Midwest Gaming Classic 2020 - April 3rd - 5th

[+frankodragon]

Decided to go today to get my fix and look for deals.  Some vendors had nothing marked on their items which means they looked up on Ebay for prices which is complete turn-off IMO.  Some prices were a bit steep.  You had to really dig deep to find bargains.

 

You had to show a proof of vaccination and ID if you wanted to wander around without a mask.  

[+davidcalgary29]

How about a mini-review of the event? I'm certainly not going to be able to attend anything until PRGE -- if it runs next year.

[Tempest]

I haven't found any really good deals at MGC since they moved downtown.  Everything is eBay prices (or higher).  I suppose that's bound to happen as the show grows more popular.

[Gamemoose]

My daughter and I had a good time. It didn’t seem as though there were as many vendors as there were in 2019 but I can’t say for certain. I really only casually collect these days but as others mentioned, a lot of the prices seemed ebay-ish.  A couple vendors didn’t have price stickers, so I just avoided those.  Some of the tabletop arcade machines that are usually sold by a company from Green Bay (I know one of the guys but can’t remember the name if the company) were on sale for about $150 off, so a small single player multi game machine was $450. There seemed to be more table top RPG inspired vendors than in the past, selling art, mugs, gaming material and what not.

 

The arcade/console/gaming museum section was similar in layout as 2019 but with a new entrance theme. Joe Granato of Nesmaker/8 Bit Heroes fame was on hand demonstrating his company’s software along with tables highlighting games made with Nesmaker. I got to play a few games displayed there (Doodle World is great for small kids-I kick myself for not getting a copy as I wasn’t sure my son would be interested, Dungeons and Doomknights has great potential and Turtle Rescue was on hand for play) and got to talk to Joe about development. I picked up a cartridge “burner” from them as I have the software along with Mystic Origins. Great guy and full of enthusiasm. He got me inspired to actually take time to learn the tools.

 

The console area and museum was about the same with some new additions to the latter like the Androbot display. The arcade area seemed smaller than before and there were only 4 classic kids rides on hand. The rest of the venue was all new pinball with Godzilla taking a monster sized chuck of space. For more arcading, Garcade was on hand on level 2 with some machines.

 

All in all a good time. We just ate the food there, which was pricy but par for the course (no Jersey Mikes…boo…their stuff is worth the carb hit IMO). We got to see the final match of AWC wrestling, which my daughter was absorbed in. The people we ran into were polite and generally in good moods, so no issues there.  

[Dauber]

Jersey Mike's is absolute garbage. Learned that the hard way once when I lived in New Jersey and had a huge hankering for a Jersey sub...this was before JM was all over the place. Oh, man, it was awful.

Anyhoo...there were definitely fewer vendors and exhibitors, but it seems to me the variety was somehow a LOT bigger than usual, and I never saw so much Vectrex stuff in my life! MULTIPLE vendors were offering overlays for sale, and I was kicking myself for not having handy a list of overlays I already have! Cart prices were definitely outrageous this year, though....$16 for a LOOSE Pitfall! ?!?!? Seriously?!? Out of curiosity I was looking to see if they were still price-gouging Adventure, but the only one I saw with a price tag on it was $12 (loose) -- same vendor asking $16 for a loose Pitfall! cart.

 

I actually spent more on food than I did on merchandise....I don't really buy carts any more (thank you, Harmony, Dragonfly, Phoenix, etc. ) unless they're homebrews that don't have ROM files available, so...nothing for me there that I either wanted or didn't already have, and I wasn't looking to buy a console or anything. I bought a mini-replica of the Super Pac-Man arcade art from Paul Niemeyer for $20 (I carried my Pac-Man Plus marquee with me all day on Saturday for Paul to autograph but he wasn't at his booth the whole time I was there that day!), and a vinyl copy of Stephen Stills' first Manassas album for $10 to replace the tattered copy I found in the basement of the public library where I worked in the '90s! So a grand total of $30 spent in the vendor hall (again, not counting food), and a third of it had nothing to do with gaming!

 

I had a concert to go to on Saturday night, or else I would have looked into joining Guys, Games and Beer for their annual Werewolf session. It sounds insanely fun and just once I'd like to do that!

[Machine]

We had a good time. People were generally nice, vendors were cool. Prices on most things were high. The show was not crowded at all. We went to Classic Gaming Expo in Texas a few months back, and that place was twice as crowded. I imagine it was because you had to show a vac card or a negative covid test within the last 72 hours.

 

One disappointing thing, we sprung for the VIP package. We were suppose to get a bunch of extras, but only got the NES game. Everything else was MIA. When we asked, we got told they didn't come in. Nothing about how to get them after the show....   If the VIP package wasn't $150 each($300 total for both of us), it would not be a big deal. But considering the NES game isn't worth more than $35-40, I feel kinda ripped off. I did ask a few people who were working about what was suppose to be in the VIP package and they all shrugged us off. Disappointing.

 

One of the favorite parts of the show was the arcade area. Some great pins and arcade games.

 

The best part of the show was playing a new arcade game called Cosmotrons. Imagine a Gravitar/Asteroids type battle royal game. It is a 4 player head to head/ last man standing game. Kinda like a 4 player Combat but with a Gavitar ship instead of a tank.  It is an amazing game. So much fun. They had a Cosmotron contest and my son made it to the final four. He ended up tying for runner-up and got a Harddrive with the arcade game on it. I am hoping to get it running cuz it is such a fun multi-player game.  Here is some footage of the game from youtube:  

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Machine

[+thanatos]

On 11/20/2021 at 3:51 PM, Machine said:

The best part of the show was playing a new arcade game called Cosmotrons. Imagine a Gravitar/Asteroids type battle royal game. It is a 4 player head to head/ last man standing game. Kinda like a 4 player Combat but with a Gavitar ship instead of a tank.  It is an amazing game. So much fun. They had a Cosmotron contest and my son made it to the final four. He ended up tying for runner-up and got a Harddrive with the arcade game on it. I am hoping to get it running cuz it is such a fun multi-player game.  Here is some footage of the game from youtube:  

 

 

 

Cosmotrons has been at MGC for at least 5-6 years I think, I first played it when it was still at the Sheraton.  It started as a PC game they were promoting, and just put it in a custom arcade cab for demonstration.  Back then they even had a download of the beta you could play on your PC.  At the shows their custom arcade cab got so much interest from operators that they decided to instead change it to an arcade product.  Great story for them!

 

Somewhere I still have the original beta .exe.  Gotta find it, but the game has changed tons since then.

 

[Machine]

54 minutes ago, thanatos said:

Cosmotrons has been at MGC for at least 5-6 years I think, I first played it when it was still at the Sheraton.  It started as a PC game they were promoting, and just put it in a custom arcade cab for demonstration.  Back then they even had a download of the beta you could play on your PC.  At the shows their custom arcade cab got so much interest from operators that they decided to instead change it to an arcade product.  Great story for them!

 

Somewhere I still have the original beta .exe.  Gotta find it, but the game has changed tons since then.

 

 

Yeah, I would love to have a 4 player cabinet of it.  My son won a hard-drive with the current build on it, so............maybe one day I can get it put into a simple PC.