Missing Link: Long Night of Computer Games – How the Game Festival Came About
This weekend, the 20th Long Night of Computer Games took place in Leipzig. Our author co-founded this longest-running game festival.
Retro devices were a highlight back in 2015. Pictured here, among others, an Amiga and an NES in the foreground.
(Image: René Meyer)
Two decades ago, rumors that the Games Convention might leave Leipzig caused unease. To me, they seemed completely absurd. But some people were more concerned. The city's economic development agency sought and networked allies to make Leipzig visible as a city of games. They found a receptive audience at our University of Applied Sciences, the HTWK. The university is now focusing on games instead of e-commerce at its annual conference, the Leipziger Informatiktage. As a freelance journalist, I applied to give a talk – and was accepted: “Digital Games – Economic Factor and Technology Driver.”
In the evening, it was December 1, 2006, the participants were sitting comfortably in a restaurant. Two professors, Hans-Ulrich Niemitz and Klaus Bastian, approached me with a proposal: “The Long Night of Computer Games” in May, as the highlight of a public lecture series about, well, games. At first, it was just a catchy name; the content was still missing. We exchanged ideas: we could equip a PC pool with games, set up old and new consoles in the hallway, display exhibits behind glass. Over the months, the proposals were elaborated. The meeting point for this was the monthly regulars' table of the Leipzig games scene.
Hard Drive Omelette
To transform the workstations in the PC lab into gaming machines, the hard drives were swapped. For a few weeks, I received a demo computer with a fresh Windows installation. I installed all sorts of things there, mostly freeware and demo versions; later, I asked small studios for DRM-free versions. Among them were some online games for which we set up accounts for visitors.
A technician from IT duplicated the hard drive twenty times and installed the game drives in all PCs before the gaming night. I quickly learned during the preparation that I needed not only a PC but also a monitor from the university: it had an aspect ratio of 16:10 (1920 x 1200 pixels), which is less typical for games and which I couldn't even set up at home sometimes.
The university still had a handful of old CRT televisions, to which I connected all sorts of old and new consoles, from the Super Nintendo to the Dreamcast to the Wii. Particularly popular then and now: the drumming game “Donkey Konga” for four players on the GameCube. Over the years, I acquired more and more screens for events myself; now there are around 100.
Lange Nacht der Computerspiele in Leipzig: Momente aus 20 Jahren (10 Bilder)
2007
René Meyer
)To top it all off, a friend (former games journalist Nico Kuhn) brought the brand-new PlayStation 3 along with a flat-screen TV. The Museology department lent two display cases, in which I exhibited handhelds and various game data carriers. During the gaming night, the student council offered sandwiches and drinks for a small fee.
Jörg Müller-Lietzkow (now President of HafenCity University Hamburg) spoke at the opening on “Fascination Gaming – State of the Art.” The inclusion of the then-popular online world “Second Life” was also state of the art: a spot was created for the gaming night there; and at the same time, it was beamed into the event via projector.
All this was a great effort for a few dozen visitors. Some were students who could get credit for attending the lecture series. Some were friends. But everyone had fun. And so the idea arose to repeat the gaming night a year later, in 2008.
The gaming night gets bigger
In the third year, 2009, things slowly started to pick up. Collector Torsten Othmer (who founded an Atari club with a friend back in 1986) brought a number of other devices; including Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple II. And we set up a cinema corner where classics like “Tron” and “Wargames” were shown via projector.
In the fourth year, the gaming night grew significantly in area. A network of eight Atari STs was set up to play “MIDI Maze.” A kind of “Doom” precursor from the 80s. The game music web radio PARALAX came from Wuppertal and streamed the event. A playing field was set up for the university's football robots, which had already won world and vice-world championships multiple times. In the fifth year, together with the team from Midimaze.de, a network of an impressive 16 Atari STs was created.
But by now, the university's small Zuse building, which has neither seminar rooms nor lecture halls and mainly contains offices, had reached its limits. The offerings attracted a few hundred visitors, who crowded the narrow corridors. The division into two parts, due to its origin as part of a lecture series, also became increasingly disruptive: the opening with lectures and presentations starting at 4 p.m. now lasted two and a half hours. It took place in the adjacent building across the street because there were no larger rooms in the Zuse building.
And a friend honestly said: “You know, the gaming night is boring.” Indeed. Apart from sitting at a PC or a console, there wasn't much to do. At that time, I discovered the Living Games Festival at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. It was much more generously designed and offered so much more: stands from indie developers, lectures and interviews, digital art, a bar, and seating areas for chatting. I wanted that in Leipzig too.
Relocation
Computer science professor Klaus Bastian, with whom I was now organizing the gaming night as a duo, had an enticing suggestion: moving from the small Zuse building to the magnificent and considerably larger Lipsius building with its foyer, numerous seminar rooms, lecture halls, pools, and cafeteria.
To fill the space, I solicited exhibitors. The Leipzig Computer Game School brought laptops running Minecraft. The first tournaments were held; and indie developers slowly began to gather. They were difficult to attract: no time, nothing to show, no hardware to bring to a fair. It was easier at first to acquire university projects.
There were so many lecture halls that we could set up a cinema alongside a lecture room. To make the fascinating documentary “Moleman 2 – Demoscene” accessible to everyone, I spent two weeks translating the subtitles into German, and that was before AI. For the premiere, there was a single viewer: my father-in-law. The following year, I “took revenge” and ran the film on a loop. That helped.
However, the idea of also including board games and tabletop games proved to be a complete success; secondly, moving them to the huge cafeteria, the most beautiful spot at the university with its glass roof, terraced levels, and many plants. Board games and card games fit perfectly with computer games and are now a popular area at many trade fairs and festivals.
What helped: At the same time, I organized the Retro Area at Gamescom; and both grew and mutually benefited each other. I could lure Leipzig exhibitors to Cologne; and I told Gamescom exhibitors that the gaming night was just as nice. Sometimes it worked.
Thus, the Long Night of Computer Games grew step by step, floor by floor, and room by room, until it occupied several thousand square meters and attracted several thousand visitors.
University as a Venue
A university is a practical location for a game festival. Everything you need is already there. Tables and chairs for exhibitors, lecture rooms, internet, projectors, sanitary facilities, a cafeteria. And a large public event is a good opportunity for the university itself to present itself and the work of its students. For years, the gaming night has cooperated with the University Information Day. The two virtually merge into each other. However, what didn't work out: becoming part of the Museumsnacht.
The first gaming nights had no fixed end. Later, we set 3 a.m. as the closing time. This caused problems for some exhibitors, especially those who had traveled a long way. And by now, there were increasingly families among the visitors. So we shifted the times from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. to 1 a.m. Today, the event ends at 11 p.m.
Marketing Without a Budget
With the offerings, visitor numbers grew. But how do you make an event known, apart from word-of-mouth? One component is A2 posters. There aren't many of them, but I placed them in prominent spots at the university. On the entrance door, in the elevator – nothing was sacred to me. Through contacts, they even made it into the university's computer center and into universities in other cities. The smaller A3 format was distributed to schools.
A second component is an inviting website that makes people want to attend the event. Well-structured, lots of photos. At first glance, you should think: I want to go there. To do this, I refreshed my knowledge of HTML and CSS and learned a bit of PHP to design a registration form for participants.
A third component is social media. I posted in retro forums like Forum64, created and maintained a Facebook page, and used the Leipzig games scene mailing list that I maintained.
Videos by heise
The fourth component is the good old press release. The university has a distribution list anyway, but I also built two of my own email distribution lists: one for local media such as daily newspapers and radio, and one for the supra-regional games and computer press. The third gaming night in 2009 even made it onto Heise.de.
Handover after Ten Years
With the size of the event, the effort also grew. I invested several hundred hours every year in preparation. Acquiring and advising exhibitors, lecture program, preparing the demo computer, maintaining the website and Facebook. In addition, I continued to set up a lot of equipment, sometimes thirty consoles and home computers, all on CRT screens, and brought hardware for other exhibitors. Klaus Bastian was looking forward to retirement; and so, after ten years, we decided to hand over the gaming night to other hands.
Since 2017, it has been the responsibility of several professors and is closely integrated into the curriculum. This, along with the manageable costs, ensures its continuation. Annual project managers are master's students in media management. Media technology students organize an e-sports tournament that is moderated and streamed. Even in the “Studium generale,” which promotes general knowledge, points can be earned by helping out.
New minds lead to new ideas. A scientific conference, the Science MashUp, has been a permanent part of the gaming night since 2020. And artists have been added as another area.
As an exhibitor, I am, of course, still involved. Even if the respective organization team regularly groans when they receive another unsolicited email with suggestions. I am primarily glad that the spirit of the event has been preserved: a carefree festival of game culture, free of charge, broad-based, connecting and making the scene visible. A place where there is uncomplicated space for many ideas – even for a Carrera racetrack from the past.
(nen)
