the.golden.ax Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 but my Compaq Portable still wasn't displaying anything. I knew it was getting juice since the cooling fan was going, so I was getting a little freaked that the monitor had blown out or the CPU fried or something. Turned out, some dink had dialed the brightness on the monitor all the way off. So with a simple twist of a dial, Ms. Pac-Man, in all her phosphor-bleeding green-screen glory, ran like a champ for the rest of the weekend. That dink was me. When I first saw it wasn't working, the first thing I did was do the brightness in both directions to make sure it wasn't just a simple fix because some other dink might have turned it down. When that didn't work, that's when I came and let you know it was a problem. Dink Dink Dink, Dink, Dink! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXR-RhbR0t8 AX 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 The Tandy 102 that some random guy donated actually works! Those things truly are indestructible. This year is the least I've spent on goods at an MGC. The wife is still really really mad about my Asgard helmet purchase... It's unfounded anger, because I spend way more on other stuff. I think it is because she hates the Stargate franchise, and she views it as a 'not useful' item. The Captain Tomaday MVS cart I got from Tempest is just plain silly. It's great! A great weekend for sure. Can't wait for next year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 but my Compaq Portable still wasn't displaying anything. I knew it was getting juice since the cooling fan was going, so I was getting a little freaked that the monitor had blown out or the CPU fried or something. Turned out, some dink had dialed the brightness on the monitor all the way off. So with a simple twist of a dial, Ms. Pac-Man, in all her phosphor-bleeding green-screen glory, ran like a champ for the rest of the weekend. That dink was me. When I first saw it wasn't working, the first thing I did was do the brightness in both directions to make sure it wasn't just a simple fix because some other dink might have turned it down. When that didn't work, that's when I came and let you know it was a problem. Ha, it's no problem. I was just kind of wigging myself out for a second with all these possible things that could be wrong with it before the thought occurred to me: "Check the monitor brightness. Duh." It's kind of like when you're in a hurry to get somewhere and you can't find your keys, and you freak out trying to find them, and they're in your pocket the whole time (I've actually done that once, btw). And anyway, I'm the dink that brought the flaked-out power strip that caused all that confusion in the first place, so I guess we're square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 The Tandy 102 that some random guy donated actually works! Those things truly are indestructible. Was that the same guy who left the MC10? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Thanks for the news, and especially the pictures, fellas. I long for the day when I'll be able to go to these things. Why's everything always on the E or W coast, or in the Midwest? When's the Redneck Gaming Classic in a southern state? I'll even bring the pork rinds (but I'm not eating any). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) The Tandy 102 that some random guy donated actually works! Those things truly are indestructible. Was that the same guy who left the MC10? Yes, this guy just showed up and asked me "I have these old computers I don't want, can I donate them to the museum?" Why's everything always on the E or W coast, or in the Midwest? When's the Redneck Gaming Classic in a southern state? I'll even bring the pork rinds (but I'm not eating any). Hey, Ax drove from TN, what's your excuse? Edited March 30, 2011 by thanatos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Thanks for the news, and especially the pictures, fellas. I long for the day when I'll be able to go to these things. Why's everything always on the E or W coast, or in the Midwest? When's the Redneck Gaming Classic in a southern state? I'll even bring the pork rinds (but I'm not eating any). Oh don't worry... I'm going to take my time, but eventually we can do something to some degree here in Tennessee or the south. I'm not sure if I'd ever want to do something quite as big as MGC, but certainly gamer friends getting together for a fun weekend once a year is in the cards, if people are willing. AX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimefighter Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Well...I dunno how many people NEED to attend...it's very crowded as it is which is why I didn't like the move from the more spacious Oconomowoc but Big Bang may get as big as MGC soon now that it has gotten established and is now more attractive to vendors. There is something to say about the vendor issue - the same vendors don't have to be there for each day. They can do one day, then a different vendor can come in...kinda resupplies the variety of product when a bunch of stuff has been sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) Well...I dunno how many people NEED to attend...it's very crowded as it is which is why I didn't like the move from the more spacious Oconomowoc I'm not sure where you got that idea. We had far less room in Oconomowoc, about 20,000 square feet. The show is now up to around 35,000 sq ft. and that's precisely why we've had the room to grow in content and attendance, and in turn why it seems eternally crowded. Edited March 30, 2011 by wgungfu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Well...I dunno how many people NEED to attend...it's very crowded as it is which is why I didn't like the move from the more spacious Oconomowoc but Big Bang may get as big as MGC soon now that it has gotten established and is now more attractive to vendors. Kind of like what Marty said, I thought I had addressed this mostly last year but I'll do so now... If you take the vendor hall at the Sheraton with the hallway outside, it is the same size if not slightly bigger than the Olympia. But, we can fit in more vendors thanks to our layout. After that, everything gets way bigger... Just as examples from 2009 to 2011 (and it was very similar last year), VGEvo was two tables at the Olympia, I think they used about 40 this year (and there were 12 arcade machines there too). Ben Heck was one at the Olympia, he used about five this year. No NES Developers or Pokemon Podcast at the Olympia, no where we could have put them. No Mario room. We didn't have enough power at the Olympia to power the about 180 games that showed up, the most we ever had there was about 100. The Sheraton let us do a power upgrade that lets us power up to about 225. The Family Game Room was four tables, is now 10. The Underdog Chamber was about four tables, is now 10. Jagfest was one table, is now three. Turbofest didn't exist. Zimm's area didn't exist. The Versus room didn't exist. The two other museum areas both gained minimal space in the move (something like two or three tables), but there was still some gain there. The speaking area at the Olympia could sit 40. The speaking area now sits over 120. The tournament area hasn't actually grown, but is in a much better position for actually having people see stuff. The tabletop gaming area didn't exist. Our option with the Olympia would have been to rent one other room, which would have meant sending people all the way through the hotel to get to it and would have added a space about the same size as the Mario room. I think that people don't remember just how small and packed the Olympia space was because we both did a good job of figuring out a layout there, and we also just limited people and what they could do. We really wanted to be able to expand everything, and thus the move -- the thing is that people expanded everything so well that we actually ran out of space and had to pack it all in the first year at the Sheraton, which makes it appear that the space is smaller. It's not -- when you include the hallways where we had additional stuff this year, we're actually probably now pushing 40,000 feet of used space at the Sheraton, about double what we would have used at the Olympia. The other thing, the Olympia had a lot of things we couldn't change. We paid for power in a totally different way, whereas the Sheraton allowed us to build Doc Ock and run our own stuff. While the cost was cheaper for the Olympia in the short term (Doc Ock was a $10k investment last year), the power situation is better now than it ever has been. Pinball machines in particular are very finicky and if they don't get good, regulated power they tend to get issues. We've now had two years where a lot of the pinball folk have been amazed by how well everything holds up, I'm guessing in huge part due to that. Also, the layout now allows us to 'give the keys' to the rooms to a lot of people and let them do whatever. For instance, the Retroids / VGEvo room does an afterparty. At the Olympia, with their couple tables in the museum, there was no way to do this unless all the museum folks hung around to ensure their stuff was safe. Now, they can do it in their area at the show without anyone worrying. There are SO many positives of using the Sheraton for how the show is set up, like these last two that aren't even about size that even if we do bust the walls of the location with people, it's going to be very hard to figure out a better place to move to. There are not many larger venues in the Milwaukee area that are also hotels, and moving to a convention center would be a ridiculous cost. Here's a perfect number to highlight the differences between the two places -- at the Olympia, the most number of tables that we ever used was 108. Total. Between everything. This year with the Sheraton, we used *nearly* 400. Hope that explains it pretty well From an organizational standpoint, there is no question with any of us about which one is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) Oh yeah, and about the people and being busy, the choice is basically this: 1) Raise the price of admission even higher. Hope the vendors don't mind there are less people. 2) Find another location. Like I said, this is one of the biggest, and here's the other problem -- last year, we had 3600+ attendees. The show "profited" $198. To put that into perspective, if 10 people less showed up on Saturday last year, we would have *lost* money. Oh, and I don't yet have numbers on this year, but $198 was the best profit we ever made to date. 3) Make the show longer. Hope that vendors don't mind having to take off another day from work. Hope that volunteers are willing to take a day off of work. Not really a good option when you put all that together at this point. I mean, while it was most definitely busy, when I walked around this year (which I actually got to do, whoo-hoo!) and visited areas, while there was sometimes a short wait to play something, there was never a point where I felt like it was too busy to actually do anything. As a for instance, I walked into the NES Devver area, and while one of them was busy doing high scores for Yars' Revenge, another one happily talked with me and showed me his N64 dev cart with the amazing demo he made. I was able to walk through the vendor hall on Saturday afternoon and quickly ask a few vendors to put things away for me. Overall, I thought it was really nicely spread out this year. Edited March 30, 2011 by goatdan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Having attended at both Sheraton and Olympia I can say that my opinion without a doubt is that Sheraton is far far far superior in every way. MGC is hitting a peak point where it is like a fine tuned machine. It works, and well. When you have this much stuff, this many people behind the scenes, and it is pulled off with good coordination... just wow. It seems to go up a notch every year in the 3yrs I've been there, and this was no exception. It is truly a polished, professional offering at this point. In the words of theme park... you are a shrewd business man, ticket prices are just about right. AX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Back at work today. I'd much rather be staffing the museum room. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydro Thunder Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I had no problems getting to play basically anything I wanted to, or getting to the vendor booths that I wanted to and chatting them up. I had no trouble getting to see speakers, checking out arcade machines, checking out consoles in the museum. Occasionally a short wait, but nothing significant or detrimental. I loved the spread of everything, gave you a chance to get out and walk between stuff, go up / down stairs to keep the lungs working. On one hand I may have had a minor quibble with having the speakers in the bar / restaurant, which at first didn't seem like the best plan (used to seeing speakers in their own separate room, etc) but actually worked out rather well. Probably drew some more people in when they were passing by the speakers from one area to another and realized what was going on. I thought the set up was about as perfect as you could get for a simple attendee. The crowd moved and flowed, it was busy but not overcrowded and stifling, and I easily got to see, play, buy and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Couldn't ask for better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Thanks for the kind words! One interesting note: On one hand I may have had a minor quibble with having the speakers in the bar / restaurant, which at first didn't seem like the best plan (used to seeing speakers in their own separate room, etc) but actually worked out rather well. Probably drew some more people in when they were passing by the speakers from one area to another and realized what was going on. In 2006 we had the speakers in their own room. Although the event was very busy, almost no one ventured into the room to see them, and once the doors were closed that was it. In 2007 we moved them into the hallway between the two rooms, and they received a significant improvement in traffic, although there was many complaints about the hallway being too noisy/busy for them. Regardless, we really didn't have anywhere else to go with them so they stayed there until 2009 when we moved. Last year, we had two speaking halls. Neither did exceptionally well, but we picked the restaurant because it offered the best of all worlds: 1) Traffic passing by so people could stop and watch, and overflow could be handled if (when) necessary. 2) It was the restaurant, so they served food there throughout the presentations -- you could drop by eat and see something interesting. 3) It was partitioned off enough to make it where you didn't feel you were "in the hall" like before. Also, what else could we do in the restaurant? I'm actually extremely pleased with how it turned out this year. In my opinion, we couldn't ask for much more. It's not "normal", but then again this is the Midwest Gaming Classic we're talking about -- all that was pulled off with no major corporate involvement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I had a blast as usual. I was that drunk annoying guy incase anyone was wondering Picked up a few deals, saw some friends. Overall it was a great time. The only thing I miss about the Olympia was the massage room, no happy endings though 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) I'm feeling bit more rested now and my body is getting back to it's normal state after the 2:30am monday return, so I can honesty say this was one of the best years I had at MGC. good to see trade n games return as well a few others, if you saw my posts from before during the show the jagfest section was rocking all day saturday people playing different games trying out my T2K commander rotary(not the chaos one that goatstore had, but it would be nice to to have to the two controllers side by side for comparison. Clay and astro were a great help at the section as well Clay asked people if they wanted to know about the system or play certain items, same with astro, I tried to help out as well, when people asked about the jagfest shirts and such and when I saw some one trying out the t2k commander on tempest I told them how to use it(I forgot to bring instructions,but I remember most of it) didn't have a chance to case out most of the area, the vendor room was packed(the only thing I miss about it, that there was no list of who was who in vendor hall, and not a lot of them had signs) it was great to see Retroids/VGEVO and doc from galloping ghost(mgc actually took my arcade trip to gga for march, I usually go at least one a month(hoping twice in july ) I made three sales 1 for poster(to astro) 1 for t-shirt(to clay) and a person brought both a t-shirt and poster for 20.00(I some how loss 8.00 same place though oh well,I should have had 41 but when I counted I had 33.) I gave goatdan a t-shirt and poster for free. I should have figured that we wouldn't had a tournament set up for jagfest it was getting too close to it. no loss the e-cert will go for prize at VGS. the only bad thing I do have to say and I think clay and astro will agree with me on this, was that the door was open by us and it getting cold every time somebody came in last year it was locked this year it was wan't. but besides that great show once again. the one highlight for me: somebody asked about how to program the 2600 I told him abut bbasic and the harmony cart (that I had some time to play t2k when nobody was around) hope to return to do the jagfest section again(with less selling items, after I gave goatdan the the tour shirt, that was the last of my stock I had of the new ones(they can still be brought at cafepress though,but that was the last I had brought with me) Edited March 30, 2011 by Dan Iacovelli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 the only bad thing I do have to say and I think clay and astro will agree with me on this, was that the door was open by us and it getting cold every time somebody came in last year it was locked this year it was wan't. but besides that great show once again. Whoops, sorry -- that was actually supposed to be closed and locked again. Must have missed it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 The Genesis game I picked up (never having heard of it) CrossFire for $5 in the box turns out to be the USA name for Super Airwolf, very very cool! Just wish it had a manual. As a Shmup fan, I've very glad to have picked it up. AX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimefighter Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 >Hope that vendors don't mind having to take off another day from work. Hope that volunteers are willing to take a day off of work. Or have a different set of vendors and volunteers for the extra day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatdan Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 >Hope that vendors don't mind having to take off another day from work. Hope that volunteers are willing to take a day off of work. Or have a different set of vendors and volunteers for the extra day. Do you realize that it takes nearly 100 people per day to run the show in it's current form? We are not a corporate show - it would mean hiring additional help. And, with a $198 'profit' in our most profitable year (I still don't know this year's count, won't until May-ish), I can't really afford it. I'll consider it once we're breaking the 15,000 / year barrier, but unless you know of a secret stash of thousands of volunteers willing to drop everything and hang out at a video game convention on a Friday, the answer is that is most definitely impossible in the current form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 you can't please everybody dan, for me though I really enjoyed it, I was really involved with the jagfest section helping people underdtand how to use the rotary talking to them about Jaguar and jaguar fest in general with it's history. the one thing that was missing from the past shows Idid with out my jaguar, was me actually playing it, when I brought my jaguar to this years show, it brought back the feeling I missed and that made me feel a bit more involved with the show then just standing around and talking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 The Genesis game I picked up (never having heard of it) CrossFire for $5 in the box turns out to be the USA name for Super Airwolf, very very cool! Just wish it had a manual. As a Shmup fan, I've very glad to have picked it up. AX Is that was it was? Neat! Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 (edited) >Hope that vendors don't mind having to take off another day from work. Hope that volunteers are willing to take a day off of work. Or have a different set of vendors and volunteers for the extra day. Do you realize that it takes nearly 100 people per day to run the show in it's current form? We are not a corporate show - it would mean hiring additional help. And, with a $198 'profit' in our most profitable year (I still don't know this year's count, won't until May-ish), I can't really afford it. I'll consider it once we're breaking the 15,000 / year barrier, but unless you know of a secret stash of thousands of volunteers willing to drop everything and hang out at a video game convention on a Friday, the answer is that is most definitely impossible in the current form. Not to mention once again, vendors don't grow on trees - especially ones willing to take off that extra day and deal with the added hotel and other expenses. Edited March 31, 2011 by wgungfu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 As I expected, I didn't make it myself, but Jason Timmons gave me permission to share his Flickr album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/sets/72157626387339506 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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