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.

beforemario at Gamescom 2015 - part 2

In the first part of my Gamescom 2015 report I covered the preparations leading up to the event.

In today's post I will take you on a tour of the beforemario exhibition that was part of this huge five-day video gaming show that took place in August of this year.

I was assigned a nice area with ten glass cabinets, in the middle of the retro game section just behind the stage.

The area was open on both sides, allowing visitors to flow through.

Even though this was considerable space, it would be impossible to display my entire collection here, so I had to make a selection.

beforemario at Gamescom 2015 - part 1

About three weeks ago I returned home from a great experience, tired but very satisfied. After exhibiting part of my collection at last year's Retro Game Event in Hilversum, The Netherlands, for an audience of about 3000 visitors, this year I had the opportunity to exhibit at the biggest video game stage in the world: Gamescom.

For those of you who don't know, Gamescom is a video game trade show that is held annually in Cologne, Germany. It is the premiere video game show in Europe and the world's largest gaming event, measured by exhibition space and number of visitors: with 345,000 visitors, more than 6,000 journalists and 700 exhibitors!

And this year, beforemario was one of the exhibitors!

badge worn with pride

The number of visitors to Gamesom is truly staggering; a sea of people that overflows the Koelnmesse for five long days. This year the event ran from the morning of Wednesday August 5 to the evening of Sunday August 9.

South gate, one of four entrances

The Koelnmesse is a huge conference center, with eleven large halls, some of which even have two levels. Gamescom occupies all halls.

All developers and publishers of PC, console, handheld and mobile games from around the world show their latest wares, with many as yet unreleased games on display and playable for the first time. People queue for hours to play a single new game for only a handful of minutes.

The booths are lavish affairs with zillions of screens, flashing lights and thumping music. Not the kind of place for people with sensitive senses.