A great idea for MGC would be to rent out an entire....town. MGCville. All space problems are gone. goatdan will be given a golf cart to go around. Tons of parking. Hopefully lots of lodging. No space issues with pinball machines. An out-of-business store can be put back into business for one weekend.

BenHeck, can you make an LED display for the population sign so it real-time updates with tickets taken in?

I'm gonna shoot for the Hyatt. After reading Pinside, I don't want to stay in a hotel called "Hilton". Just..no.

Managed to get a room at the Hyatt. I opted for the king size bed, as, well, I'm selfish.

Cripes those are some wide hallways. Think of how many pins could fit in there. Well, not an issue since there's a convention center now.

Toys R Us will now be relieved of not having MGC goers taking up their parking spots. Of course, news just broke out that they are filing for bankruptcy, so MGC is the least of their worries.

Funny, I thought the Sears would have gone belly-up sooner than TRU. Imagine having a convention at Sears. You could recreate the Atari 2600 game display like it was in 1980. Some classic computer convention was once held at an out-of-business Circuit City(how appropriate).

Interesting. Looking at scheduling, I could actually take Amtrak to MGC from St. Paul.

And I didn't drop mentioning it as my father worked for Amtrak. I once took Amtrak from MSP to Chicago to see women's roller derby finals, and it was truly nostalgic since I didn't ride Amtrak in almost 30 years. Tons of leg room, and the conductor will even tell you of upcoming smoke break opportunities at stops.

It's morning from MSP to Milwaukee, and evening the way back, so can walk 2 blocks after MGC closes to the train station. Tempting...

Two words: alcohol sales.

With the dang snow today, I'm so glad I booked Amtrak tickets instead of getting my Honda in a ditch. Sure, it might clear up on Friday, but, well, yeah.

Darnit, Amtrak just announced they are cancelling Empire Builder(the one I'm on) for tomorrow. Calling customer service to waive the $30 cost to cancel it.

EDIT: Just called cust. service & operations, train for Friday MSP-MKE is still on.

Enjoying the show so far, but a bit disappointed in the Center's security staff playing traffic cop for no real reason. They wouldn't let people up the escalators(to level 3) at various times for no reason, saying it's up to their supervisor.

As a Minnesotan, I'm wondering how the heck am I gonna get home. I'm betting Amtrak is gonna have a cancellation or a super delay.

Can we just extend Sunday to close at 8pm or something? Heh

There was definitely no waiting to play Iron Maiden nor the ColorDMD Attack from Mars pins. WOW there was a lot for many to play.

I had fun as always. I'm with my own kind. Only saw 3 games on the floor that were down for the whole weekend, 2 were not for sale. Odd. Hmm..

I will say I do miss the coziness of it being under one hotel, but understood the need to expand to much larger space. There was always that free parking lot called "Sears". They just don't make a hotel big enough for all that retro gaming. The reason why we have crazy attendances is because of snowy weather. We stayed inside in the winter & played video games. That's why there's no Hawaii Gaming Classic(where you can surf in).

The food options were slightly better, kinda. There was a coffee shop in the convention center that was closed as far as I can remember. Guess they didn't want all that business. The King and Thai across the street was great(from the hotel), George Webb was a nice breakfast option that was open 24 hours.

The "Shops on Grand" mall had some food options, but otherwise a decaying mall.

WOW there were a ton of Iron Maidens there. Stern did good with all that space. Never thought I would see no waiting to play AFM with all the pins ColorDMD brought.

Got some shopping in, reuniting me with a book I haven't had since '82. There was a LOT of shopping possible.

Amtrak pulled through my commute from the twin cities & back, only being a short walk from the convention center. The Empire Builder route I was on was sold out on the way back.

Sunday morning had pretty much zero wait for games if you wanted to get some last minute plays in. By 2pm, I was burnt out.

Suggestions for next year's show: A screening room for various video game documentaries(Chasing Ghosts, etc) & movies(Wreck-It Ralph, etc) and Joy Sticks when the kiddies are gone.

Thanks for the offer. After the train ride, it was a 20 minute bus ride, and a 6 block walk to home, and going thru snow to get to the back of my house to get in the door. My father worked for Amtrak, so it was an obligation somewhat to take the train.

I believe there were more playable pins this year than all of any one Pinball Expo show play area, a show devoted to pinball. That wedge-shaped NES clone that I saw with 4 ports + HDMI + Famicom port + built-in Game Genie was beautiful.

Kind of weird the convention center had 1 little podium selling beer, where thousands more $ in beer could have been sold. Didn't the hotel last year run out of beer? Weird that I swore I saw a brewery, a place devoted to making beer, not more than 2 blocks away.

Does anyone remember the vendor they had that brought empty, unpainted arcade cabinets? IIRC they were in Wisconsin. Does anyone have their contact info?(website, etc)

Well, darn. I thought it was WI, and the cabs looked solid. I'm looking to build a MAME cabinet, and getting a just-right empty cabinet seems harder than it should be. I wish IKEA had a solution. Not a bartop, not a cocktail, but upright.