Local Man Continues Gaming Spirit In Peterborough Communities For Over 42 Years

Ever since 58-year-old Dave MacIssac started to play games when he was 16, he’s been a mainstay for a variety of Peterborough gaming communities since 1981.

MacIssac as a Dungeon Master in the back of his business, Hughman Games, for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. He has also hosted several games at Phantasm, a sci-fi and fantasy role-playing convention that occurs annually in Peterborough. Photo by David Tuan bui.

MacIssac has been involved in the community, playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft and more.

He started playing the popular fantasy role-playing tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) when he was 16. It started as a club in the Peterborough Public Library and moved its way over to PCVS (at the current Peterborough Alternative & Continuing Education building). MacIsaac has made lifelong friends through playing D&D and several other games. He says they become an outlet to meet and socialize with new people while being able to explore your imagination and creativity.

“It's a world of imagination and imagination is limitless,” explained MacIssac. “There's always somebody who wants to play that hasn't tried it and they have a buddy that comes in and then you have a whole new set of people. You can run the same old scenarios over again but it's new faces that don't know what's coming.”

MacIssac’s club members eventually shifted from D&D to the trading card game Magic: The Gathering (MTG), released in 1993. MacIssac began playing in 1994 with his friends and club members.

One of his first jobs in the gaming industry was at the now-closed Jeff’s Cards & Comics as a manager in 2000, first located at 655 Parkhill. Rd. W. The store sold both MTG and D&D products. It hosted weekly MTG tournaments and held D&D nights at its establishment.

In 2004, MacIssac also worked at his brother’s internet café called E-Lan Games in the Black Diamond Plaza in Peterborough. It allowed customers to pay for time to use their computers to surf the internet and play computer games solo or together through a local area network. The café closed in 2009.

Jeff’s Cards and Comics relocated to 422 George St N. in 2007 (at the current trading card store Grey Guardian Games) that opened an internet café on the upper floor. Two years later, MacIssac got into the online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) and helped foster a community of gamers in the area with the shop as an outlet.

Since Jeff’s Cards got sold in 2016, MacIssac looked for a new outlet to reach out and maintain the gaming community. He opened his own internet café called ‘Hughman Games’ located at Brookdale Plaza on Chemong Road in 2019. He named it in honour of his brother Hugh, who passed away from a brain tumour in 2012. The business offers internet and gaming services and a venue to play D&D.

“I think it's critical in this day and age — especially with devices and everybody can hide in their rooms — you need to be with people in person,” explained MacIssac. “It allows for social activity, something that young kids today are probably missing partly because Covid shut them all in and it's a good idea for them to get out.”

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Peterborough DBIA Announces Holiday Shopping Passport Grand Prize Draw Winner

The Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) announces Noah Sloan as the grand prize draw Holiday Shopping Passport winner on Tuesday.

photo courtesy of Peterborough DBIA.

Sloan’s completed Holiday Shopping Passport was drawn at the El (P) restaurant on George Street in downtown Peterborough on Jan. 11.

The winning passport came from Iceman Video Games, where Sloan purchased a new gaming console. The $1,500 Boro gift card grand prize was awarded by Iceman Video Games Store Manager Holly Butler on Jan. 14.

“I still can’t believe I won, it’s surreal. I think now more than ever, it’s important to support small businesses with the economy the way it is,” said Sloan. “I really appreciate our downtown and love that I can bring my dog along while shopping the stores. I’m still wrapping my head around winning and look forward to exploring all the new shops and restaurants with my gift card.”

The Holiday Shopping Passports ran from Nov. 14 to Jan. 11.

Throughout the program shoppers were rewarded with a passport stamp for every $10 they spent at a participating location. Each completed passport, or 20 stamps, was entered into a draw, including three early bird draws of $500 in Boro gift cards.

The Holiday Shopping Passport program generated just over 2.3 million dollars in local spending.

“What I love about this program is anyone can win when they shop downtown. Some past winners filled out dozens of passports while others complete just one,” says executive director of the Peterborough DBIA Terry Guiel.

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