Found out the first board game convention was way older than I thought

I was reading an old article about game history and learned the first real board game convention happened in 1964. It was called the 'International Wargaming Convention' and took place in Malvern, Pennsylvania. That's a full 60 years ago. I always figured these big meetups were a more recent thing from the 90s or so. It's wild to think people were gathering to play complex games like that so long before the internet. Makes me appreciate how deep the hobby's roots go. Has anyone been to a convention that's been running for a really long time?

4 comments

4 Comments

lucas_grant833mo ago

Man, that's nothing. My uncle used to drag me to this tiny model train show in Ohio every year. It started in the late 50s, just a bunch of guys in a VFW hall with these huge, detailed layouts. The smell of ozone from the tracks and coffee was the whole vibe. Felt like stepping back in time.

kevin_wells463mo ago

The best part was the old guys arguing about which brand of fake grass looked the most real.

sage_park61mo ago

Ngl, you just made me remember the first time I walked into the Northeast Indoor Hobby Show back in '89. There was this one guy who had a whole 1950s Main Street setup with working streetlights and a little diner with a spinning sign. The craziest part was he spent like 3 hours explaining why he used real brick dust mixed with glue for the sidewalks instead of just painting it. Nobody asked. He just volunteered that info like it was a deep state secret.

barbaraschmidt1mo ago

You know, I actually have to disagree a bit on the smell thing. In my experience, those shows always had this weird mix of old carpet dust and that greasy smell from the little motors running. The ozone was there for sure, but it was always competing with someone's stale cigar smoke from outside that got stuck in their jacket. And the coffee, well, that was always that burnt stuff from a percolator that had been sitting since 1982. I get what you mean about it feeling like stepping back in time, but to me it always felt more like a time capsule that someone forgot to clean out.