Like a 36-year-old movie sequel we are back, and coming in hot1.

That’s right, this year we are all about Top Gun: Maverick2, the hugely popular sequel (remake?) with old-timey jets, a contrived mission, a death-star-like trench, all sorts of contorted nosebleed high-G maneuvers, unseen bad guys, and a little ground fighting just for fun. We are all in. What’s not to like?

This year, it is our goal give you the full Top Gun “Danger Zone” experience by putting you and your friends in the latest jet aircraft to let you fight it out over the Dallas skyline. Once you crash — and you will — your team can do some ground fighting3.

The live action event begins at 9pm Monday, November 14, right after SC’s Opening Gala.

Coordinates: Gilley’s Dallas – 1135 Botham Jean Blvd

Top Gun is all about competition. And so’s the TOP500 list. So FLOP GUN offers a competition of our own — one part Air Game and one part Ground Game. Scroll down for more info.

As usual, our wonderful supporting vendors will be providing great music and refreshments, complete with the latest NyQuil chicken recipe4. We will provide quiet places to hang with your colleagues where you can talk about HPC or blockchain NFT strategies5.

You will need a conference badge to enter, unless you want to volunteer as a laser tag practice dummy.

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Footnotes:
[1] Hopefully not feverishly hot, but jet fighter lingo hot. Because if you have a fever, stay home and learn to twerk on TikTok or something.
[2]  The original Top Gun: Tom Cruise came out in 1986. For those of you we consider the previously unborn, that is 2 years before the first Supercomputing show and 5 years before the first Top500 list.
[3] Okay, we went a little overboard — for some reason we can’t have actual dog fights over Dallas and we can’t use real jets or bullets either. We will, however, provide the next best thing using virtual flight simulators and laser tag! Kind of a “safe danger zone” thing…
[4] It is a thing, Google it. BTW we prefer Vick’s 44 Chicken, but then there’s no accounting for bad taste.
[5] NFT = Non-Fungible Tokens, and look, let’s be honest, no one knows exactly what that means.
About the ’vid:

We expect Covid to be an issue for a bit longer, and the Beowulf Bash fully supports and invites Bash attendees to abide by the HPC Community Covid Safety Pledge: current vaccinations, pre- and post-testing, and masking.

We do know science, after all.

logo for the HPC Help Prevent Covid initiative
The FLOP GUN Competition

  1. Form a team of between 2-6 players. You will be asked to register the team when you arrive, and all players must be present.
  2. Play a last-man-standing Laser Tag challenge against another team.
  3. Send your team’s best two pilots into a virtual dog fight against another team’s best two pilots, through VR. A flight practice area will be available to warm up.
  4. The team with the highest score after both activities wins. Obviously.