Midwest Gaming Classic 2016 (Brookfield, WI)

[Crawley]

Just a friendly reminder the Midwest Gaming Classic 2016 is coming up next year: April 8th-10th. I'm reading that the hotel that hosts the show is about 50% booked.

For those unfamiliar this expo its main focus is filling a hotel with as many video games, pinball machines, and related merchandise for both. All games are on free to play and you just have fun playing for three days.

You can see my Midwest Gaming Expo 2015 write up here (with pics).

The pin selection at this show has always been pretty fantastic. And this year seems pretty exciting. On Pinside they're talking about doing a rare pin challenge to get people to bring their rarest pins to the show. So this may be a chance to play some really oddball or unknown pins you wouldn't be able to play elsewhere.

This show also has the Tom Taylor tour where on Friday you go to a warehouse that has like 200+ EM pinball machines on free to play and you just play for hours. It was sorely missed last year when Tom couldn't schedule it to be available during the expo but sounds like its back again this year.

 

[jaredmorgs]

Sounds awesome!

 

[FrankenBall]

I was there last year. It IS awesome. I went Saturday afternoon and it was amazing. Row upon row, rank upon rank of pins and coin-op style cabinet video games; all on free play for the price of admission to the show. I'm a Solid State guy so I'm going to make sure I show up Friday night this year while all the EM guys are in Tom's Warehouse. Machines kept with loving care are brought out for us to all play. You can feel the love in the room for the game. Saturday afternoon is a busy time, so I'm going to take the whole weekend off this time instead of being there only during one of the peak player attendance periods. I don't know how the hotel is as far as staying in it from a customer point of view, but it hosts the show well. I will definitely be registering for the whole weekend. I'm lucky enough to live in a pinball heavy area within a very short drive of Brookfield.

 

[Adultery]

I'm going for sure! Thanks for the tip. I live about 45 mins away and never heard of it before this thread.
Went to Galloping Ghost this year and was bummed there were only a few pins... This sounds like a dream!

 

[DaPinballWizard]

Cool. On my calendar now.

 

[FrankenBall]

Just two more weekends until the MGC! Who else on this board is going? I've been there, and you WILL get your money's worth in entertainment at this show. I'll be posting reviews, and maybe pics (I have a dimphone, tiny camera.) I might borrow a piece of the GF's tech for camera purposes.

 

[wolfson]

bloody hell I`m drooling,everyone that goes enjoy yourselves !!!!

 

[Crawley]

So this happened this weekend. I've gone to this the last four years. While each year has been fantastic this year was way up there. There's always new stuff on hand each year but this year there seemed to be a lot of new pins and video games and other fun stuff I hadn't seen in the past. Plus it wasn't quite as crowded as it had been the last few years which meant less waiting on machines.

So lets get this started.



Thanks to Macro Specialties two Ghostbusters were on hand. This helped so much on cutting down on the wait times to play.

I got to play 1 1/4 games of it. Was playing with a group of 3 others and 2 of them had to leave on the third ball. So me and the other guy got to play an extra ball - nice! The table is so fast. You have the pretty large open center area allowing the ball to pick up lots of speed coming off the flippers. The only breathers I could find were a second or two shooting the ramps or multiball - which I think was a 4-ball mutliball. The lightshow on the table is really nice too. The only part I don't like is the red DMD that Stern is using with their tables.

One really nice surprise was that there were headphones plugged in to the machine. I put those on at the suggestion of one of the people I was playing with and wow! You not only hear the regular table sounds/callouts but new music that does not play over the table speakers. It actually added quite a bit to the experience so kudos for Macro Specialties to supplying headphones.

You can see the new Spiderman table next to one of the GB's. This is the revision that has the comic graphics. The table does look fantastic. I hadn't played Spiderman in quite awhile so unfortunately my game was over pretty quickly. So I didn't get any good sense of the new modes nor could I hear the new callouts over the arcade halls noise. But like I said that table looks fantastic.



Oh yeah Game of Thrones - Premium Edition. When the arcade hall opened on Saturday I made a beeline right to this machine. No one was playing it yet, think everyone went straight to Ghost Busters, so that worked out great. Got in two games before anyone was waiting.

This table is great. It's quick, lots of nice toys, real nice DMD animations. I had a blast playing it. I really hope this is one of the tables to make it to the Stern Pinball Arcade app first.

Also in that row is a Checkpoint. I've never gotten to play that one before. It took me awhile to figure out how to start the game. Usually you press a button on the coin door but I couldn't find one. Finally my hand hit something while mauling the coin door and it was a key. So I turned it, heard a revving noise, and was playing.

The Data East tables really have a different flipper feel to them and it takes a bit getting use to. I played the machine a few times but could not for the life of me hit anything I was aiming for. The ramps seemed super right and I would be off enough to hit the post next to the ramp each time. And when I went for the drop down targets on the left my aim would totally be off. So it just wasn't happening with this table and after two tries I walked away defeated.



Also got to play The Hobbit for the first time. Not sure which company brought the 2 Hobbits and WoZ but the bringing at least two popular machines really helps so much on the wait.

The scoring on the JPP machines are odd. Most tables you'll get a million for doing anything. But the JPP machines point awards are pretty low. So while I did get to play for awhile my score was like 6 million and something I think - which seems low but think was ok for initial time playing. The table is pretty neat but no idea what I was doing. The table has targets that pop out of the table (ala Cactus Canyon) which I love - Ghost Busters also has this too BTW. I managed to start the multiball which went on for awhile. Then after it ended another one started up - no idea how but it was a nice 3-4 minutes of multiball play which a nice lightshow.

The problem with the backglass being a monitor is that I can never find the time to look up to see what's going on while playing. So I know there were cues to hit a button that's above the apron but I just can't take my eyes away long enough to see the prompts.

But yeah I had fun with the table. It seems pretty solid.



Tucked in one of the side rooms was a Full Throttle. This is from another newish pinball manufacturer Heighway Pinball. I've had the opportunity to see and play this table as they were developing it as they've been making a stop of the Chicago Pinball Expo each year. I don't think this is still 100% complete code but pretty damn close.

Like the JPP tables the backglass is an LCD screen showing the game info. But they also have an LCD screen built into the table itself. It looks like it shows the same information more convent for playing and not having to look up. And this is another fast table where you don't want to take your eyes off the table.

There is a crazy amount of ramps/habit trails on this table. You can pretty much shoot anywhere and you'll be heading up a ramp or going around a loop.

For a new pinball company the quality of the machine is really nice and has been since the get go. Flippers feel great and the only new thing I've seen added that looks kinda cheap is the Francisco Valentino toy. Other than that though this company has really done a great job creating a table. I look forward to seeing what they do with the Alien franchise.

At the show the table was there for charity so $1 a play. I got to play two games and came away with a pretty positive impression.

More pics to come later.

 

[Crawley]

So this was a unique arcade game at the Expo. Ice Cold Kong is a one-up home-brew Donkey Kong themed game. Although it doesn't really have much to do Donkey Kong.

You have two joystick levers you can move up/down. They control a platform where a ball is resting. You basically tilt the platform to roll the ball along it. The goal is to get the ball in the Star holes.

The first two stars are easy but for the life of me I couldn't get it in the 3rd Star. It would keep rolling in to the out holes.

I'm not sure what it had to do with Donkey Kong but was kinda fun. Was selling for $2400.



Holy LED lighting!

This is the nicest looking Vector I've seen. When the lights were turned off in the arcade hall this game shined. It was also extremely well maintained - like new.

This game is actually pretty neat and I think would make a decent addition to TPA for a solid state title. This game is all about the drop down targets. To get to the ball lock you have to knock down 3 drop down targets that are blocking the lane. But even if you knock those down the opposing team can set up a defense and 3 more pop-up targets will block the ramp. There's a mini-playfield in the center of table with a single flipper. And it looks like it's either 3 or 4 ball multiball if you can lock all the balls - I was unable to. The call outs are really good for this table too.

But beautiful table whomever brought that.



Speaking of beautiful tables this Genesis also was looking great.

The gaudy purple ramps were replaced with clear ones. And some additional lighting was put in to make this table look stunning.

But it's Genesis. Basically hitting all the ramp or lane shots to build the robot. Not much too it.



Hey I know this game!

I've never gotten to play Red & Ted live before. So it was nice going at knowing the rules for it right off that bat - helped me in getting a high score.

I have to say all the machines this year were in good or great condition and this one no exception. Typically you'll get a fair amount of people bringing in beat up machines just to get free entry in to the Expo. But this year I can't think of one beat to hell machine that was sitting on the floor. People actually fixed up what they brought in. My hats off to them.

You can see the NBA Fastbreak to the left of the machine. There were actually 2 Fastbreaks at the show. Although sadly not linked for 2-player simultaneous play.

 

[Crawley]

So here's what could have been.

This is the Nintendo / Sony PlayStation prototype console. The two companies were all partnered up until Sony wanted some licensing Nintendo didn't agree with. So they split. Nintendo went on to make the N64 and Sony their own PlayStation.

You can read a bit about it on Engadget here.

Unfortunately it was just behind glass but pretty neat to see a little bit of console history like that in person.



In one of the side rooms Galloping Ghost set up their own mini-arcade. I found the arcade version of the Judge Dredd pinball table. And right across for it was this arcade version of a pinball table...



Ok. So just in name only. But I did play both of them.

 

[Crawley]

Back to the pinball.

One of the things they were trying to do this year was get a bunch of rare games on hand. Zaccaria's Spooky certainly fits that since there likely are not too many of these in the US. There were a few other Zacc's on hand including Time Machine, Devil Riders, and Mystery Castle.

I knew the game from the Zaccaria Pinball app but man I was just draining like crazy each time I played it. Was neat to actually play it in real life.

Can see Mousin Around there too that I gave a shot too but was another drain fest.



Rob Zombie's Spookshow was also there. This is from Spooky Pinball that also make America's Most Haunted - which was actually to the right of the Domino's table.

The table quality from Spooky pinball is not quite up to par with Stern, JPP or even Heighway pinball but you're also paying a few thousand less for them. The DMD animation and callouts have really improved over America's Most Haunted. But the gameplay is pretty boring. There was just no thrill in playing it.

Interesting enough this game was initially called Pinball Zombies. At the 2013 Midwest Gaming Classic they initially showed off the backglass and cabinet art which I got a shot of here:



The insides are actually of America's Most Haunted which they were currently working on at the time.

Then at the 2014 MGC show when they were completing America's Most Haunted they also had a prototype of Pinball Zombies you could play. I took this shot and you can see the layout in Spookshow hasn't changed much:



So it was neat to see the evolution of that table during the last 3 years of the show.

And although the artwork on Spookshow is neat I really liked the Pinball Zombies artwork quite a bit too.

 

[Snorzel]

Thanks for sharing, great pics and write up

 

[Crawley]

A few more items that are worth mentioning from the show.



This is one you don't see too often - Al's Garage Band Goes on Tour. This one has a pretty neat theme and is generally a pretty ok table. The one neat thing about the table are the flipper buttons which kinda vibrate or pulse as you play. If A.G Soccer makes in to TPA then this could be a possibility too. Although would push towards Mystery Castle as a second Al G table as that one is a bit more fun.



VP Cabs had their usual setup outside the arcade hall again this year. They basically bring every version of their virtual cabinets to the show. But this vertical cabinet, aptly named The Vertigo, is a new one.

I unfortunately didn't take a moment check it out but there seemed to be people on the two they brought to the show. I did play on their Mini cabinet (to the left) which I do like. Which they were showing off the newer VPX tables than then VP9 ones but still kinda fun.



Galloping Ghost brought their Beavis & Butthead arcade game. This one is a rarity as the game was never completed so never made it out of the prototype stage. So a pretty rare game to bring to an Expo for play. You can read a recent write-up on the history of the game on Polygon here.

Next to the game is another super rare one - Primal Rage II. This also never made it out of the prototype stage and was playable here. Was really surprised to see it this year. They had brought it last year but then someone spilled a drink all over it and broke it. Glad to see they were able to repair and getting it running again. And to bring it a second year in the row after that - balsy.



Another oddity. A cocktail style pinball machine.

I've seen these at shows but they're never plugged in. So was pleasantly surprised to find this one working and playable. It's a pretty slow table and simplistic in the gameplay. But can see it would be kinda cool to play and have your drink and pretzels sitting on the table there while playing. Definitely screams 70's.

 

[Crawley]

The Tom Taylor tour made it's return after an hiatus from last year. This is a Friday event that's done off site and all money for it goes to charity. Tom opens up his warehouse (behind one of these doors) of about 200 pinball machines to those that donate for a few hours.

Tom has definitely been fixing up his machines since the last time the event occurred. 95% of the tables are EMs or early SS and were a bit beat up the last time I went. But this year a lot of the tables had gotten some TLC and played much better.

Plus some new tables on hand...



Whoah a Capcom Airborne!

I've never actually seen one before and was always curious as I've loved the other Capcom tables. The table looks crazy as there are a crazy number of habit trails that really make this table look both ugly and fun. And it is a pretty fun table. To make it on to habit trails in the center you shoot the ball to the ramp in the back and then hit the right flipper button which causes the wall in the back of the table to push the ball in to the 3 habit trails in the center of the table. So you have to have your timing right. The DMD animation is really good - which is par for the course for Capcom tables. And some nice callouts.

I had thought this game was more in like with F14 being a jet combat game. But after playing it I quickly found out it's more of a jet competition game. Flying in formation, going to different countries to compete, performing stunts. Kinda a neat take.

BBB, Breakshot, and Pinball Magic are still my most wanted to make it in to TPA but wouldn't sniff at this one either. Had a lot of fun playing it.

Now next to Airborne is Hyperball. This is Steve Richie's idea of taking pinball in another direction. I've played it each time I've gone to Tom's but it never clicked until this time. Basically it's Space Invaders in pinball form.

You control a cannon that fires out little balls on the table. You can really fire them machine gun fast but if you do you'll find yourself unable to fire until the balls roll back down and reload. What you are firing at our these lightning bolts that light up along either side of the table and climb towards the center of the table. Once they get to the center of the table they can fire back at you. If you don't destroy them or the bolts they shoot at you you'll lose a life.

So it plays kinda like an arcade game but in a pinball setting.



A Super Mario Mushroom World.

I've seen these before but never actually played one till now. This is the ticket redemption Mario pinball table and is a half-size table. There's a second full-size Super Mario Brothers table as well.

Very difficult to play this table for me as I'm tall and this thing was so short. But I managed game. I wasn't too taken by it as it seemed the ball always wound up in the Mario or Luigi holes that are right above the flippers - and it didn't do anything but hold the ball for a second and kick it out.

I did not win any tickets when my game completed.



Tom also had Whoa Nellie on hand.

I dunno. I really like this table. I've played it at other shows and its one I keep going back to play and no exception here either. It's a modern take on an EM and while it seems so simple the game is a bit challenging making the shots but so so fun to play. If you see one in the wild recommend checking it out. It's just pure pinball goodness.

 

[Crawley]

These four tables (right-to-left) are rolldown games with a baseball theme. These are crazy fun.

You basically press a button or pull a lever to shoot a ball out of the center of the table towards you. Then you pull a lever (or press a button) to swing a bat that serves as your flipper. You're aiming for specific sections at the top of the table which will give you either a Single, Double, Triple, or Out. If you miss all those then it's a strike. Then there is usually a ramp (or two) that if you hit the ball up there will give you a home run.

This first table on the right Pinch-Hitter was great. If you got a man on base the runner would appear in the backbox and go to his base.

I kinda fell in love with these and played each of them a lot. Getting a home run was rare so fist pumps were delivered when I managed to get them

There is also a golf version of this rolldown game which he had there too and that was a hell of a lot of fun too.



Suspense has got to have some of the oddest artwork for a table. It looks so amateurish but at the same time really stood out and I kinda liked it too.

The table layout is pretty odd too. So I'll post a picture here:



As you can see the flippers are so wide apart. Then you have this center spinner ala Tee'd Off. But what you probably didn't notice were the two red flippers that are right above the spinner.

So you can actually hold the ball there if you need to and aim shots. But the red flippers fire off opposite to the button you are pressing so it takes a bit getting use to.

Just a very odd table overall.



These two SS tables I never played before are pretty good. In particular Super Spin.

Plenty of targets to shoot for on the Super Spin and play is fast. It's definitely a skill based machine to keep the ball alive, build your bonus and hit your targets. It's also fast so the bings and bells are constantly firing off - love it.

 

[k88dad]

Plenty of targets to shoot for on the Super Spin and play is fast. It's definitely a skill based machine to keep the ball alive, build your bonus and hit your targets. It's also fast so the bings and bells are constantly firing off - love it.

I used to play quite a bit on a Jet Spin (the 4-player version) back in the early '80s. That Roto-target in the upper left could give you a special, but getting the star in the center of the target was rare, and it was a long shot from the flippers.