The Midwest Gaming Classic started off in the basement of a Milwaukee Boy Scout office and is now bringing in 15,000 guests and over $2 million in economic impact to the city of Milwaukee.
The gaming conference took place April 29 to May 1 at the Wisconsin Center. See the attached slideshow for scenes from the weekend event.
Dan Loosen and Gary Heil are the co-founders of the Midwest Gaming Classic. It began in 2001 as a convention for fans of the 1990s gaming counsel, the Atari Jaguar. Loosen and Heil hosted about 100 people, most from outside of Milwaukee, in the basement of the Boy Scouts Service Center. The following year the Atari Jaguar convention moved to a new location, but Loosen and Heil wanted a gaming convention to remain in Milwaukee.
«The following year in 2002, the Midwest Classic as it was originally called, was born,» Loosen said.
Some of the attractions at this year’s convention included pinball, arcade and console games, tabletop and trading card games, a gaming museum, game tournaments and competitions, celebrity and industry panels and a merchandise market. Loosen said coin-operated games were some of the biggest attractions.
The Midwest Gaming Classic included small companies bringing in one or two arcade games to large corporations like Raw Thrills that produce giant games for companies like Dave & Buster’s. T-Mobile was one of the largest companies at the convention along with Tesla, which displayed its capabilities to play games within the vehicle.
Loosen said the convention’s biggest goal is to foster a community where everyone can present their creations from one individual to a large corporation. He added that traditionally the show has been built in what Loosen called half-jokingly an «upside down way.»
«We have more content at the show than we have vendors traditionally at the show. We’re always a little bit more fragile in the way of how the show is set up than we’d like. Our hope is that in the future we can continue to have local places and businesses to help with the show both to get the word out about them. Our audience is loyal,» he said.
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