For the Midwest Gaming Classic 2006 article, click here. For the Midwest Gaming Classic 2007 article, click here.
Another year, another Midwest Gaming Classic. This would make my third trip there and the second time I've hosted Turbo Fest. Same location, though instead of taking place around May/June as usual, the MGC took a stab by scheduling itself at the end of March - ouch! Despite this, the year was another success, with a seemingly even bigger audience than the other years. Not only was the attendance better, but the quality of the show was arguably better this year as well.
Like 2007, the amount of arcade cabinets were lacking again this year. However, there seemed to be a few more and I thought the games themselves were better. Unlike 2007, pinball machines made a come back, around the same quantity as 2006. From classy pinball boards to 90's and beyond, there was plenty enough pinball to tickle your fancy and it's all for free play of course. On the downside, a lot of machines weren't working, typically the older ones.
Now I praised the vendor selection last year, which was the big highlight for me that year, but this year did even better. This year they were able to organize the main hall to fit even more vendors, which pretty much transformed the whole room into a big retro gaming shop. Lots of returning stores, such as Warpzone and Mad Gear, were back as well as some new individual sellers, like our good friend TurboSage of GamEscape, who had some awesome deals. There was just so much stuff for sale with such a wide variety of stuff. Given this, I probably bought more this year than any other year and this was a fantastic opportunity for both game buyers and sellers alike.
The museum area seemed about the exact same as last year, with a few new things here and there (including the ultra rare Super A'Can!). Considering the amount of goodies in the museum area in general, this is a good thing mind you. Turbo Fest mostly depended on me this year and despite the fact that less games were available, it was pretty much the same deal, except I had a special "TurboPong" demo specially made for this year. Unfortunately JagFest didn't seem to offer as much this year.
If you are a competitive gamer, this year was a good year. Aside from the usual pinball tournaments held at the MGC, the shmup tourney made a return, and this year also included new tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Halo 3, possibly more. To top it all off, Twin Galaxies founder, Walter Day, made an appearance this year to give away specially made Billy Mitchell hot sauce and the new Twin Galaxies score books for whoever could achieve the highest score in Rally X, and among other things.
The speaker area this year took some bad hits, unfortunately. It was worse enough last year when the speaker area didn't have any actual room, but this year it just took place in the hallway, which made it very noisy and distracting with lots of people walking by. Ben Heck just made a continuation of his speech last year and Trickman Terry and Sushi X gave more EGM stories. Our favorite returning speaker, Marty Goldberg, had a speech dealing with the revival of MicroProse, which as a topic wasn't terribly interesting, but at least Marty can make the speech worthwhile! Despite all of this speaker room drama, Walter Day's speech made up for it. Walter discussed Twin Galaxies and competitive gaming in general and had a wonderful question and answer session mostly dealing with the famous recently released documentary, "King of Kong". I was even able to talk to Walter after his speech and got his autograph - he's truly as friendly as he appears in the King of Kong!
So with an improved arcade and pinball selection over last year and even better vendors, it's safe for me to say that 2008 was better than 2007, possibly even better than my first trip in 2006. If only the speaker room didn't fall as flat and if there were more arcade cabinets, then in that case I think I could definitely say that 2008 was king. I was certainly skeptical about this year's MGC since it was taking place in March, but I was very impressed. With the constant growth of the convention, it makes me wonder if a bigger location will be necessary in the future...
-Keranu Sunday, April 6th, 2008 9:29pm USA central Time
- Keranu