In what was quite the unplanned and, unintentional event, I had the opportunity last weekend to go to Midwest Gaming Classic, a gaming focused convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, held this year from March 31st to April 2nd.
This was certainly something I didn’t plan on going to — I was invited under special circumstances and was able to make it work with my schedule, so, I went. Of course, had I not been invited I wouldn’t have gone — Milwaukee is a hell of a ways away from Memphis, especially for a one-shot drive, and the costs would be more than I’d be willing to spend, but this invitation included most expenses paid — all I had to do was assist a vendor some, but otherwise I was free to do as I wished. Why wouldn’t I go?
Well, one could argue the fact that I don’t like what gaming culture has become as a good enough reason to not bother. However, given that I do still enjoy gaming in and of itself, just not the way the gaming community at large behaves, I knew I could still find some things to enjoy and maybe have some nice conversations and, indeed, I did. It was, overall quite the fun time!
I won’t try to give a day-by-day of the convention because, honestly, nothing I did was time sensitive — I didn’t actually go to any panels or anything, and I didn’t even realize there was a whole section of the event on a lower floor until the 3rd day — I mostly stayed in the main game room playing games on various old computers and consoles while also getting in a hell of a lot of time with Pinball.
To say I broke the bank would be a bit of an understatement, as well — there were quite a few things I saw that I decided to buy for the hell of it (after all, impulse purchases do have a bit of a mood-boosting effect) and some rare opportunities for autographs from some cool people involved in many games and media productions I’ve always enjoyed. Honestly, it isn’t a matter of overpaying — prices were actually quite fair for the vendors I did business with — it’s just I got way too much! Only have myself to blame for that one.
Not to ignore the fact I was also in Milwaukee; I had never been there, let alone anywhere that far north, and it was, for someone who doesn’t get to travel often, an awesome experience to see a city of similar size to Memphis, but one that’s completely different to it in many ways. That too could, and likely will, be its own article, but it suffices to say that Milwaukee left a good impression on me and I’d love to visit it again — maybe for longer, and on my own terms. While I didn’t get to explore much, what I did experience was quite nice and I certainly felt at home there.
Back to the subject of Midwest Gaming Classic, it wasn’t a perfect event — not by a long shot. There was, get this, wrestling in the vendor room and, especially given the vendor booth I was assisting with was located somewhat nearby the wrestling ring, it was a very obnoxious auditory experience.
I also had no clue on the times for any panels, or what was even really going on, and while I could have gotten a schedule I never actually bothered to. Besides, the main stage was, get this, in the main hall of the upper level, and so anything major like The Harp Twins was right there outside of the vendor and gaming rooms — I got a chance to see a little bit of any presentation there in my to-and-fro.
One room was set up like a circa 1995 Nintendo section in any major retail store which also included, of all things, the actual sword used in, if I remember correctly, the Zelda 2 US commercial. It’s my understanding it was, no joke, found in the trash. I’m not the biggest Legend of Zelda fan, but damn, I’m glad it was saved.
I got to play a little bit of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme again for the first time in easily over a year, and to say I’m out of shape is an understatement. Definitely need to work on that. Only on the final day did I discover the “Garcade” on one of the lower levels and find out that Pump It Up NX2 was running on a cab. Trying that, too, was a mistake — I really need to start working out. Still, it was nice to see that, beyond having no stamina, I still have skills with dance games, and that they are as fun as ever for me.
While it was a busy convention, it never felt “too” busy — even at its busiest there was still ample walking space, and as far as gaming itself was concerned something was always available to play, and while some more high demand stuff had a wait, you could play if you really wanted to wait. As Saturday and Sunday rolled around games like DDR and Jubeat were constantly in use, as were the newer Pinball tables being demoed, and I didn’t want to wait so many things never did get played by me personally, but I did still always have something to try out if I wanted to.
Speaking of Pinball, while there was no Black Hole, a table I desperately want to try, there was an Evel Knievel table as well as Twilight Zone, among a ton of others — seriously, it was a pinball paradise and I was honestly having the time of my life playing machine after machine. Pinball is incredibly relaxing to me and at a point I found myself completely zoned out focused on nothing but the table I was playing, thinking abstractly about the relays and mechanisms inside doing what they were built to do. In short, it was a Zen moment, one I’ve not had in years.
On the computer end of things, there was basically every system you could imagine from Commodore, Apple, even a proper ZX Spectrum (not a Timex US model but a real European unit), oddballs like the Sharp X68000, MSX, and so much more. This hardware was provided, quite literally, by a museum concern which also included, of all things, a Go board used by Nolan Bushnell at Atari, an actual Brown Box prototype signed by Ralph Baer, and so many other odds and ends that I began to tear up — this was ephemera from the golden age of gaming, when it was in its purest form, an era I love that I honestly didn’t expect to be so well represented here. Hell, even their Magnavox Odyssey display had some homebrew titles, including Odball, a game I actually own a copy of! It was a bit wild seeing something I have as a museum piece.
Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I? Well, it was all kind of a blur, but the good kind of a blur. I took many photos and a ton of video which I may do something with, eventually. For now, however, I’ll conclude this article on a positive note, as, sadly, there was some unpleasantness with this trip. Midwest Gaming Classic itslef though, on a whole, was a pretty nice experience.
More to come, as always.
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