Date: 13th - 15th April, 2018 Location: Wisconsin Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53203, USA This weekend is the Midwest Gaming Classic show in downtown Milwaukee, in its new home at the Wisconsin Center at 400 W.Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin Center The show is held on Saturday April 14th and Sunday April 15th, but there was a pre-show ticket available for Friday night, April 13th. A giant greeting sign by the hall entrance Items for sale outside the main hall The show features both video games and pinball machines, an while classic home and arcade video games are a big part of the event, pinball machines seem to be the biggest feature of the show. Almost every new pinball machine title is at the show, plus rows of older pins. A long row of new-in-box Stern games during show set-up (Picture: Gary Flower) Marco Specialties’ pyramid canopy towering over 50 new Stern pins Well over a dozen new Iron Maiden pins available to play KingPin Games had all the Jersey Jack pins to play including the new Pirates of the Caribbean Chicago Gaming remake pins also brought by KingPin Games Some of the new pins from Spooky pinball including Total Nuclear Annihilation and Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle Four Houdini pins at the booth from Pincades Buying a pre-show ticket for Friday night was very nice because the giant third floor hall – where the pins were – was lightly attended. It was easy to play all the new and older pins. I was told that on Saturday the place gets very crowded with gamers. Dirty Donny selling his artwork Some of the 200-plus pinball machines at the show on Friday A greatly-improved translite mod for The Shadow E.T. – one of the many virtual pin titles from Pinball FX Long row of tables with classic home video games There is another hall on the second floor and a vendor hall that is open on Saturday and Sunday. The vendor hall being set up One of the many home video game displays The Saturday show really brought out the game enthusiasts. Excellent security at the event Back to the Future DeLorean car in the vendor hall It was much more crowded than the Friday pre-show, but even with that much larger crowd it was fairly easy to play a desired game. A row of 13 pins with ColorDMDs The fantastic completely custom Hot Rod pin just finished by Jeremy Wilson The second floor of the Wisconsin Center building held 14 smaller rooms of mostly video games. Arcade Legends in DeKalb IL and Galloping Ghost in Brookfield IL each filled a room with games from their arcades. Chicago TV legend Svengoolie stops by the Spooky Pinball booth Rob Anthony’s Pinball Classic room on the second floor of the show The quantity, quality and variety of pins at the MGC was incredible. I look forward to going back next year.
