Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) is a gaming convention and trade show that features over 200,000 square feet of free-to-play retro and modern home video game consoles, pinball machines, arcade games, trading card games, tabletop board games and role-playing games.
MGC was started as Jagfest 2001, which was a festival dedicated to the Atari Jaguar. In 2001, they decided to open up the festival to all consoles to expand their audience and be more inclusive. Most of the consoles were free to play for every attendant. They also started a gaming museum with retro consoles where people could learn about the history of gaming. The first year had 20 games available to play, and by 2015 it had grown to over 1,000 games. As the event has grown, they have changed venues several times to accommodate the size of the convention. It has been hosted at the PieperPower Center, Nicolet High School, Brookfield Sheraton, The Olympia, and the Wisconsin Center where it has been held since 2018. As of this year, they are hosting thousands of free-to-play games, and have expanded the convention to cater to anime, cosplay and toy collecting communities.
When you walk in, you are greeted by a 40-foot inflatable gorilla named Kang, who is the mascot for MGC. Next you’ll see Artist Alley where you can buy local and professional artwork. We went to the vendor hall first, where you can find all sorts of gaming, anime, and vintage toy memorabilia. The main reason I go to this convention every year is the great deals you can find on vintage gaming memorabilia. We visited several vintage gaming booths including SayWerd, a local collectibles shop near UWM. We ended up getting a good deal on a Nintendo Switch, a large anime figure, and a modern Nintendo DS with several-hundred games preloaded on the console. We also visited a couple of the homemade craft booths, and bought some crochet dinosaurs that were adorable.
The food options were better than previous years. We got to choose between Chinese food, pizza, and American cuisine. The only drink choice they offered was Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda Pop Company, which had 6 different soda flavors. But they only sell free-refill cups for $35, and you can’t use the same cup from last year. However, there are vending machines at the entrance of the convention.
After lunch we went to the game room, which had thousands of free-to-play video games and tabletop games, a comprehensive gaming museum and a pop culture car show with the Mystery Machine, Batmobile and the DeLorean among other cars. The gaming museum was more aesthetic than other years, with retro furniture and lighting displays that immersed you in the time those consoles were released. There were also two new areas of the game room that featured indie games and rare Japanese arcade games. Several of the arcade games and pinball machines were also up for auction, to be picked up after the convention. But by far, the coolest part of the game room was the Galactic Tank Force, which was a remote-controlled tank-shaped pinball machine driving around the game room.
Besides buying and playing games, you can watch many events including live podcasts, comedy shows and presentations. The majority of the events were free to watch, but some were prepaid. Brew City Wrestling put on several wrestling matches in the middle of the vendor hall. MGC also featured 120 guest speakers and industry professionals including Comic Book Artist Archie Cunningham, Street Chess Icon Tou Deih, Creator of Q*Bert Jeff Lee and Ghostbusters Star Ernie Hudson. There were educational and inclusive panels on Becoming a Youtuber, Gamers who Happen to be Women and The Video Game History Foundation. There were also entertainment panels on Animaniacs and a new Foo Fighters-themed pinball machine that you could also play for free in the game room.
MGC also featured many different music styles from jazz to pop-punk, metal, DJs and of course 16-bit music. There were also several instruments featured by Identical Twin Harpists Camille and Kennerly Kitt, Super Guitar Bros. and Marimba One Educational Artist Mike Neumeyer.
MGC also hosts many group events and tournaments. Some of the tournaments they held this year were 10-player Bomberman Battle Royale, Brick Battle Royale, Magnetag, TCG Tournaments, CATAN, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Crazy Taxi, Pinball, NES World Series, Super Monkeyball, Tetris and Frogger. They also had a blindfolded Pac-man tournament, which sounds impossible, and Air Hockey Pro Challenge, which pitted Air Hockey World Champions Matt Lemoyne and Brian Niebuhr against each other. There was also a cosplay competition held throughout the weekend with the winner announced on Sunday. Some of the group events people could take part in this year were iMac Quake LAN, Rocket League 2v2, Steel Battalion LAN, Think Quick Escape Room, Discover Dungeons and Dragons, Live-Action-Role-Playing and Pogs.
No matter what gaming or anime fandom you are a part of, MGC will definitely have something for you. The name may suggest that it’s a gaming convention, and while it may have started out that way, it’s so much more than gaming. Many of the events happen on multiple days, so you won’t miss a lot if you only go one day. I’d highly recommend it for anyone who wants to geek out for a whole weekend, learn about gaming history or just play a ton of retro video games.
Sometimes for fun I enjoy firing up some Mario Party on my Nintendo DS. It gets the people going! My grades have increased which I attribute to video games. I will be there!