Our third meeting of The Occasional Club, hosted on March 13, focused on Vintage Games & Objects of Play. This gathering featured physical copies of tabletop games (including roleplaying, card, and board games) alongside vintage (or at least, older) video games and their associated ephemera (instruction manuals and posters).
Though many enjoyed scanning the designs of the various boxes, cartridges, and posters, the shining star of the event was no doubt the games themselves. Between learning to play the card game PIT (and trying not to “flax out”) and taking turns seeing who could beat a level of Super Mario World the quickest, this was easily the most interactive and dynamic of all The Occasional Club meetings!
This event demonstrated the capabilities and importance of sharing collections: many of those who brought items to the event had had these games sitting on shelves or in cabinets, left untouched and unplayed for years. The Occasional Club allowed these items to be brought back to life and be appreciated by a broader group, rekindling fond memories for their collectors and sparking new ones for other participants.
A specific example of this was highlighted by Brendan Denensiuk, “I bought that Super Nintendo when I was pretty young. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever and I needed to have it. I’m not sure if the person who sold it was running a scam or just didn’t know the state of it—but regardless, it didn’t work properly. I’d tried to clean it and fix it several times across the years, but could never get it to function. Eventually, I gave up, and left it to gather dust in my basement. This event gave me the opportunity to give some life to the object, despite its many visual glitches and controller errors. The inability to jump in Super Mario World was a bit of a hindrance on the gameplay, but certainly not on the fun, and Chrono Trigger worked just fine, thankfully.
The shared items and artifacts came from various other collections as well. Brendan Tang generously contributed a collection of role-playing board games, featuring independent and experimental ones going far beyond D&D, with unusual playing tactics such as solo RPGs, ones that require silence from all players, and more. Katherine Gillieson contributed a selection of Gameboys with cartridges, and a PlayDate. Morgan Martino contributed a collection of variations on the classic Canadian card game PIT. We appreciate and thank all of them for bringing such fantastic items to showcase at the event!
