A Call To Action Comrades

Steve X2

Myself and Dale Parish were discussing some old retro hardware on the forum earlier (as people tend to do here) and he said “I think Ireland could do with a computer museum.”. I’ve been thinking this myself for a number of years, a retro related museum with all different types of consoles, computers and every other sort of retro hardware, gadget or curio.
So a number of posts later we seem to have decided to try and do something about it.

We could set some sort of week or month long event to start with and see how that goes. Something along the lines of that Bodies exhibit or the Gamer thing that was on last year. This is all just theory at the moment and we’re hoping that some of you guys might like to get involved and see where we can go with this. I don’t reckon we’ll make any or much money on it, at least not to begin with. It will be more a labour of love than a profitable enterprise(The idea of setting up a charity of some sort was talked about and may be something to look into a bit later on).

Some Ideas

An idea that might work to boost the amount of good stuff we’d have to show would be that some people could loan out some of their retro gear to the museum and we could put some sort of note on it like “This 50hz NES kindly on loan from Retr0gamer” or "This pile of shmuppy porn on loan from Kim Jung-un". We/I could also buy in(and clean and fix up etc) some of the more common and cheaper stuff and set them up for people to play around with(NES, SNES, MegaDrive, PC Engine etc etc). Anything that would be considered extremely rare would be looky looky but no touchy touchy.
Perhaps we could showcase some of the more interesting mods and hacks that you can do to the older systems(Nomad screen mod, Xbox running XBMC and a few emulated games that we own the originals for and so many other cool mods and hacks).

I’m just throwing ideas out here and some might stick and others might not.
Another idea would be to have people to demo games/genres or systems and talk about them and answer questions.
We could get a couple of candies(or woodies) in for people to play decent games on them with freeplay turned off

Should we try and get The Rage involved??? It’s the only retro related shop in Dublin and they might be able to help with some stuff. If they're interested.

I’ve loads more ideas but I don’t want to go on to much about it in just one post and I'd really like to hear what other people might like to do or think we should do.

So, basically we want people to get involved in any way they think they can. Perhaps you can donate or loan something to the museum, perhaps you work in an area that could help use out(TV and Radio peeps I’m looking at you and know your here ). Or maybe you just want to put your name on the list of people who are willing to get involved and we can sort out the details later.

The more people we get involved the bigger the chance of us actually pulling something like this off. Two people can do it, but twenty people can do it with style :cool:

Yes, No, Stupid Idea, I can help, You should do this, Why Dublin and not Cork?

Let us know below.


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Pyongyang

Id be keen to help out. Will there be a Darius exhibition?

Steve X2

Pyongyang wrote: »

Id be keen to help out. Will there be a Darius exhibition?

I had you in mind to give a 5 hour talk on the first level of Darius Gaiden. And then expand on the whole Darius universe from there

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Pyongyang

Sounds like a hoot. Maybe we could have your two copies of Darius Alpha paraded around by Georgia Salpa.

Steve X2

Pyongyang wrote: »

Sounds like a hoot. Maybe we could have your two copies of Darius Alpha paraded around by Georgia Salpa.

Nah, I hear she doesn't go full nude :eek:

My girlfriend works with the homeless in Dublin. We can get them for fairly cheap


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Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

Pyongyang wrote: »

Sounds like a hoot. Maybe we could have your two copies of Darius Alpha paraded around by Georgia Salpa.

Nah, I hear she doesn't go full nude :eek:

My girlfriend works with the homeless in Dublin. We can get them for fairly cheap


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Nude homeless people?

Steve X2

Pyongyang wrote: »

Nude homeless people?

It's all about keeping costs down man

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Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

Pyongyang wrote: »

Nude homeless people?

It's all about keeping costs down man

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Sounds like one of those Bum Fights videos... :-D

Dale Parish

Not sure who we could contact to get tonnes of old computers but it's fairly obvious where most of the consoles and games will come from :P
As to "Why Dublin and not Cork"; it doesn't need to be that way. It could be held around the country every 3 or 4 months

Steve X2

Dale Parish wrote: »

Not sure who we could contact to get tonnes of old computers but it's fairly obvious where most of the consoles and games will come from :P
As to "Why Dublin and not Cork"; it doesn't need to be that way. It could be held around the country every 3 or 4 months

Very true.

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Optimus Prime

Sounds cool, id love to be involved aswell. I will say this though, the realist in me just poking his head out... that game on thing that was on in dublin last year, while i loved it, everyone else i know who went to it thought it was crap and they had loads of stuff at it.

Dale Parish

What was crap about it?
Never went to it

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

Sounds cool, id love to be involved aswell. I will say this though, the realist in me just poking his head out... that game on thing that was on in dublin last year, while i loved it, everyone else i know who went to it thought it was crap and they had loads of stuff at it.

Yeah, that's always a possibility. But Game On was looking to make money/profit etc. We don't really expect to make any money out of it. But if we did, cool.

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Optimus Prime

well you need to make some money to pay for rent, electricity etc but if your not looking to make mad money then yeh that makes sense. sounds like a great idea though, I always loved the idea of having an old style arcade or even a pub with a load of arcade machines in it or consoles at the tables, screens under glass, i cant believe no one has done that before over here. Musuem could be cool, would love to be involved.

Dale Parish

It would need to pay for itself; which is why I think a venue we can get cheaply would be ideal. If it was done right there would be a lot of interest from schools which would then be able to pay the costs of it. Having said that, if it were to be flooded by schools it would need to be held some time in October as it's too late in the school season to do it this side of summer and September is too early into school

Steve X2

Maybe even a convention of sorts over a weekend.
Retrocon 2012 or something.

Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

Maybe even a convention of sorts over a weekend.
Retrocon 2012 or something.

That would be excellent. Ireland is sorely lacking an expo like Replay for example.

Dale Parish

We'll need to draw up a list of what we're going to need at the venue too - in terms of tech

ghostchant

I'd be happy to help in any way needed, be it lending consoles/games and/or donating time to be there

Dale Parish

I'd say if it was to be held over a weekend you'de need to include the Friday before it too.

Steve X2

The more people we can get on board the better as it will make it a hell of a lot easier to spread the load.

Plus I think its something interesting to do and these things have a way of opening other doors that you wouldn't even think about.
Realistically I think the summer is to close to be able to pull it off properly and you'd be looking at October/November. But then again nothing has been planned so I could be wrong.

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o1s1n

I've always love the idea of doing this. Setting up a videogame museum is up there with opening an arcade as one of my big long term aspirations.

A retrocon would definitely be the way to start and I'm 100% on board to help out.

Dr Bob

Steve SI wrote: »

Maybe even a convention of sorts over a weekend.
Retrocon 2012 or something.

Firstly I this thread and idea!

was about to suggest this.
I reckon theres a big enough community of retrogamers in ireland, it'd be nice to get a load of them together under the same roof.
Possibly we could tag on to one of the megalan cons during the year , then go solo? I was half thinking of organising this a few years back so I've a few ideas...

Dale Parish

Don't want to sound like Mr. Negative here (:P) BUT realistically looking at it this way; yes it would be nice for a gathering of retro gamers etc. However that will not bring in a lot of people, very few I'd imagine. You need to have something of historical importance if it's an expo, (but if it's a fair then you don't since it's each to their own with their stalls); something like a System/360 or similar.

James Howlett

Steve SI wrote: »

Maybe even a convention of sorts over a weekend.
Retrocon 2012 or something.

I think a convention every few months might work better.

I was at the Game On exhibition in Dublin City Centre last year and while they did have a lot of machines it was essentially a large room with machines people just floated around with no solid structure.

There is definitely potential for more. For example instead of having a corner with a SNES and Street Fighter, why not have a focused beat'em up area with a few machines of popular games the majority of people will want to play and then other machines running other games joe casual gamer would not know existed.

I'd be happy to help out in any form.

Myrddin

Having no entrance fee will mean the toerag ratio will be very high, if its in Dublin anyway. That means stolen items, vandalism & all that goes with such people. So you'd need an entrance policy & someone to enforce it.

Having a small entrance fee will mean less attendance, but less toerags.

Given the nature of the event, I think having it free would appeal best & generate higher numbers, it's just how do you prevent some junkballs mitts all over your precious consoles?

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Having no entrance fee will mean the toerag ratio will be very high, if its in Dublin anyway. That means stolen items, vandalism & all that goes with such people. So you'd need an entrance policy & someone to enforce it.

Having a small entrance fee will mean less attendance, but less toerags.

Given the nature of the event, I think having it free would appeal best & generate higher numbers, it's just how do you prevent some junkballs mitts all over your precious consoles?

Definitely. A reasonable fee for entrance ticket is a must.
And some form of security will be easily handled.

The last thing we want is junkballs as you call them
The location will also be a factor I reckon.

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James Howlett

EnterNow wrote: »

Given the nature of the event, I think having it free would appeal best & generate higher numbers, it's just how do you prevent some junkballs mitts all over your precious consoles?

Have it in a location with as little street traffic as possible? It sounds counter productive but there was a comic convention held in a function room of a hotel near UCD in 2008 (I think). It was a bit out of the way but it allowed the nerds to feel comfortable and safe
People who attended told me that it was a success.

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Definitely. A reasonable fee for entrance ticket is a must.
And some form of security will be easily handled.

The last thing we want is junkballs as you call them
The location will also be a factor I reckon.

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That'd weed out messers coming in for the sake of it, to see what they can pillage. A small entrance fee & Burton on the door sees that issue sorted

James Howlett wrote: »

but it allowed the nerds to feel comfortable and safe

Dale Parish

There is no choice, there has to be an entrance fee otherwise it won't pay for itself The secret to keeping out "those" people is not the entrance fee, but where the venue is. I'm involved with antique fairs and we're yet to get any skangers. We have a big car park but it's far away enough from town so they generally don't come out.

ghostchant

Somewhere like the Exchange in temple bar might work. Not sure what costs are involved in setting up there but it's one of those pop up arts spaces so not much I'd reckon. Was there for a chip tune workshop last year and really liked the place. Plus it's just far enough away from the junkball (great word) gathering spots. A negative is that it might be a bit too small. Not sure if it's the perfect place but there might be other places around in the same spirit as it.

Myrddin

Dale Parish wrote: »

There is no choice, there has to be an entrance fee otherwise it won't pay for itself The secret to keeping out "those" people is not the entrance fee, but where the venue is. I'm involved with antique fairs and we're yet to get any skangers. We have a big car park but it's far away enough from town so they generally don't come out.

In fairness antique fairs have a niche following, an event with games & arcade machines is going to garner far more youthful interest so the two can't be directly comparable.

I'd say location & fee will both determine the crowd in this case. People arn't going to go too far outta their way for this, so it shouldn't be too far off the beaten path.

RedXIV

I'm definitely up for this, Like o1s1n, I've often hoped I would get to open something similar to an old skool arcade. I can lend a few consoles and a TV.

I also happen to have a good bit of experience as door security

Myrddin

Next thing is public insurance, I take it that's mandatory. Is that a big outlay?

Dale Parish

EnterNow wrote: »

In fairness antique fairs have a niche following, an event with games & arcade machines is going to garner far more youthful interest so the two can't be directly comparable.

I'd say location & fee will both determine the crowd in this case. People arn't going to go too far outta their way for this, so it shouldn't be too far off the beaten path.

That's a valid point, but we also do classic cars. Not to mention these people look for trouble and don't really care about antiques or retro games

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Next thing is public insurance, I take it that's mandatory. Is that a big outlay?

I don't think its crazy expensive. But its something we would need to cover ourselves.

Edit:
My own company that I've setup for contracting has insurance to cover the standard 2.3 million and its only a few hundred a year.
I'll check it out and see what the story is on costs.

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o1s1n

It depends on the venue. I'd imagine if it's an exhibition space they'd already be covered and it would be factored into the price?

We could always just try to hold a private, invite event first somewhere and see how it goes. Doesn't have to be a big expo or anything. Think a step up from a beers in some sort of space set up to accomodate playing games for a couple of days. (Might even be able to bring some cabs?)

You could bring friends, but then at least they'd be vouched for people.

I remember Luas Dub suggesting the idea at our very first beers actually.

RedXIV

Steve SI wrote: »

I don't think its crazy expensive. But its something we would need to cover ourselves.

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This one could be dodgy. They usually take this on a case by case basis and if you have an uninformed insurance company, they'll see "retro" electronics as "out of warrenty" and therefore, more likely to go up in flames if you plug them in. I'd suggest shopping around alot for this because I can see it varying wildly

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I remember Luas Dub suggesting the idea at our very first beers actually.

Yeah he knows a lad called Dr. Bob who can get on board. Which reminds me, in my haste I never volunteered I'd be happy to lend some time & hardware to the cause.

There should definitely be a structured approach to it though, rather than the mindless cattle herding of that Game Expo thing. If the area was big enough, could you have pre-recorded talks on the different niches? You know like in museums where they play a T-Rex info segment...well we could have Retr0 & Dinorex talk podcast style maybe?

Myrddin

RedXIV wrote: »

This one could be dodgy. They usually take this on a case by case basis and if you have an uninformed insurance company, they'll see "retro" electronics as "out of warrenty" and therefore, more likely to go up in flames if you plug them in. I'd suggest shopping around alot for this because I can see it varying wildly

Agreed, it's the only real event-killer in terms of cost.

RedXIV

Just saw on http://www.gamedevelopers.ie that the science gallery in Dublin is planning on doing an exhibition on "Game" in August.

Perhaps a collaboration with them might work? they'd have most of the logistics already covered such as rent, power and insurance.

Optimus Prime

that gamerexpo that was going on in city west hotel last year, was cancelled at the last minute by the dublin fire marshal because it was going to be a fire hazzard with so many passing through it and electronics all over the place. those lads lost a fortune on that thing id say. I was up with them a few times and was organising a charity quiz for the night, game related, what they had planned was a proper expo.

o1s1n

keithgeo wrote: »

that gamerexpo that was going on in city west hotel last year, was cancelled at the last minute by the dublin fire marshal because it was going to be a fire hazzard with so many passing through it and electronics all over the place. .

Jaysus, I'd love to hear what they'd say about all our Vecceys switched on together and humming away in the corner

Jack burton

Well I'll put myself down for a helping hand aswell. I dont have anything extremly rare though. Apart from a few hard to get MD games

But if there's Logos or anything need doing ye can let me know and I'll whip up something

Andrew76

Great idea folks and excellent to see the level of support for it so far. Lets hope EnterNow's Beers Law doesn't kick in though. :pac:

I'll throw my name into the hat to lend a hand, even if it's just turning up and paying the entrance fee. Not sure I'd fancy loaning out hardware though if joe public is involved - I recall plenty of stories about broken controllers etc at that Game On thing - not that I have anything worthy of loaning in the first place!

Dr Bob

Yup , me and my alter ego sir luas of dublin are volunteering to help lug stuff around , cable things or setup some sort of warlords + ginormous projector endevour!
Might be a bit far from the city centre , but back when I was thinking of organising a con I was toying with the idea of having it in maynooth? Its a short trainride from connolly , you're a little out of the way but not too far .You've got the college which may possibly rent out facilities/halls/whatever , theres also a moderately sized hotel that do funtions/cons etc so theres that.
Also I live there .Which is nice.;)

Dr Bob

By the way , 'Irish Retro-Gaming and Arcade Society'?
Sounds better than converntion organised by "the bunch of sound lads off boards who like old games like".

Myrddin

Way too dorky. I'm thinking ARcon

Sparks43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WgUktfdDy4

docentore

If you need someone's handy with screwdriver and solder iron for whatever reason I will be glad to help and participate in the project.

DinoRex

Are you guys familiar with the National Computer & Communications Museum? It only opened there last year in Galway.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-National-Computer-Communications-Museum/113286082070723

We covered it in 2 episodes of my science podcast:

http://scibernia.ie/2011/10/21/scibernia-podcast-episode-18-teeth-brushing-in-space-nanoscience-and-the-first-home-computers/

http://scibernia.ie/2011/11/18/scibernia-podcast-episode-21-stem-cells-1980s-portable-computers-and-origin-stories/

As for the expo idea I know from experience of running the dublin paranormal convention that these thing are very expensive and time consuming to pull off. Ideally you want to start small. Maybe booking somewhere like the Central Hotel for a day. They tend to be home to all sorts of niche interests like this.