Midwest Gaming Classic: Trip Report

Hey all, I hope if you’re anywhere near Milwaukee, WI that you had a chance to check out the Midwest Gaming Classic!  (There’s still time tomorrow, if you haven’t.)  I spent all day there today and figured I’d give a brief rundown.  This year, it was at a new location in Brookfield, WI instead of Oconomowoc.  It was a bigger location, which meant the show was able to expand a bit.  All the old favorites, including the vendor area, the arcade and pinball machines, and the museum were back, but bigger and better.

I spent most of my time browsing the vendors and spending too much money, but I also spent a fair amount of time playing old arcade games that I don’t normally have access to — like Berserk, Battlezone (which is really cool with its scope cabinet), Centipede, Kangaroo, Ms. Pac-Man, and Outrun.  I also tried my hand at the Super Mario Bros. speed run tournament.  The goal was to get through level 1-1 as fast as possible, finishing with Fire Mario.  I played three entries, but I lost the fire power the first two times through, so I had to play conservatively on the last try just to get a qualifying entry.  It wasn’t a bad run, but probably not enough to win it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any final rankings, so I don’t know where I finished.

The highlight of the show for me was definitely meeting Eugene Jarvis, creator of Defender and Robotron: 2084.  He was a fun guy to hear speak, and was super nice.  I had him sign a couple copies of Retro Gamer for me — specifically, the “Making Of” articles for both Defender and Robotron.  I asked him what he thought of all the twin stick shooters that have been coming out lately, and he said he thinks it’s great and that it’s just a really good play mechanic.  I can’t say I disagree!  Here’s a shot of my signed Retro Gamer mags:

My other highlight was a game of Pong that I played in the museum where I pulled off a dramatic come from behind win, 15 to 14!  It was like my own last second NCAA tournament win, or something… I dunno, I think I have an unhealthy love of Pong.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of everything I picked up today:

Left to right, top to bottom:

• Various SNES and NES manuals
• After Burner (32X)
• Space Harrier (32X)
• Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 (32X)
• Mutant League Football (Genesis)
• Outrun 2019 (Genesis)
• Zero Tolerance (Genesis)
• Cosmic Spacehead (Genesis)
• Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)
• Zillion II (Master System)
• Sonic CD (Sega CD)
• Plok (SNES)
• Body Harvest (N64)
• Comix Zone (Genesis)
• Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis)
• Marble Madness (Genesis)
• Gargoyle’s Quest II (NES)
• Snake Rattle n Roll (NES)
• Transfer Pak (N64) (I don’t have any games that would use this, but for just $1, it doesn’t hurt to have on hand!)
• View Point (Neo Geo CD)
• Top Hunter (Neo Geo CD)
• Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
• Super Mario Land 2 (Game Boy)
• Alleyway (Game Boy)
• Tetris (Game Boy)
• Mario Clash (Virtual Boy)
• Several spare HuCard and Sega Card sleeves

Phew, that was a hefty list… And to think, I almost went for the Atari Lynx deal that GOAT Store had going — a Lynx plus 7 games for $60.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested in a single one of the games, so I figured I’d hold off and get a loose one sometime for cheaper and get games I actually want.

Anyway, that about covers it for now.  I had a lot of fun again, and will start looking forward to next year’s show!  Just one final thought about this year’s show… What’s the deal with the hot sauce?

Getting ready for the Midwest Gaming Classic

Though work and school have been keeping me pretty busy, I’m going to make time for the Midwest Gaming Classic next weekend.  If you haven’t been to it before, and you’re anywhere near Milwaukee, WI, I highly suggest attending.  It’s a great place to buy and play all sorts of retro video games.  Though the vendors are the main attraction for me, I always look forward to the speakers, museum, free-play arcade and pinball games, and tournaments.

If you see this post and plan to be there, leave a comment and let me know!  I’d love to meet up with a few people to play a few games in the Versus Room (like 10-player Saturn Bomberman).  Or, just keep an eye out for me.  I’ll have a badge with my Digital Press username (Mobius).