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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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No sooner than we’ve all recovered from the 600+ new game ‘horn of plenty’ that was Essen Spiel’11, now we’re staring face-first into the stinky jouer-pipleine of Nurnberg (Nuremburg – what’s the difference?).
When we first started out as Surprised Stare Games Ltd, we’d heard it was important for networking and the hawking of designs for us to attend said Festival of Trade-Only Toy Temptations. Our first year was 2003 with Mr and Mrs Alan Paull and myself. Nurnberg is a wholly different affair from the Spiel – and this giant magnet to business is reflected by the astonishing charges for everything. At Spiel, you can pick up a room for 30 or 40 euros a night if you book a few months before – at Nurnberg expect to slap a 1 in front of those number...and you won’t be near the Messe, either – both times we went found us holed up in Erlangen: 10 miles, and a grey bullet train journey, from the venue.
The 2003 show holds a particular place in my memory due to the astonishing experience of just getting there in the first place (flying in from Stansted)! Sit back, pull up a mug of hot chocolate (and perhaps a rug for the knees) and hear my sad story: very cold weather, probably snow, had been forecast in and around London…
(taken from my diary of the time)
Thursday 30th Jan, 2003
(To Alans’ after work – drive to Stevenage/Hotel)
Rode over to Stroud (on my motorbike) in the early A.M and parked up by the station – heavy rain from Gloucester and fat snowflakes on the hill-top too. Quiet and dull day at work (in Swindon) – left in plenty of time for the train. Arrived at Alan & Charlie’s place circa 5PM. Parked the bike in their garage and we (me and Charlie) set off tootie-sweetie; Alan is working in London today and will meet us at the Hotel in Stevenage. Good progress along the M4 and stopped at Reading, in a reasonable volume of traffic, for supper.
If only we’d known then what we know now, eh?
Got to the M25 7PM-ish and that’s where everything went pear-shaped! Two inches of snow had fallen during the P.M in, and to the North of, London – local councils had decided to gamble and NOT GRIT the roads – consequently, sheet ice was forming on every road in a VERY large radius.
There was absolutely no hope of us making Stevenage by 9.30PM (though Alan had already arrived there by then)…it took us SIX HOURS to get from M25 Jn 16 (the M40 junction) to Jn 21A (on to the A1M). In flumes (!) of snow and white, crispy roads we made 20MPH progress for 5 miles until we hit Hatfield at 2AM – when the gridlock continued. Lorries were jack-knifing or unable to get up hills on the frozen road, cars were being abandoned / running out fuel and stranding the occupants. At one point, I took a walk on to the deserted ‘other carriageway’ – trudging through knee-deep drifts to see what was holding us up in the distance. It was ghostly and silent.
Friday 31st January, 2003
We finally got the IBIS hotel, via a 24HR Tesco for breakfast, at 6.30AM – thirteen and a half hours after we set out on what should have been a 4 hour journey tops! People were checking OUT as Charlie and I arrived! I managed two hours of sleep until Alan woke me at 9ish and we had to make our way across the Christmas Card landscape to the airport. The normal roads were closed, so we had to navigate an alternative route in an area we’d never visited before. Luckily, we checked the status of our flight (8.30AM) on the journey – it had been CANCELLED – and we were able to re-book on a later, ‘more-likely-to-make-it’ flight (8.30PM). That mid-drive phone-call proved incredibly important – when we arrived at Stanstead Airport it was HEAVING and all Nurnberg flights were now full! With many hours to wait, we spent the day holed up Ponti’s café (massive all-day breakfast ahoy!) playing games – we had bags full of prototypes!
It took two-and-a-half hours to check-in (so many people in the building – so many!) and the 8.30PM flight was delayed by a further 2 hours (the airport was having real trouble dealing with the cold and the snow) – though, in keeping with the disaster this scenario was turning into, we didn’t sit in a plane seat until 1AM.
Arrived in Nurnberg at 3.30AM and at the hotel 4.30AM after finding the most dangerous and blasé taxi driver in the region to take us there (one hand on the Sat Nav, one on his mobile – driving the car at 70MPH in snow with his knees FFS). Had to wake up the manager to let us in, though – lots of Deutsche muttering.
Saturday 1st February, 2003
Slept in until 8.30AM (hey...another 3 hours – that’ll be 5 hours total in two days, then). Made our 10AM appointment with Kosmos – he didn’t show much interest in Mind Meld (TB: Now a co-operative, circus-themed prototype called Allez Oops), re-themed Starship Tycoons or City of Sorcerers but DID show interest in my Haunted House prototype – that’s the one test vehicle I nearly left at home!
Had the Devil’s own job of locating Adlungspiele (late PM by the time we discovered their cosy nook) and left Coppertwaddle with them. Also left copies of Autumn Leaves and Ecology with Ravensburger. So, in the end, quite a positive and productive day (if a little disappointing from Alan’s PoV).
Had the most delicious Arabian meal for supper in a restaurant next door to our Erlangen hotel and to bed circa 8.30PM for what turned out to be 12 hours of sleep!
Sunday 2nd February, 2003
Quick meeting with Amigo but they weren’t taken by anything. Me and the Paulls parted company at times – I needed to escape into my head for a while, it’s the tiredness catching up.
END OF DIARY
The journey home was straight-forward and uneventful – the snowy capital had thawed and recovered (mostly) and was beginning the usual round of blame and recrimination.
Alan and I returned the year later for a much more low-key day and a half and, thankfully, a totally routine journey. We’ve not been back since – work, real life and – to be honest – the quite ridiculous expense putting us off. In those early days, we were so convinced that companies would snap up our designs and we’d be riding the Royalty Train, tugging on the acclaim whistle. As it transpired, it was (and still is) pretty much a closed shop and the only true path to getting your stuff out there is to do it yourself!
Only nowadays you have to spend most of your effort being heard over the noise!
Final Note: tonight heralds a first for the Ross-on-Wye gamers - we'll be running a play-test night (with free beer thrown in) for a variety of SSG trinkets - I shall report back tomorrow(-ish) with the skinny!
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