I really enjoyed bringing a couple of nice games to the Allentown show many people had not seen and playing in my first pinball tournament there.

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I bought a NIB Rush Pro, havent bought a NIB game since 1994

Hmmm
Lots for me
-TPF Twipys was INSANE. I’ve never cried of laughter so much in my adult life
-Al and Julia’s garage pin tourney a couple of weeks ago was REALLY fun
-Nice Guys league in Cape Coral FL has gotten a “you have to be there” event this year. The simplest games have turned to some of my favorites because of semi-finals memories
-Location pinball in Nashville earlier this year was sloppy awesome

I can go on but yeah; 11/10 year

Going to Pintastic New England with my son! (He is playing RCT)

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Driving to Wisconsin and back for Batman 66.

NW Pinfest, Rush and Mermaid Edition Fathom.

Mine was going to Next Level in Portland. Man that place was awesome!

I can confirm, and Matt said his main entertainment at the TWIPYS was observing you guys losing it

Sad I missed that one. Last one I went to was one of my favorite things I've done in pinball. I wasn't informed it was happening until the day of :/

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Otherwise, creating the Stranger Things mod set is the most significant for me in 2022.

And Gainesville finally has a large pinball arcade that we're slowly building up to a league with (Bragging Rights arcade)

I got to teach my EM Pinball Repair class in California a couple of times this year. I hope to take it on the road again next year.

Mine was the announcement (and my preorder) of Scooby-Doo. I've wanted someone to do this theme since I started collecting 18 years ago. Thanks, Spooky, for finally doing this!

I’ve been wanting a Slick Chick for longer than I could remember. Picked it up on Mother’s Day this year and didn’t even see my mom. (It’s okay I saw her Saturday). Also got to be a part of the Golden Goose.

Being present for the big Multimorphic reveal of Weird Al at TPF, and hanging out with the MM team.

Getting Tommy as my first pin and going to my first tournament!

Three way tie:

- Finished up a Xenon in less than a year, for me that's record time. Did boardwork for the first time on it, with help from folks here and first time using a desoldering gun. Very nostalgic pin for me and very satisfying to have it done. I wore the t-shirt below to the 2013 York show, was finally able to complete that list.

- Finished up a Space Invaders from 2016. So glad it's no longer a widebody paperweight.

- Picked up a $100 Star Trek Next Generation. Needs a ton of work and parts, but I'd never have had one otherwise.

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We'll I did something new in pinball this year that I never done before and that was giving a "History of Pinball" speech to my car club and then letting them play as much pinball as they wanted in the basement. They really enjoyed the history side and certainly got a kick out of playing and seeing all the games. They had no idea what to expect because I had never told them much about the collection in the last three years since I joined. They knew I had a few games but really no idea how many. I video recorded the speech and maybe I'll post it on YouTube some day.

John

First time at TPF. Can't wait for the next one.

I played my first tournament ever at District 82.
My goal for the year was to enter a tournament.

It’s a doubled year for me.
One pinball thing that stood out was almost becoming the Belgian Pinball Champion again but had to settle for second place at the very last ball! So not bad at all

One of the worst things that happened since I started playing pinball also happened this year and that was loosing my good friend Lyman Sheats!

This year I bought my first pin, definitely my favorite experience.

I've played most every pinball machine that has light up displays, and I was surprised by Godzilla (Premium).

It plays just a bit different than any other machine I remember. Interesting side-to-side loopy action, and the magnetic post was more interesting in-game than I thought it would be.

It's the first pinball in a long time that I think deserves to be in the top 20-30 pinballs of all time on Pinside's list for the next ten years. We'll see, but I think this one's got legs.

I wish I had an opportunity to play more of Stern's new Jurassic Park. I got the machines in and sold all of them before I ever had a chance to give it the play it deserved, and I think I missed a lot of it's depth.

I really enjoyed Pinfest and Cointaker’s tailgate…but probably the most enjoyment was hosting four tournaments for beginners/first-timers from my company (one each quarter). Typically had about 20 coworkers playing…scores and competition kept getting better from tourney to tourney.

Taking my son, brother-in-law, and two nephews to the Southern Fried Gaming Expo over the summer. We had a great time and played tons of pinball.

getting my AFMr home....
Let me explain. Bought the game in Phoenix, drove home to Tucson. Between Phoenix and Tucson we get sudden fast-moving huge dust and rainstorms. They are called a haboob. At times, the dust is like a solid wall, almost like a bad movie. Then the rain hits. After such a storm, either side of the freeway (Interstate 10) looks like a shallow lake for miles.
So, AFMr was in the bed of my truck when I hit the haboob. I saw it coming and pulled off at a truck stop. There was no driving through. There was minimal cover under a thin canopy used when truckers wash their vehicles. I did have a tarp over the game. When the rain and violent wind hit, it shredded the canopy and I was effectively out in the open with rain flooding down literally in sheets. I stood in the bed of the truck holding the tarp on against the violent winds and began literally shoving sheets of water off my game. It was raining so hard water was pooling in the bed of the truck. I was instantly soaked - and began to get chilled. Rain in the desert is cold due to falling from a great height and the wind was numbing. So I took off my shirt - which was just making me colder - and kept swiping water off my game as fast as I could. People drove by honking and waving, laughing at the crazy old shirtless guy splashing in the back of his truck. This lasted for 30 minutes and when the rain finally stopped I was exhausted, shivering and worried about the game. Drove home, 45 miles, and unloaded. The bottom board was damp, but that was it! Funny thing was I had rarely played AFM, and bought the game because it had 370 plays and was beautiful. It still is, thank goodness, and plays perfectly with no signs of the storm. I love the game.

Top experience of 2022:
- Bought my first pin…and then 4 more

All the other great experiences of 2022:
- PinBrew and CLEPin with the family who introduced me to the hobby who flew in for both.
- Pinball road-trip to PA with my wife.

Upcoming great experiences for 2023:
- Another pinball road-trip to kickoff 2023 to pickup our favorite pin to fill our final spot.
- TPF
- My first sale/trade (maybe?)

Getting my baracorra working after a year of suffering from a self destructive mpu power driver board. Thanks to my friend Ryan who toiled over it and retraced 20+ broken traces on the mpu countless hours he spent with that on his bench. We missed bringing it to FPF by a week but got her running just in time for our Pinball Garage Party. We had over 76 players and 15 rounds she never went down solid as a rock.
Oh Medsinyl you and Matt missed a great time. There is No mystery the party tourney is ALWAYS the first Saturday in December. This year was the Ninia next year is the Diaz! December 2nd 2023 will be in the Ifpa calendar and not to be missed! You guys need to come next year.
Hope to have over 80 players next year. Eric Leon was a big factor at making the party one of the best with his and other pinball elves help we got 29 games up and running for the event. Only 2 went down not too shabby we usually loose 10-15% on average. Great night with a little help from my pinball friends. That is what it’s all about getting projects finished and sharing with your friends over some Jell-O shots and avoiding strikes.

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Going to my first pinball expo

While the event was great, getting there was an adventure also

After collecting pins since 1985, I finally bought my 1st NIB game, Alien!! I also popped another pinball cherry this year by making it to Vegas' Pinball Hall of fame.

Enjoyed Free Play Florida as always, but the moment that stood out to me was the first game I put on my Rush after installing the EL light kit and smoking a bowl. The colors man…the colors.

That story reminds me of the first time that I dropped acid.
My science teacher yelled at me and then made me mop it up off the floor.

Best? For me, Yegpin. It's not Pinburgh, but it had a similar feel as was the intent, and that was nice after losing the original. They even had a stage for the finals like at Pinburgh and streamed a ton of hours. I helped debug a lot of the games before it started and did my usual coaching of people on games they didn't know, mostly classics of course.

Close second would be Indisc. It was a great event, but Jim, Karl, Jay and I were too busy running it to participate much. It was gratifying that we were able to pull it off after the Banning mess left us venue-less on short notice.

Shameless Plug --> Come to Indisc 2023 January 12-15! (And please volunteer to help out, we could really use you.)

Wenn to a Halloween pinball party at a local pinball club. They had 2 Spooky pins: ACNC and Halloween. Halloween in particular was really good fun. That’s the first time I’ve played Spooky pins as they are very rare in Germany.

the return of the NW Pinball and Arcade Show after a two-year hiatus. i brought only maybe six pins (and also close to twenty video and other games), but it was great to be back volunteering as a Game Repair Medic at the show which i've been involved in since year 2 in 2009.

and of course always nice to get to play plenty of brand new, hard to find, or rather rare games. glad i got to try Celts, Legends of Valhalla, the Fathom remake, Ultraman, and CCr, which i ended up buying through a vendor at the show and had in house only a little over a week later.

Easily the best pinball related experience of this past year for me is watching my 6 year old enjoy pinball out of her own curiosity. She is really evolving her skill and is learning the difference of each layout. We've developed a bond for pinball, so I guess now she has some say in what game we get next.

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2021 was my retirement year. We sold the house and bought a 1 bedroom condo which meant I had to downsize and sell most of my machines. I only had room for a couple in the 1 car garage.

2022 - we realized the condo was too small, bought a house with a basement that holds 7-8 machines. And…just closed on a place in Florida for winters with a large shed that will fit 4-5 games. So, instead of stepping back from the hobby, I’m back, and have space to fill!

2023 - I need to reacquire a few of my lost children - especially some EM’s: Spanish Eyes, maybe an Alladin’s Castle, Hocus Pocus, or Old Chicago. Maybe an Evel Knievel, Harlem Globetrotters, or Silverball Mania. I miss Cyclone.

Making this:
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To be that:

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Hard one - has been a great year for pinball here - A NIB purchase plus a nice Godzilla Prem, doing Pinball tournaments for the first time over the last year, Expo in the fall. Hope next year is even better!

Hanging out at pinball expo

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Cant believe Olympics not mentioned yet ??? 4 me Al's Christmas party(already mentioned X times) & Olympics

So... Olympics & Al's Festivus

Ughhhhhhhbh

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Easily the first trip to TPF with friends and meeting John Borg!

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Had some nice finishes in some great tourneys this year. Al and Julias Festivus, Pinstock [Fellowship on the Silver Ball], Pinball Profile Played in America - Oviedo FL, SFGE, FPF, Crabtowne in MD, and others.

Making new friends at the local Balls of Steel League that started this year.

Improved my IFPA rank in 2022 from #1982 to #969, and it looks like I have qualified for the Florida State Championship this year.

Best experience? At my age, I can't think of many things I am getting better at, but I'm counting pinball as one of them.

My 50th Anniversary Party.

https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2022/09/26/golden-goose/

LTG : )

My best pinball experience just happened within the last 2 weeks. A friend of mine sent me a few pics of an old pinball machine that he was looking for some info on. I didn't find much info on it, so I posted in another thread looking for some information on it. Within minutes of posting a few pics, my messages and phone started blowing up. It turns out, this machine is the 3rd known example to exist. I never would have guessed that things like this are still around. I was able to put my friend in touch with someone to buy the machine and he will restore it. Since this started, I've talked to some interesting people and have learned a lot about the pre-war machines. I finally got a chance to see the machine in person and the pictures don't do it justice. We didn't take the glass off the machine and its pretty dirty. Looking forward to seeing the playfield after the glass is taken off. Its been a fun and memorable few weeks.

1934 Rock-ola Pleasure-Island

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That's awesome! There are some folks planning to produce conversion kits for World Series (game is very similar). Looks like your friend's has the original paint. So we now have a good idea of the color.

This machine does appear to be all original. I don't have a great eye, but I couldn't see any touchups or paintwork anywhere. There was some question on the cabinet color, but the frame around the playfield matches the cabinet. Some comments I got from people thought it should be a red cabinet. I couldn't tell if the cabinet is something like Robin Egg Blue or more of a green. Once it gets cleaned, I'm sure the color will pop.

It does seem like World Series is more readily available. A conversion kit would be neat.

A few pinball highlights this year:

Got to see some old friends again at a private g2g hosted by an amazing so cal collector, first gathering since before covid

Went to Minnesota and while there got to meet Lloyd LTG and play his arcade

Added a few pins to my collection after not buying anything for a few years.