My experience this year was different than in year's past. One of our normal group members had a loss in the family, so wasn't able to attend. I didn't bring a game because we were waiting to hear about arrangements (it was possibly going to be Sunday). That puts a pretty big damper on the mood right away, but I still managed to have a good time.
The Friday night party allowed me to get a lot of time on stuff. I really appreciated that, since this is the first year I wasn't able to attend the Saturday night party.
I love all of the classic home stuff. I saw some classic games setup that I had completely forgotten about. It's a really cool experience to see those things and immediately remember playing them on a 4-color monitor way back when. I also really like going through the vendor stuff. I'm a sort of reluctant classic game collector (namely SNES and Genesis), but I always manage to find something for a pretty decent deal, and it's fun to just see what's out there.
The new games were all pretty cool. I really liked the Black Knight Pro. Wonka seemed cool, but I only got a couple of games on that. I'm looking forward to seeking that out again in the future for some more plays.
The food in the area is great - even the hotel bars have really good stuff. If you're willing to get in a car or an uber, the options are vast. I love this, because the show is just as much about getting some good eats and beer with friends as it is playing games.
We went to up/down arcade Saturday night. That would probably be a pretty cool place, but it was incredibly loud with really inconsistent music, and if you think etiquette at the show is bad - you would really have been upset here. A pretty good selection of pinball machines and classic arcades, though.
Thanks to everyone that brought games to share, or ordered games and allowed us all a first glimpse at the newest offerings. I wish I would have spent some more time in the game hall. It's just a busy time of year for me and my family, and the unexpected extra stuff didn't help. I was pretty tired before I even showed up on Friday.
I'm already looking forward to next year!