This is a belated recap. It's being posted after my recap for the 2019 show. As I noted in that one, I took a break from posting stuff on this site due to poor time management. Back in 2016 I took a bunch of pictures from the show but thought I was too busy to post a recap. After skipping one year I didn't take any photos at the 2017 or 2018 shows. So I guess there will always be a gap here. The short version is 2017 was so crowded it was borderline not fun. In 2018 they moved to a much larger location. Then there was a blizzard so crowds were hardly a problem.
Now, it's worth noting that I was exceedingly busy in the spring of 2016. The 2016 Midwest Gaming Classic was about two weeks before a frantic project started. In 20+ years of doing software stuff it had the second longest hours of any project I've been on. It only went on for like 3 months so I've had worse. Still, I could have cranked this out in those two weeks or any of the weeks after that project. Hey, but whatever, it's not like I have some huge audience that was disappointed by this being three years late.
As usual, most of these pictures are terrible. This is why my career as an "influencer" hasn't taken off. Also I vowed to never open an Instragram account after seeing one of the Fyre Festival documentaries. If the people promoting & attending that festival are the types I'm missing out on interacting with, I consider myself grateful. Midwest Gaming Classic people, that's my crowd.
Some 3DO games, they all cost too much but are nice to look at.
Here's how you know it's spring 2016, a spoof Coleco Chameleon prototype.
Here's a close-up view, it's a very great re-creation.
Some Famicom game copiers.
Here are a whole bunch of import PlayStation games.
Import PSP games, first time I recall seeing them here.
There were a lot of import Super Famicom games this year.
A nice boxed Intellivision and various boxed games.
A few LCD games for sale.
I didn't buy any of these but now kinda wish I did.
Some N64 imports, I'd recommend using a GameShark as a pass-through to connect them to a US console.
Boxed NES games, or pretty much the only thing people look at in these galleries.
I like the idea of Sherlock Holmes on the NES better than the implementation.
Perhaps I will be able to retire on my SMS collection afterall.
Just a whole mess of Star Wars stuff.
A couple giant blasters for 32-bit consoles.
Moving over to the museum, here's a giant Atari 5200 trackball.
Various Ataris, which I think is also the name of a hipster band.
A very nice piece of gaming history.
The TurboDuo had an impressive 1:1 fighter library in Japan.
Famicom clone system that sort of looks like a Master System a little.
Atari Flashback modded to have a cartridge port.
Random Mac something-something on display.
The Neo Geo CD system seems like something that should have done better than it did.
The legendary Nintendo PlayStation was on display for the first time here.
A bad picture of the front.
Another Nintendo PlayStation picture.
One final bad picture of this gizmo.
A keyboard system for the NES, for would-be composers.
The guide for the NES keyboard.
The ratio of system height to cartridge height seems totally off with this one.
A semi-portable Tandy 2.
A Splatterhouse-themed TurboGrafx-16.
A TI computer with some uncomfortable joysticks.
The rare Tutor Vision Intellivision variant.
The Atari XE is such a cool looking computer, I wish my computer was in a case like it.
This is the first time I recall seeing a Videobrain at the show.
Now I can't decide if this or the XE looks better.
Gladiators on the Videobrain, which was not bad at all.
The extremely rare Argus prototype.
A really bad deal on a random pinball game.
Another very rare, and very bad, arcade game.
One (of many) pinball games that couldn't be made today.
This was one of my favorite pinball games there.
The artwork on this one is great, it's an older game though so it's unfairly difficult.
The space between the flippers on this one is about 7.2 miles wide.
I don't think kids today have any idea who Flash Gordon is, then again I'm not completely sure myself.
This is one of my favorite arcade games, it's just simple fun.
It's nice to see an authentic old Galaga machine instead of a modern reproduction.
Old-school high score keeping.
A Meteor pinball machine next to a fire exit.
Sorry, I warned you these pictures are largely bad.
Here is one of the only working Primal Rage II cabinets in existence.
Simpsons Pinball Party is better than about 3/4 of Simpsons video games.
A bad picture of Space Station pinball.
I realize it's tough to judge things by modern standards but this art did not age well.
Wizard of Wor, a game I first saw in a dumpy gas station convenience store on a family road trip.
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