Gaming and Computing Museum
The Classic Gaming and Computer Museum is one of the most exciting, longest running exhibits at the Midwest Gaming Classic! This one-of-a-kind museum contains one of the largest collections of systems from the very early computer & TV systems all the way up to modern systems such as the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii U! Unlike most museums where you can just look but you cannot touch, this museum has almost every console listed available for you to check out and play! Whether it is remembering the fun you had with a Colecovision or an NES when you were younger, or if you want a chance to try out a system that you never got to play like an Atari Jaguar or a Vectrex, the Classic Gaming and Computing Museum allows you to do it all and more!
What Will Be There?
In 2013, the Midwest Gaming Classic Museum will be expanded into even more rooms for the first time since 2010! Each of the at least nine museum rooms are broken up into distinct eras or themes. The Classic Gaming and Computing Museum even includes many additional displays throughout its hallways. Basically, the mantra of this unique ‘wing’ of the show is that if it can fit a gaming device, it probably will!
Here’s what you can expect to find in the Classic Gaming and Computing Museum:
E2M Museum
One half of the museum ‘proper’ along with the Die-Hard Gamer Room, the E2M Museum traces the very origins of gaming and computing up until mid-80’s game consoles like the Atari 7800. Yet the E2M is hardly just about console gaming! The room has a host of early computers running a variety of games including the Commodore PET, early Atari and Apple computers, as well as the Coleco Adam.
The room itself is set up much like an early 80’s arcade, with low-level lighting, neon lights, and even period decorations & music.
Several groups are on hand that make the E2M Museum possible, so if you’re interested in the history of a particular piece or would like some background information on the restoration and perseveration of the many E2M Museum pieces, there’s nearly always someone in the room that can help!
Die-Hard Gamer Room
The second half of the museum ‘proper’ along with the E2M Museum, the Die-Hard Gamer Room covers an extensive era from the NES up until the most recent gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlaStation 3. Play games from a variety of popular genres like multiplayer sports games, single-player platformers, mind-bending puzzlers, competitive racing games, and the best co-op action titles!
The room is set up by game genre, but it still takes its playable museum roots to heart by featuring in-depth presentation behind every console set up, including information on the system itself, the game that is being played, a marquee featuring artwork inspired by the video game, and more!
The Die-Hard Gamer Room is also the location of the popular Friday night Up to Par tournament! This unique multi-platform tournament has gamers competing in several quick challenges to achieve the best score, much like a game of golf. Space is limited, however, and tickets must be pre-ordered!
Modern Game Room
The Modern Game Room features large, multi-system LANs much like the Versus Room once did, but with the twist of only featuring only the current generation of systems and games.
This room will be split up into at least two multi-system LANs featuring games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4 on large HDTVs. When the tournaments begin, however, the room can be transformed into an even larger, room-wide LAN!
Tournaments are set to begin Friday night and participants must pre-register before playing. For more information, please check out the tournament page on this site as more information becomes available!
MGC Fight Club
Based on the popular Saturday-only Die-Hard Gamer exhibit, the fighting arena returns as its own room for 2013! Play some of the latest and certainly some of the greatest fighting games including Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Mortal Kombat ‘9’, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, as well as Saturday or Sunday games including King of Fighters XIII, Persona 4 Arena, Dead or Alive 5, Soul Calibur 5, and more! Best of all, there are no gamepads here, just station after station of arcade sticks for the best in competitive gaming!
The MGC Fight Club will feature several pick-up tournaments that are as easy as grabbing a bracket sheet and getting it signed by an MGC ref for prizes!
Midwest Light Gun Association (MLGA)
Dating back to the early days of electronic entertainment, the light gun has become one of the most oft-copied, most wildly available peripherals for game consoles. In 2013, the Midwest Gaming Classic will feature a room dedicated to the many decades of great light gun games as well as the venerable accessory itself!
The Midwest Light Gun Association is a new room that will feature the history of the light gun as well as the many games that use them. Try games from the Time Crisis series and The House of the Dead series, or play many of the great titles that have appeared over the years including Duck Hunt, Point Blank 2, Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge, Virtua Cop 2, Elemental Gearbolt, and Hogan’s Alley!
The Underdog Chamber
Explore the world of runner-up and never-had-a-chance consoles, and some of the amazing games that were made for them! The Underdog Chamber specializes in the consoles that never had a chance against the juggernauts of their day like the Intellivision, Sega Saturn, Channel F, Odyssey2, and Arcadia 2001.
The room will also feature a return of its popular Quake LAN on at least 8 Macs (no Windows PC’s allowed!), as well as the return of last year’s surprise hit Steel Battalion network running on at least 4 Xbox systems, complete with the game’s iconic giant controllers!
New for 2013, The Underdog Chamber will also feature a selection of Packrat Video Games, the producer of many great Atari 2600 and Odyssey2 video games. The room will even feature a brand new project for the Odyssey2, with more details yet to come…
The Versus Room
The room that is all about big competitive gaming and even bigger multiplayer headcounts!
The Versus Room will be undergoing a change this year. It will continue to be one of the best destinations at the Midwest Gaming Classic for multiplayer gaming, but it will also include more high score challenges and several different video game tournaments to be announced at a later date.
Atari Jaguar Festival
The touring convention makes its latest stop at this year's Midwest Gaming Classic to celebrate Atari's final home console.
The Atari Jaguar Festival, or “Jagfest” for short, is a long-running exhibit featuring several of the Jaguar’s best games like Iron Soldier 2, Battlesphere, Rayman, Super Burnout, Primal Rage, Super Breakout 2000, Raiden, Alien vs. Predator, and more! The area also features several prototype games, new developments like Robinson’s Requiem, videos, and even special rotary controllers for one of the Jaguar’s best games, Tempest 2000.
Nippon Import Group
The Nippon Import Group is a new room that is focused largely on the import games and consoles from overseas that often never made it to North America like the PC-FX, Sharp X68000, SuperGrafx, Panasonic Q, Super A’Can, and more. Sean Orange of the Famicom Dojo will also be on hand to host panels inside the room.
The Most Comprehensive Display Today.. to Play!
The Classic Gaming and Computing Museum is perhaps the most comprehensive display of video game history assembled in the world, and almost everything in the museum displays is playable! This isn't a museum where you have to walk around and not touch anything, you get to see some of the most famous or infamous products for each of the systems presented.
Want to compete? This year, we have expanded our video game tournaments to include events in the popular Versus Room, the all-new MGC Fight Club, and the incredible Modern Game Room so that you can take on others from around the world and prove your gaming skills! We even have some tournaments that begin Friday night like the multi-console Up to Par tournament in the Die-Hard Gamer Room! Whatever you do, don't miss the Classic Gaming and Computing Museum at the Midwest Gaming Classic!
