Screwattack Convention - DFW

[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.