Midwest Gaming Classic

brakel

brakel

New member
Apr 27, 2012
2,305
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I'm going to the Midwest Gaming Classic with my wife on Saturday. Has anyone here been to this before? My wife has to work Saturday night in Chicago so we'll probably only spend 2 or 3 hours there but I wanted a chance to see FarSight's booth and see TPA in 3D and then play some real tables for a couple of hours. I'm sure I'll leave wishing I could spend the whole day there. If its a good time I'll have to plan better for next year.
 
Jeff Strong

Jeff Strong

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 19, 2012
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I've never been, but I do live in WI now. Unfortunately, I can't make it this year. Be sure to let us know how it goes.
 
N

neilpinbot

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Apr 4, 2012
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brakel said:
I'm going to the Midwest Gaming Classic with my wife on Saturday. Has anyone here been to this before? My wife has to work Saturday night in Chicago so we'll probably only spend 2 or 3 hours there but I wanted a chance to see FarSight's booth and see TPA in 3D and then play some real tables for a couple of hours. I'm sure I'll leave wishing I could spend the whole day there. If its a good time I'll have to plan better for next year.
Click to expand...

A few pictures with your mobile would be welcome if you get chance.
 
brakel

brakel

New member
Apr 27, 2012
2,305
1
We had a great time today at the MGC. I'm too tired tonight to make a post covering the whole show but I'd like to tell you about FarSight's booth. They had a table in the long hallway between the main part of the show and the smaller vendors in the individual first floor guest rooms. They had two PS3s setup. One dev unit playing TPA in 3D and another regular PS3 just playing regular TPA. I played a game of AFM in 3D and I was very impressed. Scott from FarSight said that it was still a work in progress but it looked to me like it was ready for release. I asked when they would roll out the 3D feature and he said it would be either at the same time as the Space Shuttle pack (hint, hint) or the next update after Shuttle. There would be no extra charge for 3D and it would be an update to the main game that would apply to all tables.

They just received their dev PS4 and they say its a sweet system. They are all looking forward to getting TPA running on it.

We started talking about bugs and features I asked if the latest PS3 update included improved flipper physics in the form of flipper friction. Scott hadn't heard of that. I'm starting to think that I'm imagining new flipper friction. Anyway, he did volunteer that the guy who is working on flipper lag just in the last week or so believes that he has discovered the cause of the lag and more importantly has a fix. They should be able to roll this out shortly but it will be a while before we see it because of the Sony approval delay and that game updates are submitted with when they add new tables.

Pretty much every bug I mentioned he acknowledged and said that it is on their list. He did say that they'd love to fix everything right away but there's only so much time. But they really do know the product inside and out and they know everything that is wrong with it.

I think I hit every inch of the show and I'll post more on that tomorrow. I also took plenty of pics. It was dark so I had to shoot at 1600 ISO. Hopefully some turned out!
 
karl

karl

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May 10, 2012
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Thanks for the report brakel. PS! The Trilogy tap would be a sweet add on to any machine in a bar. What a crazy and great idea that is :cool:
 
brakel

brakel

New member
Apr 27, 2012
2,305
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Here's my overview of the whole show. A little background first. I have been running very large disc golf events for about twenty years and part of my job was handling the infrastructure of the events. Registration, check-in, awards, etc. So sometimes I see those things at other events with an eye on how they can be improved. Also I have a muscle and soft tissue disease that leaves me a little less able to stand in one place for too long and sometimes I walk with a cane. Saturday was one of those days. I don't have a handicapped placard for my car because I'm able to walk ok with my cane. My wife and I have never been to a pinball show or game convention before but prior life experience told us to not arrive at 10am when the doors would open as I wouldn't be able to stand in line for that long. We timed our 1.5 hour drive to arrive at 10:15am. The Sheraton parking lot was 99% full but there was plenty of overflow parking at the mall that was immediately adjacent. We found a spot in the last row of hotel parking. I didn't want to wear my jacket inside the show and my wife and I both left our jackets in the car. My wife ran through the 35°F weather to the big MGC Main Entrance sign while I followed taking a more leisurely pace. Once we were both inside we found out that this was the entrance only for people that did not pre-purchase tickets online. The check-in table was on the other side of the hotel and we started to make our way over there.

Arriving at the check-in table we found the line with only 10 or so people in it. Check-in was quick and the people at check-in were already being relieved after having survived the opening rush. I thought that was great planning. After check-in my wife Becky and I headed directly to the Pinball Hall as that was our feature destination. The Pinball Hall was in a typical hotel conference/banquet hall. The walkways of the hall were laid out like a capital letter E with the long part along the back wall and entrances at the ends of the arms of the E at the top and bottom with the middle arm ending in an emergency exit/show worker access. Tables were setup against the side and back walls plus back to back up and down the middle arm of the E. I'm guessing that there were 4 rows of 8 machines back to back in the middle. 10 machines on each of the side walls and at least 20 machines against the back wall. That makes more than 70 machines in the room. When we got there I'd say that there were at least 120 people in the room. There really wasn't ever a machine that was not in use but you didn't have to wait very long to get on the next table. I mostly played TPA and PHoF tables both to compare to the digital versions and because I know the rules. I really sucked playing pinball while I was there! I played Fun House and quickly drained the first two balls and never got much going on the third. Becky got 2 million points on her first ball. The whole day was like that. But bad pinball play is still playing pinball! One disappointment I had was in pin selection. They had a handful or two of what I would consider top tier pinball machines. Machines that would make the top 100 on most lists. However, after those few top tier machines I found myself playing such titles as Sword Fun, Pinball Mauler, Pinball Fun, etc. Nothing wrong with them but I would have rather played some T2 or Comet or one of countless machines that I had heard of but were not there.

Despite the table selection time flew by and I needed a break. Becky stayed behind to play more pins while I looked at more of the show. I had my first glimpse of Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz. It looks really nice. The line to play it though was about twenty people deep so I took a few pics and moved along. It was at this time that I talked to the FarSight guys for 30 minutes or so. After that I moved onto the small vendors in the individual guest rooms at the end of the hallway on the first floor. I should mention at this time that the show was in a 1970s era Sheraton that didn't seem to have been updated since it was built. Its got to be a truly funky place to stay but it added something to a retro style game show. The small vendors were made up mostly of vendors selling pinball parts and others playing computer games I'd never heard of before. And some Amiga and other vintage system gamers.

Becky caught up with me at this point. She had played pinball for another hour and was looking for a place to wash her hands. "Sticky buttons" is always a hazard of playing pinball in the wild! We took a break at the Sheraton restaurant. The staff were so in the weeds that we sat there for half an hour and no one ever noticed us. This was fine with us because we just wanted to sit for a while.

Next we went to the basement that had about 20 retro arcade cabinet games and a few vendors. I bought a Galaga clock for our first floor bathroom. We then went through the large vendor room. Most vendors there were selling cartridge games and other used console games. There were a few vendors selling table top all-in-one retro arcade mini cabinets that play 20-100 arcade games. There was one woman selling "designer" extensions for Atari one button joy sticks and hand carved wood magic wands.

That pretty much covers the show. If we had been able to arrange this around Becky's schedule we probably would have driven somewhere to have a nice meal and then go back for more pinball. But Becky needed to get home to sneak in a nap before her 12 hour shift at the hospital where she works.

Pictures to follow as soon as I have time.
 
brakel

brakel

New member
Apr 27, 2012
2,305
1
Fungi said:
Ooh, I wanna see the Galaga clock you bought.
Click to expand...

I'll take a pic of it. It might be Galaxian. I would have to look them up to tell the difference.

The clock is cool but its simple. The clock was a Target brand. The guy that sells them buys clocks on sale and opens them up and puts in his own gaming inserts that he makes. Simple but effective.
 

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