Midwest Gaming Classic 2013

[Compute]

Hmm..I don't see a thread on this yet.

Who is going?

www.midwestgamingclassic.com

Midwest Gaming Classic
Brookfield Sheraton
Brookfield, WI

Saturday, March 23, 2013, from 10:00am to 8:00pm and Family Day Sunday, March 24, 2013, from 10:00am to 5:00pm

Classics, new stuff, arcade. Tournaments, museum, events-within-an-event. Speakers! People selling stuff! Come on, I'm really tired so my ad copy sucks, but I've gone for 5 years now and I still love this show.

[nectarsis]

Def going, it will be my 7th year IIRC, can't wait.

[Atarian75]

I will be there again as a vendor, so stop by, say hi, and buy some stuff.

[FABombjoy]

I'm planning on going, not as a vendor but just as a guy that wants to get away for the weekend. It's been since 2007. That's too long.

[Compute]

I was hoping to go for the whole weekend, but I may just head for the day on account of outside circumstances :(

[nectarsis]

I will be there again as a vendor, so stop by, say hi, and buy some stuff.

Which vendor are you?

[YoshiM]

I'm going to shoot for the whole weekend. Saturday maybe myself or with a couple other guys. Sunday I'm thinking of taking the wife and daughter. My girl will almost be 3 and she's got a lot of interest in games and has a good respect for them. She's never seen a pinball machine.

[Atarian75]

Which vendor are you?

Atarian75's Retro Games. I have been there every year as a vendor except one. 2005 I believe was the year I just went as an attendee.

[macdude22]

I've gone every year since 2003. Even having moved to Bumf Iowa we still make the trek. It's really hard getting people to understand what this thing we pack up and take a 6 hour drive to is every year. I've relegated myself to just telling people I'm going to a big LAN party........as much of a disservice as it is to this wondrous event.

[Compute]

My sister's family is getting into retro stuff, and I'd love to bring them, but they don't have much money so it would be a pretty big charity thing on my part. Maybe I'll do a kickstarter to cover my costs. Usually when I try to explain it to people they end up looking confused. Hard to explain the scope of this thing.

[Tempest]

I'll be there with some stuff in the 80's room for everyone to play with. I think I'll have my VideoBrain (seems to be popular every year), my Arcadia 2001, and either my Macintosh Classic or my Spectravideo 328.

[VideoGameRescue]

I will be there and so will Kevin (from my podcast). Im really excited to go and and see if I can add a few more items to my SNES collection. 8-)

[SegaAges]

I will be there for sure.

I have an amazing idea for the podcast I am on, so you will see me for sure and there is a chance I might swing by and say hello to one of you. I plan on talking to as many vendors as possible and am also going to be trying to talk to as many random people as possible during different stages of the show (from waiting in line for the place to open to initial thoughts of being inside to being there for an entire day, to tracking down an after-party somewhere (I have heard stories that the MGC parties are pretty wild), to being there for 2 days, to people who are there the entire time).

I have a really awesome idea that I am going to be doing with this. I am open to talking to anybody, so if you see me, say something if I have not met you and I would be more than happy to get your thoughts on MGC.

I know it sounds weird to be getting one or 2 minute audio interviews with a ton of people through-out the show, but my idea, which I do not want to reveal until it is all done, will be worth it and very cool. What I am doing is not exactly breaking grounds, but I think the idea will work great.

I can tell you that once it is done, it should, hopefully, explain to people that are not in the collecting scene what exactly gaming cons are and why we go, but through the voices of the people who are there (well, my voice as well, but that is assumed that you will hear my voice a ton).

Also, if you are curious, I am Kevin from VideoGameRescue for the 5 people that did not know that about me :)

If you see somebody in a VideoGameRescue shirt, say hello. If that person is wearing very bright colored shoes, than chances are it is me.

[ProjectCamaro]

I was looking at going, with work Sunday would be the only day I could go though.

[Dashopepper]

There any big advantage of going on Saturday rather than Sunday? I'm a somewhat novice collector who's never been to a Retro game show before. Probably going to bring some friends so the 15$ tickets for Sunday seem a lot better.

[benevicious]

There any big advantage of going on Saturday rather than Sunday? I'm a somewhat novice collector who's never been to a Retro game show before. Probably going to bring some friends so the 15$ tickets for Sunday seem a lot better.

The main advantage will be better selection.

This will be my 3rd year and I am going Sunday to try and get some decent discounts. Hoping to pick up a cps2 board, maybe some neo-carts and a repro of sweet home. Also started collecting older pc games (90's-early 00's) so will see whats available.

[Bardoly]

My sister and I will be driving up for Saturday only from northwest Indiana. This willbe our first time, and we're really looking forward to it.

[wallydawg]

Also started collecting older pc games (90's-early 00's) so will see whats available.

I have a few big box pc games I can bring along if you have anything for trade.

Street fighter II (3.5" floppy)
Leisure Suit Larry: Shape up or slip out (3.5" floppy)
Quake III: Arena in metal tin (cd)
X-com: terror of the deep (cd)
Dragon's Lair III: The curse of mordread (3.5" floppy)

[ProjectCamaro]

I went with a friend and we both spent more money than we wanted to but we're both happy with our purchases and had fun and that's all that really matters.

[plaidbrad3141]

I went Saturday with my brother. Lots of cool stuff like usual, but they raised the admission price from $20 to $30. I was not happy with that, but enjoyed the rest of it. Spent too much money like I always do here,

[otoko]

I decided to bring some machines this year. I brought a Gyruss, Missile Command, and Derby Owner's Club World Edition.
I had to take a picture of this because this just makes me smile.

http://www.sincerelychris.com/pichost/IMG_0055small.jpg

[YoshiM]

I decided to bring some machines this year. I brought a Gyruss, Missile Command, and Derby Owner's Club World Edition.
I had to take a picture of this because this just makes me smile.

http://www.sincerelychris.com/pichost/IMG_0055small.jpg

Heh. That's my daughter. She loved playing, even if she doesn't know how. I'm so glad I brought that kitchen step ladder.

[Dashopepper]

I went on Sunday with 2 other people. I like the Museum part of it, we were there when there wasn't many people. I was a little disappointed by the vendor part of it, I was expecting to see a lot more oddities and was surprised by how many tables were filled with bad Sega Genesis and SNES games at bad prices. But the vendor it really needed was someone selling deodorant, holy shit.

Overall it was okay but I probably will not go back for a while, hopefully to a new bigger venue.

[otoko]

I went on Sunday with 2 other people. I like the Museum part of it, we were there when there wasn't many people. I was a little disappointed by the vendor part of it, I was expecting to see a lot more oddities and was surprised by how many tables were filled with bad Sega Genesis and SNES games at bad prices. But the vendor it really needed was someone selling deodorant, holy shit.

Overall it was okay but I probably will not go back for a while, hopefully to a new bigger venue.

That's because you went on Sunday when most things have already sold...

[mycarsucks]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[ProjectCamaro]

That's because you went on Sunday when most things have already sold...

This was my first time ever going and due to work I was unable to go on Saturday so I went on Sunday. From your experience is there really that big of a difference in what the vendors have for sale between the two days? (If there is I'll put my request off for that Saturday as soon as they post the dates so I don't miss it)

[dave2236]

This was my first time ever going and due to work I was unable to go on Saturday so I went on Sunday. From your experience is there really that big of a difference in what the vendors have for sale between the two days? (If there is I'll put my request off for that Saturday as soon as they post the dates so I don't miss it)


Yes, you have no idea what you missed on Saturday.

[otoko]

Typically I would go on friday as well to see things set up. Usually you can get lucky and play some games before the major crowds hit.

[YoshiM]

Yes, you have no idea what you missed on Saturday.

This. The vendors had a ton of stuff Saturday and even though the rows had wide enough spaces, you could get caught in human traffic jams. So you had to politely muscle your way in to find the stuff you want. This year I saw four Vectrex machines for sale-something I don't recall ever seeing that many of at the show or at all.

Overall I had a good time again this year. The vendors had a lot of neat stuff, though most of my list I must have been looking for unicorns. I walked out with a complete Steel Battalion setup, a Generation NEX wireless arcade stick WITH the NES receiver, CoCo joysticks that work (YESSSS!!!!) and other little odds and ends like Sega pins and such.

The arcade area again had a nice split of pins and video. The 80's room was as awesome as ever and I liked that there was more variety of show rooms, like the Light Gun group (can't think of their name, it's late), Guys, Beer and Games, the unveil of the Retron5, Nintendoage and more. I do have to agree with another poster-while it was good to have all of these extra areas that added to the shows, the rooms were just too small for all the people trying to shove their way in along with some areas having tournaments on foldout tables in the hallways. Too many walkways got choked off and made it really hard to move. Some joker pulled the fire alarm on Saturday and some people were herded out and thankfully there were no issues.

My daughter had a blast on Sunday. Played some video arcade machines (as well as an almost-three-year-old could), didn't quite have the wing span for pinball and promptly freaked the hell out when she went to have her picture taken with Mario and Luigi in the Star Worlds arcade room. I don't think she's scarred, though.

I think the Sheraton is becoming too small for the awesomeness.

[FABombjoy]

Yes, you have no idea what you missed on Saturday.
1,200-billion-kajillion Genesis games, for example :D

(Boo and Luigi were a hit, btw, and it only took 10 minutes before my boys started fighting over who got who)

[Compute]

I wish I had been able to get another round on Fix-It-Felix Jr. Also forgot to play the Wizard of Oz pin. Still an awesome show, though. A bit overcrowded on Saturday for me, but I also wasn't looking to buy anything. I did end up getting some cool stickers, and I just happened to meet (totally out of nowhere) the person who owned my Turbo machine before the guy I bought it from.

[Queen Of The Felines]

If you didn't make it on Saturday you missed all the cool shit at my table. God of War III wine, PlayStation wine glasses, Tron promo picture signed by the director and FX guy, etc.

[nectarsis]

it was funny that they used the sheraton's tiny hotel rooms for some of the game rooms. it felt like going from one dorm room to another. some of these spaces were too small for the big crowds. the 30 bucks admission was a little steep. my surprise of the show: seeing the "wreck it ralph" arcade cabinet. it would be great if they could find a bigger venue next year and still keep it in milwaukee.

I was one of those that helped run the "hotel rooms" (sadly a necessity)....the show is always looking for bigger venues (DEF in the Milwaukee area).

Rising fees I'm sure are in part due to the use of more space, etc.

IMO the vendor room, and arcade/pinball hall was a bit better last year, though still damn solid this year.

My hauly (click for bigger):

6469

[Herb Tarlek]

1,200-billion-kajillion Genesis games, for example :D
I will be forever irritated that I was denied the opportunity to slow-clap while the last box of Genesis games was hauled out.

[ProgrammingAce]

The place was too small last year, it was *really* too small this year. I think expanding into the hotel rooms was a bad idea; at some point you have to start turning down people for space when you've completely run out of room. That area outside the pinball room has always been a constant choke point, you should consider moving the contests somewhere else. I think it worked better at the old hotel.

[goatdan]

The place was too small last year, it was *really* too small this year. I think expanding into the hotel rooms was a bad idea; at some point you have to start turning down people for space when you've completely run out of room. That area outside the pinball room has always been a constant choke point, you should consider moving the contests somewhere else. I think it worked better at the old hotel.

Old hotel was less than half the space.

For the final year at the old hotel versus this year, here are some stats that aren't even taking into account floor space:

Total tables used for vendors, displays, etc. Final year at Olympia - 125. Last year at Sheraton, more than 300.

Arcade video / pinball machines playable. Final year at Olympia - 77. This year at Sheraton, more than 275. Add to that, at the Olympia 77 was really the maximum number we could run due to power issues.

Consoles and computers playable in museum alone. Final year at Olympia, approximately 70. This year at Sheraton approximately 165.

Groups that came to the show with their own set ups (ie Retroids, etc). Final year at Olympia, 2. This year at Sheraton, 11.

Show attendance. Final year at Olympia, about 1600. This year at Sheraton, over 7,000.

I get that some people miss the more "intimate" style that we had at the Olympia, but let's face the fact - if we went back to the Olympia, we'd have to be a much smaller show again. I understand that the bigger it gets, the more it changes for people and the changes are not how everyone would best like it to be done, but we're doing our best.

We are *well aware* of the space issue and it is and has been our number one issue for more than a year now. The problem is that Milwaukee as a city first had some really bad laws so we couldn't consider moving the show into the city limits, and then once we got to sit down with them to look into rewriting the laws so that we could move in, the convention center that would have been the perfect fit for us was told that they were getting torn down to be made into an airport parking lot.

Gary and I have already spent time this week meeting with both hotel and city officials in different places about how we can best grow space to fit this show, but there simply isn't a perfect option at the moment. I can tell you that we are looking at all possibilities, and we're doing our best to fix it for this year and the future. If anyone wants to take a look and see if they can find any Milwaukee-area venues that are bigger and contact me with the info, I'd love to look into more - but even city officials have told us that there is nothing like what we are looking for that currently exists.

There will even be a report on this in the not-too-distant future on Fox News in Milwaukee, as they came to the show because they had heard just how hard we are working on correcting this problem for the future to do a report on it. Without saying too much, the report hopefully will do us a *great* deal of good, but even if it does we may be finding ourselves trying to put a band-aid on the situation until something better can be found out.

Having said all of that now, if anyone opts to not come to the show in the future because of the space issues, we understand. If anyone takes that approach, hopefully in a year, two or three or whatever when we can finally find whatever the "correct" response to this problem is, you'll give the show another shot.

[Tupin]

I know it might be an unpopular question, but have you ever considered moving the show out of the Milwaukee area? Like Chicago, Kansas City or St. Louis, for example?

I didn't attend this year, but I attended the three previous years and it indeed seemed to be growing at a rapid rate.

[ProjectCamaro]

goatdan I appreciate all the work that goes into the show and even if we were cramped I still enjoyed the show and will never miss it (this was my first time going). Like everyone else I would like a larger venue but I understand that is not always possible.

I have to ask, would there every be a chance of making the show bi-annually? A winter/spring show and then a summer/fall show I think would be great.

[ProgrammingAce]

I didn't mean to sound so negative, the show was still great this year. I certainly couldn't imagine going back to the olympia.

I know you guys are against it, but I think Chicago might open up more opportunities for you. There's still a pretty active, and close knit game developer community, and a lot of the old Midway guys are still around.

No matter what, I know my wife and I will be attending every year regardless of how crowded it is.

[goatdan]

I know it might be an unpopular question, but have you ever considered moving the show out of the Milwaukee area? Like Chicago, Kansas City or St. Louis, for example?

We have, and it's a two-fold issue...

The first is that we have done a LOT of promotional work in the Milwaukee area for the show. We have a lot of partners in town where we set up tables regularly to promote the show, and we are finally getting market penetration to the point that if you asked 100 people if they heard of the show, you'd probably now have at least one or two that would say yes. We have always tried to be a local show first that is good enough to draw in people from further away, and by our internal estimates about 70% of the attendance was from the local area still this year. That would be one HECK of a drop and reset with a move.

The second is that a TON of the stuff that we bring for the show is local to us, and it would cost us so much more to move it. That's a big part of the issue of being a non-corporate show, we bring in two full 26' trucks. To move that much equipment would require us to both pay a LOT more for a moving team, and would be very difficult for Gary and I to hold down our regular jobs, something that without the show wouldn't be possible as it simply isn't a big money generating thing. Last year, after 13 years, we broke even... finally.

Considering both of these issues, the show just isn't mobile beyond probably a one-hour radius of our current location.


I have to ask, would there every be a chance of making the show bi-annually? A winter/spring show and then a summer/fall show I think would be great.

It is something we've talked about, but then you have to flip the above argument a bit on it's head - with 30% of our attendance coming from out of town, would they really travel here twice? While the local attendance is really important for us actually making anything for growing the show, the far away attendance helps us secure hotels and things like that. If we divide those people in half so they only come every other time, the show would again go belly up.

Trust me, Gary and I have spent hours talking about ideas back and forth with each other. We're on our way to something that may be a temporary solution... and even onto something that might not be, but it is going to take at least a little while to both ensure that it works for our event, and also to get done. I think that if it does, everyone will be happy with the solution... but it may be a year or two or three off. Sadly, that's the best option at the moment.

We were completely set to move to a hotel that was more than double the size of the Sheraton next year, but it is currently in the process of selling off all of the assets to be razed and made into (I kid you not) a parking lot. We had to have a law changed in that city to even negotiate with them. It's a long process.


I didn't mean to sound so negative, the show was still great this year. I certainly couldn't imagine going back to the olympia.

I know you guys are against it, but I think Chicago might open up more opportunities for you. There's still a pretty active, and close knit game developer community, and a lot of the old Midway guys are still around.

No matter what, I know my wife and I will be attending every year regardless of how crowded it is.

No problem! For me, it's just that there is this relatively small group of people who has consistently told me that we are wrong and the Olympia is bigger, and that is just simply not the case. I'm glad that you like it.

I actually know a lot of the old Midway guys pretty well (I have one of their arcade dev units in my line up right now, it had at least Wrestlemania programmed on it!) and they often do come to the show... It's just the above thing that we run into about the moving of the show itself. If I wasn't taking two 26' box trucks full of stuff, it would be much more of a possibility... but with the show growing, I can't imagine that next year I'll just be driving my car there ;)

[Dan Iacovelli]

the show was great this year. good crowds and the jagfest section was busy on both days.
I really wouldn't advise moving the show out of the Milwaukee area its a great location, a move to IL
might be bad for a few reasons(besides what dan said):
1. chicago basically have enough shows (not counting VGS): C2E2,flashback weekend, chicago comicon just to name few a move to chicago MGC
would prob get lost.
2.chicago is a strong union city if he moved the show to place like the odeum he would have to pay the union