MattPilz Posted April 3, 2023 Share Posted April 3, 2023 On 3/10/2023 at 2:53 PM, Gamemoose said: I guess The New 8-Bit Heroes/NESMAKER folks are going to be holding their "Byte Off III" competition results at the show. I saw their booth and a whole table of homebrew stuff, there was also an off room that had a lot of indie console games to play (and an awesome World of Nintendo exhibit attached, that felt like a legit Nintendo store straight out of the mid-1990s). I should make a note to spend more time at these indie areas next time as the event as a whole is really heavily commercialized beyond that and a few other cool side rooms where they had a Quake LAN party going etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 4, 2023 Author Share Posted April 4, 2023 Had another great time this year. Picked up one of the Nuon N64 controller adapters from @Songbird, and we chatted about the XFL for a bit as well - and that @Albert needs to show up. My CoCo3 ran for 20+ hours without a single freeze, usually I come back to it once or twice and it's frozen with the sparklies glitch and needs a reboot. I couldn't count the number of people that played Frogger on the XEGS. Tried all the new pinball machines, my personal favorite was OO7. There was also a custom(I assume custom) four player Warlords tall tabletop, which was a lot of fun. And @MattPilz is correct about the World of Nintendo exhibit, that was amazing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 I really need to go again next year. I think the last time I was there was 2019. How was the attendance this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattPilz Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, Tempest said: How was the attendance this year? They sent out a note Friday night saying it was a record number of attendees. By mid-Saturday the vendor hall was absolutely packed to the point of having to form lines just to look at booths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, thanatos said: and that @Albert needs to show up. Yes, I agree, I'd love to go again, it's been far too long! And I know the show has evolved quite a bit since then and is considerably larger (and, of course, at a venue I've never been to). Maybe next year!! ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickster Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, MattPilz said: They sent out a note Friday night saying it was a record number of attendees. By mid-Saturday the vendor hall was absolutely packed to the point of having to form lines just to look at booths. Which is great for the venders and Dan, but not so great for the attendees. The problem is, it is very hard to fix the congestion problem when the show is already pretty much in the biggest building possible. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattPilz Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, Albert said: And I know the show has evolved quite a bit since then and is considerably larger (and, of course, at a venue I've never been to). I hadn't gone for a lot of years until this past year. When I went in the mid-2010s it was still operating out of a hotel area and the entire vendor section was just under tents outside partly in pouring rain. It has improved so much since then with three full floors of stuff to explore at the Wisconsin Center (and attached to the Hilton via skywalk, which makes it very convenient). I wish there had been more highlights on homebrew though, it was very easy to overlook among everything else. Would had loved to see a dedicated Atari Age booth with physical copies of a lot from the storefront Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, MattPilz said: They sent out a note Friday night saying it was a record number of attendees. By mid-Saturday the vendor hall was absolutely packed to the point of having to form lines just to look at booths. Good for Dan and Co., but I felt it was getting too big for my comfort the last time I was there. Now it's even bigger... I'm just not a fan of huge crowded shows like that. I prefer the smaller and medium sized ones like MGC used to be. Oh well, no putting that genie back in the bottle I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 How many people are they getting through the door these days? I'll need to look at videos and photos from this year's show to try and get a feel for it. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Songbird Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 4 hours ago, MattPilz said: They sent out a note Friday night saying it was a record number of attendees. By mid-Saturday the vendor hall was absolutely packed to the point of having to form lines just to look at booths. That would depend on the booth, of course. I can only dream of having lines of customers waiting to visit the Songbird booth. They actually had quite spacious walkways in the main aisles between the booths... I'd estimate a good 15-20 wide. So in the middle of the vendor hall (where I was), I never saw congestion in any adjacent booths. I did not see many retro publishers there. I guess there was a group of NES devs in a separate room showing off their games, but the vendor hall was mostly used game sellers as you would expect, plus board games, artists, authors, etc. It was easily a crowd of 10K+ attendees. I heard a rumor it was beyond 15K, but I don't know that for a fact. Great show and thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth to chat. Go Battlehawks! 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 I didn't run into any bottlenecks, but then again I always avoid the vendor hall the first few hours because I don't buy much at all anymore. Too much stuff already, and prices have gone insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 3 minutes ago, thanatos said: I didn't run into any bottlenecks, but then again I always avoid the vendor hall the first few hours because I don't buy much at all anymore. Too much stuff already, and prices have gone insane. I was curious as to how the pricing was. Still eBay levels or higher? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 2 minutes ago, Tempest said: I was curious as to how the pricing was. Still eBay levels or higher? Even if they're not eBay prices they are still crazy compared to 10 years ago. Guy had a Laseractive with both Sega and TG-16 modules: $4000! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattPilz Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 (edited) 14 hours ago, Tempest said: I was curious as to how the pricing was. Still eBay levels or higher? In 2022 the going rate for a plain Vectrex at Sean Kelly's booth, for instance, was $450. Now the base price was upped to $550. Someone had a Sony PVM but with the case completely busted out the back and it had $1000 price tag (I opted instead to take home a non-working 1983 Panasonic monitor for next to nothing, and then fixed it up perfect). Several vendors were selling empty boxes of consoles and game cases (no game included) for $80-$150+. $100 minimum it seemed for any Gameboy, and $300+ for boxed variants. There were still some grab bag totes with $3-10 games for some systems, but the majority were priced likely beyond eBay level. Some boxed games for Atari were priced $200-$400 (including Custer's Revenge) but again within range of what you see on eBay, the prices have gotten astronomical. I remember thinking $100 for a few of the rarities on N64 and SNES like Earthbound was steep about 20 years back. I bought the SNES and Genesis HD Retrovision cables ($60 each) but then mostly stuck with buying a few indie items. Picked up Vectorblade boxed edition ($50-60), Pigeon Dev Games Collection ($40), Mother to Earth bluray documentary ($40), Nintendo Story Bluray ($40-$45). Again I'm really glad I don't actively collect video games nor am I a completionist, or I'd have to take many mortgages out just to fund this hobby! Edited April 5, 2023 by MattPilz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted April 11, 2023 Share Posted April 11, 2023 On 3/3/2023 at 11:02 AM, Tempest said: Can't go this year, but hopefully next year. I miss seeing everyone from the museum. We missed you, too! Rich was bummed that there was no MGC Bowl on his Sears Video Game Selection Center this year. On 4/4/2023 at 1:45 PM, Tempest said: How was the attendance this year? I couldn't even guess. I wouldn't be surprised if 25,000 people came out. It was packed and steady the entire weekend, even Friday night and Sunday. Even my Pong/dedicated console lineup in the museum was steady; not as popular as less antiquated stuff of course, but still moreso than I expected. On 4/4/2023 at 4:35 PM, Tempest said: Good for Dan and Co., but I felt it was getting too big for my comfort the last time I was there. Now it's even bigger... I'm just not a fan of huge crowded shows like that. I prefer the smaller and medium sized ones like MGC used to be. Oh well, no putting that genie back in the bottle I suppose. I do miss the old days at the Sheraton, and the last few years I've really had to talk myself into doing it again (mainly for personal reasons, but also show-size related ones), but I'm always glad I do. I definitely miss the vibe of the old smaller shows though, but that goes hand-in-hand with me missing the '90s/'00s classic gaming scene and being a rapidly aging fart in general. Speaking of the Sheraton, it's nuts how built up it is behind that hotel now. The entire lot where the Toys 'R' Us used to be is apartments or condos now, extending back into the business park that is/was back there. There wouldn't be any place to even put a tent outside now! 😝 On 4/4/2023 at 7:54 PM, Tempest said: I was curious as to how the pricing was. Still eBay levels or higher? Nuts and getting nutser, as always. Luckily for me, vendors don't really have stuff I want anymore. I did see a cherry CIB Super Street Fighter II Turbo (3DO) for around $140 that I was tempted by but passed on; the price simultaneously struck me as both outrageous and probably the best deal I'd be likely to see from here on out. Ugh. (Advice to new collectors: Don't.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 On 4/5/2023 at 10:19 AM, MattPilz said: I remember thinking $100 for a few of the rarities on N64 and SNES like Earthbound was steep about 20 years back. Yeah, prices have gotten nuts. It makes sense though, I mean when I first started collecting games in the late 90's I was a security guard making $8 an hour on a strict 32 hour week. Paying $100+ for one game seemed insane. I could barely cover my alcohol expenses. I remember passing on RC pro-am 2, one of the last dozen or so NES games I needed because it was $30 and I could "find a cheaper one someday" haha The people with big bucks were old and they didn't want video games, they drove up the price of comics and classic muscle cars... Anyways, Now I make 3 times that and can even work overtime to make more. Suddenly $100 for a rare game doesn't seem that crazy anymore...so what happens when most of us can easily afford the $100 games? They sell out and become $500-$1000 games...we make more money so they cost more money. As long as people keep buying them, they will keep going up and up and up. One thing I did predict wrong though is I thought the games would kind of normalize in price after the abundance of cheap repro's and multicarts hit the scene. I know from a collecting stand point repro's are garbage but I thought a lot of the inflated price was collectors that just wanted to play them...I was wrong, there are a literal shit ton of collectors that don't play their games and they have deep pockets Missed the MGC again this year, after the covid nonsense my friends just don't seem to have the motivation to go out anymore and without a chaperone I'll probably end up in the drunk tank lol. Maybe next year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 12, 2023 Author Share Posted April 12, 2023 3 hours ago, Crazy Climber said: Missed the MGC again this year, after the covid nonsense my friends just don't seem to have the motivation to go out anymore and without a chaperone I'll probably end up in the drunk tank lol. Maybe next year... You couldn't have been worse than one guy that stumbled into the museum Saturday night, sat down, slumped over a table, and then pissed his pants. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 53 minutes ago, thanatos said: You couldn't have been worse than one guy that stumbled into the museum Saturday night, sat down, slumped over a table, and then pissed his pants. Aww... I can't believe I missed that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 21, 2023 Author Share Posted April 21, 2023 Just heard the attendance was over 24,000. Amazing! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted April 21, 2023 Share Posted April 21, 2023 On 4/11/2023 at 1:24 PM, BassGuitari said: ... I couldn't even guess. I wouldn't be surprised if 25,000 people came out. It was packed and steady the entire weekend, even Friday night and Sunday. Even my Pong/dedicated console lineup in the museum was steady; not as popular as less antiquated stuff of course, but still moreso than I expected. ... 14 hours ago, thanatos said: Just heard the attendance was over 24,000. Amazing! 😶 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted April 22, 2023 Author Share Posted April 22, 2023 8 hours ago, BassGuitari said: 😶 You were close! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) Dates for next years Midwest Gaming Classic got announced. It is April 5th through April 7th. https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/attend/ Edited April 28, 2023 by 8th lutz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted May 3, 2023 Share Posted May 3, 2023 On 4/12/2023 at 3:38 PM, thanatos said: You couldn't have been worse than one guy that stumbled into the museum Saturday night, sat down, slumped over a table, and then pissed his pants. Well, We've all been there. (Joke!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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