Retrobörse Saar in Völklingen
Marco Breddin
Microzeit placed its booth next to LookBehindYou-Gameplan in the upper gallery at the 11th Retrobörse in the Hermann-Neuberger Halle. The Saarland Fair is one of the largest events of its kind and we were looking forward to the Völklingen show with great anticipation.
Despite a rainy November day, the retro fair was well attended and drew 2,600 visitors into the large sports hall. Here it was possible to get just about everything the retro heart desires, from 80s/90s computers and consoles, for example from Atari, Nintendo and Sega, to action figures, vinyl records and gaming memorabilia. The children could compete in a video game duel and the parents could eat their hot dogs. A separate stage gathered cosplay fans from a wide variety of fields. In the hustle and bustle, visitors inevitably came across a good-humoured Jack Sparrow and couldn't avoid the Mario Brothers. Boba Fett arrived in full costume under escort and the little mermaid flanked Aquaman, who drove his trident through the crowd.
It was a pleasure to get to know my stand neighbour and make plans for the future. Another surprise appearance came from the Atari scene and livened up the continuous sales talks at the Microzeit stand, especially in the second half. We were delighted to welcome the protagonists from the book Return The Borders, Stefan Benz aka. Lotek Style/TSCC and Hagen Deike aka. Samurai Effect^Inter, live for a photo session, but also to be part of a doctoral thesis on the subject of hacking/cracking. This time, the CRACKERS series took centre stage in sales.
One retro event per quarter is planned for the coming year. In addition to the full catalogue, we always have a small Eclipse collector's selection at retro trade fairs, including brand new game packaging, stickers and posters for Lethal Xcess, Monster Business and Stone Age. Nevertheless, we left the well-organised event with a tear in our eye. For Microzeit, it was the last visit to the retro fair in Völklingen for the time being. Distance, effort and, above all, the lack of public transport left us with no choice but to spend an unplanned night in a hotel before returning to our own borders the next day.