Midwest Gaming Classic 2004 Write Up
The Midwest Gaming Classic saw its largest year of growth in 2004, as the event expanded in nearly every way. The first and perhaps biggest change was the addition of the word "Gaming" to the show's name to clarify exactly what the show was about. A move to the Brookfield Sheraton meant that the show floor space more than tripled over the 2003 event, the addition of a second day meant gamers had longer to enjoy the event, and the popularity of the event exploded, with attendance increasing sevenfold over the prior year.
Classic Gaming and Computing Museum
In 2004, the Museum returned in same expanded format that it had grown to in 2003, although the growth of the event meant that the Museum was packed wall to wall with people all the time! The Museum featured lots of great displays and featured some rare games and some popular games, with the game Halo being the most popular game in the Museum that year!
Events within an Event
The 2004 Midwest Gaming Classic was the first year that presented Events within an Event as their own special features, and it introduced the format that Events within an Event would be run in the future. The inaugural events for the first year of stand alone Events within an Event were the Underdog Chamber, Jagfest: On Tour and the Atari Room.
Underdog Chamber
The Underdog Chamber was created to display and highlight those consoles of the past that may not have been the most popular or the most successful. The first year of the Underdog Chamber, the event packed into a very small space with the signature attraction being a working Apple LAN featuring the networked game of Marathon, which worked perfectly with the popularity of Halo at the time, to show people what Bungie was doing just a few short years before, on a platform which was really not known for gaming, and especially not exclusive games.
Jagfest
In 2003, it had been decided that the Atari Jaguar would go "on tour" to various locations throughout the country and the world to demonstrate what the Jaguar had become. The standalone events like the 2001 Milwaukee event that started the Midwest Gaming Classic had been great fun, but many of the people who had wanted to travel to them were looking for something more, and it was decided that Jagfest would move and melt into larger events to both promote the Atari Jaguar to new people who weren't fans yet, while also providing a great space for old fans of the Jaguar to meet and enjoy their system.
Jagfest: On Tour at the 2004 Midwest Gaming Classic was a spectacular event, busy all day with lots of different games being played, both popular and obscure, as well as old games and games that had been just recently released!
Atari Room
In 2004 a unique room that was never officially named but was referred to as the "Atari Room" by the guests to the event was born. This room contained AtariAge, the online web site who also was promoting and producing new Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 games showing off and selling their games as well as a huge display of some of the rarest Atari games ever -- a hole slew of prototypes of games that had never officially been produced, or had been significantly altered before their result. The room was an Atari lovers dream, and helped the 2004 event to present an incredibly complete picture of the life of the Atari company and especially its video game consoles.
Speakers
The 2004 event was the first year that the Midwest Gaming Classic featured a large slate of speakers of people involved in the hobby and the industry. Here are just some highlights of the 2004 speaking line up:
Walter Day and Billy Mitchell, Twin Galaxies
Walter Day and Billy Mitchell came to the Midwest Gaming Classic and shared with showgoers lots of stories about the golden age of arcade and the current competitive gaming environment for players. Whether you wanted to relive what it was like to discover how to play a perfect game of Pac-Man, or if you wanted to learn how you could set a world record in video games, this was a speech not to be missed.
Gene Cunningham, the Illinios Pin Ball Company
Gene Cunningham returned to the event in 2004 for his second year, and was happy to give a speech at the show about the plans that he had for the pinball properties that he had obtained in the past few years. One of the biggest surprises that he had was that he was intending to produce the Capcom game Big Bang Bar and would start taking reservations for it. Just a few short years later, Gene had completed his mission and many collectors were blessed with brand new games!
Vendors
The vendors expanded in 2004 along with the rest of the show, and went from about 20 tables in 2003 to over 50 tables in 2004! A little of everything arrived at the show and was for sale! No matter what you collected or enjoyed, if it was electronic gaming, the 2004 Midwest Gaming Classic was the place to get it!
The show also offered many different pinball and arcade video games for people to play, with nearly 50 games in attendance and many of them for sale!
Summary
The 2004 event was a real change in everything about the event. The show went from a relatively small gathering to a large regional event which attracted people from all over the country, and set the stage for the show that we would all know and love today!