I'll be there with my Star Trek LE outfitted with all my mods and the ColorDMD.

Titan Pinball has graciously agreed to sell my Early SolidState Pinball Buttons and Housings in their booth so if you are in the market; stop by their booth. Limited quantities available at the show.

First; before we get into some constructive criticism... I wanted to thank the HAAG crew for an awesome show. I appreciate the work you did and the selection of a great venue. I think this hotel is MUCH better than the old location. Despite the issues below; I did have a good time due to friends who attended.

That said; I was disappointed for a few reasons.
1) Pinball ... it wasn't there. WAY too many broken or barely functional Arcade machines and more than a few broken Pins before the soft open on noon Friday. I don't mind a few; but a significant number of the Arcades were down on Friday even before the show opened. There were just too many duplicates (weren't' there like 20 Centipedes ? ) If you ignore the vendors (Joystik and Marco); there were only 30 or so Pins... and a significant percentage of them were behind ropes in the Tourney area. When the Tourney was done on Friday (and Saturday?) night... The Tourney organizer kept the machines off and behind roped off areas... some of the best machines (TnA) were there.

2) The music... OMG. This has to go or be separate from the game room. Having a live stage in the game room was worse than having a DJ in the game room. Please consider taking this elsewhere. I want to actually hear a machine I'm playing. The music was loud enough when pre-recorded... but was easily 20x-50x worse when "bands" were preforming. It was actually intolerable and I had to leave early because it was just too much. While the back of the hall was better... you couldn't even play any of the pins near the stage for two reasons. first being the shear pain of the music at that location. and second; the "mosh pit" which developed there. I do not want to get rich by selling HAAG earplugs next year.

3) The Harp Twins were a welcome distraction from the game room. Thanks.

For 1); we as the community need to be honest with ourselves. If you don't have a good condition arcade game or better yet a working Pinball machine. Stop being arsehat who knowingly brings nonfunctional games just to get a free ticket. This does no one any service. I know this is happening because I've seen the same "nonfunctional" games for several shows.

If you won't outfit your arcade with FreePlay; then it's your responsibility to walk by every hour or so and make sure it's credited with massive credits. There was ?Vindicators? tank game which had NO CREDITS the entire weekend. Don't expect the public who probably doesn't know what a coin door is ... much less a coin switch to add credits for you.

I'd also like HAAG orgs to actively take a role here and minimize the abusers. Help keep the exhibitors honest. I get it these are old games which can and will breakdown; but a little policing can go a long way to make sure we don't have repeat offenders. No games should be accepted for exhibiting if they aren't outfitted with a external credit switch or Free play.

B) When you are done with the tourney for the night; release those games to the game room. This is crucial if we are going to seen a heavily skewed game room in favor of Arcades.

For 2); Please follow TPF's lead here. Eliminate the "background" music. Do the stage performances somewhere else other than the game room - if at all. I just don't see any value in the party atmosphere. IF you actually have to keep this for some justifiable reason; then make sure the decibels are less than a Jet engine... and the stage performances do not exceed the same level as the background music. There is no reason people should have to escape the game room to ensure they don't end up with hearing loss.

Before someone gets defensive thinking; I did exhibit my game - the Only Star Trek LE on the floor. It was functional the entire show; and I even ensured that the flipper and slingshot rubbers were replaced on Friday night so they didn't break during the busy Saturday show.