I brought a load up for Terry a couple of years ago. Talk about a pain in the a$$ to move! But yeah, not a bad idea.

Thank you! I picked one up from Terry I think at the 2016 show. I think it's always great to have glass available at shows to avoid the shipping cost, and for uh-oh moments.

TODOs for next year's arcade hall:

- Rubber cups for the front legs on the pins
- pool noodles from the dollar store with a slot cut for PF glass
- Research alternate escape route via freight elevator out to wells on the ground floor for people with only 1 or 2 games to load.

The one suggestion I'd have for the overall show: BIG free standing signs in the area near the ticketing/hall entrances that says something about the stuff on the second floor, and then bigger directional signs once you're on the second floor. The "Community Zone" little blue signs on the wall with arrows didn't really stand out.

Along with his sidekick Foo...

I had asked Aaron when load-out started if that was possible, since there is a single dock/parking spot on the ground level of 5th and Wells (under the over pass) where you can load out. I was told it was a no go, everything was to be loaded out through the dock. Maybe something we can look into for next year? Or some other option?

It would have been good to have someone up there at the dock entrance area telling people not to go to the loading ramps until a game is ready to come down. Parked vehicles on the ramps were too plentiful. I assume there was some "inherited" help that came with the venue. These guys could have been directing people at the entrance instead of at the dock. The MGC guys at the dock were great.

I didn't have any issues, but I wonder if it would be possible to signup for times to unload. Basically don't return to the docks until your time on the ticket. Perhaps that would be a way of staggering things a bit more.

I just make sure to not pack one of my moving blankets away and keep that around. Folded on floor = easy pad. Or drag one of those floor mats around. The blanket is used more, more readily available

Noooooo!

The biggest issue I saw on the dock is we needed actual MGC people in charge of the gate at the entrance. The crazy lady was only letting up 2 at a time and people able to walk down the dock with a single game or 2 should have been allowed up to park diagonal along the wall and then walk the game to the car (granted snow did not make this fun).

Other issue is nobody should be allowed to go get their vehicle until ALL their games are in the staging area. Saw lots of people with games still out on the floor they had to go get and still bring to staging even though they were a;ready parked the dock. A strict rule about this would help I think

I took all 4 of my games to the staging area and got the mini van to load 3. After seeing how bad the dock line was I elected to walk the 4th game down the ramp and 1/4 mile to where my other car was located to load it.

That was not the security lady's doing. She was incredibly helpful. She was ordered to allow no more than 4 cars at a time on the loading dock on Sunday. The fact that we often had more speaks to the common sense approach that the convention center staff were trying to take.

Someone posted that they took their game over to the hotel and loaded it out through the hotel lobby!

Stop saying that name...that $hit is like Voldemort. Seriously if there is one thing that could get me to stop doing this...it's him. I have never, ever felt so demeaned by someone in my life.

Sorry for the load-out stress everyone. It wasn't our fault.

So basically your saying that people actually needed to listen to Dan at the afterparty speech. He clearly stressed how it needs to work regaurding having your game in the area before you go and get your vehicle. Impatience gets the best of people.

Unfortunately, I wasn't there this year. Were there any more events going on in the building this weekend? The dock issue sounds like something that could use some tweaking for the future. Esp. if there is another convention in. I assume its a Union dock on larger trade shows. It could cause some real headaches with what is allowed and tolerated.

I'm hoping I get to be part of the craziness next year.

I thought loading up on Sunday went pretty smooth, all things considered. The woman at the gate was very organized, keeping order and not letting it become a free for all for everyone trying to get up the ramp. After I parked and walked to my machine on the dock, immediately there was one of the dock crew offering to help load my game. I think we were off the loading dock in less than 10 minutes. Kudos to the dock crew for the hard work and efficiency I saw both during setup and load out.

One suggestion I would like to offer is to have someone at the top of the ramp directing traffic during load out. When we got to the top of the ramp, I wasn't sure where to go so we just parked diagonally along the wall since we had the one game.

My wife and I had a great time. Thank you very much to everyone who brought games and helped out with the show! Looking forward to next year.

I saw one of the bringers come up to his machine to work on it. Opened the coin door, took out the manual and set it on the ground next to his machine and proceed to put the glass on the manual leaning up against his pin. Had no idea why he was doing this... but now I do. Smart guy!!

I saw Methos use the inside rubber on his lockdown bar to hold the glass up so I started doing it. Man is a genius.

Rubber cups will definitely be on my list for next year.

If it's designed to be a loading area, I would hope there's some haggle room to get us access to that. Jay & Doug ended up taking games down the freight elevator and out the front door of the place, Neo and I went out a side door to Wisconsin Ave - both of which have GOT to be less preferable than using an actual loading door. The 5th and Wells access seems perfect. Out of the elements and a lane to pull over into for loading. Even if we have to post a volunteer down there to kind of control it, it would be very beneficial to have more than one route out. The vendor hall people with whole trucks of stuff to load, and the people who bring large numbers of games (Thanks Troy!) wouldn't have all the 1 shot people in the way.

I think a big reason for the congestion at the dock was that the facility staff wouldn't let MGC people control it. If we could have had show people directing traffic and organizing it would have gone more efficiently, but I don't know that the facility would (or could) give the show that kind of control.

I was a part of the conversation about you not bringing a trailer next year, and I honestly think you took that statement completely wrong. You were expressing how difficult it is and how much easier it would be to do one in a minivan. We agreed and the person that said you should go ahead and do that certainly did not mean to insinuate that your games were not wanted or appreciated. I think you know him well enough to know that. It was more a "sharing the misery" and trying to say it's ok if that is all you can contribute. No one "expects" you (or anyone else) to bring so much...and we will never think any less of you if you only brought one. I guarantee that is what was meant...not that your games were not wanted and appreciated. I'm sorry that statement was taken entirely the opposite way of how it was intended. In the past we had to rely heavily on guys like you to bring in loads of games. It's still awesome that you do that, but now that the show has grown so much with so many new game bringers, it's ok for you guys to dial it back to a more manageable amount if you want. Do we want you guys to bring a ton? Sure! But even more than that, we want you guys to also have a good time and be able to enjoy yourself. If you will enjoy the show more by personally bringing less machines, that is completely understandable and we are fine with that. I'd rather have someone bring 1 machine and enjoy the show than bring 20 and hate it...you know?

As for the Marco deal, I was also a buyer, and it was made very clear to me from the beginning that they had to be on the floor until 5pm Sunday. You aren't the first person I heard say that they didn't know, so maybe not everyone got the same communication. That will be something for us/Marco to watch next year so no one is caught off guard.

And again...if I didn't say it in person....THANK YOU! You are a big part of the show, and you are appreciated by all of us.

-Chris

The problem with tricks like this when the item is smaller than the width of the glass is.. it further increases your risk of putting the corner into the ground. If you don't lower your glass level.. you'll still put the corner into the ground and that's one of the riskiest parts (or when picking it up). Gotta have something much wider than the glass to make it not some 'docking' exercise Fatigue mats, blankets, even scrap cardboard all help.

I had a great time! As a long time volunteer, the new 3 times larger space brought 3 times the fun, 3 times the work, and 3 times the bullshit/drama. Add to that, the storm on Sunday doubled the bullshit factor!

Lets get the bullshit over with first... All of us volunteers went through a lot of behind the scenes surprises this year (especially Keith & Aaron who dealt with some epic hassles... and Dan & Gary probably had it 3 times worse!). The new venue proved to be a challenge to work with, and there were rules and procedures that kept popping up that were a struggle to adapt to at times. Now that the first year at the new location is in the books, I know both The Wisconsin Center and us will hopefully be able to work for an improved relationship next year. I apologize on behalf of the volunteers for any negative situations with show contributors that may have hurt anyone's feelings. Load in/out was a mess and things did get tense several times, but for the most part, things went well. I had to leave about 10pm and things probably didn't get cleared out until midnight. Hats off to those who got creative and took it upon themselves to remove their games through the hotels or front entrance. One of my many favorite quotes of the weekend was "It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission".

The After Party pass thing... I am one of several volunteers that hand out after party passes, you are rewarded one if you contribute to the arcade hall. Now that the console museum is part of the room, they are included. If you bring a showpiece pinball machine, a beat up yet working Pacman or a Nintendo 64, you are entitled to an after party pass. VIPs and arcade hall vendors also get access to the party, but vendor hall people do not. If anyone sees someone without a wristband or VIP, they should feel free to contact a volunteer or security. A few people do slip in, but that's the way it is. We do our best to keep the After Party special.

It was an extremely great weekend. I personally had about the most fun I've ever had at a MGC. It's always great to catch up with some great people I only get to see once a year.

Thanks to everyone for another great Midwest Gaming Classic!

This is what was posted in the original Facebook post regarding the Marco games:

Post from Facebook:

The Midwest Gaming Classic, in conjunction with Marco Specialties and Stern Pinball, Inc., is excited to offer special show pricing on new Stern Pinball Machines set up for play during MGC. This partnership allows you as the buyer a chance to own a machine fresh from the Stern factory at a reduced cost, in exchange for the game being set-up and on the game floor for the entirety of the show. In addition, the purchase of a game for demo at the show qualifies you for a free weekend admission to the MGC, as well as free admission to the popular MGC on-site after party Saturday, April 14th. Our goal is always to have as many new Stern pinball machines as possible set up for people to enjoy, and this partnership with Marco and Stern allows for a unique way to create a win-win for all involved. Specific terms and conditions are as follows:

Terms for Show-Game Purchases:
- Games must be ordered and paid for in advance of the Midwest Gaming Classic. Note: Games will NOT be available for purchase at or after the show at the discounted price.

- Don’t delay in ordering if you are interested, as some games are already limited in availability. Availability fluctuates daily.

- Games MUST be shipped directly to the Midwest Gaming Classic.

- All demo games are to be displayed and set to free play within the Marco Specialties booth throughout the duration of the show.

- Games must be set up for play on Friday, April 13th. Buyers are welcome to set up their games, but if you can not be available for Friday, MGC and Marco reserve the right to set up the game on your behalf.

- Payment by credit card is available, but a 3% transaction fee will be added.

- At the conclusion of the Midwest Gaming Classic on Sunday April 15th, the buyer will be responsible for the removal of their pinball machine from the game hall and convention center.

- All machines will include the standard 60 Day Factory parts warranty.

The following titles are currently available:
Guardians of the Galaxy Pro
Guardians of the Galaxy Premium
Star Wars Pro
Star Wars Premium
Ghostbusters Pro
Ghostbusters Premium
Metallica Pro
Batman 66' Premium
Aerosmith Pro
Aerosmith Premium
AC/DC (Premium) Vault Edition (Luci Version Only - Limited Quantity)

Please contact Aaron at [email protected] if you are interested. SERIOUS inquiries only.

That's just not true, you don't understand how it was working and controlled, but it definitely was. If you'd like to keep spreading this though, I guess I can't stop you.

There were multiple different badges that should have been able to get in without wristbands. There were wristbands. I was in the after party for multiple hours and never saw one person that was not supposed to be there.

The space directly outside the after party was not the same way and was being used to help facilitate things that we were able to do in a different way at the past location. If you saw someone in line without a wristband to get pizza or a drink, that could absolutely be the case.

If you'd like to chat about it instead of just going off what you feel, I'd be happy to explain it to you. The after party gave out near the same number of badges and wristbands as last year, not some crazy amount.

Everyone knows that or should know that! Without you guys, this show would not be possible.

Load out was probably only a cluster for those of us that had to wait until 5. I'm not saying what is correct or not correct, or who followed/didn't follow the rules...but the weather clearly was a factor for everyone and there has to be a better plan for next year. Having said that, the level of folks lending each other a hand can't go unrecognized.

Still a great show for a brand new location. Feedback from the general admission folks seemed to be very positive.

So, regardless of the other drama, let's just look at this realistically. These games are there not as the buyers game but instead representing Stern and Marco. If they arrive and the buyers all wanted to pull at 11am Saturday, how silly would they look?

Before anyone says no one would ever do that, I've had people brag to me that they would sneak in on Friday and buy a game and leave so it wouldn't get played. There would be nothing stopping that from happening, and it would give Marco and Stern terrible representation.

I get why people wanted to pull early. We estimate the snow cost us $25k easily, so it sucked for us too.

Ding ding ding

In short, this was a learning experience from the center that we thought we had handled and quite frankly would have if our plan that o was under the impression was approved would have worked. It was determined by forces that weren't us to put new constraints on it, and we didn't have a good backup plan for it.

We already have multiple plans on how to fix this for next year if we are under the same constraints, but unfortunately all that I can say is that this was completely out of our hands this year. Sucks, since it did not help the final experience for people.

For the record, the snow also didn't help, but there was only a line for about two hours total, which in the grand scheme of things I don't feel like was completely terrible. I'm positive we can half or even remove that under the same constraints next year, we just need a place to work with us. Read into that what you will.

Next year, we will probably also have a small fee for pulling early on Sunday. Nothing major, but believe it or not those pulling early created some bigger backend headaches for us, so we'll have to see.

Having said all that, more than 275 coin op machines were set up by 4pm on Sunday. I don't know how many we lost and my number isn't could be low by a decent margin, but all things considered that isn't too bad.

Also, don't read into me saying next year as anything yet. Still waiting on some things. If Sundays attendance was better I could say it for sure right now.

That's too bad, but really not much you can do about that. It looked like a nice crowd on all three days, but I'm sure the snow kept some people away. Thank you for all you do to keep the show going.

I just thought I'd throw this out here too - if you (or anyone) haven't heard us say it before, our theory is if we aren't doing enough to make it worth your while to bring a machine or multiple machines, the only way to make us know is to bring less. If the show can't operate because enough people aren't willing or able to participate with what we can do, then it isn't worth having the show.

It's a balancing act what we can offer and give versus what we can't. If we give away too much, we won't cover expenses. If we don't give away enough, people won't bring stuff. If we're getting it wrong, tell us. We review it every year and try to do our best.

Make it $100 bucks to pull before 4pm on Sunday.

People getting the perk of the after party pass should have a reasonable fee associated with pulling early.
The show depends on games to be there for the whole show so seems appropriate to
#1 lock down the after party to make sure the perk remains a perk
#2 make sure anyone getting that perk clearly knows the requirements and is provided the incentive to keep games there for the duration of the show.

I would be happy to chat about it. I am not going off what I feel but rather what I saw. I walked through the hall during after party and stopped counting when I got to 10 people without the needed credentials in the hall. There were also plenty of locals that got in but did not have a game at the show. If this was supposed to be enforced it was done so very poorly and understandable given the lax security guard and limited security for the total number of people in the show. My honest feedback is that security can be stepped up to make this a better perk.

I also think that with the arrangement of show cash or wristbands it really should be locked down as one OR the other.

People with multiple games should have to elect to get either:
1 Sat wristband, 1 sunday wristband, and 1 after party wristband
OR
$20 show cash

Bringing multiple games allowed people to currently get 1 after party pass for each game plus do the show cash. That is a double benefit and if you want to get more games there (not sure if you do) then my honest feedback is to work on this aspect of the show.

What's to stop somebody like Troy from getting all his after party passes and then selling them off to the highest bidder? He'd probably make more money than claiming show cash on all of them. There's still only 1 in the hall games wise, but Troy gets more out of it.

Similar question about this -- the 2 wristbands is a higher value output than the $20, isn't it? Someone brings 2 games, they could get their own pass and sell the set of other 3 bands to someone else (likely for quite a bit more than $20)

I don't see any problem at all with game brought = after party band period. The access to the show OR $20 show cash being your option on each one.

Writing this one down for our post-show discussions... Tying the after-party ticket to the weekend admission...

If you're talking about people like Paul and Dave - they got bands from someone who brought enough games to have extra.

That's the thing. What do you feel were the needed credentials?

I don't believe it was nearly as big of an issue as you think it was, as we controlled all of the initial access and I saw no one that wasn't supposed to be in, and then was there for nearly 30 minutes looking and saw no one what wasn't supposed to be there. I saw some people that weren't get turned down, however.

Security can definitely get improved. Again, not to pass the buck but it's true, the venue didn't tell us certain things that we then had to cover in a different way. We had to balance what we did, so I can't guarantee there wasn't a time where someone snuck in because of us trying to balance new things, but it was not a free for all as you seem to imply by any means.

This venue had so much new stresses and things to learn that I think we properly insulated most of you guys from hearing too much about, but please don't imply that I stopped giving a damn about it and let in the world.

One suggestion for next year.

A repair area and a pinball dolly to get there. My STTNG started having problems mid-day Saturday, but I couldn't manage to fix it in the middle of a row with all the people around. I did fix it (temporarily) during the after party and it lasted until about 12:30 on Sunday. Given more room and all the knowledge available in the room, I could have gotten it running. Looking back I probably could have moved it behind the inflatable screens to work on it.

Thanks Whysnow for lending a multi-meter. Also appreciate the people who texted the issue instead of just walking away.

I did pull it early, had it been running I would have left for my family obligations and came back for it at 6.

I'm not sure what the facility would say about moving stuff around while the show is running -- though if people were leaving early maybe it's not an issue. But this is a nice idea. Really hard to work on a game in a show row.

Input noted! FYI, you couldn't go behind the screens though. We would have had to move you immediately. We had to keep 10' clear from that back wall..

... And there shouldn't be anything wrong with that..... If someone brings 5 games, they should get 5 party passes to do with what they choose. There have been many years where I have brought 3-4 games and not gone to the show at all.... I have given away the show bucks, party passes, etc... Who cares where they end up if the show is the one setting the ground rules for what you get for bringing a game.

TLDR- if the show is fine with it, that is all that should matter.

It definitely looked tough for the few folks trying to work on their games Saturday. I remember playing a game and the guy to the left of me was working on his. He removed the lockdown bar, either placed it on top of the backbox or reach up there with it, and dropped it right on the glass! I was shocked that the glass didn't break!

So, just some random things. I am purposely leaving out my overall thoughts for now, but if this happens again some things...

- Early load out is supposed to not get show cash. I saw a number of people who got show cash right away, bought some stuff and then loaded their game and left. I get it, the weather sucked, but that is against the spirit of the show cash. It will be addressed in a fair manner next year, as I also understand people must leave early sometimes. There is a happy medium here I feel.

- Load out. I think even with the centers strange restrictions that they didn't explain to us at all, this would have been a ton smoother if it wasn't snowing. Because it was, for the trailers instead of loading in place, everyone was waiting for the ramps. If those could have loaded and gone, we would have had like 12 additional load out spots and I think that would have solved everything. That isn't how we are going to fix it for next year, but it was way exacerbated by the weather.

- As I mentioned, we learned a lot of things about the venue that can be solved by knowing them. I don't necessarily think it was anyone's fault we didn't, but there was a ton of behind the scenes changes that happened I real time that as I said most of you were insulated from and that's good.

- I feel like the show layout was great. I'm concerned about how to pull it off next year when we would add more space.

- The snow suuuuuuuucked. Preliminary estimates are that we were down year on year for Sunday by a bit over 1000 paid admissions. Considering Saturday was far up, this is difficult and has made the decision for next year a lot tougher. Nothing we can do about it though.

- My wife navigated with our three year old in a stroller for the event and never had an issue. I feel like that's a win.

- Signage for finding downstairs wasn't as obvious as we had hoped, although people did seem to find it. More will be added in the future.

- As always, the volunteers hit it out of the park. The show would have easily ended this year without all of them. Thank you all.

- this happened. Thanks, Kingpin?

IMG_20180416_200346358 (resized).jpg

Oh, and to the people who keep coming to me and saying they miss the intimacy of the Sheraton, uh... Sorry? There is no way with the snowstorm the tent would have survived.

Amazingly, we had more than one vendor note to us they liked the tent better last year. Uh, really? Did you guys see outside?

With how heavy/wet that snow was and the strong wind, I expect it would have been quite the catastrophe. Thank all heck that never happened when you DID have the tent.

While making pinballs is hard..... Change can be even harder. Let it bounce off of you...

Oh, and I miss the Olympia....

It would have stood, but we did have snow once with it. If the snow beats the heat for keeping it rolling off, which it would have, the ceiling condenses and drips. It would have been raining all day in it this year. I can only imagine how happy that would have made everyone.

OK, So lets talk after party tickets. I was able to get 21 tickets if i wanted them. I had 3 people help me set up machines, so i gave them each a after party pass for the help. I got those 3 tickets from Tully on Friday and gave them to the people that helped me right away. I had Aaron give me a few more incase i wanted to give one to a friend. I ended up giving them back to Aaron and did not use any of them. I had many people message me wanting to buy afterparty tickets, and i refused to sell them, even though i was offered 25 and 50 for them at certain times. So i could have sold 18 tickets, which i could have gotten several hundred dollars for. But I refuse to and that is not what the tickets are for.

Early leaving, Myself, I started breaking my stuff down at 4pm, And when i was breaking down, there were a ton that left way earlier. I have worked with the show to be allowed to leave a little early since im driving 300 miles, But i know that all the people before me were not far travel people. So Maybe have a penalty that is actually enforced if a deal is not made prior

Suggestions on perks. There use to be a scale that if you brought a game, you got admission and after party pass. You bring 2 games, you had the choice of a second admission or show cash, etc But there was also a point, like 15 games, that you got a night of hotel, and 25 games, 2 nights hotel. I dont remember exactly, but it was something like that. Not just because i bring so much, but honestly think that there should be more rewards for those that bring quantity too. I dont know who brought more than 20 games, but in the main hall, im guessing 2. Kingpin and myself. I dont think that Marco really counts since everyone bought and paid for their show machines before the event. Dont get me wrong, Marco's presence is very important. But had they presold 20 games, then that's all they would have brought. They didn't bring a single game to take the risk of not selling it and having to take it home like Kingpin and myself did.

lets talk after party.

Food: from my understanding, Dominoes sponsors the pizza for the after party, but my preference was the old years with the subs and chips, Just my opinion, but I did like that much better. maybe a little of both, well a lot of both i guess, lol

DRINKS: well, that was the worst of all the years. I know that the venue controlled this, and the ruined that part. I know people abused it before, but 1 drink ticket, and when i went there, it was only good for a linenkugle or whatever it is, so i just gave away the ticket, and then if you wanted to pay 8 for a mixed drink, they didn't even have any good liquor

And getting on vendors for having food, that needs worked on. when they dont offer food for the majority of the show, they shouldn't get mad at someone that brought something in. And maybe at least give Jersey Mikes some competition. I which i owned that franchise there and was able to get away with 11.50 for a 4 inch sandwich and drink. I think that they probably made more money than any coin op vendor in the entire show

Just a quick clarification on Jersey Mikes...they were forced to raise their drink prices SIGNIFICANTLY (like 3-4 times) by the facility to match the vending machines. They were unhappy and embarrassed about it. Not sure if that affected the sandwich prices too, but I don't think so. I have been so thankful for that place the past few years, and was super happy to see them there again this year.

He spent all that capital at previous years' parties.

Yeah, they wanted to charge a buck for the water and were forced to charge 4.50 for a bottle of water to match the vending machines. But I think that the sandwich is just OK, it was a better option than the $15 dollar meal at the hotel, but another option would be nice