Booked a room but undecided if I'll actually go -

I understand why they moved to the new venue and congrats on the success, but not a fan of the huge high ceiling warehouse/concrete floor shows that MGC and Expo have become.

Even w the attached skyway, the amount of walking was insane at MGC. "We're gonna go grab dinner"..."Well let me go back to the room and get my coat, I'll be back in half an hour or so..."

I did love the feel of the Sheraton, but there's no way the show would still fit there with how big it's gotten, so I'll take what I can get. For sure I'll be coming back, and I'll be bringing a fan favorite homebrew as always. Really wanted to debut Volcano Blast this year, but I don't think that's going to happen yet.

https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/

I'm really looking forward to this year's show. While I miss the Sheraton, I think this is the fifth show at the Wisconsin Center. All of us on the arcade hall crew have really found a groove on getting the hall set up and more importantly, getting the end of show move out figured out and getting people loaded and out quickly. Last year was the fastest I've been able to leave the show.

I'd like people to consider bringing a pinball machine to share at the show. The amount of machines brought to the show has been dwindling and without the local support of game bringers, the show will not thrive. Game bringers get a free weekend pass to the show as well as attendance to the after party where you can play all of the games with hardly any wait. See more details here: https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/bring-machines/

I'm hoping to be able to bring a pin or two this year. They will have the precision pinball flippers (halo & regular) as well as the bushings. So, if you're on the fence on them you can try them out at MGC.

I will be bringing Subhumans and one other game (most likely TNA)

Ill have a game or two, or maybe 16 or 18, lol

I will be supporting the show as i have for the last upteen years. Although its not 20 video games like in the early days, i will be bringing around 16 or so Stern machines. I do know what games i will be having, but will not be posting them just yet for presales as i like to wait till i have them in hand, but titles should be

bond
godzilla
rush
mando
elvira
and some others to

Us fat guys need all the exercise we can get!

I will be bringing my homebrew game “Daikaiju”.

I miss the Sheraton as well....

HEY! I am in shape. ROUND is a shape.

I'll be there again helping with the Arcade Hall setup. I miss the Sheraton days too, but it did get pretty claustrophobic in the last few years.

I hear ya Tom. I'll make a point of trying to get extra chairs out there and maybe have an area with chairs & tables so us plump old codgers can rest our weary feet and sit around telling tall stories! To me, seeing people I only see maybe once a year is more than half the fun!

My guess is this will be a great show for new pinballs.
New JJP
New Stern Corner stone
New American pinball
New Scooby Do
maybe new CGC?

The Sheraton was like a treasure hunt - you'd grab a beer, wander down a hallway, peek in a door and there are games or parts for sale, games spilling out into the hallways, the band and costume contest in the bar area, the low ceiling/carpeted game rooms (yes, it was crowded sometimes, but i still preferred it........), all the restaurants at the mall next door......

where's my time machine??

Since we're all reminiscing, I say every year I miss the Sheraton. The "feel" of the show is totally different. There was literally NOTHING we were not allowed to do there as long as we didn't burn the place down. We were their biggest weekend of the year and we ruled the roost.

But, the show totally outgrew that venue. In truth, we outgrew the venue 5 years BEFORE we moved.

For better or for worse, the show is now an event. Even the 2021 show which was still in the midst of COVID was bigger than the last show at the Sheraton. I hope the show continues to grow.

The collector community is critical to the success of the show. I hope everyone who is on this site reading this and coming to the show will consider bringing a game. The arcade hall crew does everything we can to help make it as easy as we can do so. If you ever have any issues please let any of us know and we'll do everything we can to make your experience better. Just please remember that we are all just volunteers and fellow collectors donating our time and energy to try and make the show as successful as possible. Be kind. Please rewind.

Keith

Let me know whether you bring TNA. I usually bring one but was thinking of bringing Pinbot for something different. On the other hand, you can never have enough TNA.

BTW, I appreciate all the staff who do this every year and help with load-in/load-out. The overzealous convention security, not so much.

I need help with something. I need more notice for our BBQ lunch. Not to take away anything from the show, it is a lot of work for me bringing games and setting in a booth all weekend. So our BBQ lunch is one of the highlights for me. I get to sit back, eat good food, and have awesome conversations with a great group of friends. We might only see each other a few times a year, but i really do look forward to that time

Where else are you going to listen to Polka music on an escalator?

Ok, I've committed to bringing Pinbot. I brought it out of my basement (in the middle of finishing the basement so games are all folded up). Will clean it up and finally install this new ramp I've had for who knows how long.

16738071078904474648478662055553 (resized).jpg

Hey everyone!

First, I too in many ways miss the Sheraton. Here's the truth - if the show was at the Sheraton, I could still have a normal job and would probably be able to put the show on in the meantime. The move made it so that the show sort of has to be my full time gig, and let's simply say that between two blizzards the first two years after the move that severely hampered attendance, a venue that at the beginning didn't trust us to do things like move out properly, and covid, the show has quite frankly caused this to be the most difficult stretch in my life.

BUT, not just had we outgrown the space at the Sheraton (remember the temporary structure?), we were at a really odd spot. I think I've said this before but in short, the Sheraton wanted to raise prices on us to the point that we would have been lucky to break even with the event there. No kidding, the first two years, the Wisconsin Center - with more than DOUBLE the space - was cheaper for us to rent than the Sheraton would have been. Oh, and the Sheraton wanted to remove us from all hallways, the bar, the lobby, and so on, which would have eliminated a ton of space that we used.

If we would have kept it there, I am certain the show wouldn't have survived covid, had the show even lasted until then. We probably would have had to create attendance caps while at the same time shrinking what we had available to do, and significantly raising prices. The Sheraton was great, but it ran it's course.\

And speaking of growth, when we left the Sheraton we were around 60,000 square feet for everything in the show which included hallways, hotel rooms, the bar area, that tent, everything. This year, the show will be over 200,000 square feet without factoring in most of the hallway space. So, if you feel like it's a lot more walking... it is! But we also have significantly added space for tons of new things to do!

For pinball, I'd love it if people brought more games! As has been mentioned, the egress issues have been basically completely cleared up now that the building trusts us. You enter into the hall, load your game, and can move out. We can do 20+ vehicles at a time just for the Game Center side alone! Last year, we never had a line. We're working on some new plans as we have bigger space again, but the Wisconsin Center is happy to let us do the same general plan.

Also, we have increased the rewards for bringing out a game! You get:

Tickets for the show, including Friday night* (the * is we do ask you buy your ticket if you are going to play in Clock Chaos - which will be announced soon - or the other tournaments we do for other things, as they cost money to put on)
Game Center After Party - This party is ONLY attended by people who bring games or set up major displays in the Game Center, oh, and special guests. You can play all the different stuff in there! Comes with a drink ticket too!
Official After Party - Scott Danesi and others perform music, we'll have some great pinball tournaments and many other things!
Game Bringer Keychain - Everyone who brings a game gets a special MGC keychain saying it's a game that was at the show!
Eternal Gratitude - YOU help to make the show awesome! Without you, it wouldn't be the same!

I am working on a few more benefits too! If you're interested, you can contact me directly on here or wherever with questions, and I can direct you to the right person to note everything down.

No kidding, I realized the other day that this is in many ways the first year that I'm actually excited for the show since we moved from the Sheraton. As mentioned, the last few years have been totally rough, as making this change has not been easy and came with the most extreme stress I could have imagined. This year, I think everything is coming together, and we'd love to have everyone join us. If things come together as I expect they may, it's going to be a really, really exciting year!

Finally, got any ideas on how to improve things? Message me! I reply! Got any questions, ask them here - and then maybe poke me in messages, it's 1:30am when I write this because organizing this beast takes like 10 hours a day right now and I'm trying to keep up! I want to improve the show as much as I can, and I'm open to ideas. We are still insanely tight on money right now, but I'd love to implement what I can!

(Oh, and for games, I'm hoping to bring about 50 machines myself, probably 20 vids and 30 pins. No idea just what they'll be yet, but I've been able to maintain my own stuff better, so I might even be able to bring up to 40 myself. I'd love it if 2023 is the year that we get the arcade hall completely full again!)

OH! So, no kidding on this...

The dock security at the Wisconsin Center has been... not great since we moved in.

The last two years, we had one security supervisor who was just amazing. She wasn't on the dock. Her and I talked and she was great at ensuring her people were where they should be and on track. When she was there, stuff just worked. Recently, I was downtown for something and she saw me and reminded me to ensure she was working our show. I said absolutely, and she is going to be our main supervisor.

I was in the Wisconsin Center on Monday meeting with someone, and **she was training people on the dock** at the same time I was there.

My fingers are HUGELY crossed that they do what she says. She just makes things work. If so, EVERYTHING will be easier.

you get to eat lunch? what?

slacker...

For sure I'll be bringing some stuff. I'm not totally sure how many people will be with me this year but I plan on bringing as many working games as I can conveniently reach right now. And potentially an empty-but-equipped 6803 cabinet if anybody shows interest in buying it.

There is generally a big section on older console games and retrocomputing, so I thought I would also ask if there is any need for CRT televisions. I have... several of them, and if there's any use for them at the show, I'd be happy to contribute.

Regarding loading/unloading, wishful thinking question here - will there ever be an arrangement where game bringers can pull straight into one of the loading spaces, then either exit through a different door or make a U-turn? Though I'm capable of it (with help from a spotter), I have to say I'm not a fan of backing a trailer straight.

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but is the reason game bringers are dwindling because of games (new and old) getting increasingly pricey, and people don't want the to drag their precious games out of their basements for the public to get their grimy fingers on?

I always bring a game to MGC because I love the show and I know it's genuinely appreciated.

Empty 6803? I might be super interested. I have a Special Forces with the world's worst cabinet.

For crts, I'll contsct you!

For in and out, that is what we do now, although it depends on the trailer on what we can get away with. Regular cars go in the building through one door, park, load and then out through another! Again, I'll contact you right now and try to talk details.

There is a host of reasons I believe including...

- load out sucked for two years and people believe it's not fixed
- people spread rumors about how you could just get in the Saturday night game center party for free even though it wasn't true ever and regularly questioned if they should bring games when discussing it due to this. (often, they were mad that the 15 of so people that brought, set up and watched the 150+ consoles the whole time could also get in, even though they played their stuff not just the pinball stuff)
- game prices increased and people started expecting insanity. A number of prior game bringers have told me they would bring their one game back if I got them a hotel room for two nights now due to the value change.
- younger owners by and large (not all, I'm theoretically still on the younger side!) don't know how to repair their games, so bringing them and risking that is out of the question.

There are probably more, but those are the big ones. We have answers for all of these to an extent (except, no, I can't get everyone a hotel, that's nuts). I hope we can start rebuilding it now, as I think the benefits of it were understood more by the generally older, do it yourself crowd that brought so many games as meeting others to trade knowledge, watch for games for each other, and so on.

No kidding, the vast majority of my collection was found by people I met at the MGC watching out for me. Last year, I was hoping to get a game and lost out on the one on the floor. Within hours, I had been told of 3 more around town, and bought one a week or two after the show for less than the one I was targeting! The community is awesome, and I've made lifelong friends with it.

Pool, pond.... pond would be good for you.

We have both kinds....Country and Western.

I have brought games to MGC both at the Sheraton and Milwaukee Center. There is always a blizzard no matter what time of year. Weird.

In my opinion, if you are thinking of bringing a game, do it! I feel like they really appreciate it and you can help the show. Your game could be the one that gets someone to love pinball. Or, they have always wanted to play but have never seen. I will haul a game or two out of the basement for that.

The afterparty is fun and Dan and his staff are great. For example, during the bad load out year, my hand truck went missing when I went to get the van. I doubt it was stolen, just borrowed for a loadout. We could not find it. Dan gave me his new one, told me thanks for bringing some games, and went to help others. I still have it with MGC DAN written on it. Cool.

I'm planning on attending this year. I was only there 1 day last year. I still have to book a room but if I can get all the work done I'm planning on bringing:
Sorcerer, Lunar Shot, Evel Knievel, Funhouse 2.0 (Restored), and Double Dragon. I have lots to do though. Hope to see you guys there.

I've always loved the show Dan. Yes, it has changed, but I still want to bring games. Load out has gotten better since the first year at the Wisconsin Center. I bring a U-haul truck so it is a bit more complicated for me to pull into the building with a line of cars. As long as I park on the back dock, I'm ok with that. I'm looking forward to brining several games again this year. I just have to get my butt in gear!!

Sorry for the late notice but I can confirm that I will be bringing TNA as my second game.

Hide yo wives hide yo kids it's Gryszzz
See ya soon assholes

Nice!

I'm glad you are bringing it! Maybe we can play a few games.

I'm bringing a game for the free play hall and one game for the tournament. Dont know the games yet. I should probably figure out what I'm bringing, since it's only 6 weeks away!

SIX WEEKS?!? Holy crap...

Absolutely!

I think last time I brought a game to the show was the first one at the new venue, and when I tried to haul out my game Sunday morning I was told I couldnt move it until 5pm that day. After much explaining that I didnt have a room for Sunday and the rest of my party was heading back to michigan, someone finally recognized me and that I've been bringing games to the show for about 10 years and I was able to load out.

Not sure what the new load out policy is, but those of us who have to check out on Sunday morning and have an 8 hour drive home (and lose another hour on the way) can't stick around all day.

EDIT: Just checked the MGC website and answered my own question -

Game removal times are Sunday from 5 pm-11 pm. Game removal at other times may be accommodated by the Wisconsin Center by paying a $50 “dock fee” to get the personnel open docks at that time. This is a per-vehicle fee.

Looks like we wont be bringing games again - I'm sure I'm not the only one that can't stick around til 5pm on a Sunday - that's ridiculous. And I'm sure as hell not paying $50 for the privilege of removing my game early when I have to go home.

Dan, you're asking people to bring games and handcuffing us to the venue. Shit I wouldn't be home til 3am on a work day. There needs to be some sort of accommodation for out of town/state people that want to support the show too. We don't all live in Milwaukee. Or even Wisconsin, for that matter.

Signed,

Distressed in Detroit

The fee is enough to stop me from bringing a game anymore. I have other things in my life now that I didn't before and I'm not going to pay to take my stuff home if i need to go. When I had less things going on, there was less chance of needing to leave early.

So, a secret this year that isn't really a secret, but I don't think people know...

If you bring a box truck or trailer, you can leave it on the dock. This rule is only for game bringers, we can't do it for vendors. We've never had more than half the dock due to other shows. This year, we have the entire dock, so we have more than twice the dock space. If you bring a truck or trailer, especially if it's a dock height truck, you should either be able to stay in a spot or it should be an easy and quick swap!

So, here's the thing - I may be able to work something out. But allow me to explain what's going on here, I hope it shows that I'm not trying to handcuff anyone to the venue:

The building is super particular about that dock. To open it, I get charged for the employees to do so. If those employees can be spared from other locations, the cost to me last year was $56, so I'm actually losing money on that fee, believe it or not. And if they don't have spare employees, it's worse - as they charge me for a four hour shift which quadruples that. And, that is still super limited access, as they only allow a couple cars at a time before requiring more employees. We have been hit with that fee.

That's just half of it. When we move stuff inside, we are required to have an updated safety check. If it's a single game or two, it's not a big deal and can be just a bit of shuffling. If it is like 10 or 20, we may have to reshuffle everything and re-run electric and stuff before we get approval to open the hall. If it is done while we're open, they make us flush out large areas of the show if it is beyond one or two at a time again.

I am sympathetic to your scenario, and what might work - I'd need to work with the building on this - is if we schedule a certain time Sunday morning and hit that window, I can solve most of the above issues all at once. For instance, if people move their game out of the line first thing in the morning Sunday, and then pack it into a vehicle between say 9am-9:30am, I can probably use things like shift changes and whatnot to make that work. But, I would still have a cap on how many I could do, and I'd have to work with the venue to figure that out. The real problem is more like...

...this, where like, I totally get it because my life seems to be a never ending rush - my wife calls it living in triage and only responding to the most recent disaster - but I don't have a way to thread the needle of all of the above stuff and not make it almost impossible to keep the show functioning between the costs and the requirements.

And again, this isn't to say that isn't a legit reason, just I can't do it without a plan. If we can stick to the plan, totally different scenario. But reach out to me - I make things like that work as best as I can. I'd much rather you still participate if you want to than not, hope that helps clear it up

Visited American Pinball today and... David Fix gave me some hints about their plans for the show, but I couldn't get it all out of him!

Factory was active with three different games on the line!

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goatdan Did you guys get my game bringing info? I had trouble with the form (possibly just an issue with my browser) so I just submitted a message by replying to Andrew's game bringers email that went out. Haven't heard anything back so I just wanted to be sure I'm registered. The people want their Undertale.

I'll check with Andrew, I hope so! I checked the form and thought it was working! Anyway, watch for an email!