OTTUMWA — People with questions about whether a video game hall of fame will work needed only to watch the hundreds of players, fans and officials travel to Ottumwa on Thursday.

Video gaming can attract big crowds.

Bridge View Center was not laid out like organizers hope the eventual hall of fame will be. But it did give a good sense of the basic atmosphere they want.

People lined up to take shots at Donkey Kong, Punch-Out, even Space Invaders. They tried some of the earliest game consoles, rows of teens who were born a decade after Pac Man was off the shelves. Players who have never had to ask, “Who is Mario?”

To Judd Saul this was pretty close to heaven. He produced “Frag,” a 2008 film about professional gaming. He was stunned to be asked why he was at the Video Game Hall of Fame launch party, looking like he genuinely had never considered being anywhere else.

“Every fan of something needs a Graceland,” he said. “Ottumwa and the Video Game Hall of Fame is going to be video gaming’s Graceland.”

David Moreno wasn’t going to argue. He’s a longtime fan of the Nintendo boxing series “Punch-Out,” which just debuted a new version on the Wii. He was happy to plunk down in front of the television and play the original for a few minutes.

“I just like boxing,” he explained. “You might as well play a game where you can bully the bullies back. Any time I feel angry I can play this to get it out.”

Ottumwa’s designation as the video game capitol of the world goes back to the early 1980s. That was when playing a video game meant plunking quarters into a machine in front of people, risking endless razzing from friends if you botched a round of Q*Bert.

The focus faded with the rise of home game consoles like Nintendo and PlayStation and the slow death of arcades. Things stayed dormant through much of the 1990s and the early part of this century. But a series of new films about competitive game playing caught people’s attention, and they each paid tribute to Ottumwa’s role in early competitions.

Those films provided the push to get Ottumwa seriously into the mix again. Now the goal isn’t just publicity, it’s a permanent home for the classic games and the best players in the world.

Billy Mitchell, one of the players likely to find his way in when the hall begins inductions, was on hand when the first public presentation of the committee pushing for the hall started meeting last winter. He was pleased but not necessarily surprised at the mass turnout on Thursday.

“There was 30-40 people [at that first meeting],” he said. “Now there might be 10 times that.”

The estimate might be pretty close, especially given the way people kept coming and going throughout the afternoon and early evening. Mitchell and other gaming celebrities attracted a steady stream of autograph seekers wherever they went in the center. And they always obliged.

The most obvious gamer of those celebrities was Triforce, who wore a 1980s Nintendo Power Glove on his right hand. The name comes from a relic in “The Legend of Zelda,” a game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Triforce is a serious gamer and legally changed his name to match the gaming lore.