Midwest Gaming Classic 2K12 - March 24th & 25th

[martyg]

The dates have been officially posted, we're on March 24th & 25th in 2012. Same great location but even more great events, displays, vendors, and contests!

Last years attendance (including kids 12 and under, which are free) was over 5,000. Here's looking to an even better year. :)

[Tupin]

Can't wait, I had the best time last year. :)

[chrisbid]

any word on when hotel packages will be posted?

[GrandAmChandler]

....less than 5 months until MGC! Everybody PANIC!

[Queen Of The Felines]

Crap, I gotta buy my tables this weekend!

[goatdan]

any word on when hotel packages will be posted?

I replied to this somewhere else too, but...

Life has been very busy for me lately. Which is a good thing for the MGC actually, as it's centered in a lot of early prep stuff for it. We have the hotel link and we're ready to put it up, but we're trying to nail down at the same time ticket packages. The ticket packages are *almost* nailed down at this point (the cost is staying the same, but pre-order people will now get some extra added bonuses... and, we're starting a NEW Friday night tournament!) so we just have to finalize that, and we'll have them up.

At this point, I am guessing it will be this weekend or shortly afterward. Once we nail down all this, I've got a lot of other info to roll with -- new rooms, expanded content, totally and completely new features, and so on! I'm really looking forward to 2012 already!

[Carey85]

Let's see if we can get total attendance OVER 9000.

[goatdan]

Let's see if we can get total attendance OVER 9000.

Okay, I gotta ask...

What happens at 9000?

I mean, I'm ALL for that, but that seems a rather interesting choice of a number.

[portnoyd]

You hear that sound? That's the meme whooshing over dan's head.

[Tupin]

A rather old one at that, too...

Can't wait until the new MGC, it's always great!

[goatdan]

You hear that sound? That's the meme whooshing over dan's head.

Yes, it most certainly did. That is what a lack of Dragonball Z gets ya, I guess. Regardless, growing in attendance to beat Goku would be all right with me :)

[Kaboomer]

http://gamerspots.com/events/midwest-gaming-classic-2012

If you have been before, please register and review it :)

[Tempest]

I'll be there in the museum area again. I'll have my Videobrain, Arcadia 2001, and SV-328 setup for play.

[Goodwill Hunter]

The sell-it-all auction at the end of the last show ended my vending career, but I hope to exhibit my APF M-1000/Imagination Machine and haul back out the big orange Sears 2600 POP demo unit for display and play. Also looking forward to actually seeing the show again, instead of spending the whole two days behind a table.

[DHG Hunter]

Ticket pre-orders went up a little while ago, $25 for Saturday & Sunday as it was last year: http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/tickets/

Room pre-orders also went up at the same rate as they were last year.

What's New So Far:

If you pre-order your tickets (http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/tickets/), certain areas will be available to you 30 minutes prior to the general public on Saturday, March 24.
There are several ticket packages available this year including one that takes a Friday road trip to local collector Tom Taylor's impressive 300+ unit in-home arcade.
There are now two Friday night tournaments: the original Friday Night Clock Chaos tournament for pinball and a new, console video game tournament in the museum called the Friday Night Up to Par tournament. Details will be forthcoming.


On a side note, we've also launched a new official blog for the Midwest Gaming Classic called MGC In-Depth: http://www.mgcindepth.com

I hope to see some familiar and new faces from here this coming show! :)

Later.

[goatdan]

There are several ticket packages available this year including one that takes a Friday road trip to local collector Tom Taylor's impressive 300+ unit in-home arcade.

One slight correction -- his collection isn't in home, it's too big for that. He has rental space that he uses for it. It's AWESOME.

[GrandAmChandler]

I believe our table space is secured. I heard if you go to ONE classic gaming event next year, THIS is the one to attend.

[wallydawg]

I might have to start a Paypal donation Fund to get Ben Heckendorn drunk enough to sing Robin Sparkles' "Lets Go to the Mall"

[Guy Kazama]

okay, first off, i'd pay to see that.

second, i'm so going, had loads of fun last year and i just pretty much ran around like a chicken without a head for two days.
and then drove 12 hours home.

[dave2236]

I believe our table space is secured. I heard if you go to ONE classic gaming event next year, THIS is the one to attend.

Yes, our booth is booked, were ready to sell some awesome games.

[Compute]

I'm there. I'd like to be there all weekend, but now I may even come down Friday to see Tom Taylor's arcade collection. Anyone want to split a room?

[WizDawg]

I recieved my tickets in the mail yesterday. I'm excited to participate in the Clock Chaos tourney again. I've been playing a ton of pinball this year. Also looking forward to the new Up to Par tourney.

I plan on getting there Fri night and staying til Monday this time.

Compute I think we may have met once with knowing it but I can split a room with you. PM me if interested.

[icbrkr]

Made it the last 3 years. Don't see any reason not to make it this time around ;)

[GrandAmChandler]

Flight Booked!

[Queen Of The Felines]

Got my table a while back. Anybody want some custom buttons made let me know. I might do keychains too.

[Matt-El]

Tables purchased, room reserved, looking forward to another year selling. I look forward to seeing you there everyone.

[wallydawg]

To whom it may concern,

Benheck Experience needs more tables this year. There was around 5 or 6 of us fighting for tablespace last year. I think one or two extra would suffice. Live mods/fixing stuff again and all that again hopefully.

[goatdan]

To whom it may concern,

Benheck Experience needs more tables this year. There was around 5 or 6 of us fighting for tablespace last year. I think one or two extra would suffice. Live mods/fixing stuff again and all that again hopefully.

Contact me direct -- if you don't have my email addy, contact me via the MGC Contact forum and I'll get back to you.

As always, we'll do everything within our power to provide more space for stuff, but I can't really guarantee anything. We've taken over the lobby and the restaurant now, and unless we're going to start using hotel rooms, I don't know what more we can do! But again, email me, we'll talk :)

[Compute]

I need to have my VB fixed, can I just bring it in or will I need to make an "appointment" ? I'd fix it myself, but I'd rather have someone do it who has done it before.

[wallydawg]

We tried to fix This Guy's VB (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71dDHc2udY) last year and no luck. Can't really do the oven the oven trick to fix horizontal screen lines in the middle of a hotel, but anyone can bring whatever in and we can at least take a look at it. I think our actual success rate of actually fixing something is pretty low with just one or two things a year (last year I think we fixed a Tapwave Zodiac, of all things), but we mean well and try our best, and sometimes it comes up aces. A lot of times if we can't fix something, whether from insufficient tools or not our area of expertise, we can at least point you in the right direction.

[Compute]

That would be awesome. One of the eyepieces is out. I've read a billion threads on this, so I'll say it's the "easy" one. Maybe I can find a buyer with only one eye at the show.

[Tupin]

Got everything planned out, but I should probably buy my tickets in advance this year. The line is always very long, but it's just getting it earlier, not getting them in the mail? Or is it?

Either way, can't wait. Marty made an awesome show last year, especially with the 80's room in the museum.

[goatdan]

Got everything planned out, but I should probably buy my tickets in advance this year. The line is always very long, but it's just getting it earlier, not getting them in the mail? Or is it?

You get your vouchers in the mail that you need to turn in for tickets at the show.

You can start turning in your vouchers this year at 9am. At 9:30am, a few select halls will open early ONLY for those who pre-ordered. It is also the only way to get the MGC limited edition style T-shirt.

Finally, it helps improve the show that very year. 100% of the money that we raise from pre-order tickets we immediately re-invest into the show that same year, so you're helping us make an even better experience for you!

[dave2236]

I knew I had a pretty good size collection of Star Trek and Star Wars Hallmark ornaments. I didn't know I had this many, especially multiple duplicates. Sine I am starting to run out of video games to sell, I will have all my extras for sale this year in my booth. 4442444344444445

[Jeff-20]

Is anyone else getting spam links on the midwest gaming site?

[goatdan]

Is anyone else getting spam links on the midwest gaming site?

Jeff,

Could you explain more? I just checked out our site, and I don't see anything that appears to be out of the ordinary... If something's going wrong, I'd like to know so I can fix it!

[backguard]

Past vendors -

For someone looking to thin out their collection, is it worth grabbing a $100 table? Ideally I'd bring 2-3k worth of inventory and hope to clear it out.

Edit: on the spam question I didn't see anything. I just surfed through vendor info.

[Queen Of The Felines]

Definitely yes.

[98PaceCar]

Past vendors -

For someone looking to thin out their collection, is it worth grabbing a $100 table? Ideally I'd bring 2-3k worth of inventory and hope to clear it out.

Edit: on the spam question I didn't see anything. I just surfed through vendor info.

I haven't been a vendor there but I do end up spending more money at this show than pretty much all of the other shows in the year combined.

[Tupin]

Kind of unrelated to this year, but how much did that LaserActive go for last year during the silent auction. If I remember, it was something ridiculously low.

But man, do people bring awesome stuff to MGC. I've seen stuff there I've never seen anywhere else. A little bit more than a month left!

[goatdan]

Past vendors -

For someone looking to thin out their collection, is it worth grabbing a $100 table? Ideally I'd bring 2-3k worth of inventory and hope to clear it out.

Technically, since the GOAT Store is a vendor, I can answer this... but we purposely sort of "gimp" the GOAT Store and don't bring that much because Gary and I are so busy running the rest of the show. Having said that, it does huge business for us each year, and we only take very limited inventory. Not sure if that helps, but it is what it is.

My real reason for replying however -- if you're interested in a table *at all*, please contact us immediately about it to be put on the waiting list. We're way out of regular table space, and we created a wait list that we're going to put our heads together early next week and see where else we might be able to put interested vendors. The table space won't be perfect -- you may have to pack things up each night, or something -- but it will be cheaper, and we're doing everything we can to make it so that everyone who wants to can vend. Unfortunately, honestly, it looks like that won't be able to happen perfectly, but we're really trying.


Edit: on the spam question I didn't see anything. I just surfed through vendor info.

*whew*. If anyone does see something, please contact me so we can take care of it ASAP! It should have any issues.

[backguard]

GD - PM sent.

[dave2236]

By far the best show to sell at and go to.

[WizDawg]

By far the best show to sell at and go to.

I agree!

I sold one year and sold a ton of stuff (mostly my doubles).

However I enjoy playing all the pins, listening to speakers, participating in tournaments, and all the other cool stuff that happens more than vending; but if you wanted to sell your collection this would be the show to do it.

This going to be my 4th year in a row.

[Jeff-20]

Jeff,

Could you explain more? I just checked out our site, and I don't see anything that appears to be out of the ordinary... If something's going wrong, I'd like to know so I can fix it!

Ok, I just checked on my iphone and my laptop. I used four different browsers. All the side links take me to some Canadian pill website. Could you clear your cache and make sure I'm not going crazy? Because even my google search reveals cached spam.

[Queen Of The Felines]

I was going to say that you probably have a virus but if it's doing it with your iPhone that's...weird. I know routers can get infected but that still wouldn't explain the iPhone.

Everything's ok on my end.

[goatdan]

Jeff -- Not sure what you mean by 'side links', as when I go to the site it is fine -- however, something seems to be weirding out with our Google links -- if you go to Google.com and you do the image thing, I get the exact same thing that you see. Clicking on any of these links that aren't the main one throws a server error of some type, very weird. If you load the pages with the exact same URLs through directly or by clicking on them after heading to www.midwestgamingclassic.com, everything shows up normally.

So... the other show-organizer Gary, who is sort of our web site guru, has been informed. He thinks that he might know what happens, which has to do with Google search results being redirected. He thinks he has a way to fix it.

In checking the site through other searches, any other web site does not seem to have any of the errors. It is *only* Google searching throwing them. We'll see what we can do.

Until then, just head to the site directly -- http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ as we have a lot of great news coming out every day!

[goatdan]

Figured it out -- thanks for the heads up, Jeff. Google preview cache should change sooner than later, although clicking on the links takes you to the correct pages already. It was a strange thing that was *only* was showing up in the Google search results, and then only part of them.

[Eternal Tune]

Just bought my plane ticket to Wisconsin. Last year I drove and boy was that a mess.

[chrisbid]

when will the guest speaker list be announced?

[wallydawg]

Any MGC Friday Night Karaoke news to pass along yet, mainly how to request songs/bribe the dj? Anyone here a bad enough dude to get drunk enough to sing No Doubt's "I'm Just a Girl?"

[goatdan]

Any MGC Friday Night Karaoke news to pass along yet, mainly how to request songs/bribe the dj? Anyone here a bad enough dude to get drunk enough to sing No Doubt's "I'm Just a Girl?"

Please get your requests together and email them to me ASAP. The DJ is part of our event, and we try to get whatever we can, but we can't read minds -- so if you want to make sure that we have it, please make sure to contact us!!

Oh, and while I'm at it - if you haven't pre-ordered your tickets, please do so soon. We have a cut off number and a cut off date, and we're curious to see which one happens first. We're hoping for the number, as we invest the money that we get from the presale tickets immediately into the show for that current year, and we're still hoping to get a little more to do a little more this year :)

Also, if you are wanting to reserve a room at the hotel, make sure to do it soon. Hotel rooms have been selling ridiculously fast lately, and it looks like there is a very good chance that we'll have the entire hotel sold out for this year's show!

[WizDawg]

For the UP to Par tourney, will the systems/games be announced before the show?

[goatdan]

For the UP to Par tourney, will the systems/games be announced before the show?

Yup -- at least some of them. Here is what we have done so far:

Angry Birds (HP Slate Tablet) - High score related challenge
Sonic 1 (Genesis) - Speed related challenge
Daytona USA (PlayStation 3) - Speed related challenge
Star Wars: The Atari Arcade Game (GameCube) - High score related challenge
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (Xbox 360) - High score related challenge
Super Mario Bros., Super Mario All-Stars version (Wii) - Speed related challenge
Galaga, Namco Museum version (Dreamcast) - Proficiency related challenge
Tetris DS (Nintendo DSi XL) - High score related challenge

They aren't on the site yet, but they will be. I think the plan is to announce 12 of the 16 games, although I'm no positive on that. Should be a fun time!!

[chrisbid]

what time will that be starting? i have an 8 hour drive from columbus oh and plan on leaving around noon on friday. If it starts at 8 or later it may be possible for me to get there in time (losing an hour for the time zone change)

[goatdan]

what time will that be starting? i have an 8 hour drive from columbus oh and plan on leaving around noon on friday. If it starts at 8 or later it may be possible for me to get there in time (losing an hour for the time zone change)

"Tee times" start at 8pm, but will run until probably about 11pm starting times, so you should be more than good to participate if you'd like!

[Compute]

goatdan, I hope you don't mind, but I did a little amateur promo (huhuhuhuh) for the con on my buddy's podcast. We followed that up with a discussion about some of our favorite games.

If anyone is interested, check it out:

http://landofthehoss.com/2012/02/29/44---midwest-gaming-classic.aspx

[goatdan]

goatdan, I hope you don't mind, but I did a little amateur promo (huhuhuhuh) for the con on my buddy's podcast.

Oh gosh, you NEVER need to ask me to promote what is ultimately *your* show. I tell people this all the time and I mean it -- without people who step up because they love the show, either by promoting it like you did, lending a hand at it to help set up a display or volunteer to run something, or whatever, the show wouldn't be anything like it is. It would be Gary and me in a room of broken pinball machines and part of the GOAT Store inventory.

It's the passion of everyone else that makes the show what it is. I'm just lucky enough to be the shmuck who (along with Gary) risks tens of thousands of dollars each year now on it's success. And, I get to conduct and coordinate all the passion as best as possible. It's something that Gary and I honestly wouldn't be doing if it wasn't for people like yourself who step up and help the whole thing go off :)

Please, use the contact form on our web site and remind me to link to your podcast in our "Promo" section. We appreciate every bit of coverage that we get :)

Oh, and speaking of ways to help... If you haven't ordered your tickets, there is only a few days left and we are hoping to reach our predetermined "cut off" point for them this year. So far, so good -- and if you know that you're coming, it's the perfect way to really help us put together an even better show because we use 100% of the money for pre-ordered tickets for that year's show.

Along with that, if you didn't see our announcement today, gaming pioneer Scott Adams will be doing a very special dinner chat with a lucky 12 gamers on Saturday night after the show floor closes. We just put tickets on sale for this today, and they have started moving so I wanted to alert people here that might not follow the site that if you want in on this incredible experience, pre-order your tickets now.

While you're at it, hotel rooms are booking up like crazy. If you want to ensure you have a room at the Sheraton, now would be a great time to book :)

[Queen Of The Felines]

Hey, is that Mr. Soda Pop guy coming back this year? I think I spent more at his booth than anywhere else.

[DHG Hunter]

when will the guest speaker list be announced?

As soon as it is done. ;) Seriously, the speaker list is usually one of the final things to get finished because juggling just who is coming and when they will be presenting is a real challenge each year. I've seen some of the names this year and it looks like it is going to be another strong year. :)


For the UP to Par tourney, will the systems/games be announced before the show?

Adding to what Dan said, it may be best to follow us on Twitter @MGCInDepth to find out about the games as they are announced. We're planning on doing one more announcement this week bringing the total announced games up to 12. The remaining ~4 games may or may not be announced only on Twitter.

Later.

[udisi]

got my room today, getting excited. 2 weeks from Friday, yeah!

[Compute]

Bringing three friends to the show. This is going to be awesome.

[DHG Hunter]

I realize most of you aren't following @MGCInDepth on Twitter yet, but we reported tonight that Sheraton hotel rooms are nearly sold out. Our block of king beds are entirely sold out, double beds are nearly sold out, and a selection of suites have been added to our "extended block" but those are now selling out too. Once this block is sold out, the Sheraton will be all but entirely sold out of rooms during the event.

If you haven't booked your room yet, please do so soon:

http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/mgc12

Later.

[wallydawg]

Contact me direct -- if you don't have my email addy, contact me via the MGC Contact forum and I'll get back to you.

As always, we'll do everything within our power to provide more space for stuff, but I can't really guarantee anything. We've taken over the lobby and the restaurant now, and unless we're going to start using hotel rooms, I don't know what more we can do! But again, email me, we'll talk :)

Dan, we are discussing on the benheck forums/facebook group about what we need and will send you an "official" email tomorrow. Hopefully this is not too late of a notice; we did not realize Ben himself would be elsewhere, seperately, at the event. There was ample room where we were located downstairs last year, even with 3 other setups of different groups, we just needed an additional table or two. Anywhere you can fit us housing 4-5 tables with power outlet access, for live demos and "while you wait" mods we will gladly take and appreciate.

Anyone else, if you have something that you want us to take a look at, plesae post here what it is, what is wrong, and what the problem might be. I will post it on our forums/facebook group so we can look at some information about fixing it and what tools to bring.

[chrisbid]

i have a channel f that wont boot. im thinking the power supply is dead (its attached)

[goatdan]

I just wanted to drop everyone a quick note -- today is the FINAL day to pre-order your 2012 Midwest Gaming Classic two-day tickets! Tickets will still be available at the door, but if you know you're planning on coming, you'll save some money and help us make the show even better this year by ordering now.

Also, if you haven't already reserved your hotel room, we are sold out of certain room types, and have very limited numbers left. Please make sure that if you want to stay on site, reserve your hotel room today!

Finally, as of last night, we are now confirmed to have more than 200+ arcade video and pinball machines at the show. When you combine that with Tom Taylor's Tour, which you can go on Friday afternoon and evening for a small donation when you purchase your tickets (very few spots left here too!), it means that the Midwest Gaming Classic will have more than 500 playable machines this year! That's incredible!

Hope to see you at the show!!

[Tupin]

Got my tickets in the mail today, only two weeks left!

[deteacher]

Will there be a NAVA meeting this March, or will it not happen because of the MGC? I've never been to a NAVA meeting, and I'm ready to take the plunge.

[goatdan]

Update everyone -- we have assessed and put back on sale an extremely limited number of special event tickets. These tickets are for things like Up To Par, Clock Chaos, Tom's Tour and Dine With Scott Adams. Between all four events, less than 50 tickets remain.

For instance, if you want in on that dinner with Scott Adams, this is basically the last chance -- we thought we sold out, and we just found out that we miscounted and we have TWO tickets left. You get to have a really unique experience dining with a true gaming pioneer, and the price includes dinner after the show closes Saturday night.

Want to try out the new MGC Up To Par tournament? Just a few slots remain in this unique video game challenge. Same with our extremely popular Friday night Clock Chaos tournament, which already has the most players it has ever hosted!

Finally, if you have ANY interest in pinball or old arcade games, you must head to Tom's Tour on Friday between 3pm and 8pm. He has over 300 machines set up for you to play, and there are just a few handful of these tickets remaining! A donation to charity and purchase of a two day ticket is required.

Hope to see you at the show!!

[udisi]

I'm already going to the show and have my hotel room , etc, but I just got my flyer in the mail yesterday (12th), and it made me think.
Don't know who these flyers are aimed at, but with pre-sale tickets pretty much done and hotel rooms filled up, maybe these flyers should be mailed earlier.

Maybe these flyers are aimed at the more casual, might show up, local people, but at this point if I had just received this flyer and decided to go, I might not be able to plan time off for the show, or get a hotel room, or pre-sale tickets.

Just an observation, these may be aimed more at locals and such for which 10 days is probably plenty of time to decide if you can make a show 2 weeks down the line, but for people traveling to the show, I would think sending out the flyers earlier would be better.

[goatdan]

We used a different supplier for those this year. On one hand, they sent them out much earlier than our place did last year, which had a long turn around. I think I got my first report of people receiving them about three weeks ago. On the other hand, I have heard from a few people that they are sort of trickling in here and there.

It's always a fight -- send too soon, and we don't have a bunch of stuff to write on them yet confirmed. Send to late, and people get them after the pre-order period closes, like it looks like you did.

Thus is the problem of being a little show with no staff really -- it's hard to time all this stuff! Hope you understand :)

[udisi]

I'm on top of it as I said, so it doesn't effect me :)

I was just trying to be helpful. By the sound of it, some people got them sooner anyway.

Yeah, too soon, you have nothing to write on them, and people forget about the flyer(because the show is so far off)
Also for local people 2 weeks is probably perfect. Just a reminder that this shindig is coming up in 2 weekends.

They are nice flyers, I was just hoping the paid advertising doesn't go to waste :)

[goatdan]

No problem! We always like insights from people, so please don't take that as me squashing your input. Those flyers are more of a "they are what they are" sort of thing every year. Luckily, probably 95% of them do go local, but we wanted to have them out to sell more pre-order tickets -- they mention that on the flyer -- as that *greatly* helps us improve the show year to year :) So, sadly, they were late.

Not as bad as last year when we had Kinkos do them. We gave them all of the flyers on the 14th of February, and they screwed up and contacted me about a week before the show that they wanted my confirmation on sending them out. Needless to say, we ain't usin' Kinkos any more. And heck, the quality was a lot better this year, if I do say so myself :)

[ryanflucas]

If any sellers are following this thread, bring your gameboy original games if you have any. I'm working on completing a north american catalog and plan on hunting for more additions this year. Also orphaned boxes/manuals. :-D

[dave2236]

I still have some complete Game Boy and Game Boy Color games left from my collection that I will have for sale this year, plus I will have quite a few extra books and boxes you can look through.