Friday, April 24
Midwest Gaming Classic 25th Anniversary Panel
10:00 pm – 10:45 pm, Video Game Stage
Hear the story about what started 25 years ago in the basement of a Boy Scouts building for 100 Atari Jaguar and how it came to now encompasses most of the Baird Center for more than 36,000 game fans! Hear the story about what started in Milwaukee and how it remains in Milwaukee. And come hear the story about what was started by a small group of friends and how its been joined by many, many more new friends because of their love for the show. Come celebrate the MGC’s silver anniversary and tell us your own stories!
Saturday, April 25
Video Game Museum Trivia Challenge
11:00 am – 11:45 am, Video Game Stage
For nearly 25 years the MGC has held a trivia game for guests or MGC staff. This year, join us on the Video Game Stage as we host six people that may or may not be entertaining (and find out who they are when we do!) in one of the most difficult multiple guess video game trivia competitions around!
Modding Games with Casey Mongillo, Ed Bosco and Bill Rogers (feat. Bloody Roar 2)
11:45 am – 12:45 pm, Video Game Stage
During the covid lockdown, actor Casey Mongillo played Bloody Roar 2 and realized that it should have an English dub that was as intense as the Japanese original. So Casey took the upgrade upon themselves, developing a fan patch that is known as Bloody Road 2 Redub. In this panel, Casey will explain the process of reworking the files to work with the dub, and Ed Bosco and Bill Rogers – two other actors Casey convinced to voice characters in the project – will share how they got involved with it. After hearing the story, see the Redub!
Travis McGeehan – TASBot – Karnaaj Rally
12:45 pm – 1:30 pm, Video Game Stage
Discover: TASBot with TiKevin83
The TASBot community was founded in 2013 and is focused on helping our robotic mascot, TASBot, play video games perfectly for charity. TASBot content at Games Done Quick events has helped raise more than $1.3M USD for The Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. TASBot plays back Tool-Assisted Speedruns from TASVideos.org using replay devices that typically pretend to be a controller plugged into a real video game console. Through this process TASBot verifies that emulators act exactly like the consoles they emulate. TASVideos Ambassdor TiKevin83 is a record holding TASer in Pokemon Yellow and has been helping present TASVideos and TASBot runs since 2019. TASBot, TiKevin83, and friends will show TASes being verified live all weekend!
Don and Brian – Playing With Preposterous 3rd Party Peripherals
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm, Video Game Stage
Wireless Super Famicom controllers? A meme icon with his own DualShock? A PS1 controller that’s a gun AND a knife? A joystick the size of your hand?! They happened! Join us, as we delve into some of the lesser known and most visually entertaining attempts at playing games with buttons beyond A and B. Featuring physical examples of each one that you can touch, rub, and love!
Jeffrey Wittenhagen – New Indie Releases on Old Hardware: Why NES Homebrew Is Still Thriving!
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Video Game Stage
Indie games are everywhere—but some of the most exciting creativity in gaming today is happening on 40-year-old hardware.
In this panel, The Indie-Credible Podcast breaks down why NES homebrew is thriving right now, how it connects directly to the modern indie gaming scene, and why players, collectors, and developers are gravitating back to limitations instead of chasing raw power.
Drawing from years of covering new indie releases, community recommendations, and NES homebrew projects (including Byte-Off competitions and modern physical releases), Jeff and Xander explore:
- Why developers are choosing the NES in 2025
- How NES homebrew mirrors modern indie design philosophies
- The role of communities like NESMaker in lowering barriers to entry
- Why physical carts, boxed releases, and retro aesthetics still matter
- How “constraints breed creativity” better than unlimited tools
- Where NES homebrew overlaps with Metroidvania, action-platformers, and arcade design
The discussion is casual, interactive, and podcast-style—jumping between examples, personal stories, audience questions, and behind-the-scenes insight from covering hundreds of indie and homebrew games.
Whether you’re a retro fan, indie dev, collector, or just curious why people keep making new games for old systems, this panel connects the past and present of indie gaming in a way that’s informative, fun, and easy to follow.
Jamie Fenton: Interview with Paul Drury
2:45 pm – 3:30 pm, Video Game Stage
Join pioneering game designer and digital artist Jamie Fenton for a rare look inside the early days of arcade history. Drawing on her personal experiences working with arcade innovator Dave Nutting and the groundbreaking team at Milwaukee Coin Industries, Fenton will share stories from a formative moment in the birth of the arcade and console industries.
Part of the Chicago Gamespace exhibition Dave Nutting and Milwaukee Coin here at the Midwest Gaming Classic, this talk explores the experimental spirit of early game development and how those pioneering years shaped Fenton’s own path as a game developer and artist. Expect behind-the-scenes anecdotes, insights into early arcade technology, and reflections on the creative culture that helped launch the modern video game industry.
Kate Willaert: The Forgotten Decade: Historically Important Arcade Games Of The '70s
3:45 pm – 4:15 pm, Video Game Stage
Every gaming documentary begins the same way: There was Pong, there was Space Invaders, and then the ’80s happened. Is it true that nothing else important of note happened in the arcade in the ’70s? Or have a number of early, foundational arcade games become forgotten because they’re un-emulatable, and as a result inaccessible? We’ll tell you all about the Top 5 most important arcade games of the ’70s that weren’t Pong or Space Invaders. Kate will be joined by Alexander Smith of They Create Worlds, Ethan Johnson of Play History, and Nathaniel Lockhart of Memory Machine.
Growing Up Vid Kid
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm, Video Game Stage
Ed Fries: My Favorite Games
5:00 pm – 5:15 pm, Video Game Stage
Ed Fries rose from making games for the Atari 800 to being one of the key figures to the Microsoft Xbox. In this short moderated panel, join Ed as we ask him short questions to discover some of his favorite games and why they stuck out!
ToadBup's "The Console Graveyard"
5:15 pm – 5:45 pm, Video Game Stage
Beware the consoles from beyond the grave! Join ToadBup as he talks about the many failed video game consoles of the past and why they were a bust. You’ll also have a chance to participate in games, win prizes, and more!
Do the Math: Atari Jaguar Development
6:00 pm – 6:45 pm, Video Game Stage
Step into the experimental world of 1990s gaming with a behind-the-scenes look at the Atari Jaguar, featuring Ted Tahquechi, Carrie Tahquechi, and Ian McCranor. As contributors to its game development, they helped bring the system’s ambitious titles to life on challenging, unconventional hardware. In this panel, they’ll share firsthand stories about designing and building Jaguar games—overcoming technical hurdles, collaborating across teams, and turning bold ideas into playable experiences. It’s a rare glimpse into the realities of early “next-gen” development, straight from those who lived it.
Scott Adams: Interview With Paul Drury
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm, Video Game Stage
Scott Adams is known as the father of the adventure game thanks to his 1978 computer game Adventureland! These games defined a genre and made Adventure Internationl into a force in the early computer games! Unless told differently (that’s and Adventureland reference!), join video gaming journalist Paul Drury as he explores this fascinating history!
Sunday, April 26
Jared Hansen – Hobbyist Developers: 10 Foundational Nintendo DS Homebrew Games.
10:15 am – 10:45 am, Video Game Stage
Amateur hobbyist game developers often create unofficial games for platforms without the consent of the hardware publisher (known as “homebrew” games). One console that had a history of homebrew was the Nintendo DS. For an upcoming book on the history of homebrew for the Nintendo DS, I interviewed developers, designers, and hackers, and did a historical analysis of internet archives of DS homebrew. After this research I present 10 foundational games from 2004-2014, while the console was still supported by Nintendo.
Old School Gamer Auctions
12:00 pm – 1:45 pm, Video Game Stage
Old School Gamer Auctions is selling some games, and the final hammer will take place on stage on Sunday! Bid online at https://www.oldschoolgamerauctions.com or come to the stage to bid for your dream game! If you have anything you would like to sell at the auction, please reply to this email or contact [email protected] / text 515-778-3030.”
Kent Neveu and Brett Neveu – Infinite Lives
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Video Game Stage
Join 83-year-old gamer Kent Neveu and his son, Brett Neveu, for an oral history of gaming through the eyes of one of the world’s oldest consistent players and a special preview of their upcoming documentary INFINITE LIVES, which showcases Kent’s journey to learn more about the games he loves, particularly those made by Bethesda Game Studios. The panel explores the intersections of aging, technology, and how a lifelong love of gaming has shaped a father-son relationship since 1976.
Digitized Graphics at Williams/Bally/Midway: From NARC to Mortal Kombat and beyond
2:45 pm – 3:30 pm, Video Game Stage
Warren Davis, the creator of the digitized graphics system used in games like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Terminator 2 and Revolution X, tells the story of how those ground-breaking images were created and how they evolved to give Williams/Bally/Midway’s games a leg up on arcade games from that era.
Don and Brian – A Brief History of Baseball Branded Consoles
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm, Video Game Stage
Baseball. America’s pastime. And Japan’s currenttime. The most popular sport in the Land of the Rising Sun has produced dozens of video games across the decades. But uniquely enough, has also produced several special editions of beloved consoles. We’ll take a look at them, many live on stage, while discussing the thought process into creating such an expensive ballpark souvenir. Including Nintendo’s history with a certain American team.
