Meet the Collectors - #8 - David Gschmeidler

A few days ago, we reported here about a new Game & Watch book, that was just released.

Today we meet one of the two authors of that book, who happens to be the proud owner of an impressive video game collection. He shows us around his collection and tells about this book project.

David with one of his pride possessions:
the Entex Adventure Vision

David: "Hi! I am David Gschmeidler. I was born in Vienna, Austria in 1973.

After training at the Industrial College in Vienna, I worked for eight years in electronics at General Motors Austria. During this time, I began to learn about recording studios and have since worked for many years as a music producer and mastering engineer. In the meantime, I also learned a lot about photography and web design."

David's collection room is packed
floor to ceiling with video game goodness

"I collect video games and video consoles from all brands and also some of the interesting home computer models."

Dave clearly likes his games to be in good condition

"At at the age of five, I got my first LED game (called UFO). I noticed for the first time that video games were much more interesting than all other toys. From this point on, I got lots of consoles and games."

"Things went really mad when I started collecting in 1995. I starting buying nearly everything related to video games, and tried to get all consoles and games in mint condition, complete with all parts. I had big problems to get it all stored in my little child bedroom..."

Video games in audio tape format, from the early 1980s

"I get the items in my collection from all over the world: Venezuela, the US, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK. For my collection I traveled to London, Italy, Germany, Hungary and a few other countries.

I was in Akihabara in 1998, on the release day of the Dreamcast. One day later, I was back in Vienna with the first Dreamcast in Austria in my hands. That was a great feeling."

The iQue was a special Chinese version of the Nintendo 64

"But most of my things I get on eBay. eBay was an incredible boost to the retro market. It connected freaks from all over the world.

For me, eBay is one of the important platforms where people meet and stay in contact for many years. It is were you meet the real fanboys. ;-)"

Nintendo Virtual Boy games,
all 22 different games that were released for this system

"In my opinion, Nintendo is THE games company, the father of video games. It also has an incredibly interesting background story."

The four top Virtual Boy games: SD Gundam Dimension War,
Virtual Lab, Space Invaders Virtual Collection and Virtual Bowling

"I am 40 years old now, and still play Mario and Zelda games. The handling and the difficulty of these games is so well balanced."

Mario Bros. arcade board

"I don't recall another game like Donkey kong Country Returns, where I tried so many times to get through the whole game. When you succeeds in the end, it is a fantastic feeling that you have mastered the last boss!"

"Nintendo also invented the d-pad. This is such a masterpiece, it is difficult to say exactly how important this development was and is."

Old and new systems are stored side by side

"I have played video games before the d-pad was out, and I can tell that this was sometimes a pain. ;-) Ha ha."

"When Nintendo started working with Austrian company Stadlbauer, it has been said that the deal to sell Nintendo games in Austria was made with just a handshake."

"I find this fascinating. It shows the importance of honesty and honor in Japanese culture."

Nintendo 64DD and 3DS games

"The items in my collection that I love most include the Nintendo FamicomBox and Super Famicom Box hotel systems and my collection of all 60+ Game & Watch units, complete with box."

"I also own the Philips In2it handheld, of which only five are known to exist worldwide. I had three and now still have two left. It is a very rare unit which never went on sale. It was canceled before it hit the market."

"Other favorites in my collection are the Entex Adventure Vision, a very very rare tabletop, and the Sharp Famicom Titler, which is a Famicom with RGB output!"

Nintendo Famicom Mini series for the Gameboy Advance

"On top of my wanted list are the Sega/Aiwa Mega CD cassette player, the Nintendo M82 (a kiosk system also used in Europe), the APF Imagination Machine and the RDI Halcyon laserdisc player."

Mini Classics series

As mentioned, David just released a book on the Nintendo Game & Watch series, together with co-author Gerhard Meyer. Of course, we want to find out more about this project.

David: "I could fill another book with the history of this book project!"

David's complete Game & Watch set. Nice!

"I got the initial idea for the Game & Watch book many years ago. It started actually on the day that I decided to get all 60 Game & Watch games with box and manual.

I could not find any book where I could see all games with all information and with high quality pictures. The only sources that I found were gameandwatch.ch and a few other sites. This was before Florent Gorges's book was released (The History of Nintendo volume 2)."

Some excerpts of the book by David and Gerhard

"I called Gerhard Meyer, who has been a friend since childhood. He has been working as a graphic designer and lay-outer for years and we have worked on a lot of web design projects together. Gerhard is also a fan of retro games and consoles.

We decided to make a book on Game & Watch games, in the German language, with a rarity meter for each game and lots of other information. We started around 2008-2009 and worked hard on it until november 2013 to bring it out."

"We worked hard on this book for almost three years; designing an unique two-page spreads for each of the 60 games, making photos and creating the perfect layout. We also cross-referenced all games.

Every game has a QR-code which can be scanned with a mobile phone. This links to online information where you can see a video and hear the sounds of every game (this is still a work in progress).

To top it off, a big mystery waits to be discovered in our book, which is really an unique thing."

"When we started, we were not aware of any books on the history of Nintendo, and it turned out that we needed lots of time to get this book finished.

Halfway trough the project, with most of the layout work and contents gathering ready, I got nervous that maybe somebody else was also working on a Game & Watch book, and I told Gerhard that we should speed up."

"A few month later, I discovered the English version of the book by Florent Gorges. At first it was a shock! What I had been nervous about, had actually happened. I was really excited to get my hands on this book, and I ordered a French copy on eBay.

When I received it, I was relaxed because I saw that we each had made a different approach to covering these Nintendo handheld games. Our book was more a price guide with statistics, and Florent's book had more background stories and other cool unique infos.

I really liked the look of his book very much, but I could not read it because I cannot read French. I deliberately ordered the book in French, as I did not want to be influenced too much by this book.

It was very important for us to experience making our own book in our own way: photos, text, information, stories, and all kind of data like timelines and prices - really all you can read and see in our book has been researched and worked out by us."

"We did get help from beforemario's Erik Voskuil (regarding the Basssmate and pictures and information for a Nintendo timeline). Patrick Weiss from gameandwatch.ch provided all the data for the rarity meter and price statistics and pictures of some merchandise articles."

"We are currently working on an English version and hope to release this before the Summer of 2014. A Japanese version is also planned, but we still have to do a lot of research on how to sell it also in japan.

For this book, I have bought all the games in perfect condition, most of the merchandise articles and other things you see in our book. I funded the whole project by myself, without the backup of a publisher. It was really a tough time that pushed me to my limits, both physically and financially."

A great moment for any author: seeing the result in print

Well, after all that hard work, I hope your book will be a success, David. People interested in this book, can order it through www.gameandwatch.at. You can register for the English version here.

Thank you also very much for showing us around your collection!

An overview of all previous episodes of Meet the Collectors can be found here.