By Daegan Waagmeester
Web Editor

Tucked in the back of the Streeter Annex, you’ll find walls and glass cabinets full of computer history. Like that of a museum, Mac and Windows desktops line the halls creating a display of 20th century technology.. 

That same building holds the Computer, Consoles and Games club, founded by a student at Clackamas Community College, V Zerba, late last spring term.

Zerba wanted to create an on-campus resource for students to get help with repairing their computers or consoles for little to no cost, while learning how to fix it themselves along the way.

An array of old desktop computers in the back of the classroom where the club meets. Photos by Hunter Seifert

“I wanted to do something that could be fun for both members and students, and helpful. The main focus of the club, what I’m hoping for it to be, is to mainly be on repair.” said Zerba. “Students should be able to bring things like their personal computers here because we don’t have any way you can get support with that anywhere else in the school.”

When trying to find an advisor for the club, Zerba talked to many faculty members until finally being pointed to Eric McBride, a long-standing computer science hardware and network lab coordinator at the College. 

“I’ve been gaming since Atari, I’ve got my pong system in my office, so I probably have a bit of history in the area,” said McBride. 

McBride helping Jessica Niemetz with repairing her Nintendo Wii.

The club won’t always be focused on just repair; Zerba wants to build a space for students to not only fix, but enjoy their retro consoles. 

Zerba said the club has hopes of running larger scale tournaments for games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart in the future. 

“Sometimes you need to take a break, play some games, do some tournaments, maybe LAN parties,” said Zerba.

In past meetings, students have given tech demos of some of their favorite consoles, held discussions about their own personal repair experiences and have just used the time and space to talk about their favorite games and other hobbies alongside a community of other students with similar interests.

In their meeting on Oct. 22, club member Perry Hebert started the afternoon with a presentation about Xbox controller disassembly, utilizing his own personal controllers to showcase potential fixes for known issues with older controllers. 

Hebert is one of the longest tenured club members alongside Zerba, and said he was introduced to the club by McBride.

“I showed up on the first week because I tend to talk with Eric a lot, and he was like, ‘There’s a club over here for games and IT-related stuff,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I’d be interested,’” said Hebert.

Following the controller demo, Jessica Niemetz, another club member, had brought in an unresponsive Nintendo Wii for the class to disassemble and repair. 

Zerba had the idea to have the group watch a guide on the issue, allowing Niemetz and the rest of the club members to get to work straight away on repairing the damaged console. 

Niemetz said the club offered an opportunity to explore computer hardware beyond what she encountered in her coursework.

Zerba and Niemetz working on the Wii restoration.

“Mostly the console repair stuff and just having a place to talk with other people about computer repair,” said Niemetz.  “I’ve been in this computer networking administration and various computer science classes, so it was really cool to see that there was a club interested in the hardware side.”

For students who have any interest in console repair or video games in general, there may be a place to meet new people and showcase their skills..

Computers, Consoles and Games club meets Thursdays from 12 to 2:30 p.m. in the Streeter Hall Annex PC Computer Lab (S183).

Hunter Seifert, a student at Clackamas Community College, is a contributor for The Clackamas Print