Midwest Classic 2002 Write Up
The 2002 show took a different approach than the 2001 Atari Jaguar Festival show. The show was still primarily a small gathering of gamers dedicated to their favorite consoles, but the show charted its path for the future. To the not-quite 100 people who showed up for the 2002 Midwest Classic, the event was a small gathering of friends who had met online or in person to play games and consoles that they brought against their fans. The entire event resembled more of a modern "Event within an Event" both in size and attendance, but it laid the groundwork for what would come.
To do a more accurate presentation of the 2002 event, this write up will contain the history of how the Midwest Classic was conceived, as well as a short show report of what the show contained.
A Second Event
After a successful Atari Jaguar Festival in 2001, the organizers put their heads together and decided that "Jagfest" had been so much fun that they would organize another show for 2002. The group offered to host Jagfest again for 2002, but the Jaguar community determined that it was an important part of that show to keep it moving from location to location, so the organizers went back to the drawing board to try to determine what the new show would become.
The group all agreed that part of the fun of Jagfest 2001 was that fans of every system were invited to celebrate what they enjoyed. The subtitle of the 2001 event, "Beyond Tempest" was partially chose to allow fans of all consoles to display what they enjoyed beyond just the Atari Jaguar. The 2001 event had featured such things as Genesis tournaments and rare NES accessories, as well as the first Classic Gaming and Computing Museum, and these events led to the complete expansion to covering all systems in 2002.
Event Focus
There was a big debate over what eras, companies or people that the event should focus on. Should it just be retro systems like the Atari 2600, Colecovision and NES, or should the show open to more modern consoles too? Originally, the thought was that the convention would cover only up until the end of the 2D era, but that changed when talking with a very young video game player about what his favorite game ever was. This gamer claimed that the best game was Sonic Adventure, a game less than two years old at that point.
That conversation directly led to the show encompassing all eras and genres of electronic gaming. The decision was that classic games couldn't be decided anyone but the players of them. It didn't matter if these games were one day old or 75+ years old, determining if a game was a classic was totally up to the gamer. To this day, the Midwest Classic operates on this same philosophy when it comes to determining things at the show.
Naming the Event
After the big debate about what the event was going to feature, the next thing to do was to determine a name for the show. To generate awareness about the new event, the organizers decided to host a competition to come up with a name for the event. Over 75 entries were collected, and in the end the name "Midwest Classic" which was submitted by Ben Heckendorn (who would later become involved with speaking and hosting events at the show) was chosen as the winner because by naming it a "classic" event, the show organizers felt that their definition of "classic" could also apply to what the attendees thought of the gaming event itself -- that it was a "classic" type of show, put on by gamers for gamers.
Laying the Groundwork
The organization team got together and looked at the other gaming events that were held throughout the country. Retro and modern, small and large, focused or broad in scope, the team saw that the majority of events were based around the vendors that attended the show more than anything else. Since the 2001 show had been all about getting together with friends, it was determined early on that instead of trying to base the show around the vendors who would come to sell items, the show needed to be based around the content which was presented at the show. Although compared to the modern shows, the 2002 show's content was thin, the show managed to present the following content areas:
Classic Gaming and Computing Museum
JD Norman joined Marty Goldberg to fill a small area with game consoles from all eras.
Space Station Pinball Machine
It was known that pinball would be a part of the Midwest Classic, but the event started small with just one game, but the show also opened the game up and had displays about the inner workings of the game itself to show people a side of electronic gaming that they might not even know about!
Independent 2600 / Jaguar / Dreamcast Development
The organizers of the show knew that people would be fascinated to find out about new and independent things that were happening for classic systems. The 2002 show featured 2600, Jaguar and Dreamcast independent developers showing off their latest creations.
Show Report
To present the rest of the history of this small show through the eyes of an organizer, here is a reposting of Marty Goldberg's report from the 2002 event.
Marty's Show Report
Immediately after the success of Jagfest 2001, organizers Dan Loosen, Gary Heil and I spoke about hosting another event the following summer. When it was decided to move Jagfest to St. Louis, we decided to host a more general show. 2001 show-goer JD Norman joined us, and the groundwork was laid. A naming contest for the event was held and "Midwest Classic" was chosen as the title for the event and Saturday, June 8th 2002 for the date. The event would be held at the PieperPower Center in the Boy Scouts of America office building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - the same location as Jagfest the previous year.
With a broader spectrum to cover (everything from consoles, to computers, to pinball), planning for the event was non stop until the very end. Setup began Friday night, with people arriving from 5pm onward to get their booths ready for the following day. At 10 A.M. the next day, show goers were arriving to walk down into classic gaming bliss.
Upon entering the doorway to the show, Midwest Classic goers were immediately hit with a large projection video setup. With plenty of sitting room, everyone was able to watch the many gaming themed shows and commercials that played continuously throughout the event.
The Goat Store LLC's vending booth was to the right as they walked in. With a cornucopia of both new and used classic games and consoles (everything from the expected Atari games to 3DO, NES and even Arcadia games) Dan and Gary had plenty to offer anyone that actually wanted to come away from the show with more than just good memories.
Immediately next to the viewing area was the entryway to the Classic Gaming and Computing Museums. I returned with even more material than last year, and J.D. Norman partnered with me to use his collection of consoles to round out the full spectrum of the display.
People walking through the museum had the opportunity to purchase an official museum guide full of technical and historical info about all the items on display. The Gaming Museum included everything from early Pong consoles, to the 1st and 2nd generation programmables (such as the many variations of the Atari 2600, and the Vectrex respectively) later generations (like the Japanese imported PC-FX system) and more modern systems (Game Cube, Playstation 2, X-Box). Just about all the systems had many rare and hard to find peripherals on display, and everything was available for people to try first hand. The tour of the Gaming Museum concluded with a large selection of handheld gaming systems from the Nintendo GameBoy and Atari Lynx to more modern systems like the Neo Geo Pocket Color and GameBoy Advance.
Immediately following the Gaming Museum was the Computing Museum. Museum goers were treated to a full spectrum of pre-Windows/Macintosh personal computer history, from the first S-100 bus personal computers (IMSAI 8080) to the 16/32 bit computers of the late 80's and early 90's (Amiga, Atari ST, early Mac's). Many rare peripherals, upgrades, and collectibles were also displayed.
After the Computing Museum, attendees were treated to two special areas. The first of which was the collectibles section with many rare promotional materials (such as the 1985 CES flier featuring the prototype Nintendo Entertainment System), coin-op fliers and cartridges. Immediately after that, J.D. had his special Super Nova Arcade System set up for people to play. For those not familiar, this system allows you to hook up coin-op JAMMA format arcade boards directly to a TV and stereo system so you can easily play your favorite coin-ops at home without the need for a full cabinet. With J.D.'s large selection of Neo Geo MVS cartridges and other coin-op boards, the system was busy all day.
The dealer and display area was chock full of new items, old items, and everything in between. Anyone visiting this area was sure to come away with something, be it the latest retro release or that hard to find cartridge to complete their collection.
The most well known developer there was Carl Forhan of Songbird Productions. He had many Atari Jaguar and Atari Lynx games to choose from, the highlight of which was Protector: Special Edition for the Jaguar, which included a picture from the 2001 event on it! Also on the Jaguar front was Clint Thompson and his display of rare Jaguar related prototypes such as the Jaguar VR headset, the Jaguar modem, and the Jaguar II prototype system.
Not to be outdone however, was a strong showing of Sega Dreamcast and Atari 2600 independent developers. Paul Boese was there demoing his 3D Invaders game and giving out free sample CD's full of independent game demos for the Dreamcast, and Atari 2600 programmer Billy Eno was on hand to sell two new developments for the Atari 2600, Warring Worms which he developed and Mr. Roboto which was developed by a friend.
Last, but not least was the pinball area. The Goat Store LLC brought a Williams Space Station pinball machine and set it for free play for the entire day. Just to the right of it was a large display of technical info about pinball and pinball design, including actual pieces pulled from pinball machines to help demonstrate. And thanks to Stern Pinball, the last manufacturer of pinball machines in he world, attendees were treated to pinball promotional fliers and technical info.
By the time the show closed at 10pm that night, everyone was happy but exhausted... but festivities weren't over yet. The organizers, support staff, and even some attendees still hanging around, gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Atari Video Computer System (2600) and the 20th anniversary of the Colecovision game console. To help celebrate, my mother Lois and I, stayed up until 4 in the morning the night before to personally bake and decorate two cakes in the shape of an Atari 2600 and a Colecovision. After we lit the candles and blew them out, everyone enjoyed feasting on the desert while discussing the day's events, and of course that developed into what can be done for 2003 to make the event even bigger and better than it the first year! With support growing and planning already under way, you can be sure it's an event you can't afford to miss.
Summary
In many ways, with about 20 tables of activity and almost exactly 100 attendees, the 2002 Midwest Classic barely resembles the event that it has become today (In 2006, the Museum itself took up more than 40 tables of exhibit space!), but in carefully examining the show, it is clear that the groundwork for everything that the show would become was laid that year. The show was very content filled, and was put on by gamers from the Midwest for other gamers to enjoy the things that they enjoyed.
The goal of the event was to get together with friends and play the games that you enjoyed the most, and while the show would expand in millions of ways in the future, the goals of the first show are still the driving goals of the Midwest Gaming Classic today!