I met John “Boatofcar” Shawler online twenty years ago on the Digital Press forums. Although “Boat” is nearly a decade younger than I am, the two of us share a a common love of old computers, games, and arcade machines. Boat has been a fan and supporter of my podcasts from the very beginning, and several years ago he, along with his pal Amigo Aaron, started their own show about Amiga computers, titled “Amigos”. Boat has expanded their show to a small network which includes, among other shows, a couple of my podcasts including Sprite Castle and Like a DOS. When Boat said he was planning a small gathering tentatively titled “Boatfest,” I was in from the very beginning. Boatfest took place June 24 and 25, in Hurricane, West Virginia.
Susan and I arrived at the hotel Thursday evening. The conference room was available for pre-setup Thursday evening, and so I grabbed a table and set up the two systems I brought with me from Oklahoma — my crystal clear Ultimate 64 setup, and my Amiga CD32. My CD32 is the relatively rare (or at least uncommon) NTSC model which was never sold in the United States. At this gathering of approximately 40 people, two other people brought CD32s as well.
The vast majority of people who attended Boatfest run in the same circles. Most of those in attendance listen to the Amigos podcast (most of them listen to my shows as well), and the majority of people there hang out and chat on the Amigos Discord server. In the old days of attending fests, the first few hours were spent trying to figure out who was who. At Boatfest, all of us were wearing name tags, and many of us had seen (or at least heard) one another prior to arriving. This cut out most of the awkward “who is who” phase, allowing us to get right into visiting, gaming, and eventually, drinking.
A big part of the fest were the live shows. Boat and Amigo Aaron did live versions of many of their shows before the audience, including episode of their Amiga, CoCo, and Atari computer shows. Aaron performed double duty, also doing a live version of ARG Presents with his brother, The Brent. Saturday evening, I did a modified version of Sprite Castle in which I talked about my memories of Commodore copyfests.
The gods were smiling on West Virginia last weekend. Storms moved into the area the day before the event was scheduled to begin, knocking out the hotel’s air conditioner. By the kickoff of the event, the skies were blue, and within an hour or two the air conditioner had been repaired. Throughout the event, free food fell into our laps multiple times. Eip, Boat’s wife, surprised us with enough Thai food to feed an army; later in the evening, another group at hotel donated leftover food from their catered event to ours. Saturday evening, Frank from Retro Rewind bought a stack of pizzas to feed to crew. And if that’s not enough to prove everything was going our way, on Friday I won the game-themed Jeopardy contest, thanks in part to a question about… me!
I haven’t been to a gaming fest in many years, and haven’t been around this many people in this close a space in at least two years. Boatfest felt a lot like the parties and gatherings I attended in the 80s and 90s — smaller in scale, with more focus on personal interactions. Everyone I spoke with at the show asked when tickets for next year’s event were going on sale which is a testament to just how much fun everyone had. When they go on sale, I’ll be the first in line to purchase one!
Thanks to everyone who came out to the show. I had a great time meeting and chatting with everyone.