Starting A Local Retro Gaming Club

[Crabmaster2000]

I've been throwing around the idea of trying to get a local gaming club together up here. I was hoping some of you guys might have had some experience in the area and could help me out. My goals are to:

1) get a group to meet up somewhere at least once a month
2) have said group play games across any era of gaming on any system that people are willing to bring along
3) get people comfortable enough to do some trade/buy/sell/borrow and show off some of their collections
4) play the occasional competition for some small prizes


I'd be thrilled to even get 3-5 regulars showing up with a few random people trickling in every now and then, but ideally the bigger the better. So do any of you guys have an experience being apart of something like this? Organized one or just participated? What got you to go/would make you want to go to something like this? Tried to put one together and failed? Any ideas on advertising/getting the word out?

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[wildbil52]

I've been trying to do the same thing around here and it's all about finding a great location.  Some hotels will rent out their conference rooms for a reasonable rate and some will even provide folding tables with the room rental.

The upside to doing it at a hotel is that you don't have to worry about anyone stealing anything from your bedroom while you are fighting Piston Honda.

The downside is that you have to charge a per person price just to cover the cost (or try to cover the cost as you may  be in the red for the first few meetings).

There is a site called Meetup.com in the states that you can use to create a group and schedule regular meetups.  The site is free to use for all of the members but there is a monthly fee for the person who starts/maintins a group so it may be easier/cheaper/free(er?) to just use facebook and create an event.

If you are just thinking of 3-5 people, you may start out in someone's house and as more and more people show up regularly, you may consider going the hotel/motel conference room option.  Maybe even do a meetup in the house every month and the hotel/motel every quarter .  

Just a few thoughts.  Love to see some pics once you get the group together.

[nupoile]

I don't have any firsthand experience but I know of a group that does something like this.

http://www.commodorecomputerclub.com

If you read about them on that page you may get some ideas. The main thing is they found a pizza place with a back room they can borrow all evening as long as they buy pizza. Sounds like a great idea to me. I'm even friends with an owner of a pizza place with a back room. I'm sure he would go in for this sort of thing.

I've met the guy who runs that group. Seems like a good guy. If you want to contact him through that site I bet he would give you some good pointers. And hey, we're all strangers here, I'm sure it'll be great 

And if you want to do this in my town, remember, I know a guy.

[techwizard]

some friends of mine ran a super smash bros club at their university that from what i heard gathered a decent number of people. they played mainly fighting games but were open to people bringing any game they had the hardware to play it on. i think they just booked a room at the university a certain time each week, not sure if they had to pay for it or not. i know they ran competitions at the local anime convention every year though.

[Nightowljrm]

I've wanted to do something similar for the longest time. In fact, I thought about starting a retro gaming club at my college, but once I started thinking about it, it became pretty apparent that no one would be interested. I was thinking about such events too, such as going flea marketing, garage sale'ing, and other things together (carpooling to save on gas) and stuff like that. But my school is very small - a couple hundred in my class - so just from observing for about a week, I could tell I'm the only retro gamer. There's a few people with N64s, but that doesn't really count...

[Crabmaster2000]

I've wanted to do something similar for the longest time. In fact, I thought about starting a retro gaming club at my college, but once I started thinking about it, it became pretty apparent that no one would be interested. I was thinking about such events too, such as going flea marketing, garage sale'ing, and other things together (carpooling to save on gas) and stuff like that. But my school is very small - a couple hundred in my class - so just from observing for about a week, I could tell I'm the only retro gamer. There's a few people with N64s, but that doesn't really count...

I dont live in a very big area and I know the University up here has a gaming club where they get together to play Magic Cards, D&D and board games and stuff like that. Sounds like its a bit bigger of a school than yours though. When I get the energy to get started on advertising for this I'll see about posting stuff on school boards since I'm sure there would be some cross over between those Magic nerds and Gaming nerds.

[Antimind]

When I lived in the states it was easy to do something like that. There's a small arcade. I tried to do something like that here in Winnipeg. Unfortunately I found it to be a bit difficult.

I'd suggest trying to organize small at first. Think of hosting such a meeting at your place and have a rotation (take turns hosting meetings). The problem with that is, you have to get to know people first. Because of that I'd suggest starting it over the internet. See how much interest you get and chat with some folks for a while about it. Once you feel comfortable enough meet in person on neutral ground. Maybe make a few meetings handhelds only on neutral territory. Once you're comfortable enough with each other then maybe start going to hang out at your homes.

The reason it didn't work out for me is I just don't trust people around my stuff. Even some people I knew practically my entire life I didn't trust to be in my game room. The first (and last) time I had some people over here one of them wanted a closer (taking things off of shelves) look at my Tales of figures. NOBODY touches my Tales of series stuff. Not even my husband. Hell I don't even like family coming over. Especially when they bring children.

The other problem I had is no matter how much time you spend trying to get to know someone you don't REALLY get to know them until you do hang out with them in person a bit. People that seemed a good fit at first really didn't pan out so well in the long run. Perhaps its just a bit harder for me as I'm older than most in my area too. I don't relate well to the Pokemon generation.  If different generations of gamers are a problem for  you maybe put an age limit in your "want ads".

Lastly, the biggest problem I had was folks who talk a good game but in reality don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. People can claim they collect hardcore and love this game and that era but saying it and meaning it are obviously two different things. Example: the closest they actually got to Atari was "Greatest Hits" on fucking DS (which they never actually played).

[nes_pimp]

Where abouts in Canada are you Crabmaster2000? Im in Niagara, Ontario.

[wildbil52]

Where abouts in Canada are you Crabmaster2000? Im in Niagara, Ontario.

He is about as far away as you could be from Niagara and still be in Canada

[slackur]

I'm kinda the antithesis of Antimind.  Anti-antimind.  Mind?  Nevermind.   No offense, Antimind.

PLEASE NOTE:  I don't knock anyone for disagreeing, this is just me and my opinions.

I'm constantly inviting folks into our gaming-space.  I've invited random people I just met in stores that sell classic games, after striking up a conversation about which Mario Kart is best or remembering old Halo CE LANS.  I met some of my best friends over the last decade because I invited someone over that I hardly knew at the time.  Weekends at our house are often filled with all sorts of people, playing games, watching movies, playing CCGs or board games, etc.

Do we get unsavory characters from time to time?  Sure.  Some we befriended and got to know better over time, the rest tend to get fed up with our house rules about respecting others, and leave on their own. 

Have I had stuff lost, stolen, or broken?  Oh, sure.  All the time.  I once had over $10,000 worth of stuff stolen during a road trip and us without insurance, likely because the thief visited before and knew what was there and when we'd be gone.  Controllers are dropped, discs scratched, boxes ripped, kids press buttons, games are loaned out and never returned.  All this despite our best efforts, of course.  We keep most valuable stuff out of kiddie reach, document loaners, and try to maintain what we have.  (And some people wonder why I won't pay more for video game boxes made out of paper. ) 

But for me, it's simply stuff.  It'll all turn to dust one day.  I want to use it now to enjoy spending time with other people.  A sealed game to me isn't a museum piece, it is a missed opportunity for fun, begging to be experienced.  Sure, I love the hunt, and finding rare or expensive goodies for cheap, but for me it is to play and share with others, not to put behind glass.

This mentality extends to our version of a gaming club, open to anyone we can convince to some over and hang out.  I've seen the quiet, unassuming chick we hardly knew, steal the flag right out from under the enemy and return it to base, despite struggling to shoot straight.  I've watched the guy who doesn't have any friends (outside our friday nights) mound a turret and become the only thing keeping our Gears of War Hoard team alive.  I've watched a preist's  eyes light up when seeing and then playing the original Steel Battalion, while admitting he'd never get it for himself because he wouldn't stop playing.

Our gaming club is made up of friends, soon-to-be friends, family, and strangers.  My Xbox Live and PSN friends lists sit idle because I'm always using games in our home to get to hang out with people next to me.

Do I recommend it to everyone?  Of course not.  It isn't ideal for most gamers, much less most collectors.  But my personal end goal is not the entertainment in and of itself, but the investment in people.  Gaming, and social gaming in particular, is my favorite means to that end.

Again, I don't knock anyone for disagreeing, this is just me.

[nupoile]

...But my personal end goal is not the entertainment in and of itself, but the investment in people.

Bravo man. Bravo.



I am not as much of a outgoing person as you seem to be. But I believe I get to use/live with what God gave me. I don't have too many people over to play games, but wish I did. Reaching out and making an impact is what I want to use my collection for. People is were it's at.

[bombatomba]

I did something like this back when I worked at Ford before my son was born.  It was just a few guys sitting around, eating crap and playing games from 6pm to 6am.  I still have a very clear memory of a Dragster marathon that lasted at least four hours.  Then we all went out, had kids, and stopped having free time.  A few of us still talk about playing games around one of the kids b-days, but...

[ProjectG.U.E.S.T.]

This may not necessarily qualify as it's not a club, but I've got a good friend who shares the Retro Bug with me, and we swap off holding Retro Game Nights at our houses. Basically invite friends and tell them bring your games, bring your TVs, bring your consoles. We do it once every couple of months, chip in for food, and basically starting from 5 to the crack of whenever, we play nothing but retro games. All those bit noises and MIDI music in my house makes me a happy happy man...

Though it kind of drives my wife insane. lol

[slackur]

I did something like this back when I worked at Ford before my son was born.  It was just a few guys sitting around, eating crap and playing games from 6pm to 6am.  I still have a very clear memory of a Dragster marathon that lasted at least four hours.  Then we all went out, had kids, and stopped having free time.  A few of us still talk about playing games around one of the kids b-days, but...

It's certainly different now compared to when we were younger, but the cool thing now is that we get our respective families together, let the kids play until their bedtime while we 'grownups' chat and hang out, and then we stay up and game together.  Most of us can't stay up as late as we used to, but even a few hours makes it all worth it.  We have couch beds and recliners for folks to crash overnight if they want, and we all try to chip in for food.  If the weather's nice we sometimes have a bonfire outside. 

It takes effort and some coaxing to get some families out of their house, but it's so worth it.

[Crabmaster2000]

I've got a small group interested (expecting to get around 10 people) and our first meetup is going to be this Sunday!