How To Spread Retro Gaming Love?

[racketboy]

Kinda expanding on our "geek" threads and how it's hard to find other retro gamers, can you think of any ideas of how to get other people interested in classic gaming or having a way to let those other closet gaming nerds come out of their shells.

I just read something when somebody mentioned putting an old Atari 2600 and a small TV in their break room at work and everybody loved it.

Can anybody think of other ideas like this?

[durkada]

Kinda expanding on our "geek" threads and how it's hard to find other retro gamers, can you think of any ideas of how to get other people interested in classic gaming or having a way to let those other closet gaming nerds come out of their shells.

I just read something when somebody mentioned putting an old Atari 2600 and a small TV in their break room at work and everybody loved it.

Can anybody think of other ideas like this?

I had, I shall say, less fortune with that setup. Yeah, my friends and I brought some retro stuff into the office -- and soon afterwards were forbidden from having it there. But the concept is sound, and it is much enjoyed:

Get some simple games out where people can play them. As mentioned in another thread, my wife and I throw parties and we ensure that there are some games on and available. It varies from party to party what is out, but soon people start making requests for games they remember from previous parties. Granted, by the time we invite them into our home, we're already friendly with the people -- but it does get them to come out of their shells.

Advertising local tournaments and what-not seems to be a decent idea. Some people get local pubs to host games, and just advertise a meet-up -- not so much where I live, but I've certainly seen it done in other states and nations.

One thing that has taken off in Georgia is the local board-gaming society. This group of four or five began meeting in a little cafe, and advertised in the "Happenings" section of one of our free alternative papers. Because it classified as a public event, advertising was free. It grew from there. And while to suggest that the scene progressed smoothly from that humble beginning, without major transitions and milestones, would be foolish, today the boardgaming scene has four hotel conventions -- two a year which last all weekend and are designed to encourage non-locals to visit and play, and the other two which are single day affairs for the locals. I think that model, provided you could find a host, could work out very well.

Plus another local boardgame group meets up at a local, smaller college. Again, boardgames, but the idea is sound: find a small college that wants to reach out to the community, and see if they would be willing to host. They do this weekly. With all the equipment (televisions, etc) which would have to be brought in, either local storage or something else would have to be worked out. But again, its a public event which can be advertised -- and others, of course, would be encouraged to bring their own equipment.

And, of course, fastbilly1 has infiltrated momocon and, apparently, ensures that everyone is exposed to retro-goodness. Still needs a M.U.L.E. competition.

[Majors]

I have put out a 2600 with Warlords or a Gene with YuYu at conventions that I have run. Of course now, the DC is getting close to retro...MvC2 being the only thing played next to EMU or homebrew shooter. One year at AZ, I had a buddy compile a video collection of all the old commertials he could download and we ran it in a loop the whole weekend within our video game shrine:

[sohoya]

I have one of those tiny atari joystick keychains like you will find at department stores. Its keychain size and can be plugged into a tv and has 2 atari games in it. Anyway.... just the keychain part of it has spurred several conversations about retro games. Subtle yet effective.
Also there are more and more printed t shirts showing up in stores with mario on the front or pac-man and a caption saying something like "old school". Just my thoughts.

[wyatt]

there are more and more printed t shirts showing up in stores with mario on the front or pac-man and a caption saying something like "old school".

This is true. Something about these shirts annoys me though. They are far too similar to other pre-faded shirts with random 15+ year old logos, and it's lame to see a hobby debased into a passing fad.

[Curlypaul]

Wow! I'd completely forgotten about the 3D glasses for the Master System! Anyway...

Personally I find most gamers are willing to bathe in nostalgia given the smallest of opportunies, so yeah short of organising some sort of event, wearing a T-shirt, keyfob or something like that is pretty sure to get people talking. If people come round and see the saturn or the gamegear they normally get pretty interested then too, and want to start telling me about joystick wagglers and rambo on their C64 lol

[fastbilly1]

Hey Majors, I have some five gigs of old commercials I have collected over the years if you want them. They are in all sorts of types but still worth playing with (sadly a few came from Retrozone so they have the splash on it).

As for infiltrating a convention, all I was going to do was donate a Saturn with Radiant Silvergun. Then I offered to run some board games, now I help run the thing...The fault lies completely in the fact that the girl who runs it reminds me alot of an old college friend that I respected greatly. So much so that I accidentally called her my friends name a couple times. Well now I have more stuff I will be taking, granted I have no idea how I am getting tvs for everything. I am tempted to setup a pc in the corner running Oregon Trail 2.1. Maybe Ill break out the old Adam Colecovision for one of these cons (yes the one that erases the media you have in the tray if you dont take it out before you turn it on) or that Apple ][+ that runs a mean game of Ali Baba. If I can figure out what is wrong with it I will probably have an Oddessy2 on the floor for sometime this year...and ofcourse none of this applies to the topic at hand.

[abeisgreat]

I think to get people into retro gaming show it to them. when you goto the park dont take a DS bring a gameboy color. When your friends come over dont play Wii play dreamcast.

[GSZX1337]

I think to get people into retro gaming show it to them. when you goto the park dont take a DS bring a gamegear. When your friends come over dont play Wii play N64.

Fixed.

[abeisgreat]

fixed? Oh i see whatcha did. You saying GG is retroer than Color? And Dreamcast is newer i guess than DC

P.S. YAY 32-bit (my rank that is)