Thanks for posting. Looking forward to coming down again next year!

We on the west coast need to spread these shows out! How can I convince my wife that I need to go to PAGG in the middle of May, your show like two weeks later, then CAX like four weeks after that!

Someone put a show on out here at this time of year!

In all seriousness best of luck with your show, it looks like a ton of fun.

Next year you should get GasX to sponsor the event---- that place smelled

Good show, crappy parking, almost nothing for sale there, parking very inconvenient for anyone
Bringing games, pins or a trailer. Need to have more swap meet items or things for sale.
Different location with a 50 acre FLAT parking lot would be better.

I hope to have one of my Flash Gordon machines fully restored and available for play this year. Maybe a Silverball Mania too.

Maybe I will finally go to one? Maybe, who knows...

Wow, don't hold back there, what did you really think?

Too noisy, too smelly, too hot, It was a good show, and I'm sure they did all they could do to pull it off. It's just not set up as a buy sell show at all. Not a place to bring a truck and trailer. Had several sets of pinball legs stolen out of the truck unloading, Huge pain in ass, hotel had no parking, show had very little and we got hastled all weekend by the parking lot nazis. Kicked out of the lot on the last day. We brought 32 pins there and drove 8 hours.
But we liked the show and people, handy being accross street from the hotel. Great speakers and contacts that i made were good. Next time prob fly out or just bring my truck with 3 pins. No trailer.
Who buids a convention center on the side of a mountain with a parking lot smaller than a McDonald's?
Fail.

How about having it at the Puyallup Fairgrounds instead? Plenty of flat parking lots there.

Pros and cons imo

1.) Tried to bring pins to the show but I was unable to meet really tight load in and out times.
Might be easier if you live closer.
Yet I've never had a problem driving 10 hours to Pin a Gogo with pins the last two years.
2.) Food at the venue is bad and not worth eating. (Better food in walking distance though)

Aside from that it is a really fun time.
1.) best crew for repairing pins I've ever seen at a show
2.) 200+ pins in mostly good shape to excellent
3.) friendly folks
4.) Washington State legal cannabis (21+)
5.) great speakers and seminar rooms
6.) Affordable ticket price
7.) Sell beer and wine (restricted to the food area)

To sum it up the pros massively outweighs the cons.

8.) tons of location play within the Tacoma Seattle area

Great, back to Tacoma again.

I guess it could be worse. It could be in Wheeling, IL. But seriously, please move it back to Seattle.

Word of the wise to anyone attending this year, do not eat the food at the convention center. It is literally matter with calories. It is not food. With the 9 dollar beers, I'll meet you across the street to shotgun beers.

All and all yes I have had a great time at the Tacoma iterations but comparing it to its predecessors back in Seattle leaves a lot to be desired.

Simply bring it back to Seattle! Would draw more patrons from out of town and maybe pinballers's spouses too. The LeMay Museum being there is great, but thats it.

What's really funny are the silly event promo posters showing the Space Needle for an event in Tacoma, hint...might want to change the Space Needle to a Tacoma smoke stack instead.

Could always bring it to Walla Walla. Tons of wine and it is in the center of the Northwest.

a swap meet like pin a go go would be cool. i talked to so many people that came to buy pins and parts and nothing at the show.

Please.

I thought the space itself was good. Convention center built on the side of a hill with almost no parking makes it really hard for out of towners to bring pins, not to mention restrictive load in times. (Pre 9am on fri)
Food was inedible at food court, 9 dollar beers are out of question.
More stuff for sale is great for all hobbyists, ample secure parking for trailers full of equipment should be a no brainer.
Pacific Northwest has so much great food and beer it's really a shame there is no way of showcasing local beers and maybe a pod of food trucks in a parking lot.
Congrats to the Seattle crew for throwing a great show, they put a ton of work into it and always have an amazing tech area, complete with tech seminars.

im going to pin a go go instead im thinking, same drive, more stuff, campground, swap meet

Back to Seattle Center, pinball only...problem solved, or Century Link exhibition center, lots of different space configurations available without having to rent the whole facility out.

I loved the show but it would nice in another location with a big swap meet area with more room for machines for sale, parking unloading was a zoo, I bought a machine on Friday and picked it up on Sunday after the show and things were a tight mess in that small parking area.

the parking was embarrassing lame for a convention center, about par for Tacoma though , drove all around, couldn't locate the free stuff.

the food court place was horrible, the hamburger I ordered stunk like chit, no joke.

the game layout was good and the temperature was way better than the center, lighting could be lower but I believe the word is it cant be dimmed.

its better than the center by a long shot ......1-10 it's a solid 9 as is.

pin pimp, don't like it bring on something better to sell your stuff at you did all right selling your stuff to the NW guys, you'd still be sitting on most of it if you hadn't delivered it.

You just blew my mind

A separate area where games are for sale and more flexible load in and out times would be awesome.

Just think if it was still in the old place with low ceilings and hot. gross!

They have a giant loading bay with a ramp for non loading dock type trucks as well. And a massive parking garage thats like $5 all day. That's not too bad for a large location.

The whole no moving games drives me nuts. In the pinballbulbs booth we LED games constantly and had trouble being able to move a game to LEd it then put it back

Is the seattle center in the downtown area? Downtown seattle is such a driving shit show I wouldn't want to bring a big truck full of games and cruise it through there

By saying it was too hot makes me wonder if you went to the show? Lol dude the AC is cranked in that place and it gets freakin cold in there and I have my house like permanently cranked to 68

Agreed. A few times it was like a meat locker or a walk in cooler in there. That's definitely better than it being hot though.

The show was good overall but here's where I think improvements can be made.
Move it out of Tacoma. Tacoma is scary(er) at night. The last thing we need is something happening to a patron outside the venue when they leave at the end of the show.

Parking sucks for people bringing trailers and games. If someone is bringing a trailer full of games we need to provide a space for them to leave the trailer during the show otherwise they will stop bringing games.

All the restrictions on moving games and tables is a bit much.

More vendors!! This is a huge one for me. Last year I bought a couple of silverjets and LEDs from James and that's it. I left with money in my pocket which is not a good thing.

Fewer arcade games, change the name to Arcade and Pinball Show if the ratio is going to be 3.

Don't know the answer, it was beter than downtown Seattle. But parking a 24 foot pickup with a 26 foot trailer don't work there. I don't know the area, is there a flat parking lot anywhere nearby? Unloading and loading wasn't too bad, it's just the, where do I park my rig for the next 3 or 4 days that was the pain.
Yes we sold everything we brought there and that was good. Most were deals made prior to the show.
We stayed Sunday night so we didn't have to drive all night home and on Sunday we were told to leave
The only parking place the truck would fit into. The back corner of the loading lot. Now screwed.
After a fight with the hotel they let me park right in front of the hotel.
I guess I will quit bitching, i won the x box one. Great show, I'm sure it was a major pain in the ass
Logistically to pull off. Good job to all that pulled that off.

The Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show is an "ALL VOLUNTEER, NON PROFIT" show. All games are loaned to the show from volunteers. We can only put out the games loaned to us.

The inability to move games during the show has nothing to do with the venue. It is by order of the Fire Marshall, and the rules are the same in Seattle.

The show is not a swap meet, and all space costs the show money. Including the parking lot that our Trucks are staged within.

The only person that I know of who truly could not find parking was the guy who brought a trailer full of pins to sell.

Century Link Exhibition Center is not an option, we looked into it.

I am Thankful to ALL of the Volunteers who donate games or their time or both to the Show.
Dok

I have a feeling you're going to get less pins this year than last...unless you address some issues people have brought up.

I stand by that statement

Ya well we brought over 30 pins to the show, and about 12 were in the show on freeplay.
Including a medieval madness, 2 no good goohers and attack from Mars.
Kind of real nice high end pins to have there and they all had huge lines all weekend.
So give us a little bit of a break. It's not like we only came to sell shit.
There was people there to buy and hardly noting for sale.

Amen.
It's great to be able to put a sign on a game for sale, but the games are still hauled to the show for people to play all weekend.
The option would be NOT bringing them inside and only doing parking lot deals, but what's the fun in that?

I really enjoyed playing the games you brought, I hope you'll do the same next year. Much appreciated!

Very cool!

We had booth in corner with the 13 led games all high end as well. I do like how so many were respectful to games. I think if it we're in Seattle I'd consider going Or not since we are down south. Just depends.

Looking forward to attending, assuming it works out with my wife's work schedule.

You mean I shouldn't have been wanding around by myself hoping to find some place open for food at or past midnight? Damn... seriously the first place I found that was open was the Pita Pit and the hot dog guy at Dorky's.

I did not want to go down the dark pita eating path, so I chose the hot dog stand. It was a good choice. I remember loving that hot dog, probably just tired and hungry, but it was good to me

As far as the venue food, as long as you made sure you had your own water on hand, it was mostly ok. I ate the burgers and fries at least twice. It kept me going.

I hope next year is as awesome as last year!

My only suggestion was the Pin Golf games... they seemed way underutilized. Either allow multiple tries, or have competitions on multiple days or? Getting to play each a whole one time, then essentially being locked out was suboptimal, I think those were the least played games at the show (happy to be wrong about that, but I recall them being unplayed bunch of Sat / Sun ? Am I crazy?).

Both of you brought some really sweet games and I always try to treat every pinball and arcade game with the utmost respect since that is how I would want my machines treated.
Parking is not the greatest but it is definitely better than Seattle Center.
I miss having the show in Seattle because it was nice to take a break and wonder around downtown for a few hours.
I walked around Tacoma after dark to take in Dorky's and that was somewhat scary.
Thanks to everybody for volunteering their time and games to a great show!

How about a little more attitude, I'm sure you've got some room to dial it up a notch!

Can't wait... To wait in line .... For hobbit!

Geez man, maybe you should leave the talking to "nwpinball".

I don't see the sense in trying to belittle the guy who dragged 30 games 500 miles to your show and set up 12 of them on free play and try to dismiss him on the grounds that he was selling pins. Seems a little obtuse.

People do come to the NW Pinball show to buy things. Its awesome going to shows with some money in the back pocket and bringing something home wether its a NOS playfield, game, or just a t shirt.

Would be nice to have another area set aside for swap meet as part of the gathering, but for what it is, goes great. Could use the other side, was completely unused all weekend.

We went to that Harmon brewpub last year. Was pretty awesome! And yes downtown Tacoma is really cleaned itself up. It's pretty tame.

For regular cars, whats the parking issue? There is a massive garage attached under the building. I went in and out all day to get stuff. Always a spot and its $5.

As someone who lived there 4 years during my college times I fully agree. We left the show each night really late and wondered to get food, never felt unsafe. It's right on the UW tacoma campus basically with security patrolling all over....

I had zero parking issues but I didn't have a huge truck. Found street parking 2 blocks up the hill for free.
Last year was my first so I don't have anything to compare it to but I will very much be back.

Yeah there was free parking all over a couple blocks up. I have had way better results finding free parking with the Tacoma location than I ever did at Seattle Center.

Not sure where the scary vibe came from. I agree with the OP, it was empty. I walked all over and rarely saw anyone out unless they were students headed to the bars or other show goers on a similiar hunt for better food!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

Yes, and I took the elevator right to the show floor in 2 minutes. $5.00 for your car parked in a secure lot is a no brainer, A great place for food and cocktails was the Swiss, had a three martini lunch and went back buzzed and played more pinball

This show will be super fun, will stern have announced what's coming after Wrestlemania ?

I'm planning on heading down for it. Sounds like an awesome time. Will be my first show. Any tips on best place to stay?