This April, I grabbed an Amtrak train from a small Illinois town and headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The reason? To visit the 2024 Midwest Gaming Classic at the Baird Center in Downtown Milwaukee. It’s an annual trade show that celebrates gaming in all its forms with vendors selling used games and cool merchandise, free to play retro arcade games, a plethora of free to play pinball machines, live music, talks and panels, a gaming museum filled with consoles and computers from every era of computing, a board game room, and a bunch of really, really cool people–even some video game celebrities have been known to attend the event!
Getting my Wristbands and Dankey Kang
I walked into the lobby of the Baird Center after checking into my hotel, and was greeted by a massive, inflatable, purple gorilla with a barrel over its head, hulking over the entrance (see picture below.) This is the convention mascot, “Dankey Kang,” the origin story of I’d love to know if anybody can tell me. I know it has something to do with a Jeopardy meme now, but how on Earth it ended up as the Midwest Gaming Classic mascot would be funnier than anything I could probably come up with.
I had my reservations printed out, because I’m old school like that, but you can also use your phone and show them the email. Highly recommended if you don’t want to wait in line. You get a separate wristband for each individual day. Friday night is a preview night where you can go in and see a show and check out the game hall. Saturday is the main day, and Sunday is family day–the cheapest of all. I paid about $105 total for all three days,
First Impressions of the Midwest Gaming Classic
So the first thing I did was watch the showcase before the game hall opened. This was pretty cool. It was basically just like a welcoming and commencement of the convention. You can see some of this in my YouTube video of the convention. The first musician playing was a brilliant guitarist named Brian Koenig. He basically does these sweeping electric guitar solos of classic games like Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Zelda, and that kind of thing. I really loved it. We also had a little talk from John Riggs, who I guess is a regular at the event and also happens to be a pretty well known YouTube gamer. It was obvious right off the bat that this was a retro gaming focused convention, and although I’m still new to retro games, I definitely have an appreciation for this.
As we waited, I eyed around the outer floors anxious to see what was going on, trying to gauge if this was going to be what I’d hoped it would be. I still couldn’t tell honestly. But then when the game hall doors opened…
These pictures really don’t do it justice, because it was crazy in here both days I stayed for the event. There were pinball machines everywhere, old retro consoles, gamers chatting, small museum exhibits, and music on the overhead speakers that really set the vibe. It really was massive in there, a great venue for this kind of event. Some of the technicians were still configuring the machines or setting up cables. I checked out the pinball machines first and played some Ghostbusters. I think I played it a bit too hard, because it malfunctioned immediately, and I had to move on. I know how finnicky those machines can be, so it wasn’t a total shocker.
There were probably a hundred pinball machines to choose from. They had your classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Addams Family, The Simpsons… They had new games like the Jaws pinball which was super hyped at the convention with probably 8 machines. They had really old ones that were probably from the 50s but still totally playable if you’re into that, and then there were a bunch of homebrew games like Cuphead which was so cool I had to say I thought so to the owner.
I really wanted to stay all night, which apparently is an option on preview night, but I was beat after grabbing a 7 AM train! So, I called it a night and went back to my hotel room where I watched the sunset over Milwaukee out my window and got ready for day two
Day Two and the Vendor Hall
Day two was hecka fun. The vendor hall was open, and I made sure to get over there right away. It was actually still closed when I got there, but then the doors opened up and I got to see it in all its glory. What you get to explore when you go in is a massive room of all kinds of cool gaming merchandise, as well as many diverse sounds and smells–the latter being mostly that intoxicating retro plastic smell. Hard to describe but once you smell it, you’ll always remember the Midwest Gaming Classic with it. (60% of the time, works every time!)
As I strolled in, I walked by a really cool replica Ecto 1 Ghostbusters vehicle created by a local Ghostbusters fan group. I took a photo of this, which you can see below. There were a bunch of these vehicles throughout the vendor hall; a Batmobile, a Jurassic Park Jeep, the Knight Rider car, and even a Wayne’s World car. And the vendors were awesome. They had everything there. Old games, some of which could be had for a serious bargain, lots of fan based merch like oversized Nintendo cartridges, of course all your accessories and systems, tons of fan clothes, plush, anime stuff, fantasy stuff, lots of swords (there was an unusually massive amount of swords in there), lots of replicas, collector cards were going gangbusters all over the place, and there was a whole row just dedicated to art.
And some of the stuff you’d find there was exquisitely rare, like super old gaming systems or limited release versions. And you could really pick what kind of system you wanted to buy for whether it was Nintendo, Sega, Atari, or even the PlayStation Vita, it was all there. You could even by CRT TVs there, which I highly recommend for playing your old games. Personally, I got mine at an estate sale for $5, but you never know what they might have.
There were also a bunch of other things in the vendor hall. Probably the most notable of which was a FULL sized wrestling ring with live wrestlers! This was totally wild to me. I’m not really a super big wrestling fan, but I thought this was pretty cool, and a lot of people seemed to be really into it. There’s a whole section of breweries offering your favorite adult beverages on tap to fuel the frenzy (this is Milwaukee after all), or other food options like coffee, smoothies, pizza, and Chinese food for the whole family. I got a really good coffee frappe at one of these places. One side of the wall had a seating area where you could watch panels of guest speakers talk about retro gaming or modding systems or whatever.
More of Day Two at the 2024 Midwest Gaming Classic, Back in the Game Hall
Of course, I had to go back to the game hall. And by the way, I’m not totally sure it’s called the game hall. I know the vendor hall is called as such, but I honestly can’t remember what it was called. If somebody knows, leave me a comment or send me an email. Anyway, the “game hall” was totally popping the next day. There. were. people. everywhere. It was nuts. And the energy was super high. I was really starting to feel like I was part of something big at this convention. I just floated around most of the day playing games. Just anything that looked interesting, I would try. I even tried some of the consoles, and it was one of the reasons I ended up getting a CRT for myself back home because it was just so fun to play a game on one of these old TVs.
I wandered around the convention center a bit more liberally this time, just exploring every nook and cranny of the building, which was chock full of stuff. It seemed every time I turned a corner there was a new room full of arcade cabinets, a floor with people fighting with lightsabers, a room with people playing tabletop board games, a LARP room, a jukebox that plays retro game classics, or just anything you can really think of that would be fun at a gaming convention. I really loved it. There was one room with a bunch of custom made portable versions of popular consoles like the Nintendo 64 or the Xbox 360. They had a playable Game Boy Advance as big as a table that was a real hit. I got lost at one point and asked a volunteer who looked like Macho Man Randy Savage where the World of Nintendo was. I never really did find it. In retrospect, I watched some videos and was able to track it down based on the clues in the video, but the convention was literally so big that I didn’t see all of it.
So, after much game playing, taking video and photos, eating at the 3rd St. Market Hall down the road (which is an indoor food court that has excellent dining options and energy), and eventually wrapping up my trip to the Midwest Gaming Classic, I got back on the train and headed home.
Getting to the 2024 Midwest gaming classic
There are quite a few ways you can actually get to the Midwest Gaming Classic. You can fly, drive, or take the train. Heck, I think you could probably even take a boat, because it’s literally right next to Lake Michigan. I opted for train travel as I mentioned earlier. And this is pretty convenient, since the Milwaukee Intermodal Station is literally three blocks from the convention center!
I really recommend train travel to the convention if you’re coming anywhere from the Midwest, because it goes most places in the vicinity and it’s extremely affordable compared to air travel, plus you don’t have to pay for parking. The train had purchasable food and beverages and the new seats are actually quite comfortable. There were even a couple of guys behind me headed to the convention and we talked about pinball for a while.
Overall Thoughts and Retrospect (Plus Next Year)
The Midwest Gaming Classic is awesome. If you like games, retro or otherwise, you have to check out this convention. You don’t really have to be from the Midwest to go, because this is a convention for everybody. Heck, you don’t even have to really like games that much, because there’s just so much to do that it’s a great time whether you’re traveling by yourself, with friends, family, a partner, or just passing through town.
I can’t really pinpoint one thing about it that I liked alone, because there were so many great aspects. The organizers really created something special here, and it looks like they’ll be running this event for the foreseeable future. I ended up buying a bunch of merch too! Wow, if you’re going to this convention, be prepared to bring some cash, because you’ll probably want some of the cool stuff they have there. And there were so many nice people at the convention–it was very very civilized. I talked with one gentleman about his indie arcade cabinets for a while and he was just so nice and even shook my hand. Milwaukee is a stand up town too, and this convention is a kickin’ good time. Change whatever your plans for April are and head to the Midwest Gaming Classic! I had so much fun going to this, and I’d love to attend again.
