MGC 2021 - Bringing BitBuilt Back

[CrashBash]

It was March of 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic just kicking off, MGC 2020 was cancelled. A year and a half later in November, MGC was back and BitBuilt was there to represent the portabilizing community with members both old and new.

For those unfamiliar with what the Midwest Gaming Classic is, see the announcement here. This thread is a compilation photos and whatever else from the convention.


We had a smaller room than last time but it actually worked out quite nicely. I'm pretty happy overall how the room turned out since it was Cheese and I's first time working to make this happen.

Pics of some of the displays. @ShockSlayer has some significantly better ones he can hopefully contribute.

This year's station for continuing the tradition of building a portable during the convention. This year's tribute was a Spice orange Ashida - the portable designed by @Wesk.

The 4LayerTech folk showed off their wares:

@Shank's Case o' portables

There was this sick pig in the vendor hall I'm surprised ShockSlayer didn't buy.

@cheese, @Gman, @Shank, and I shared a room and while checking in we saw this hot CRT with googly eyes. There's a slight chance this may have been a tube that Shank "vandalized" in a prior year.

As per usual, I don't have too many great photos. Most of the time was spent "in the moment".

Shout out to everyone who was able to come or hung out in the Discord channel. It was really, really, good to see everyone for the first time in over a year and also to see some of the new members that we have picked up since MGC 2019. I look forward to future meetups and seeing more members of the community. Hopefully we can also maybe do some smaller meetups with people as well - it's good to get word out there and let the public know we exist, but hanging out with everyone and working on the Ashida was awesome.

There's various videos I have as well which I'll upload soon (tm) but look forward to what everyone else who was there can share.

 

[Fast Rock Productions]

 

[cy]

I was able to get some decent shots even if my phone's camera quality isn't the best. Here's what the portables were looking like:

Kill Mii pic came out blurrier than I would've wanted

I wasn't gonna not get a shot of my G-Boy right next to Shank's. If only we had a third stand I could've gotten Gman's new one in there as well.

And why not throw the forever pack in there while I'm at it?

Here's pre-drunk Ben Heck explaining things to these random dudes.

Here's a shot of the real Shock Slayer sitting down next to the real Gman

I caught CrazyGadget with his hand in the portablizing cookie jar.

Finally, here's one more with some of the bois in it. I have a few more shots, but these were all of my note-worthy ones.

I also have a couple of videos that I may or may not upload. They were pretty short though and I wasn't able to capture a lot, so I might not bother.
I hope this vault of pictures doesn't count as spam lol.

 

[CrazyGadget]

LARGE DUMP INBOUND

So this was my first ever time at MGC, and let me tell you, it was a blast! I'll save the sweet talk for the end and get to the dump:

My Gboy made it through TSA! I got to play TTYD on the flight to Milwaukee, and I got the last blow on Cortez right as we touched down!

I found the fabled BitBuilt breakfast joint, and had some good eats while I waited for everyone else to arrive since I got there really early

Once everything was set up, the tables looked a little like this:

Gunnar lost the bet of whose portable would break first; luckily, all he had to do was look at it for it to start working again...

Here's a comedic shot of @RubesCode's Switch U getting an update

Later in the evening, we were beginning to get a little hungry. Alas, our pizza was not ready yet. But who should come to the rescue? None other than Ben Heck! He ran into the room and yelled "Anyone want some leftover chicken tenders?" We all politely declined numerous times, but he insisted, so these sat in the room for a comedically long time

Luckily, the real ShockSlayer had gotten our delivery and saved us from starvation

The next day, we were all hard at work, either working on @Shank 's Ashida, or giving the portablizing spiel to those who were interested. I don't have a ton of photos from that day, but I do have this one of a clever solution to a missing Hakko Soldering Station key (rip that Costco membership card lmao).

Something that I thought was pretty funny: in a room full of custom Wii, N64, Virtual Boy, NES, and other portables, a great deal of people were most interested in the PSP that @GingerOfOz brought as a joke.

Eventually, we had to leave the venue due to a wedding being held. We had 15 minutes to pack our stuff and get out the Heck out of there. We ended up regrouping in Gunnar / Shank / Cheese / Crash's room and telling tales of portablizing past. Fun times!

On the third day, the room was mostly packed up, and people left as their planes, trains and automobiles demanded. Still some good photos!

Shank put the final touches on his Ashida, and it worked (for a lil bit)!

The whole event was such a hit, even the wildlife wanted in on the portablizing fun!

After a great weekend, all that was left was part of a Wii carcass and some boxes

Last but not least, Shank finding a way to carry his new toy through the airport

Not pictured: @CrashBash attempting to chug a rootbeer, foam going up his noise, and me patting his back as he tries to not choke to death over a garbage can. Cheese waved at the Grim Reaper as he passed by the scene.

All in all, this is the most fun weekend I've ever had, and I am so happy I was able to make it. I truly felt like I was "at home," and I didn't even have any of my organs harvested! It was awesome to meet so many of you guys in person, and I can't wait until the next time we all meet again :^>.​

 

[ShockSlayer]

So this is the unit I built - very peanut N64 laptop. It managed to run the whole time with no issues, the bottom barely got warm so I'm pretty satisfied with the MGC stress test - not all the portables I've built have been that lucky. Like the display says it was assembled mere hours before it was time4leave so a few shortcuts were taken - will be a little while before I'm prepared to do any kind of real presentation.

Honestly? MGC was filled with horrors!

They kept N64s in cages, as if they were animals.

People were fighting inside the convention center!

Shank never saw it coming!

But it wasn't all bad.

There was this cool pig visible from out the window. As posted before there was a big boi out in the vendor hall as well.

As expected Ginger was the MVP of this event, as his portable had the ideal pig display.

Unfortunately for him though, all the smelly normies kept beating up the Wiiboy Color, even breaking its shoulder clean off.

Our room was hidden in the back again. We did have this neato sign tho

I rolled up early on Saturday to unlock the room so people could steal all the portables, and I managed to grab a few pics without people in them.

(Secret feature of Ruby's #NintendoSwitchU - turning invisible overnight)

(The Wiiboy Color has a similar disguise ability.)

(I had to explain this more times than I cared to.)

(ShockSlayer presents by ShockSlayer Made by ShockSlayer on ShockSlayer.com by ShockSlayer)

(Damn bitch, you live like this?)

(The best 30 seconds I ever spent with a handheld.)

(This shit didn't seem real, but it worked and kind of blew my mind.)

(Like Doom, I am convinced that the KillMii doesn't exist.)

(Shank brought too much garbage. Not once did I hear him remind people to like and subscribe either.)

That's all for now. Tune in again in 5 months, where hopefully we'll be able to finish all of our own pizza before the convention center staff kick us out and confiscate our pizza.

Sent from my iPhone

 

[paddle0]

Somebody please reassure me that the Wiiboy Color's shoulder will be OK.