Atari Age at OVGE?

[8bitgamer]

Have you guys considering setting up a booth at OVGE? Tulsa is an eight-hour drive from Austin, which is managable, and you would surely reach a new customer base that would be fascinated by the many homebrew titles you guys have for sale.

[Albert]

I've actually setup a booth at least twice at the OVGE, but haven't been there in several years. It's certainly the closest show to me at the moment, especially compared to hiking all the way out to CGE, PRGE or Midwest Gaming Classic. However, and this is a problem with many of the "regional" shows, you don't get as many "hard core" classic gamers that even know what homebrew games are. Since that's primarily what I sell at these shows, I tend not to do very well at them.

 

People come in, see tons of cheap, common 2600 games for a dollar each (and more importantly, the games they remember playing when they were younger) and then see all the 2600 games I have priced at $20 and $25. Even after explaining what homebrew games are (which I do countless times at these shows--I think I only did that once at CGE this past weekend), people still aren't interested in them. Typically the only people who will buy homebrew games are those who are already familiar with them, which in my experience is a small subset of attendees at the smaller shows.

 

I'm not knocking shows like OVGE at all, just saying that they aren't necessarily a great fit for me to spend a lot of time and money attending. PhillyClassic and CGE have been the best in this regard. I went to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this past fall and that probably fell somewhere in between the two.

 

..Al

[8bitgamer]

That certainly makes sense, Albert. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

 

BTW. It was great seeing you guys and your booth at CGE. I decided to take Monday off since I was so tired from the trip. I spent much of the day playing the games I had bought at the show. I was blown away by the quality of Lady Bug for the 2600 and Jr. Pac-Man for the 7800. I'm now wishing I had picked up a few more titles, but there's always mail order and next year's CGE.

 

Keep up the great work, and kudos to the fans/programmers for doing such a fine job on those (and other) titles!

Edited August 3, 2010 by 8bitgamer