays, is Ninjitsu Day. It just rolls on up and smokes you with deals like All Remaining Prewrapped Gifts are HALF OFF. Yes. It’s all true.

illninja

And after all that, we’ll be lucky to just be alive.

December 17, 2014 / by Eric

We’re a week out from Christmas (Which, according to the Tardis Data Core, is a small town on the planet Trenzalore. And if you caught that reference, you should totally come out to this . You’ll fit right in.) and, as I promised last week, we’ve still got a wide range of options to meet your holiday needs. Whatever they are.

Want to make a game donation to families in need?

You’ve only got a couple of days left to participate in our Used Game for New Game Drive as I’ll be taking the new games to Treehouse this Friday afternoon.

Need a wrapped White elephant or Secret Santa gift in a hurry?

We know. We get those requests every year. So we’ve prewrapped a bunch of mystery games by theme and price (they come in $5, $10 & $20 versions because we know most Secret Santa exchanges come with tight budgeting restrictions and you want to get the best bang for your preset buck). We’ll be wrapping new gifts daily with themes like “train,” “classic” and “star trek” (if you get the one marked “ferengi,” I promise you won’t be disappointed).

Turst him. Santa Quark knows what he's talking about.

When it comes to holiday deals, you can count on Santa Quark.

Speaking of wrapping, I’ll wrap one small to medium sized gift per customer, time permitting, when I’m around, for free, as a sign of appreciation and respect for your choosing us for your holiday gift source this year. For those of you who’ve seen my wrapping, you’ll know what a deal this is. I look forward to personally wrapping as many gifts as I can this year. We’ll see how I do.

Want to unwind from a busy day of holiday shopping?

This December, bring a receipt from Gamma Ray Games for $24.99 or more over to our Raygun Lounge and enjoy 10% OFF your purchase of any food or drink we sell, including our new grilled cheese and hot dog meal specials as well as our most popular (Seattle Cider!), hardest to get (Klingon Warnog! and seasonal beverages (Bah Humbug!). So come on in, take a load off, play a game with a friend visiting from out of town and enjoy a sweet deal on your meals and drinks together.

Running behind and need some last minute gifts?

We’ll be open every day between now Christmas, including Monday the 22nd and Christmas Eve itself. And speaking of Christmas Eve, we have a little tradition around here at Gamma Ray. Every Christmas Eve, I bring in a Special Guest and we co-host an intimate little gathering. Kind of like or used to do. This year’s guests will be internet sensation Andrew Asplund from a Podcast For All Intents and Purposes and Abby the Wonderdog from… well, my backyard. Because nobody puts Abby in a corner. At least not on Christmas Eve. We’ll be doing some song and dance numbers, drinking a little too much and selling and wrapping gifts together all evening long. Just like in the days of yore.

December 10, 2014 / by Eric

The holiday season is upon us! (I believe it’s a level 5 Encounter this year.)

Artists rendition of this encounter. And yes, I did use this picture last year. I just love it so much.

Artists rendition of this encounter. And yes, I did use this picture last year. I just love it so much.

And while this season comes with all of our usual holiday stuff, like the Used Games for New Games Drive, my mad wrapping skills,

Oh, you think I kid?

Oh, you think I kid?

our prewrapped Secret Santa and White Elephant gifts (for when you really care but have a preset budget and need to be there in 20 minutes) and our annual Christmas Eve show, that’s not what I actually wanted to talk with you about today.

No. What I want to talk with you today is… WE DID IT! As of last week, we actually got our certificate of occupancy! And although that’s HUGE, that’s not the half of it! Not only have the shop and the new art gallery settled in nicely (and legally) but the neighbors are actually gone (like gone gone) and the landlord’s actually redone the bathroom!

No longer does the bathroom look like this,

Black Flag

this

Anarchy Now

or this.

Not pictured: a naked 6 foot tall man towel bathing himself and his three pit bulls while his girlfriends attempts to flush her syringe down the only working toilet.

Not pictured: a naked 6 foot tall man towel bathing himself and his three pit bulls while his girlfriends attempts to flush her syringe down the only working toilet.

Now it’s a quiet, pristine, private bathroom! With a nice ceiling even! I can’t believe it. I just go in there to meditate now.*

For all intents and purposes (no, not Andrew’s podcast, I’m just using the expression), this is an ENTIRELY NEW space. And in that spirit, we’re having a GRAND RE-OPENING party all month long. Starting this Thursday, with the L|td’s amazing Fourth Annual Star Wars Art Show Opening; bring a new friend, tell the bartender that it’s your first time in since the remodel and your friend’s first time ever, and we will give you a buy-one-get-a-friend’s-drink-for-free-special. That’s right, we’re giving out (almost) FREE BEER (in certain cases, for qualifying recipients, see above for details).

So really, come out, see the new Star Wars show, try something off of our expanded Winter menu (now with hot dogs and grilled cheese!), take advantage of our shop’s free custom ordering system and check out our newly re-opened shop/lounge/gallery space!

And while you’re in the neighborhood, stop by some of our newest neighbors, like the recently opened Art Primo and Homestead Seattle. Lower Pine is making a comeback!

*I do not actually go into the bathroom solely for the purposes of meditation. But when I get in there, it just drops me into zen state. Luckily time slows down for me when I’m in a zen state so even though I feel like I’ve been in there for hours, I’m actually in and out in a very timely manner. Don’t hog the bathroom, people. It’s for everyone. And by everyone, I mean our customers only, 1 patron at a time, like God and the Washington State Zoning Commission intended it.

December 03, 2014 / by Eric
Used Games for New Games for Foster Kids

While there’s always a lot to talk about, (seriously, have you SEEN the new bathroom yet? Your eyes will be blinded by cleanliness), what we’re talking about today is — like it or not, ready or not — it’s December (yes, already).

And that means it’s time for our annual USED GAMES FOR NEW GAMES FOR FOSTER CHILDREN DRIVE wherein we ask you, the gaming community, to bring in your old games to us, so that we can turn them into store credit and use that credit to buy new games (kind of like making new cards in Hearthstone) that we donate to the Treehouse Wearhouse so that King County Foster Families can have free games for Christmas this year. It’s a great, completely free, way for you to share your passion and interests with some of our most deserving community members this holiday season so, please, by all means, bring in some used games for us to upcycle. You’ll be glad you did.

Stay tuned for posts about our new layout now that we’re Captiol Hill’s only game store/game lounge/art gallery(!), update on table reservations and space rental, and our new & improved December event schedule very soon. And if you just can’t wait, we’d love to see you. Come in anytime and we’ll bring you up to date. I’ll personally be at the counter all day this Friday and Sunday talking about things I can’t even imagine yet and happily answering all your questions.