GRAND FINALE at the IDEA CENTER 1.24.25

Performa

Member
Our partners at CREATE Portage County have been in the IDEA Center at 1039 Ellis Street for a long time now. The building (formerly county offices) is owned by Portage County, and it has definitely seen better days. The IDEA Center is a somewhat labyrinthine space of offices and creative spaces for all sorts of applications, but they've definitely had to work within the confines of the space- but that time has come to an end. Their new, bigger, purpose-built creative collaborative space in the former convent on Maria Drive on the north side of Stevens Point is finally done, and they are beginning the move out process starting the weekend after Christmas. The new CREATE space will be better in pretty much every way- it's bigger inside and out, will feature modern technology and features, HVAC that isn't trying to bake you alive, ample parking, and an address that coincides with the main entrance, just to name a few.

The WCC was given Friday, January 24th as our first Retro Game Night of 2025, and it so happens we will be the last group to hold an event in the IDEA Center before it is emptied out and closed down for good. Rumors are swirling that the county may raze the building to make way for new development on that site, as it's directly across from the Wisconsin River with excellent views. There is every possibility we'll be some of the last folks from the general public in there.

As such, I feel a space that has been so influential on creative and collaborative projects across the region deserves something of a send off. A final hurrah for a place that has made so many great things happen, and connected so many great people over the years. To that end, I propose that our last Retro Gaming event be something of a party!

We'll have our usual gamin setups of course, but I plan to invite other CREATE Portage County collaborates, partners, members, and past project leads to join us for a gathering to say one last fond farewell to this community space. I'll see what I can do about snacks and drinks, as well as what fixtures will still be present for the event.

Let me know what you think! We have some time yet to hammer our details, and there are a few unknowns that'll still have to be settled sometime in the new year. I'm open to any ideas and suggestions on how to make this the best show there yet!

My last time using this graphic too. 😄

 

Performa

Member
News piece on the IDEA Center move is HERE.

I've heard pretty much everyone call the new space the "CREATE Space" in official communications, but I see a lot of people saying the new space will be "The IDEA Center" again as well. I'm not sure what name will win out yet, though I kinda hope the former as that'll be way less confusing for people going forward.
 

Performa

Member
The Grand Finale show at the IDEA Center is done, and what a show it was! It was good to see so many of our exhibitors and regulars, plus all the folks who came out to play! Here's some of the photo highlights:



Dual projectors, running Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube.



We had snacks galore for all this time around. It's not a party without some snacks in my humble opinion! ;)



I might be smiling. I'll never tell. :sneaky:
 

Performa

Member
More photos!



@mikem had a setup featuring a Dreamcast, TI-99/4A, and an Apple iBook G3. I got this one earlier on in the event.



Back wall featuring Zach's Nintendo Famicom, the Fairchild Channel F @Spudster's arrangement of 3DS hardware and Virtual Boy. The Macintosh Plus is partly visible.

The Channel F had it's debut show, and it did really well!



Sega Genesis (left) and Playstation 2 (right).



Nintendo Famicom, Fairchild Channel F, 3DS, and Virtual Boy.
 

Performa

Member
The show on 1.24.25 coincided with the 40th anniversary of the original Macintosh (what a coincidence!) and so we rolled out a couple Macs for the occasion!



The 1986 Macintosh Plus on the left is the oldest compact Mac we had both working and easy to deploy, so it's standing in for an original Macintosh. As the biggest difference between the two is the amount of RAM (128KB on the original versus 1MB on the Plus) I feel that's fair enough. At this point in the show I was still trying to find the cable for the keyboard (we did find it). The mac on the right is a @Spudster creation, a Macintosh SE packed into a brilliant translucent red shell. It really is a sight to behold!
 

Performa

Member
A few more!



Knight Rider on the Commodore SX-64!



It's very cool!



@PS2it brought a Macintosh 2 and an IBM PC XT 5160 with their matching monitors to the show! The Mac was running tetris most of the night, while the IBM was running David Murray's famous "Planet X3" real time strategy game.



@mikem 's machines up and running, including Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast, Alpiner on the TI-99, and Oregon Trail on the iBook.
 

Performa

Member
One of the big takeaways from tonight was that this dual projector setup worked out awesome! We were able to provide exhibitors with some very large presentation spaces, while also giving attendees some big screens to experience their games on. Definitely going to do more of this!



 
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