Hey all,

So I've never been to a video game or pinball show before. Today we made the split-second decision to drive up to Santa Clara for California Extreme, even though we can't leave until Saturday morning and we have to drive back Sunday morning. If all works out, I hope to have 12 hours of show access. I've already booked our room at Avatar Hotel.

My first/main question for the group: What rare games or pins do I NEED to check out?

I know about: Marble Madness 2, Big Bang Bar, Kingpin, and Jolly Park. Anything else that I simply have to see? I've really only played the pins on location near me, and I have a lot of blind spots (e.g. I've never played Medieval Madness), but I figure at a show like this I need to make a special effort to check out the weird, rare stuff that I'm not going to see otherwise.

Also, is it hard to get game time on those? I'm imagining a super long line in front of Big Bang Bar eating up all my precious show time. Plus, I'm really not a great pinball player, and would probably want to play more than once on most pins to get the hang of them (can easily imagine/fear my first game on BBB after a long wait being over in 90 seconds, then right to the back of the line). Possible? Not possible?

Thirdly, apparently Avatar Hotel has a shuttle. Anyone use that? Is it easy/frequent? Does it run until 2 AM Saturday night? Would it be easier/harder to drive back and forth ourselves? I asked the representative when I made my reservation but she wasn't familiar with the CAEX shuttle.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm a planner. I'm also REALLY excited!

Thanks in advance!

Sounds great! Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the tips! Whirlwind is hard enough with those spinning discs to contend with, I can't imagine playing it with an industrial fan blowing on me! I'm a huge Warlords fan from Atari 2600, but have never played the cocktail version. I'll have to look for that one.

And thanks in general for all the responses! We're super excited!