LARPing, Dirty Back Alley Deals, and a Whole Lotta Pinball: Madness at MGC

The Midwest Gaming Classic is a staple. I’m ashamed to say that it took Nudge this long to attend. And lest we be called shills, MGC very pointedly (and nicely) told me that they don’t do press passes, and no, unfortunately, Nudge was no special exception. No special exception? BUT HAVEN’T THESE PEOPLE TALKED TO MY MOM? 

All that to say: unequivocally, MGC is the most fun I’ve ever had at a convention or expo. Why? The pinball, of course – but the extracurriculars sold me on the whole thing. By the end of the weekend, I’d see a professional wrestler order a smoothie in costume, a back-alley pinball deal involving REAL LIVE pinball celebrities, and well – you’ll see. 

So yeah, MGC didn’t pay us to say this, but damn, MGC. You lit. 

Don’t get it twisted, the pinball rules

Rachel Ristow runs a mean and efficient tournament schedule. They had all the competitive players cordoned off, live-stock style, which led to a festive county fair vibe. Rachel is a helluva player, and it was cool to see her making decisions in the moment, and also stressful. I spent exactly six minutes in the competition section, but in that time someone offered me a free empanada. The spirit of community is truly alive and well in pinball. 

Hella new games

It’s been said several times, by us included, but this is sort of a one-of-a-kind moment in pinball. There were legit five new games premiering – including a Stern cornerstone helmed by Jack Danger. The Foo Fighters seminar was a personal highlight. I especially dug Tanio Klyce’s surprisingly in-depth explanation of the plot, which included an extended section about the Overlord’s childhood obsession with He-Man. It was super dope – and much like Danger’s promotion for this game in general, it featured the whole crew of pinball developers – with everyone encouraged to talk about their roles. 

Maybe it IS because I’m a shill, maybe it’s because I was hyped, maybe it was because it was so easy to smoke a whole joint on a walk around the block before going in – but every single new game felt like a banger to me. 

Godfather? Couldn’t tell you a lick about the rules, but the light show is incredible and the flippers DO feel better than any other JJP I’ve played. It shoots good, and I like the flat-top machine gun guy. I kept getting in line, but I’d get progressively more obnoxious with my Gangsterisms. Badabing, aye yo gabba gabba ghoul. etc.

Pulp Fiction? I mean, I played this game 8 times on Friday night and another two or three on Saturday. It’s 100% my bullshit. Tarantino? David Thiel? Mark Ritchie? I’m dead center in the middle of that unholy Venn diagram. Sheeeesh. I literally couldn’t get enough. When I asked the guy in front of me what the best strategy was, he replied, “It’s basically three multiballs.” And that’s how I played it, and it ruled. There’s probably deeper code, but let’s be real: who cares? It’s the first new game, I’ve really felt FOMO over. Baby’s first FOMO.

Galactic Tank Force? Flowy, kinda jank flipper situation that I mostly chalk up to the fact that these games were played to death in two states a thousand miles apart from each other in under a week. It was, like, surprisingly fun. Everything about this game feels set up for failure, but somehow it’s amazing. I mean that as a compliment. There’s an animation of cows twerking. For real. 

Foo Fighters? Flow city. I held down a Foo Fighters pro with another rando cool dude from Mankato, MN. He was a good player, only slightly weirded out by the giant backpack and the fact that I kept whipping out my old Canon. After four or five games, you really start to appreciate the geometry of these shots. I heard Cale say recently that you can hit combos almost on accident – that’s definitely true. 

The other stuff 

Look, if there’s one thing about expo – it’s that sometimes I wanna mix in a movie or just go swimming. Take a break from pinball, you know? MGC has those offerings on-site. I wandered around a lot this weekend. There was an insane amount of stuff to do. From playing hard-to-find Japanese arcade games to a literal wrestle mania breaking out in the vendor hall, let’s break it down a little.

There was a vintage console pop up in a rando conference room. This was early on Saturday, and you could already tell it was filling up with folks. This was one of my favorite rooms because it also had a buncha homebrew videogames that people put onto NES cartridges. How do they do it? Methinks witchcraft m’lord. But if not witchcraft, then some nerdery at least on par with our own pinball homebrew brethren.

I mean look at this. Super Reddit Bros? Yes please. I can’t even imagine what you do in this game. Is it just Mario and Luigi karma farming and watching bum fights? I don’t care, but it’s limited to 50 copies and costs $125 bucks. That’s another thing: money and time have no meaning at MGC. It’s as if it exists in another economy in another universe. Smoothies are $12, a clutch of rare Sega Genesis games goes for $250 easy. Does that mean I bought a replica Han Solo Blaster for $75? You bet your sweet bippy I did, ya nerf herder.

This was literally next to the smoothie place. You can smell the BO and baby oil. To be honest, these were the nicest, most kind wrestlers in the world. A moment after taking this, one kindly walked up to me and asked if I wouldn’t mind moving, since I was standing directly in the path of where the wrestlers came out. I really appreciated him using words, since I feel l like given the same scenario Macho Man would have just popped my head off like a pez dispenser.

Are you a weeb? Cuz MGC is about as otaku as it gets bro. From these crazy horny Japanese action figures to tons of rare games, to enough vintage Manga shirt stands that it made me feel like I was in a Suncoast Video in 1999. Let’s not get it twisted: as a fan of the genre, I was pumped. Did I pick up a crazy horny japanese action figure? Not this time. Maybe next year will be the year I finally muster the courage to embrace who I truly am.

Rando encounters with fun Pinball people

How many pinball designers can we fit in one pic?

One of the most underrated things about going to a convention is, well, seeing tons of pinball people just out there enjoying life. Folks like Scott Danesi talking shop with Eric Meunier in the homebrew area, or standing behind Jack Danger of Deadflip wasn’t a rare occurrence. And you know what? Unlike other celebrities — these folks are pumped to talk about pinball. For real, me and Tanio spent a good half hour talking about Bay Area pinball spots and it was one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

On Saturday afternoon, I walked back into the convention center (yes after another brisk joint walk) and found Jason of Pinball Party fame on the floor of the convention. He told me that he was about to do a deal with Raymond Davidson to sell his Walking Dead pro, and asked if I’d want to hang out and see it happen. They were loading it into Tanio Klyce’s Rav 4 in like an hour. Watch a back alley pinball deal with 2 Stern employees and a high profile pinball podcaster? Man, TMZ could never.

I like the backdrop of these shots because it makes it seem like this was Watergate-level action happening, when in actuality it was just a pretty standard pinball deal. Enjoy your Walking Dead, RayDay. Godspeed, RayDay.

The hotel attached to the convention center is like RIDICULOUSLY nice. Here’s a pic of Scott Danesi, Sara Rose Danesi, and Gavin (a cool Chicago operator) eating a metric ton of pizza in the bar.

Here’s Sara Rose showing me the Polka Escalator. For real. There’s a button at the bottom and when you press it, it plays polka on the way up. It’s not a game, per say, but it was one of the most entertaining moments of the conference for me.

Also this guy ruled. To be honest, there’s so much that happened that I’m already feeling like we’re doing a mediocre job at coverage, but in the end — just go dude. MGC frickin’ rules. Milwaukee frickin’ rules. This guy rules.