Midwest Gaming Classic 2015 (Image Heavy)

[Crawley]

Over the weekend I attended the Midwest Gaming Classic in Brookfield Wisconsin. It's an odd event as it mashes up pinball and video games. I started going there a few years ago and have been hooked. The event starts Friday night with a lot of tournaments and other games. But typically I'll go on the Tom Taylor tour. Tom has a warehouse full of about 200+ EM machines set to free to play. Basically spend Friday evening there till a bit in the night. But unfortunately Tom had a conflict or something so no tour this year.

In any case at the MGC they have an arcade hall where they fill it to the brim with pinball and arcade games (mostly pinball). A Gaming Museum where you can play games on just about every console that was created (1970 -> most recent) and a bunch of computers from several eras. The vendor tent you has a bunch of stores that sell classic console games, action figures, toys, games, whatever your inner geek desires. Then splattered around the event are smaller arcades (Galloping Ghost, Star Worlds) and a bunch of specialty rooms with arcade related stuff going in them.

It's overwhelming the first time you go there as there's just so much to see. And no way to have enough time to do it all.

But lets start off with some pictures.



Scorgasm is making its debut here I believe. This is a new "pin" based off some of the early 30's or 40's pins. No flippers on this one. You have 9 or so balls that you just use the plunger to get in the point holes on the field. You nudge the table to try and get the ball to fall in the hole you want.

It sounds boring but actually was kinda neat. There's definitely a challenge in nudging the ball in to the hole you want. And when a ball is in a hole it will many times block the higher scoring holes below it.

There's sounds and music coming from the two speakers. It wasn't quite as raunchy as I was expecting with the name Scorgasm.



The latest from Stern. There were three of these at the show. Only got to play one game but I actually liked it quite a bit. The ring bumpers at the top of the table worked well. I could easily trap the ball and take time to make shots. And the DMD wasn't bad. I don't know any of the Wrestlers you could choose, beyond The Rock, so theme wise that didn't do anything for me. But they had an LE version of the game which features Wrestlers that I'm more familiar with from the WrestleMania days.



This is a completely tricked out Xenon. Blue LED lights galore all over the playfield. Even the flippers have blue LED lights under them to illuminate them. When the lights were turned off in the arcade call this thing was a neon wonder to behold.

The problem is the game is boring. There I said it. It plays very slow and not a whole lot to do.



Sword of Fury was on hand. It's a pretty neat table. There's a lot of variety on the table and what you need to shoot for. I've only played it at shows so don't have an understanding of all the rules but make sure to play it at least once when I do see it.

Next to Sword of Fury was Radical. I hadn't played this one before and came away enjoyed it. There's some fun ramps that will twist and turn and the gameplay decently fast. But I could still trap the ball when I needed to make specific shots. I was thankful the arcade hall was loud as otherwise the game sounded like Dr Dude with the cheesy sound effects and 80's lingo.

Can only post 4 images per post so continuing on in my next post (still lots more).

 

[Crawley]

One thing about staying on site and pre-purchasing tickets is you're ready to go as soon as the arcade hall opens at 10am. You basically have about 30-40 minutes where the hall is relatively empty where you can get on machines easily or not have to wait in long lines. The hall starts clearing out at around 5-6 when people start leaving for dinner. So if you can starve a bit or eat early you can get some prime game time in with playing on the machines.



But here's what you are mainly dealing with. Just tons of people. Sometimes at the point where its difficult to make a way down an isle. Or you get stopped where there's only enough room for one person to get by but there's people trying to get through both ways. But that's all just part of these events.



This is a Bride of Pinbot 2.0. This is where they've used a P-Roc system to re-do the rules of the table, add a color DMD with animations, and add music and new voice overs to the game.

It's really something and pretty neat to play a new variation on the game. Shooting the shuttle lane still locks the balls but also starts various missions you need to complete on the table.

Next to the table you see The Big Lewbowski, which I still haven't played yet. But you can see the guy tapping the back of the table to get a ball unstuck. While I was waiting to play BoP 2.0 the ball got stuck there quite often.



Here is the sub-woofer for BoP 2.0. This thing is aimed right at your...lower half. I managed to get multiball going and that triggered the music to start playing and god I could feel the bass pumping in my nether regions.

 

[Crawley]

On hand were also a bunch of arcade games you could play that basically went around most of the perimeter of the room. You had a bunch of classic arcade games, some rare ones, and some I've never seen before.



Including Killer Queen. It's actually two machines hooked together (you can see the other orange Killer Queen to the left). It's basically a team based game with 4-players on each team. It's a platform based game where your team works towards winning in one of three different ways (economically, military, or killing the queen). It was a hell of a lot of fun playing with 8 people. Never played one before and hope it returns next year.



VPCabs had an area just outside the Arcade Hall and were showing off all their models of virtual pinball cabinets. I tried a few of these and while I was excited for them years ago I think I'm loosing a bit of my desire to own one. Pinball FX tables looked great but the Visual Pinball tables looked kinda washed out and the angle of the tables I played looked a bit strange.



I would love to see these running some of the Visual Pinball 9.9 tables or 10 when it comes out. Those tables would probably show better.

But its still on my wish list for some point in the future. The mini-one in particular (on the right). Easy to store and Pinball FX plays great on it.

 

[jaredmorgs]

Wow, I would love to see some gameplay from BoP 2.0. The operator that supplies machines for our Pinball League has a BoP that I helped him fix (pitted cabinet switches and EOS switches). I mentioned the BoP 2.0 mod from DP, and he had never heard of it.

I have a feeling that these were a limited run only, and are not available any more. But man, it would blow apart the way that game plays. Love how you can interface a monitor for the DMD to show folks the animations.

 

[Crawley]

The Hobbit was on hand. It looked very good from what I saw. The gameplay looks fun and the table has characters pop-up out of the table (ala Medieval Madness trolls) that you shoot for, and I always enjoy tables that have those pop-up targets. The Smaug toy was kinda neat and got to see a multiball kick off.

Unfortunately I didn't play it. There was only one person ahead of me and 3 people were playing a game ahead of them. They were all good so it took awhile for them to finish, but gave me chance to really see the table in action. Then when the guy in front went to play he started a 3-player game and one person from the previous game joined in as well as another person who they called over. Ugh. I just left.



America's Most Haunted was at the show again.

It's been neat seeing the evolution of this game at the show. They debut an early prototype at the show in 2013 that was really rough. 2014 they had a more complete version of the table to show off. And then 2015 they took off the "Wait for It" sign to indicate they've sold out of their 200 pin run.

Great job to them!



Outside the Arcade Museum they had a bunch of consoles lined up on either side of the hall. Multiple different consoles with some of the most expensive controllers you could purchase (like controllers that cost $200 and above).



This guy is defying the "You must be this tall to use the controller" sign.

I'll post some more picture later. Got stuff from the Arcade Museum, vendor hall, various arcade rooms, and of course more pinball.

 

[Snorzel]

Thank you for posting. Very interesting. Off to find a vid of Americas Most Haunted. Did you by chance see a Whoa Nellie?

 

[Johni3w6]

Thanks for sharing,
did anyone get a chance to see Glenn from PSNation? Are there any PSNation fans in this group?

 

[Crawley]

Yup, did get to play a Whoa Nellie! I've seen it at a few shows in the past but never actually played it till this go around.



The table is love letter to EM tables. A simple layout with lots of roll overs, pop bumpers, and a few specific shot holes or targets to make. It's got all the chimes from regular EM tables but with the added voice overs. I actually had a blast playing it.



There was a High Roller Casino at the show too. I've seen them before but never got around to playing them. But since it's in TPA figured I would give it a shot. I did pretty well in the one game I played. It helps knowing the rules and what to shoot for of course, and that's part of the enjoyment. I'll also confirm that when you plunge the ball that the ball actually spins around the roulette wheel quite a lot. I had thought that TPA was over exaggerating how often the ball went around before it fell into the wheel but nope, it can take awhile in the real deal.

Also the Terminator 3 to the left. Awesome. As much as I have the nostalgic vibe for T2 I have to say T3 is a lot better.

You can sort of see that little screen at the top. That's the RPG mini-game. During the mini-game you shoot a ball out a "gun" and try and hit the targets on the left. With all the rocket sounds going off, and the fact that you're pulling the trigger on the gun plunger to shoot it just makes for a great experience.



Here's the Gaming Museum room. This is one of my favorites as it has consoles and computers from just about every generation and some that I've never heard of. All of them are up and running with games to play. You could spend a few hours in here easy.



Some Atari goodness right here. Two versions of the Atari 2600 (which I cut my teeth on for console gaming) and even an Atari Video Pinball console (at the top).

Which was actually just their version of Pong and Breakout with a lot of variations on those themes (that small grey console).

 

[Crawley]

Speaking of Pong these guys were playing it on this tiny console.

I have to say its really neat to go around the room and see people of all ages experiencing consoles from every generation. Part of the fun is actually trying to figure out the archaic games and working with the non-ergonomic controllers. Some of them you have to scratch you head at trying to figure out just what they were thinking.



If you owned a Commodore 64 or Amiga this controller was the one to own. Basically the Xbox 360 controller of the 80's.

Comfortable as hell to hold and buttons (on the underside) easy to get to. Loved this thing.



Although I didn't get to play it they had Duke Nukem 3D hooked up to four computers so you could play multiplayer deathmatch. Last year they did this (and Doom) and it was a hell of a lot of fun playing those multiplayer.

In a different room they did have 8-player Quake deathmatch set up on some old Mac computers and I did get to play that. And fun as always.



And finally in this room a nice little shrine to Ralph Bear who created Simon.

There's a few handheld type devices scattered around the room you can play with that are kinda fun. Including a Speak and Spell and a Dataman which I recall from my childhood.

 

[Crawley]

Thanks for sharing,
did anyone get a chance to see Glenn from PSNation? Are there any PSNation fans in this group?

I'm not sure what that is. If it was a podcast type dealie then I did see a few podcaster broadcasting there. But no idea who they were other than they had mics and were talking in to them.

 

[Johni3w6]

I'm not sure what that is. If it was a podcast type dealie then I did see a few podcaster broadcasting there. But no idea who they were other than they had mics and were talking in to them.

Yes, PSNation is a podcast.

 

[Dedpop]

Really enjoyed reading you Crawley.
Thank you for sharing all this with us.

 

[Bahnzo]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Cool! I had one of those joysticks for my C64/Amiga... never really liked it though. My joysticks had to be rooted to the desktop with suckers!

 

[Slam23]

Wow, I would love to see some gameplay from BoP 2.0. The operator that supplies machines for our Pinball League has a BoP that I helped him fix (pitted cabinet switches and EOS switches). I mentioned the BoP 2.0 mod from DP, and he had never heard of it.

I have a feeling that these were a limited run only, and are not available any more. But man, it would blow apart the way that game plays. Love how you can interface a monitor for the DMD to show folks the animations.

That's not exactly true, they will produce another run if new pre-orders exceed 25. This taken directly from their site: "Since we will not keep stock on the kits. We are now taking pre-orders for a second batch of kits.
As soon as we have 25 new pre-orders for the second batch we will start producing them."

www.dutchpinball.com

I played some BoP 2.0 at an earlier DPO and I found it very good. Nice variety of things to do, better skillshot, 3 ball MB instead of 2, deeper ruleset, more modes. Didn't get to see it all (I didn't play that well ) but my impression was very positive.

 

[jaredmorgs]

That's not exactly true, they will produce another run if new pre-orders exceed 25. This taken directly from their site: "Since we will not keep stock on the kits. We are now taking pre-orders for a second batch of kits.
As soon as we have 25 new pre-orders for the second batch we will start producing them."

www.dutchpinball.com

I played some BoP 2.0 at an earlier DPO and I found it very good. Nice variety of things to do, better skillshot, 3 ball MB instead of 2, deeper ruleset, more modes. Didn't get to see it all (I didn't play that well ) but my impression was very positive.

Yeah, I was pleased to find this out also after I initially commented about it here.

The operator is understandably a bit gun shy about forking out what would be close to what he paid for the BoP and retrofitting the P-ROC kit onto a 30 yo machine. And then trying to recoup that on-location.

It was worth a try suggesting it to him though. He would be the only one in Australia operating it on-location as far as I can tell.

 

[Nightwing]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Great pics

 

[workshed]

Yup, thanks for the pics. The fake wood fronted Atari 2600 brings back many memories. I wish I still had mine, just hearing that penny I inserted into one of the slots on the top of the machine (dunno why I did that, but never managed to get it back out) rattling around would be wonderful.

 

[Shaneus]

This is a completely tricked out Xenon. Blue LED lights galore all over the playfield. Even the flippers have blue LED lights under them to illuminate them. When the lights were turned off in the arcade call this thing was a neon wonder to behold.

The problem is the game is boring. There I said it. It plays very slow and not a whole lot to do.

Called it. It'll be very average as one of the upcoming games in TPA. Should've been something else.

Looks like an awesome weekend, though!