Howdy and Happy New Year Fellow Commodore Users!

Our first meeting of the new year will be in the downtown Cincinnati Public Library on Vine Street.

Now that 2004 has started you might have remembered early last year I was mentioning a local event called CinciClassic. It never did get off the ground because of new ownership of the Forest Fair Mall, and the partial closure and renovations making it impractical to hold the event at that location. This month, the first meeting to coordinate the event for 2004 will be held on January 21st. I plan to be at that meeting, so I will have nothing new to report until February.

Roger Hoyer and myself attended the 2002 event and agreed that we should be at the next event, little did we know it wouldn't happen in 2003. Here's some background on the event, if you have not heard of it before:

CinciClassic, started as RGVC-Con seven years ago, is one of the oldest events of its kind, pre-dating even the World of Atari ( CGE precursor) by two years. It is a great time to be a classic gamer or collector, as these days there are so many great classic gaming shows in the USA.

Every gaming show has its own identity, and CinciClassic's has been partially based on keeping the show free, or at least dirt cheap, to the attendees. The vendors carry most or (typically) all of the cost and no profits are made by the show organizers from the execution of the show itself.

CinciClassic has grown steadily over its history, and attendance (well over 500 in 2002 according to Good Deal Games ) has benefited greatly from walk-in traffic due to using retail storefront locations for the last two expos. Many walk-in customers have actually acquainted (or re-acquainted) themselves with our hobby, and many have made large purchases from CinciClassic dealers. This hobby growth would not be possible without the free admission and the high-traffic location of these shows. The growth in CinciClassic is not just from walk-in traffic; the active collector and gamer attendance has also grown substantially in recent years, and dealers are traveling from increasing distances to sell their wares.

For more information on CinciClassic you can visit their webpage at: http://www.cinciclassic.com/index.html

See you at this month's meeting on January 18th, and keep on Commodoring!