This may be covered elsewhere, excuse me if it is.

I have been thinking about conventions lately.  I don't have much experience in them.  I have attended Too Many Games twice and Another Video Game Con once.  I am kind of done with the trade floor for used games.  And I am more interested in homebrews, indie games, arcades, and meeting people.  Which conventions are the good ones for this?  I have been considering  Midwest Gaming Classic or MAGfest lately.  I also know Portland Retro Gaming Expo gets tossed around a lot as the go to convention.

I can't go to all of these.  The Nintendoage room has made me really consider MGC over all the others.

I also heard about Nintendoage camp-outs that happened back in the day.  Do these still happen?
 

MGC is great. I am doing PRGE for the first time this year. Headed out early to even help do some setup. I have also some setup volunteering for MGC as well.
 

Long Island RetroGaming convention is awesome. Tons of arcade cabs all on free play and a museum section with almost every single home console ever made to play for free.

MGC is a great time. Huge arcade and museum sections with every console available for free play. The Nintendoage room is filled with homebrews/repros and other cool items. We usually have beers and game until long after the show closes each night. Lots of other panels/guests to take in during the show as well.

I haven't been to many so far, but I would like to visit each big one at least once.

My first was PRGE and I had some amazing luck collecting on the homebrew front, especially after messaging folks in advance and learning they would be there. MAGFest also had a great gathering of brewers and their wares. It helps them to know someone is hoping to buy their games there because some will bring copies to sell at the convention in order to cover the trip.

NA has a friggin room at MGC?!?!?!?! How awesome is that, I would really really really like to make it next time, it's in my neck of the woods for cryin out loud!

Retroworld Expo in Connecticut is coming up on the weekend of Sept 27th. It had a decent arcade setup last year and a couple of homebrew devs and seller tables.

RetroGameCon in Syracuse is amazing. They've grown substantially each year they've put it on. They've gone from one day in one smallish room with some vendor tables and some systems set up to two days and adding an entire third floor at the Oncenter convention center this year. Vendors, artists, live music from chiptunes and other video games style musicians amd DJ's, half a floor dedicated to free to play systems and arcade/pinball, conferences frpm all types of video game related youtube personalities/ developers / collectors and voice actors, autograph signings, live auction this year i think, silent auction to for sure, tournaments, cosplay contest, and a ton more i cant remember. Im sure it sounds like typical con fare but its juat amazing to see how mich its grown from what it staryed out as and that its right here in western NY were i live. I went last year one full day open to close and did not get to see or do everything so this year I'm going to get a hotel and go both days. Hope to see some of you guys there. If you're anywhere in the northeast i suggest you check it out it's no joke.

I go to MAGFest every year, and it's awesome. Pretty good NA turnout too. We have a NES homebrew area set up each year in the indie developer section. It's great fun. Usually the 1st weekend of January (Thur-Sun) at the Gaylord Convention center in National Harbor, MD.

Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) is amazing, especially now that it's all indoors and not cramped into a giant tent and a handful of hotel rooms.

I like CCAG in Cleveland, but that's more geared towards buying/selling with a handful of arcades and pinball, a few tournaments, and Buyatari's sweet-ass art expo.

RetroGameCon in Syracuse is definitely worth a visit. Lots to do, some great guests every year, and lots of fairly priced vendors.

I'm most likely going to both of these.
We'll see how next year goes but I'm also hoping to make it out to PRGE   The BIG ONE

 

PRGE is a great excuse to visit Portland.

Replay FX by far has the best pinball and arcade of any show I've been, although it's very pinball focused. Real, dedicated techs *constantly* fixing games and everything is to hardcore enthusiast specs, not just "working". There is nothing like it. It hosts, the largest, best-run pinball tournament in the world and all the top players are at the event.

MAGFest is fantastic, I've gone for about a decade but next year will be my first year not going (going to PRGE instead). The vendor hall is 90% generic convention anime garbage, there's barely any games anymore. The arcade is in disrepair and is full of games in mediocre shape. The same old games get dragged out every year and aren't refurbished, they're just fixed when they're unplayable. The music stage is better than ever. It's amazing. If you're going, go for the 24 hour party and concerts, not for the games IMO. It does have a big indie area that usually isn't very crowded, so you can definitely talk to lots of indie folks.

I've only been to PRGE once but it was fun. The arcade was above average and there are an absolute ton of vendors. I'm extremely jealous as someone in the Southeast because we get absolutely nothing even close to the amount of game vendors at any show in the entire region.

I'll give a shout to Christian and Let's play. Did a phenomenal job with the wizard anniversary convention. If I can get to another one of his events I will.

I'd like to go to midwest one year. Wish they would do it in stl, kc, or even Chicago.

How far is Chicago?   Milwaukee's only 2 more hours north.

There's some con in MO as well, but the name escapes me at the moment.
 

5.5 hour drive, but its also the only major city my local airport flies to. My wife also likes it, so I could make it a longer trip for both of us. She isn't going to Wisconsin. 
 

I've been to every PRGE and you couldn't pay me to miss one. Period end of story great time all around!

I've enjoyed going to MegaCon in Orlando and TBCC in Tampa. Orlando had a huge convention center and Tampa -while smaller- had the beautiful bay side.

Parking sucks in Tampa though. No way to get into the parking garages since there's only confusing Starship Enterprise-esq kiosks at the gates, and the outdoor parking is like $25. Orlando had a $5 one day parking with actual humans in the booths and a free shuttle ride to the convention.

Orlando did have a stupid way of having people enter the con, which was to activate your pass online once you get it. I mean, not everyone's gonna have a workable phone with them, and that made it a little difficult for me to get in.

Thanks for all the pointers. It has been a wealth of information. I am settled on MGC for the next convention, but I will plan on PRGE in the future as well.

I live in the suburbs of Chicago and lived in the city. I can tell you that Milwauke, while not Chicago, is a fun visit.
 

Why not?   Milwaukee (and the Mars Cheese Castle on the way) offer some fun things to do.

And my drive is further than yours.  Well, I get an hour back on the way technically.