So first, sorry you didn't like the show. Yours is one of the only negative comments I've read, so maybe our vibe just isn't the right one for you, and if not, that's okay! There are lots of other great shows, and if you're looking for just pinball, Expo was just before us and might have scratched that itch better.

I want to kindly dispute your dock complaints though. I ran the load in of the dock until we broke the line. We knew that at 5pm, there would be a short period where the Wisconsin Center would have to pull the walls, electricity, clamp shut the electrical boxes, and open the gates to let people in. This took about 15 minutes. At the same time, we had an issue where yes, a number of people left without getting a ticket. So I personally verified with them if their game was broken down or not, and if it was I sent them in. If it was not, I sent them to the wall to go break it down.

At the same time, we kept expanding our internal space to park more vehicles, exactly as designed. By 530, we were nearly at the expected capacity. By 545, people were reporting to me it was 8 minutes in line to get to me, and about 10 to get inside. It never went higher.

Would it have worked as well in the snow? No, but it wouldn't have been far off. I parked about 10 cars total outside. My guess would have been snow would have extended the line by 5 or so minutes based on how rarely that happened.

By 630 there was no line left. Period. No dock line, no line to get in.

By 815, every individual game holder and every individual vendor in the vendor hall was loaded out and gone.

Again, if that isn't good enough, I apologize, but we thought that for loading out in excess of 200 vehicles, 3 hours was pretty damn good.

As for your comments about how we're all about profit and don't care about Game bringers, from a guy who hasn't deposited a check since June to try to keep the show going and whose full time job is the show, I'll simply say... Sorry again. Almost everyone else seemed to feel otherwise that I spoke with.

I'm pretty comfortable with where the show is at, and I hope we can continue it that way. I put more than 60 hours a week into this thing for almost three years, as my full time job, and not depositing my checks for months at a time to ensure we could pull it through. We had help from hundreds of people who wanted to come out and make something special. And I'd argue we did.

I hope more people want to step up to do that. And if not, if we don't do enough, I can go make more money working at a job paying 20 an hour with a lot less hours, and that's fine too. From what I saw this weekend though, I think we'll be doing this for a long, long time.

I did a rough count from what I knew, including the Garcade, G2B, Robs, and the foyer was about 325 (combined).

I don't know if I could disagree more with everything you said.

If you can’t have a good time at Mgc, dat a you problem

MGC was really good. It felt like slightly less attendance than the usual Spring date, but it wasn't a bad thing! There were still tons of games and I was impressed with the variety. I got to play almost all of the newest Stern's released in the past couple years that I haven't played yet. I probably spent less than 15 minutes total on Saturday waiting to play a game. I was almost always able to find another open game to play since I'm not very picky, I just came to play a little bit of everything. The amount of GZ's was insane! Cactus Canyon remake was a lot of fun to shoot since I've never played a physical CC before (only virtual). Too bad the TOM trunk and the center mansion shot on Elvira HoH were not working when I played them. Almost every game I played was working great. Picked up a WPC89 MPU from Pinball Basement which looks basically identical to an original MPU. I'll be back in the Spring for sure!

Sorry to anyone who played Iron Maiden while it was wonky. Walked by Sunday afternoon and noticed someone struggling to plunge the ball, and then saw that it was kicking out three balls at a time, then ending when one was drained. Weird. After they were done, I figured something was up with the trough. Everything looked and tested out fine. Weird. Wait a minute...why are there 8 freaking balls in here?!? Turns out the newton ball post had falling down through the playfield, letting that ball and the captive ball roll free. So the ball with the hole in it was rolling around my playfield for awhile. Hopefully it didn't scratch it up...I couldn't really tell in that light. Either way, I found the parts, hammered the post back into the ball (it's just a knurled end pressed in, not threaded like it should really be) and put it back together. Hopefully it stays put, but I'll try epoxying it in or something if it ever comes loose again. Wish I would have caught that sooner, but other than that it was solid all weekend.

From a volunteer arcade crew standpoint, this was by far the best year since the move. Thank you so much to all the game bringers and many, many people who would jump in to lend a hand any time it was needed. It was truly a "we are all in this together" feeling of community. That's what I love about MGC and I felt that more strongly this year than ever. While the work beats us up and wears us out, it's still sad when it's over. I am thrilled we will be doing it again in 6 months, where usually on the Monday after I never want to do it again, LOL. Thank you everyone for making me feel that way again! And of course a huge thank you to Dan (and Gary, LOL) for making this show happen!

-Chris Matte

We had

38 sterns
7 cgc
2 spooky
14 america
9 jersey jack
5 used pins

Thata 75 right there.

We also brought another 42 other machines (skeeball, driving games, megatouch, etc)

It was good to catch up with people again. Load out was amazing for us as by the time we were ready we just drove into the building and backed the trailer to our spot.

See you again in april 2022!

I'm almost thinking you need to have your own show! Absolutely floored by the amount of inventory you had. My son and I spent the majority of our time in your space.

I think I speak for many when I say: THANK YOU!

On the way home it dawned on me that we kind of abandoned you guys, yet again, at load-out. Seems we can always find hands to help load-in, but come load-out it's such a free-for-all, and honestly I was a little selfish worrying about my own stuff and getting out of there. Sorry if we left you hanging. I will try to be better about that next time. Without you and the family, this show wouldn't be what it is. Kingpin is always the highlight of the show. Thank you for doing all that you (and the family) do!

Chris and the gang are an absolute asset to the gaming community and we're lucky to have them. I know this feeling is shared since they were the people's choice for vendor of the show!

If you ever looking for a pinball or arcade, you'd be foolish to not call those guys (Kingpin Games: https://www.kingpingames.net ) first.

My 2 cents...
Keith

In fairness though, your bar is pretty low, you can have a good time anywhere.

No affiliation to Kool and the gang though similar.

I'm both awake and instantly into MGC stuff, which has happened zero times in the last 8 years. Got a bunch of stuff to fix and can make it even smoother. If anyone local wants to do some stuff for the show, hoping to have a bunch of nights to do everything from sorting storage to cranking on some of the machines. Just reach out if you want to help keep the show going, and I'll figure out when / where / what are options.

And seriously, the way the community stepped up this year after the hardest 30 months... Wow, thank you all. This past weekend was a huge release of tension and stress for me. I'm still not sure the show will survive - ye old show money bin remains light on pandemic pennies for me to swim in - but I feel like it's far more likely than not, which is not what I would have said even a few days ago.

I can actually estimate attendance already and Friday was up and Sunday was FAR up. Not having a snowstorm helped a lot. Saturday was down by a relatively significant amount but when you combine those with the others, I think we were softer by 500 people at most. It's impossible for me to say if the shift in attendance patterns was more pandemic or weather related, but I'm sure both had to do with it.

And seriously, thank you all. We don't get talked about as much on sites like this because I think we're just "not that type of show" and that's fine. The amount of people who texted me to tell me things they discovered that they loved was amazing, and it's so diverse. The wrestling shows seemed to be the biggest winners, which shocked us all. And ACW who did that came in the same way everyone else does - as a community wanting to do something awesome.

I'm freaking pumped for 2022. I dreaded every day leading up to this show. It was such a relief doing it. I broke down multiple times at the show because of how much my faith in humanity gets restored at stuff like this, and I'm breaking down now typing it. Thank you all, especially the incredible volunteers without whom that room couldn't exist, and the 2046372893 other groups and communities that make this thing what it is. I had no clue 20 years ago I was signing up for this adventure when we held an event for the Atari Jaguar community, and for the last 18 months at least I had been really regretting it.

Screw that. We're back baby.

I firmly believe that the next MGC in 6 months will put you back over the top. How did the auction work out?

Hey Dan; I can probably help. Let me know when/where/what.

Amen brother! Luckily I'm currently working nights. I got home and was in bed by 9:30P. Woke up around 5A and then went back to bed around 9A!
Woke up around 4P and am currently "working" a 12 hour shift. Looking forward to April!

I'll pm you! Moved stuff between our storage areas tonight. It was actually awesome!

Fun Land mystery solved!

For those of you who attended MGC and tried to play the Fun Land EM I brought only to find it not working, I apologize. It was working perfectly at home but developed a problem at the show where it would just keep trying to start a game over and over. When I opened the coin door it would stop and play normally and I could not replicate the failure. So I buttoned it back up and went back to play more pinball. I'd come back later only to find it was not working again. This happened many times throughout the weekend and I never did solve it. Well I set it up this morning at home and finally figured it out. I had rigged one of the coin return push bottons to start a game (basically Free Play). When the key was turned to lock the coin door, it was causing the door to flex just enough to apply pressure on the push rod and not allow it to come back out. Unlock the door and it would pop back out. I adjusted the bracket to give it more clearance and now the issue is resolved! Even after 30 years of working on these things, I still find new problems to solve!

Are there shareable records on what machines went for at the auction?

Thanks

I'm curious as well.

To whoever brought the monster bash that was along the far wall, thank you. That was one of the best playing MBs I've had the pleasure of flipping.

What's up with these t-shirts? Wearing mine for the first time and the print feels (and sounds) like a cheap iron-on, not the nice silkscreen from 2019. I fear washing it will delaminate it.

I don't know why they changed some of them like that, but they were adamant that they hold up. My younger son got a shirt with it on last year and wears it constantly and it's held up and looks new. It's some miracle thing apparently, or has been so far.

That having been said, I hope to avoid getting shirts with it in the future for exactly the reason you noted.

Glad you figured it out. It was nice meeting you and being your pin neighbor at the show!

Nice to meet you as well. Thanks for your help keeping an eye on my game.

I had an awesome time at MGC. I got there a day early to help out some, and stayed over Sunday night so I didn't have to rush out. Made some new friends & went out to some new to me restaurants

Thanks for catching my dopey face in the background. Pic #8, just to the right of the tabletop sign