beforemario at Gamescom 2015 - part 3

As regular readers of this blog will remember, I exhibited part of my collection at last year's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. This five day event is a massive gathering of tens of thousands of people with a passion for games new and old.

Although I did post about the preparations of this exhibition and showed you around the beforemario items on show, I recently realised that I had forgotten to share the final bit of what was supposed to be a three part write-up. So here it is, the conclusion of a great week in Cologne in August of 2015.

Soon after getting everything over to the exhibition hall, unpacking it and arranging it in the show cases, the show opened and the first visitors started flocking in. The first day was still relativity quiet, as it was for trade vistors only. But the key word here is relatively, as it meant it was busy rather than crazy busy (the final weekend would be madhouse).

It was so much fun seeing people interested in - and often excited by - the vintage Nintendo items that I had brought with me.

We were still finalizing the stand when the first vistor already appeared, buying no less than two copies of the beforemario book!

Various representatives from the press also paid a visit on the first day.

Folks from all ages enjoyed the exhibition, recognizing toys from their youth or seeing these retro games for the first time.

This was my first book signing at such an event, and meeting the beforemario readers in person was a great new experience for me.

A very special moment was the visit to Gamescom of Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario. He really seemed to love the beforemario book.

An event like this can be tiring, with long days in a loud, busy and warm environment. So we did fall victim to an occasional nap on the exhibition floor.

But the continuous stream of interested visitors made the hours and days zip by. Before we knew it, the final two days had arrived.

We brought a large stack of books and they were all gone before the end of the final day. Here I am signing the final copy.

Sold out!

But all good things must come an an end. Sunday night arrived and when the last visitors had left it was packing time.

The contrast with the days before could not have been bigger. With the crowds gone and all music and screens switched off it suddenly became very quiet. We were all quite exhausted, a bit sad that it had ended, but mostly very pleased with the response to the exhibition.

After a few hours of boxing up all toys, it is now really over. All that remains are memories of this great experience. Time to get some sleep as well.

As a final note, I what to give a special shout out to Sander and Florent for the help, company and friendship!

So that concludes beforemario at Gamescom 2015. The first two parts can be found here and here.