Just booked everything I need to make the trip. Looking forward to it!!
Just booked everything I need to make the trip. Looking forward to it!!
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Am I misremembering, or did the admission price for Saturday go up? Was it always $20? Regardless, I'll be there, I'm just temporarily confused.
[SIZE="4"][URL="http://www.retroreviewproject.com"]The Retro Review Project[/URL][/SIZE]
It used to be $20 for a two day pass. They raised it this year, looks like. Kinda shitty, IMO, but it is still a good show and I think the increased price will result in lower attendance. I've got to find out whether or not I've got a vendor pass coming to me.
$20 when you pre-purchased online last year for a two-day pass since there are no two-day passes offered at the gate. This year it is $25 for both days when you pre-purchase. Otherwise, it is $20 for Saturday and still only $10 for Sunday.
The $5 increase is largely because the venue we are at this year in the heart of Milwaukee costs significantly more than what the Olympia cost, not to mention we literally had to foot the majority of the bill to help modernize the Sheraton's power grid to meet our increased needs this year. On the plus side, though, we were able to get the Sheraton to lower their room fees below what the Olympia charged, so the $5 extra you may pay at the gate is offset by the cheaper room costs. If you are planning on staying more than one night you will have of course saved even more.
Obviously, if we could have gotten the Sheraton at the same price of the Olympia we would have held the line on tickets even further, but unfortunately the nicer venue means a much higher cost for us. Still, I think that the event at $25 for two days isn't bad at all when you compare it with similar trade shows. We've also increased our square footage by more than a third, we have some really nice rooms and attractions set to be announced yet, and the swag bag will have some nice goodies this year that will again go a long way IMHO in covering the price of the tickets. In all honesty I think the show will grow again this year barring any unforeseeable disasters.
I hope to see a lot of the DP community come out again this year. It's a lot of work putting on the MGC, but it is also a lot of fun when the show starts.
Later.
Definitely going again this year. If schedules work out, I'll be bringing my gamer little sister along as she's never been to anything like MGC before. She practically shot through the ceiling when I asked if she was interested.
For anyone that's interested in pics from last year's show -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9107128...7622883180931/
Got an email from Midwest Airlines today, apparently they are canceling their planned St. Louis-Milwaukee route that was going to start March 1st and are trying to find other flights for people who booked that route.
Ah hah, thought the price went up. The lower room price doesn't do much for those of us in driving distance who aren't staying the night, but it's not a huge deal. Especially if it means the speakers won't be out in the hallway anymore, and we'll actually be able to hear them!
[SIZE="4"][URL="http://www.retroreviewproject.com"]The Retro Review Project[/URL][/SIZE]
Cool, looks like I've opened a can of worms. Take what I've said with a grain of salt. The general consensus is that I'm a stupid bastard who is never to be taken too seriously. I'm also almost always wrong. I also hope that the Sheraton treats you guys better than the Olympia appeared to. Always seemed to me that they tried to dump all over you guys whenever the oppurtunity arose.
Understandable, but then again those of you in driving distance are probably closer to Milwaukee than Oconomowoc, so you'll save on gas! Really, a win-win!
Seriously, the Sheraton is just much more of a cost on our end than what the Olympia was. It should also be a much better venue, though, so I think it'll even out in the end.
I realize we haven't announced much on the MGC website about this yet, but we already have a ton of speakers lined up this year, so much so that we'll have two locations for speakers this time around, as well as several other "mini" events held in several of the rooms we'll be occupying this year.
Hehe, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything negative in my post. Personally, I would find the tickets interesting too, so I just wanted to help explain the "why" a bit.
As for the Olympia, they treated us extremely well. Without their assistance it is very likely that the MGC would not be the show it is today, or perhaps even still exist. That said, when we needed to look for a larger venue after last year's show, the Sheraton not only turned out to be the most logical venue for the MGC, but the new management has also been extremely helpful to us so far.
I can honestly say that I think this year is going to be the best MGC yet.
Later.
I'm a definite yes for Saturday. I live 2 hours away so it'll be awesome. My wife and I are excited as can be! We're working on a retro gaming theme for our house so we're trying to pick some things up.
I will be attending again this year. I think this is the 5th year for me. First time I went it was in the Sheraton, that was a while ago now, lol. I was thinking of bringing an arcade this year, since it's only about 5 minutes from my house. I did like the con at Olympia, but having it so close is a nice bonus as well
Arcadecomponents.com will be there!
We are a Silver Level sponsor as of this afternoon. Can't wait for the website to be updated to show us there!
I'm excited as this will be my first gaming show to put a booth up at. I'll be bringing lots of modified old game consoles, old computers (including a rare TI-99/4), and repaired arcade game boards along with Neo Geo cap kits, NAOMI super caps (the original ones LEAK and eat the board), EPROMs, custom chips, and more.
I'm going to be cheap and try to book the Hilton property near the Sheraton. I have over 250,000 Hilton points to use for free nights.
Raymond
Anyone know if Video Game Kingdom is going to be a vendor again this year? I'd like to pick up a couple NES homebrews and rather than mail order, I'd just wait until MGC to pick them up.
Bought my plane tickets to Chicago so I'll be driving up from there this year. I hope there are lots of things to buy once again =) I'll have a small itty bitty corner of ianoid' booth so if you want some random promo stuff, cheap PC games, and random protos/NES games, I'll have some stuff for sale as well.
Even Deets is going? Fuck me and the wedding that I forgot about that I can't miss. Fuck me hard.
I have to rebook my plane flight, but I'll still be there!
Hmm... Any chance you can check a Mace: The Dark Ages PCB for me at the show? I picked one up long ago and tried setting it up on my super gun, but I get no video despite hearing the game running fine through the audio. My guess is that it is just incompatible with the super gun, but I'd rather be sure before getting the parts I need to make it run.
Later.