It was “on like Donkey Kong” Saturday as video game enthusiasts converged on the Maynard Avenue Methodist Church for the Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society’s first retro video game convention.

The convention featured vendors of old video and computer games, “Donkey Kong” and “Q-bert” tournaments, guest lectures and an indie, or homemade, video game competition.

Co-founders Gary Mayer and Gary Carnuche started CORGS last August because they felt central Ohio was lacking a proper group to celebrating the classic video games of the 70s, 80s and 90s, Mayer said.

“I just couldn’t believe Columbus didn’t have something like this,” he said.

Mayer, an Ohio State graduate, grew up during the Atari generation, the ’70s and early ’80s, when he says games were more challenging than they are today.

Since then, both he and Carnuche have been collecting games and consoles, which were on display and for sale Saturday afternoon.

The lower level of the church saw an influx of shoppers all day as they browsed the seemingly endless collection of video games and consoles set up at the many booths.

Also at the convention was the Game Creation Club, an OSU student organization dedicated to providing resources for a diverse group of students related to video game development, according to the group’s Web site.

President Jim Pickett and Vice President Jorge Doig were on hand demonstrating some of the game members have created since the club’s creation in 2006. Many of the games are simply variations of the classics, like “Battle-Pong,” which takes the one move of “Pong” and increases its difficulty by having players shoot down their opponents’ shield.

The convention also featured the Atari Computer Enthusiasts of Columbus. Formed more than 20 years ago, the group came to the convention to share knowledge of the classic gaming system and to support Mayer and Carnuche, who have been active members for years, Charles Brown, long-time member of the Atari Computer Enthusiasts of Columbus.

“The guys have done a lot to support us,” Brown said. “So we felt like turnaround was only fair play.”

The ACEC will be holding its annual swap meet this September at the Oakland Park Community Center, where many members of CORGS will be in attendance.

Ian McCollum can be reached at [email protected].