The VIP lounge games made their way into the free play area today which was a very good add and I suppose helped make it worth it for people to spend some time in the free play area today.

I don't really have any criticisms, just observations others have made about the free play area not being so hot this year. Fewer games in general. But what can you do? It's not the show's fault. Some years will be better than others, and this was a rough weekend being that it was really the official July 4th weekend.

This is not a show that needs an outdoor flea market and they should give up on the idea. It's either always too hot or raining. This is an indoor show. I haven't really seen a good outdoor flea market at a show in a decade, back when it was one of the highlights of Allentown. Probably just an idea that has outlived its operating life at this point.

There's really not much I would change about the show. I mean some of these complaints...rude players? Vendors you don't like seeing every year? There's nothing you can do about this stuff. Vendors pay money to be there so if the cardboard pin guy (whose booth ALWAYS seemed to have lots of people checking out and playing the product) want to come you aren't gonna turn them away. Someone suggested outlawing multiplayer games?! LOL

The organizers are clearly putting in a ton of effort and putting together a great show and program, but they will always be affected a bit by luck and what and who happen to show up. It was a terrible year for game buyers, the pickings were extremely thin. Most the good stuff was not for sale, I didn't see any bargains (And I was there from thursday night on). That's life. Cards just didn't fall that way this year. In past years, it's been a great buyer's show. This year, Allentown was way better if you were looking to buy but in year's past it's been totally opposite. WHo knows what will happen next year.

You never know what you are gonna get. If you really think the games suck, bring your own next year and help out. If you think the vendors suck, don't buy anything, maybe those vendors won't come back, and hopefully someone will step up to replace them. The general production and framework of the show is very solid and has all the right ingredients. I had fun as always playing in the tournament and hanging out late and drinking with folks I see all the time and some I don't see often. The shows are what you make of it and they are always different from year to year.

Deals of the show? Like I said pickings were pretty slim. There was a nice Space Shuttle with custom speaker panel for $1200, a nice Domino for $600, that cool flipperless with the projection scoring at $500, a nice Incredible HUlk for $700 (I think it got bought and then new owner put a 1200 price on it). A Creature at $4700 OBO which would have been a good deal at $4,000. Really, really slim pickings.

The pingolf thing was EXTREMLY casual. People who have never done this before wouldn't know to stop playing possibly, I think you'd have to tell them. There were also people wandering in and just playing games. It worked out pretty well I think but you can't expect that a tight a ship in that situation. The games were GREAT and at $2 an entry everybody could do it. Worth it just to play the games like Robocop and High Speed.

And yeah that Ghostbusters was funny - had mods on it to make it play forever and never drain, turned out to be an easy hole in one.

And hey I won $150 on Friday night so that was nice.

It's never really been a good show for that. But plenty of mods, LEDS and new games were for sale as always.

It's just too goddamn hot for an outdoor flea market. Never gonna catch on at this show.

Because, Columbo, the space the pins went was part of the space the vendors bought.

I think it was for the tournament. A little bit of wandering in and out was cool but tons of people going in there to play and not compete would have screwed things up in my opinion.

Not sure what the NH guys’ intentions were.