I'm going to get all scientific on you. My apologies.

Friday 12pm-11:30pm = 11.5 hours.
Saturday 10am-11:30pm = 13.5 hours.
Sunday 9am-3pm = 6 hours.

31 hours = 1,860 minutes.

1,860 minutes / 750 games = 2.48 (2-1/2) minutes per game.
1,860 minutes / 500 games = 3.72 (3-3/4) minutes per game.

How long does a game on Iron Maiden last?

There were definitely times early on Friday that nobody was playing it. Maybe people preferred playing the premiums. Iron Maiden plays a little longer than some.

I know some of the early numbers only reflected counts for Fri and Sat and those were between 500-600. I think once the final counts are done, there will be some in the 700s.

So I made it so home safe with no problems. After a couple days home, my thoughts on the show. This is coming from a outsider that came a long distance.

WOW. What a well run show. Couldn't believe how organized it was. All games pretty much played great most of the time. If a game went down a pinball medic ( volunteer ) came over inspected what was wrong. Most of the time had the keys on the board. fixed what it needed and got the machine going again. quickly. even the game I brought ran into a small issue in transport. but fixed quickly. I'm impressed.

People need to remember these were designed to get played just not so many in such a short amount of time. Everyone did a great job keeping them going. The show was just so well ran makes the Midwest shows look like the wild west. Games here coming and going constantly. Never know what's going to be there or working. If people are complaining about wait times consider that a good problem. because they will surely be disappointed at shows out here.

It was great meeting all the people and pinsiders. seeing rob anthony. every one was nice and kind to me. not one bad experience. The building was nice and huge. Didn't ever feel crowded. I think that was the biggest tournament I have ever seen. I think I counted 17 modern games not including classics. It was cool to play thunder birds. Don't know of the next time I will. Cool kids area if you have kids.
As far as the best time to go is Friday. by 8-9 oclock the crowd really thinned out. I stayed til 11. by then I could play almost any game I wanted and I did. lol. but with the time difference I just couldn't stay awake past 11. But saturday, holy shit it was busy. someone was at every machine. Always. I would go in for a few game then leave come back go in. It was so busy I left around 6 and headed to dorky's. Meet a awsome pinsider there. They had 23 games to play. Then went back for more. Didnt seem to thin out much til late. but by then I had my fill.
Again thank you. Cool to see so much community support. That's something special. Out here most everyone is just out for them self. More collectors and operators here but just different atmosphere. great show, cool seminars, large amount of good quality games like every one told me. no regrets. I will be back just don't know when. jeremy

And for some numbers. I left wedesday afternoon at 2:30. drove 7 hours to souix falls SD. thrusday drove 17 hours to Spokane Wa. woke Friday was at the show by 10 a.m.

Was in Tacoma for less then 48 hours. Woke up Sunday, drove 17 hours to Sturgis SD. finished the drive monday. 6 days 5 nights.

From the show to my house is 30 hours one way. 2,048 miles.
Horrible gas mileage in my grand cherokee. 18 miles to the gallon . $709.13 in gas round trip. I got better gas mileage on the way home, figure that one out. $312.87 in hotels. awsome trip through the mountains. I recommend it to anyone.

Glad to hear that! Still a lot of people that haven’t had a chance to play it that I think are dismissing it as a novelty or virtual Pinball. It’s pretty cool pulling out the module and swapping something completely different in in about 2 minutes. Unfortunately it’s also damn heavy so moving it around isnt as easy as other pins thus it probably won’t be back next year unless another northwester brings one.

Bummer. My wife and I really wanted to try this pin out but it was inoperable when we approached it. May have to drop you a PM

Long ball times, probably.

Yeah those last numbers sound about the same as last year now. There were a lot more new games there. What a great set up, can’t wait till next year! With no kids graduating next year I can go the whole time!

My ball counts:

#the_walking_dead , 1823 balls
Tales from the Crypt , 1514 balls
Aerosmith (Pro) , 1602 balls

I haven't got Demolition Man set up again to check.

As far as I know all of my machines made it through with no down time, which makes me feel good!

DumbAss was your Whirlwind the one with the headphone jack? Man that was amazing - was telling everyone to plug in. Is really sweet playing that way - thanks so much!!!!

That's a mod I want to install on my games as well.

Victor loves his headphones on all his games! great year again!

As others have said ... yes. I tap people wearing headphones connected to their phone (instead of the headphone jack) and point them to the headphone jack. Some get it. Some just give me a blank stare. They probably think the game has no audio at all. I need to figure out a better way to message this but my machines are in the minority so it's not something that an attendee expects to see on a machine.

I'm with you. Once you've played a game with headphone capability (at a loud venue) you never want to play any other way. What disappoints me is that an attendee is missing an integral part of the game. Audio cues are super important when you're visually focused on the ball. Plus some games feature humor like The Champion Pub and No Good Gofers and you can't hear them taunting or insulting you.

Audio is a huge part of Pinball for me- not just the call outs but the immersion factor and mood setting. Sad part of the show being so loud is everyone missing that aspect. Headphone jacks are awesome. Wish new games had them standard.

Finally pulled all of my audits;

MMr - 421
TSSP - 450
MetPro - 569
KISS Pro - 609
GB Prem - 626

Kiss more plays than Met or MMr? Something is wrong in the universe.

Maybe this is something we could add to a sign to let players know that some of the machines have is available.

Nah, makes total sense. The good players tend to avoid Kiss, preferring Met or MMr, so the games are shorter.

A shout out to Mike Lorrain, the excellent AV guy who streams, captures, and provides AV support for NWPAS. Butch and I gave the first talk of the show at 2PM Friday about the making of JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean. While not the best slot for attendance it was great to see so many familiar faces in the somewhat sparse crowd. Before the weekend was over Mike has posted an excellent version of the talk on YouTube:

Even with 15 hours of Twitch feeds of the boys from Bensenville playing Pirates there is something interesting in this stream and I invite all interesting parties to give it a look.

Thanks to NWPAS for inviting us and again to Mike Lorrain who gives up all his time to make sure the talks are supported with the best AV of all the pinball shows.

I don't think that's it. It's probably because Met was a bit hidden in the Marco area and surrounded by IMDNs. KISS was at the end of a row and was always cycling people. I think most have played plenty of Met and MM. KISS is a not as common and despite the lazy narrative, really is a fun game. The scores on Met didn't get over 70M. "Good" players would have blown past that. Conversely, somebody crushed my GC score on Kiss at 550M. That certainly was an above average player.

Speaking of scores, my GB's was reset back to default at the show. Since the audits and settings didn't change, I can only guess someone got the keys, opened it up and cleared them from the service menu. Very odd.

Any show shirts leftover and for sale?

Loved the show, thank you organizers, volunteers and in particular everyone bringing their games to the show. My only complaint, they closed the bar area and stopped selling beer at 8pm on Friday (that’s criminal)!

That makes sense too. Do you have the average play times for the machines? I'm curious what those were.

I hope it means a cheaper hotel...

No, the high cost of the beer was criminal.

Just set my game back up and was super dissapointed to see that one of my plastics was broken when someone tried to lift the playfield. Also have some coin door wires that were disconnected for some reason. What a bunch of horse apples....

I believe you should be able to be compensated for that plastic. It’s possible the wires pulled out because the harness was really tight when the head got folded? (Could have been caught up on something?)

Lysurgeon,
This is Dok, I am in charge of Medics for the Show. The Show strives to return all games loaned to the Show in the same or in some cases better condition than it was loaned to the Show. We will make every effort to repair or replace damaged parts as a result of Show usage. I am the point of contact for Show related damages. I don’t normally follow Pinside, this my slow response addressing your issue. Please contact me (Dok) @ 425-280-9237. I am located in Arlington and can come out to Marysville most anytime.

Lysurgeon - What game did you loan the show?

Can I call you to Dok? My Firepower's both took a dump at show. I fixed the lane guides on FP2 but my Firepower is having all kind of issues.

Yes, you can call me about your FirePower duo.
Dok

What is the projected completion date of the new hotel attached to the convention center?

Interesting that's it is another Marriott hotel. Do you happen to know If the current hotel will stay open? Seems odd to have 2 of the same hotel across the street from each other...

McMenamin's is opening their Elks Lodge sometime in 2019, perhaps in time for the 2019 show.

Might be a good place to meet, but about 5 blocks west of The Rock Pizza.

Would we have to wear funny hats?

Yes, you can call me about your FirePower duo. Dok

Most likely both hotels will compete with each other. The current Marriott and the Murano can barely handle an event the size of the NWPAS, let alone all of the graduations that go on at the Tacoma Dome. The new hotel “should” be full service. Meaning, actual restaurant dining and possibly bar service.

Game tallies:

The games are back home from the show and set up. It was a rough year: I spent most of the weekend working on my games rather than helping people, attending panels or socializing. It seemed like every time I'd fix one, another would be down.

#f-14-tomcat : 259 games counted, 500 estimated.
It melted a coil, blew the transistor and the pre-driver, and finally the fuse. Many thanks to Borygard for the board repair and NVRAM installation (which reset the game counter mid-Saturday).

#star-trek-the-next-generation : 163 games played.
STTNG is pretty new to me, and I'd only recently gotten it up and running before the show; I haven't fully "shaken it down" yet. It had lots of stuck balls on the Alpha Quadrant ramp, and now has a coil under the playfield that's not firing, which leads to balls getting "lost" under the right cannon. I'm beginning to see why operators consider this game a maintenance nightmare.

#lord-of-the-rings : 293 games played.
The Gandalf switch got stiff, which led to lots of stuck balls. Balls were also not releasing quickly enough from the Sword Lock. This is an issue I've seen mentioned here on Pinside, but never thought I'd see personally. It's caused by the balls getting magnetized in the Ring, so they stick to the metal of the Sword Lock and don't roll out quickly as usual. Fixing that is easy once you realize the cause, but those two issues kept the machine down for longer than I would have liked.

#doctor-who : 98 plays
The Time Expander (mini-playfield) came out of alignment during transport. When the game tried to raise it, it hung up and the motor stripped the teeth off of a gear, rendering the game unplayable Friday and Saturday. I replaced the part on Saturday night and put the game out on the floor Sunday. I wish I'd tested it on Thursday, and also wish I'd realized it has a mode that compensates for a dead Time Expander.

Last year (my first year with games at the show) lulled me into a false sense of security: All three games sailed through with no major issues and each racked up about 600 plays. This year left me feeling a bit demoralized. I've had multiple people (nwpinball among them) tell me that taking games to the show is a great way to shake them down, catch the failures and help harden them. I may come around to that point of view, but I'm not there yet. On the upside, my girlfriend and two daughters all made it out this year, and I enjoyed getting to show them around and see things through their eyes.

2018 NWPAS Game Stats (resized).png

Elektra

Really glad you made and enjoyed the show Jeremy. Everyone involved puts their heart and soul into it and it shows.

How about that drive on 90? Gorgeous, right?!

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

OMG it was beautiful driving through the mountains and cannons. I was hard taking pictures while driving. lol. honestly stuff you only see on post cards. see you at expo!

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