Life & Work with Preston Burt of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Preston Burt.

Hi Preston, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up as an ’80s kid, arcade games were everywhere. In addition to mall arcades, you could find stand-up video game cabinets all over the place–in gas stations, laundromats, hotels, and even grocery stores. As an eight or nine year old, I was totally blown away when one night I spent the night at my friend’s house and his family had an ‘Afterburner’ arcade in their basement game room. I was absolutely blown away that normal people could own these machines I only found “in the wild.” I was hooked.

In college, I worked at a movie theater in a shopping mall right across from an arcade. They operated some games in the theater lobby and I became friendly with the attendants. One day the manager said they were getting rid of some games and asked if I wanted to buy one for $200. I couldn’t believe it! I assumed they were thousands and thousands of dollars. By the day’s end, my first game (a random shoot-’em-up plane game titled ‘Varth: Operation Thunderstorm’ was delivered to my apartment.

In 2007 when my wife and I moved into a house with a basement I started collecting games like crazy. I eventually ended up learning how to repair broken games which led me to acquiring the contents of a warehouse full of games from the former operator of the Blue Ridge Arcade in Gainesville, GA. I would fix and sell games to build up my own collection, but through that process I also started building community among other collectors in the Atlanta area.

One of the reasons the collecting community was so strong is because by the mid-2000s, arcades were dead or dying and you could no longer find the games we loved on location anywhere. The only place you could play so many classics were in the basements or garages of other collectors.

In 2013, I gathered a group of collectors together to form the Atlanta Pinball League (APL) for friendly, competitive gaming. I met many new friends meeting and playing monthly with that group. Later that year, and jealous of cities with collecting communities so large and strong that they had their own conventions, I banded together with two longtime friends (Shannon DeWitt and Patrick Wall) and two new friends from APL (Dana and Joel Reeves) to host our own arcade and pinball-focused gaming convention in Atlanta, what would become the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo (SFGE).

Launched with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, we met our goal and held our first event in 2014 at the Marriott Century Center. We were thrilled to have over 100 arcade and pinball machines on hand–along with a few hundred attendees. While a large focus of SFGE will always be on arcade and pinball machines, we expanded our areas of interest since that first year to include retro and modern video game consoles, tabletop and board games, role-playing games and more–always staying a true fan convention, built by a love for games and the gaming community.

This year as we host our 13th annual event July 31-August 2, 2026 at the Cobb Convention Center in Atlanta, we anticipate close to 10,000 unique attendees. Our show has grown to include vendors & exhibitors, live music, celebrity guests, and even two nights of live professional wrestling…in addition to hosting “Georgia’s Largest Arcade” with over 400 arcade and pinball games on free play. More than the games, I’m proud of the close-knit community we’ve built and look forward to seeing so many new and familiar faces year after year.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been easy. It takes a lot of effort and requires a huge passion to willingly lug a pinball or arcade machine the size and weight of a refrigerator out of one’s home to bring it to SFGE for others to play. Almost all of the games visitors play on the show floor at Southern-Fried are from individual collectors who want to showcase their prized collection pieces. It took a lot of work to build friendships and foster community to build this event into something special.

Like many other businesses, we experienced hardship during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Because we felt we couldn’t safely host our event in 2020 and opted to have a virtual event instead, we were still on the hook for our contracted event space and lost tens of thousands of dollars. We almost didn’t come back after that year, but people showed up the next year and we were back on track for steady growth starting in 2022.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a communications professional. I got my start as an elementary school teacher, teaching in Dekalb and Gwinnett counties for a few years before opening an independent web design and marketing firm. Working in elementary education taught me how to distill complex concepts into easy-to-understand ideas and how to earnestly talk–without talking down–to an audience. I take those skills with me into my current job as a health communications specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as the lead marketer and co-organizer of the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo.

I’m most proud of my work helping others–whether that’s teaching kindergartners to read, serving on CDC’s COVID-19 Task Force, or growing and supporting a community of thousands of gamers. I’m also pretty good at Galaga.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was the typical nerd. As a kid, I loved playing with action figures, reading comic books, watching movies and playing video games. I didn’t fit in with the popular crowd, but I had a small, close group of misfit friends. I played little league baseball, but wasn’t very good. I was a good singer and was in choir as early as possible in school, eventually singing and dancing in the number one high school show choir in the country. I started dating a girl who became my best friend when I was 15 and never stopped. We’re about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

Pricing:

• $90 – 3-day weekend membership (adult)
• $55 – 3-day weekend membership (child)
• Friday: $45 adults / $25 kids
• Saturday: $55 adults / $30 kids
• Sunday: $30 adults / $20 kids

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gameatl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sfgamingexpo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedgamingexpo
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/gameatl.com