About Us, Rob Smith, Rebecca Clark-Smith

STORE AMBIANCE
Hate shopping in general? Don't like malls or Big Box Stores? Try us. We are in a shopping area with easy parking next to the building. We have a quieter ambiance. We can usually answer questions about the games. You can look at many open, demo games before making a purchase.

A Little About Great Hall Games

We started in 1998 as a shoppe named Great Hall Games & Distractions at Texas Renaissance Faires. Hence the name harkening back to days of olde. The Great Halls in European castles were places where people gathered to talk, play games, eat, or be entertained. We were vendors at several Renaissance Faires in central Texas for 5 years (1998-2002).

With games for the Renaissance Faires taking up the entire dining room of our home, we decided it was time for either a storage locker or a store. In late August of 2000, we opened a small shop in the lower level of Dobie Mall for Rob's August birthday. In July 2001, we moved to a larger store on the food court level of the mall for our July wedding anniversary. We continued with the Renaissance Faire for two years while maintaining a shop in the mall. In June 2004, we moved to a larger location at 5501 N Lamar in Austin.

Although we have been away from the Renaissance Faires for many years, we still enjoy offering traditional and historically based games. We like to carry games in which players can touch the game pieces, hear the clicking or tapping sounds as pieces are moved, or view the the artistic beauty of a game. We also want to offer situations where one can see the sweat on a brow, a gleam in the eyes, a smirk or tweak of a grin, a nervous tick, or even drumming fingers. Things which you can't really experience through on-line gaming!

Visiting our store in Austin, Texas:
5501 N Lamar, Suite A-135
Directly across from U Haul
1 block south of Koenig and Lamar
1 block south of Half Price Books or DPS
1 block south of Dan's Hamburgers
Here's a map.

Sunday-Monday, Noon-6:00 pm
Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 am-10:00 pm or later *
Saturday, 11:00 am-8:00 pm
* see Events
Come play a game! Come say hi!

US Post Mailings
Mail letters, checks, money orders, or packages to:
Great Hall Games, 5501 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite A-135, Austin, Texas, 78751

Numbers
Store phone number: 512-505-0055
FAX number: 512-505-0056
Phone toll free, US and Canada: 1-888-827-2662

E Mail
E-mail: info@greathallgames.com

A Little About Rob & Beka
Rob & Beka met in the 1970s through historical miniatures gaming and a Cthulhu role playing game. Both have painted, historical miniatures armies kept at the store as loaner armies for Sunday miniatures games. They have lived in central Austin since their marriage in 1985. In the early 1990s, both lived in Warsaw, Poland for a year while Rob conducted research for a Ph.D. in Political Science. Now they spend most of their time looking after store business!
Rob has played strategic board games and historical miniatures since he was a teenager. That's over 35 years of war gaming! He has written game rules for publication and has sculpted figures. For many years he worked on a PhD in Poltical Science beforing joining Austin's hi-tech market. Nowadays, you'll find Rob at the store improving his two favorite game areas: historical miniatures and boardgames. Plus he fills and ships the web orders and maintains the miniatures web site.			Beka has been transferred to the home office, literally. Working remotely from the living room, she maintains this web site and does bookkeeping. She has MS (multiple sclerosis) and falling into customers and displays, slow handwriting, and making groans/moans when getting out of a chair to ring the register or when standing up after squatting to look for something on the shelf are not good for business. From home, she is still working on store stuff but also trying to relax and heal. She enjoys historical studies, gardening, painting, and taking short walks outside. She also tries to add a little green to the urban parking lot at the store.