GenieKnows Games Narrowing the field

I first became aware of VoodooPC about five years ago. You can imagine my shock the first time I “built” a Voodoo on their website and found that the price exceeded $8000 CAN and this was without a monitor! There was no way I would buy such a machine but after getting over the shock and being educated by my son about the high quality of the machine and the follow up customer care, I decided to take the plunge and got a fully loaded F-Class system, painted Ferrari red.  No, I was not having a mid-life crisis.

That was 2003 and my Voodoo is still working well albeit starting to lag behind which is what caused my son and I to start looking at buying a new machine in the fall of 2007. If we wanted to play Crysis then we had to upgrade. We considered all of the usual machines out there but the chatter on various forums held us back from making a decision to buy. We wanted to wait for the Penryn and did not want to get stuck without having a good upgrade path.

Luckily my son read in PC Gamer about a new system being launched in October 2007 for delivery in November – the HP Blackbird 002 Dedication edition. It got the highest rating ever for a system in PC Gamer, 97%. What intrigued us was the fact that the Blackbird 002 or BB, had Voodoo DNA inside. In other words it was designed and built by the folks at VoodooPC in Calgary, Alberta even though Voodoo had been purchased by HP.

This was all we needed to hear in terms of making a purchasing decision.

Buying a Voodoo is like buying the Ferrari of computers. You want to enjoy the purchase experience as much as the actual ownership. The folks at Voodoo know how to do this and HP continues to allow them the leeway to do things in their own rebel Voodoo way with their customers. Chris Sutton, the sales manager, really made the BB purchase sweet and easy. He also has been great with the after-purchase customer care. As part of our discussions I asked Chris if they ever do tours of the Voodoo facilities in Calgary. He told me that if I ever made it to Calgary that they would show me how the magic happens.

Well last week during a visit to Calgary I took Chris up on his offer. I felt like a kid on his first trip to Disney. The guys at Voodoo made sure that I was well received. In true Voodoo customer service, Rob, a senior customer service adviser, offered to pick me up at my hotel and drive me to the Voodoo facilities. Rob was not even scheduled to work until later in the day but he wanted me to have a smooth and trouble free visit. After arriving at Voodoo HQ I was met by Param, a senior sales adviser, who like Rob, is very enthusiastic about Voodoo Computers and their new baby, the Blackbird 002.

Param showed me all of their manufacturing facilities for the BB and the Voodoo desktops and laptops. It was so exciting seeing where all of the Voodoo magic takes place. Understandably Param asked me not to take photos in certain areas (much to my son’s disappointment). The paint shop area was really fascinating. The guys in there really know how to make these rigs look like a million dollars. All of the staff working at Voodoo/HP seemed to really enjoy their work and are definitely passionate about gaming. Quality and bleeding edge is the name of the game at Voodoo. To make sure that they maintain these objectives the R&D guys are constantly pushing the limits of the equipment while the customer service staff work hard at keeping customers fully satisfied in both official languages.

To add to the excitement of my tour, the day I was in Calgary, Voodoo was demonstrating their new Ultimate Motion Gaming Chair at the Calgary 2008 Car Show at the Stampede Park. It is known as the GP-PRO-200 Ultimate Motion Gaming Chair by D Box and Voodoo.  Param suggested that I go and experience the Gaming Chair and Rob made sure I got there. The guys at Voodoo made sure that they set up their Gaming Chair as a racing car simulator across from the Ferrari booth. They had their Gaming Chair hooked up to a Blackbird with a 40 inch plasma screen. I did not catch the name of the racing car game but I can tell you from experiencing it that it felt like the real thing.

The Ultimate Motion Gaming Chair has pedals for gas, break, clutch as well as flippers for finger shifting. I have little experience in playing these types of games so I had a hard time keeping on the track and avoiding spinning out. But it was a ball playing the game. It seemed so real. The hydraulics under the Gaming Chair made sure that you were rocked and thrown around like a real vehicle would if you were doing 180 MPH. The surround sound speakers in the Gaming Chair added to the realism. Of course there was a line up of lots of enthusiastic young people wanting to try the racing car and the folks at Voodoo were most accommodating. They even had a contest you could enter to win a brand new BB (I hope I win!).  I hear they even have a Gaming Chair for flight simulation and are developing one for first person shooters and strategy games.

Thanks VoodooPC for making this big kid’s trip to Calgary a memorable experience. I have bought two of your systems and look forward to buying again.