Our Story / Past CORGSCONS

The Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society was born in August 2008 right here in the capital city at the ACEC annual swapmeet, when two retro gamers named Gary met in person. The Atari Computer Enthusiast Club had been hosting an annual swapmeet for its members and the community since the 90s. Although Gary and Gary did indeed love the ACEC swapmeet, they wanted to have their own show that was not quite as focused on Atari. Ever since, the members of the ACEC and CORGS have become great friends.

In 2009 the very first CORGS-Con was hosted on May 30th of 2009 at the Maynard Ave. Methodist Church ballroom. While this venerable ballroom could only handle about 20 tables, it had a nice stage and free parking while being located on the outskirt of the OSU campus. It was a perfect trial run with an estimated attendance of about 100 gamers. We made 200 shirts with our sponsors and our friends at Twin Galaxies were even nice enough to make us some awesome posters and custom hot sauce bottles from champion gamer Billy Mitchell himself. The initial experiment had been a success. Now it was time to grow and get the hardcore gamers of Ohio to show just what we could do. Things got tight in that cozy little ballroom, so the next few years were spent on utilizing increasingly larger and larger venues.

The Oakland Park Community Building hosted the 2nd CORGS event and there was also a show at the Jackson Hewitt building on South High Street. While great places to host a few hundred attendees, we needed more space and parking for the growing legion of gamers and vendors. By 2012-2014, CORGS-Con went big-time to the Fort Rapids Waterpark Ballroom on the east part of Columbus for the next 3 years. Despite being a good size with ample parking, many gamers informed us the park was not an ideal venue as it was difficult to find, and it was not centrally located, being on the far east side.

The next year on May 16th 2015, we rented out the beautiful Marriott in Hilliard close to I-70 and 270. While this was very conveniently located, we had vendors spilling out into the halls due to an over-flowing ballroom. Once again, we needed more space to accommodate the ravenous retro-gamers of Ohio and surrounding states.

On May 28th 2016, the show resided in the largest building at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. Parking was plentiful and the building was a good size, but the venue itself was not air conditioned. This was alarmingly apparent on that warm humid Saturday.

Needing even more space and nicer facilities, from 2017-2019 CORGS moved over to the gorgeous Makoy Center in Hilliard. For the next three years, CORGS-Con would host some truly epic shows with fantastic guests, awesome vendors, authors, and the most devoted core of retro-gamers on the planet at the Makoy Center. Gary and Gary received lots of feedback and the main complaint was the insufficient parking and space.

As with any successful convention, the organizers listen to their attendees and acted accordingly. The year is 2021, and we are going to put on one hell of a show for you gamers on October 23rd at the Big Run Sports Complex. This has the most space and (free) parking we’ve ever offered; not to mention it is conveniently located right off of the 270 outerbelt, down the street from the Hollywood Casino.

Central Ohio is THE mecca of retro gaming, and you diehard gamers have helped CORGS make our show Ohio’s premier gathering of retro gamers and collectors.

We are eagerly looking forward to seeing you again and are ready to set another attendance record this spring. Time to gear up and get your game on.