Screwattack Convention - DFW

[98PaceCar]

http://www.sgconvention.com/event_info.php

Anybody ever been to one of these? How does it compare to the likes of MGC or CGE? Seems a bit steep at $20 a day, but if the dealer room is good it might be worth the trip.

[Dastardly Dylan]

I'll be there. Friends of mine and I are going, I love ScrewAttack.

[98PaceCar]

I'll be there. Friends of mine and I are going, I love ScrewAttack.

I have to admit, I'm not familiar with them. What is their focus? What should I expect at this show?

[Sonicwolf]

I would love to go but the great Canadian frontier prevents me from going. Well, thats just a lame excuse for saying my life is not in order and I dont have the money to spare to fly down into the American central south region. :(

[Dastardly Dylan]

I'm sure Joe will be glad to hear this- Nolan Bushnell will be there.

[Coldguy]

From what I gather from this event is second hand knowledge from someone who attended, here is what he told me:

Last Year this was known as the Iron Man of Gaming, at the event a total of 50 people (non staff) attended. The format consited of competition, event, competiton and repeat. Therefore if you are not in the competition or get elimiated early the oly thing to do is either watch people play games or hover around the booths (which were lacklucker).

New events have a keynote for nolan bushnell and a Jack Thompson debate against another lawyer. Personally the $40 that will be needed to see these two things does not warrent a trip to Texas.

My 2 cents from a second hand account.

[Ryaan1234]

I'll be there. Friends of mine and I are going, I love ScrewAttack.

Me too. Myself and 3 friends are going to the convention. In fact tomorrow we will all discuss the details of the trip. (We're located in Waco)

It looks very cool. With Nolan Bushnell, the AVGN, and Jack Thompson this will be a very neat event.

[16-bit]

I'm thinking about attending as a vendor in 2010.

To those attending this year, please take lots of pictures and let us know the attendance and how the show was overall.

thanks!

[Steve W]

The list of 'vendors' doesn't exactly inspire me. I guess I'd still go to hear Nolan Bushnell speak, though.

[98PaceCar]

The list of 'vendors' doesn't exactly inspire me. I guess I'd still go to hear Nolan Bushnell speak, though.

Where did you find the vendor list? I've been looking for that.

[Steve W]

Where did you find the vendor list? I've been looking for that.
I'm sorry, I misspoke (or mistyped in this instance), I meant to say the list of sponsors.

[98PaceCar]

I'm sorry, I misspoke (or mistyped in this instance), I meant to say the list of sponsors.

Whew! I thought I was losing it.

I'm tempted to go listen to Jack Thompson speak, but I'm not sure if I will or not. Let me know if you decide to go. Would be more fun with a friend.

@16-Bit, if I do go, I'll send you a report on how it is. BTW, thanks for the recommendation on Ketsui, I'm hooked on it BIG time!

[Deadman]

I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm going to go at opening on Friday. I hope there are some decent vendors/collectors selling and trading as that's pretty much why I'm going. I'd love to stick around for Nolan Bushnell but I have to head to Austin on Friday so I'll probably have to leave before 3pm. If anyone knows anything about the vendors, number of vendor tables, etc. post it here so we can know if it's worth the $20 admission!

Thanks!

[8bitgamer]

I live about 15 minutes from the event, so I'll check it out and let everyone know how it went. Seeing Nolan Bushnell should make it a worthwhile endeavor, but I hope there's a good dealer's room as well.

[8bitgamer]

Just got back from the first day of Screw Attack. Lame dealer's room (only two tables were worth looking at, and the room was small), the arcade wasn't much to speak of (dig that X-men four-player game, though), but the Nolan Bushnell keynote address was very entertaining. Also, the staff was super nice, and the event was extremely well attended. Everyone was having a blast with the tournaments.

[98PaceCar]

Anything rare for sale or just run of the mill stuff?

[8bitgamer]

Game Exchange had a nice variety of games from all eras, but nothing really special. The other interesting table had some cool T-shirts and lots of imports. The handheld Sega Genesis systems (not Nomads) they had looked especially cool. I'm not really into imports much, so I'm not sure what they had would qualify as rare. Pretty cool to see, though.

[Ryaan1234]

Just got back from the first day of Screw Attack. Lame dealer's room (only two tables were worth looking at, and the room was small)

I said that I was going, but due to transportation issues I couldn't attend all 3 days. I might be going to see the 2nd or 3rd day, though. I was worried that I was missing some video game deals on the first day, but I'm glad to see that I didn't.

[Steve W]

Crud, I didn't realize that the convention was starting today. I guess it doesn't really matter, since it didn't sound like there was a whole lot to do.

[Fuyukaze]

Wish I could go.

[16-bit]

Any guesses on the number of attendees? What is the name of the business selling imports?

[Deadman]

Turns out my wife made plans for us to visit friends in Austin for the 4th of July weekend so I wasn't able to attend at all. I was going to attend primarily for the dealers room, hoping to find collectors like me who were unloading their extras and up for some trading. Sounds like none of this would have happened so I'm glad I saved my $20 entry fee. What's interesting is I was hoping to have a table to clean out some of my collection but they were all sold out - but with only a couple of tables worth looking at, I'm curious as to how many tables there were total and who some of the other dealer were and what they were selling. Anyone take some good notes??

[8bitgamer]

I posted some photos and some commentary on my blog:

http://brettweisswords.blogspot.com/

[Deadman]

I posted some photos and some commentary on my blog:

http://brettweisswords.blogspot.com/

Cool blog Brett and thanks for the review. I'm still puzzled as to the lack of info on this show from other sources, though. Why aren't the promoters doing a better job of updating their site? Hmmmm... Do you have any other pics of the dealers room?

[8bitgamer]

Cool blog Brett and thanks for the review. Do you have any other pics of the dealers room?

Thanks for the kind words!

Unfortunately, I was so underwhelmed with the dealer's room that I didn't take any more photos of it. Too depressing.

[98PaceCar]

Any guesses on the number of attendees? What is the name of the business selling imports?

I know that the Jack Thompson panel was a full room, probably close to 150 folks or so. My best guess is about 300-500 people wandering around. Overall, the show was not worth the $20. As 8BitGamer said, the dealer room was pathetic. I didn't catch the name of the guy selling imports, but he is no competition for you in any way. There were maybe 100 titles total available. A few saturn, sfc, n64, etc. Nothing of any real interest.

The lack of advertising was a problem, but compared to even the OVGE, this was a tiny show. The arcade was no more than 10 games and the console area that I saw was huge, but sparsely populated. How they managed to pull both Nolan Bushnell and Jack Thompson on a holiday weekend is beyond me (and why was this show on the 4th of July anyway??).

[Deadman]

(and why was this show on the 4th of July anyway??).

EXACTLY!!! I know of about 8 other gamers like myself that had to pass because of family obligations, plus two game shops that were having their own Holiday sales so they couldn't attend either. My guess is that there was a huge discount on the space, as the hotel probably couldn't rent it out that weekend either.

Also, did anyone actually get a room at the hotel? 10 years ago when I used to collect Hot Wheels, the national Hot Wheel conventions had "room to room trading" where everyone got rooms at the hotels, opened their doors and laid out their stuff for selling and trading. Any chance there was any room trading at this show?

[98PaceCar]

EXACTLY!!! I know of about 8 other gamers like myself that had to pass because of family obligations, plus two game shops that were having their own Holiday sales so they couldn't attend either. My guess is that there was a huge discount on the space, as the hotel probably couldn't rent it out that weekend either.

Also, did anyone actually get a room at the hotel? 10 years ago when I used to collect Hot Wheels, the national Hot Wheel conventions had "room to room trading" where everyone got rooms at the hotels, opened their doors and laid out their stuff for selling and trading. Any chance there was any room trading at this show?

I'd have to say no with this crowd. They didn't strike me as collectors as much as pure gamers. The show had a much less commercial feel than the normal classic game show. Not very many people walking around with purchases and honestly, nothing really worth purchasing. The GameExchange booth had a few 2600/Intellivision carts, but they were dirt common. A pretty decent selection of PS1, but no standout games. Not even very much modern stuff for sale.

I got the feeling that this was more of a forum party than anything, so they may not have wanted to attract people from outside of their community.

[8bitgamer]

Surprisingly, I sold a lot of books. More than OEGE and OVGE combined. The audience was very receptive to the book, which was a bit of a surprise to me since most of the attendees seemed to be in their late teens and twenties. At OEGE, which was at a college, and which placed a fair amount of emphasis on education, there was surprisingly little interest in the book. The show was a strange mix of big guests--Nolan and Jack--and over-the-top action (wild ass tournaments and humorous guests--Angry Video Game Nerd and Keith Apicary).

[98PaceCar]

Surprisingly, I sold a lot of books. More than OEGE and OVGE combined. The audience was very receptive to the book, which was a bit of a surprise to me since most of the attendees seemed to be in their late teens and twenties. At OEGE, which was at a college, and which placed a fair amount of emphasis on education, there was surprisingly little interest in the book. The show was a strange mix of big guests--Nolan and Jack--and over-the-top action (wild ass tournaments and humorous guests--Angry Video Game Nerd and Keith Apicary).

I completely forgot to ask if your second volume is out yet? If so, put one aside for me!

[8bitgamer]

I completely forgot to ask if your second volume is out yet? If so, put one aside for me!

It's due any day now. You'll get the first copy, hot off the press. ;)