Its official. We like alien.

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i'd like to thank everyone who is posting pics and vids here and on youtube so while i am not there still get to experience a little bit of the atmosphere and the fun of this expo. Hope to go there in person in the future.

Greatly appreciated!!!!

Shout out to all the cool people at Expo. I was there last night and had a great time. I didn't bump into even a single jerk, everyone I talked to was cool and cordial and it was just a very pleasant experience overall. I'll definitely try to get out again in years to come, as a first timer I had a great time!

If you saw or interacted with some dbag with long hair and a BK2K shirt on that was me!

I might have missed it but how was the JJP tour this year?Also are they having a seminar this year?

I have never been on any of the factory tours... but my question is how does Stern compare to JJP factory wise.

Anyone try the Scorbit enabled Hot Wheels machines in the AP section? Any pics?

I can't tell you how nice it is to see pics of that game and feel happy about it finally.

I played the alien there, and while I enjoyed it I felt the flippers were a bit weak? Anybody else feel the same? Likely due to the game being on for hours on end?

Alien has pretty severe fade issues, so it's either fade or they had the flippers turned down to try to delay the onset of fade. Either way, that sucks.

Yes, the flippers on both queen and alien felt HORRIBLE

A game that is played constantly for 12 hours straight will have sh!t flippers feeling

Someone ask the JJP guys when the new GnR code is going to be released?

Was there yesterday (Friday) for about 12 hours. I haven't gone as long as some but this was my 7th expo and I have to say I think that it had a lot of improvement over prior years. First, the vendor area opened at 10 a.m. on Friday which was great and there were a lot of games so other than James Bond (at the beginning of the day) and Magic Girl (all day) lines were very short, which is a testament to vendors such as Kingpin, Tilt, etc. (sorry if I omit anybody) and the manufacturers themselves. Good to see a lot of people I knew and everyone looked like they were having a great time. FWIW, my thoughts on the games were that James Bond was very entertaining, not sure it if warrants a top 10 rating. It was an experience playing Magic Girl. I met Eric and his colleagues at Enterrium on Wednesday pre-Expo and they were great, I was very interested to see everything but because of the lines didn't get that opportunity. It looks great, played well (based on my miniscule experience there) and props to getting this playable! Queen was a little odd with the 1-player, 2-ball setup -- I wasn't thrilled with the plunge targets, seemed a little unusual but that's not always a bad thing. I'm reserving judgment on that pending further play. Aliens, however, looked and played great (minus one game on the right that always seemed to have issues). The flippers felt a little slow in comparison to Stern games (but don't almost any other game?) but I liked the flow and layout a lot. Big props to Hemisphere Games for having the ONE thing I wanted to buy and to Rob Berk and everyone else associated with the show for putting on a great experience!

All pinball is good. Some games are better than others and people's tastes vary. (I'm glad we don't all like the same few games.)

I probably can only afford to add one more pin to my collection, so I'm being very careful about the choice. After playing some of the great new pins at Expo, I've dropped Godzilla premium and 007 premium from my short list. Which leaves only Batman 66 premium (a Lyman coding masterpiece) and Weird Al (something totally different than anything I already own). But I'm unable to pull the trigger in case I like some new game that comes out even better.

Just home from vacation and glad we made the choice to swing out .Really liking this one .

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Fox cities is streaming the A tournament finals at Expo:

https://www.twitch.tv/foxcitiespinball

Karl DeAngelo is playing right now. He is CRUSHING the tournament. All #1 scoring finishes on the top 4 games. The only one in the tournament to do that.

https://www.neverdrains.com/expo2022/playerIndex.php

Great show. Thanks to all those who organized and worked to make it happen

They still felt better than JJP flippers. But I agree they needed a little more juice, especially the upper right to make that awesome but hard to hit side ramp. Hopefully there is a power adjustment to turn them up a bit at home. Queen was cool but Alien was the star of the show for me. I want one.

Really good Expo this year. I've been attending for many years and this is the best show in a long time. Alien and Weird Al were definite winners for me. Bond was good, but game times were pretty long; I think they need to make it a little more challenging. Vendors were great this year along with free play games. The homebrew section was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed playing a few new homebrews that I hadn't played before, especially Dukes of Hazzard, Elf and Haunted Cruise. Looking forward to next year.

Haunted Cruise had some weird kickouts (to the slings? huh?) but the presentation, sound and use of the P2K gimmick was really cool. I loved how the cutout window lit up to show you the active pops underneath.

Wonder if we'll see production games try that pepper's ghost once the patent expires?

Ben it was awesome to finally meet you, even if it was only for a couple minutes. (I was the guy in the back cutoff shirt sitting next to Chris)

The left scoop kick out is absolutely a problem for cruise- I already have a redesign that will fix that, just couldn’t redo an entire playfield before expo. Please let me know of any thoughts or weirdness you noticed. I bring my games to these events for feedback (both good and bad)

Love expo, but could the damn music be any louder? I realize its kinda an old man yelling at clouds moment, but music is too loud!

Speaking of awesome to finally meet you! Linolium your presence at expo only made it better!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

All the sterns felt great. Also i visited the PB booth at like noon so it wasn't even very busy yet

yeah the jjps didn't feel great either but they were about what i expected. I agree that I liked Alien better than queen but also I was afforded a lot more time on alien than queen so it wasn't a fully fair comparison.

Gawww ( ◠‿◠ )
I concur

Was Punny Factory at the show?

Yes I remember meeting you but didn't know you did Haunted Cruise! That's awesome!

Aside from the weird kickout, I felt it could use more inserts per shot to guide the player on what to do. Flippers also felt a bit weak (I know this is always something people say at shows) but it made it difficult to get to the cool upper PF.

Still, yeah, really liked the game!

Great game!

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Been to every Expo since 2002 and this was probably one of the best ones. Great layout and use of the hall, a great selection of games (most of which were in working order !). The Stern booth was great as well as all the other manufacturers, vendor/exhibiters . Really enjoyed playing the pre-flipper games from the 1930s and talking to the owners about them... was a nice history lesson that isn't at every Expo. Didn't go to as many seminars as in past years, but still was a great time as always. Can't wait to see what next year brings...

I took this picture around 11pm Saturday night... was a fun moment from a great year !!

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I agree, loved their enthusiasm and the games, especially this Rapid Transit and the Play Ball. Surprising fun to play. As the owner point out, these games are almost 90 years old and still playable.

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When asked what game that we were excited to find and play…..

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Thank you to everyone sharing their updates, stories, and photos.

Worst part of the show... Excellent show though.

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Those 30's games were fantastic. The engineering in those early machines is astounding.

Great event! This was my first Expo - based on the comments it sounds like I picked a good year to start attending!

I was pleased with the mix of games - I didn’t know what to expect from the attendee volunteered selection. I assume there is a level of “vetting” that occurs to avoid a bunch of duplicates - I only saw a couple. That said with how busy it got in the evenings, a few dupes probably wouldn’t hurt if available. I was also surprised to not see some of the more common games brought, but again I thought the available selection was great. I’m definitely going to try to bring a game next year.

Vendor area was cool with a good mix of the big distros and flea-market style. I’d like to generally see more vendors, but those that were here brought some good stuff.

There is no vetting if the games brought, issue being whatever they want. Sometimes the are dups, sometimes not.

Duplicates arent a bad thing. Two pins of the same name often have different mods and degrees of restoration. My first task at a show is to play the games i already have to see if mine need work in a particular area. Now one year i remember 5 of the same crap game….thats overkill. But i welcome doubles all day long because they rarely play the same.
It was a great yr to start attending! This was our fifth or sixth but first since covid. Wanted to bring a game or two but my back wasnt having it. Last time we did and next time we will.

The Sinbad row was awesome, man.

Thats the one! I couldnt remember which, my mind had blocked it out. Honestly speaking it is impressive to see 5 odd balls together but when space is at a premium such as it was at westin…. Id rather seen 5 afm’s or something. Sinbad lol

Had a great time with the Winter Meteor this year, thanks to everyone that stopped by and played this rare gem. It was fun learning information about it from Gary Stern and to find out he has a Winter Galaxy himself. Roger Sharp stopped by to play and Todd Tuckey was Todd Tuckey..

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The 5 Sinbads were great!

Got a chance to hear a couple of Gryszzz Expo stories.

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Watched an entire day of the expo stream yesterday and started this morning as well… never thought I would say this, but I don’t know if I ever need to ever watch AIQ, GZ, Rush, LZ, JP streamed again.

Amazing play and amazing players, but just am personally done with it. Also, can’t imagine as a player how those ludicrous ball times / rounds make for an event you want to travel and take part in.

Just my opinion.

Thank you to all that helped put on a great show. I'm absolutely exhausted, but it was a good time.

Thank you for all the pictures and write ups ! Much appreciated !
LTG : )

Thanks for all the show pics and info. Alien Rocks!! My favorite game at this time! Nothing comes close!!

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Just got back from expo and I gotta say overall it was a great experience. The vibe was super chill and everybody had a great time, this is the first year that I brought a game, and despite it being a little extra bit of a hassle it was well worth it to see everyone playing the game all night long with the sub and music cranked to 11. One guy was really having a good time when I approached him and I said hey bud, what do you think, does it play well? He turned around and said, yeah it really does! Not everyday you have the GOAT complement a game you put a lot of heart into. Made it really special for me and I hope many others that enjoyed rocking out to this sweet game late into the early morning hours!

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Packed up, loaded and headed home to the northwest. Thank you to everyone who came by our FAST Pinball booth and sat in on our talk! We love seeing old friends in person and making new friends. What a great show!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

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For me, that was the worst part of expo. Why even have tunes on in the first place? I want to hear the games I’m playing or be able to talk to the person near me. Or when they were doing the drawing for the Bond game, and at the same time there was the Halloween costume contest at the same time- Two microphones going at the same time? Why not coordinate? That being said…

It seemed to be a really good expo this year. Lots of games to play and all in much better working order than the last time. I do think they could have dimmed the overhead lights a bit- some glare on several games, but hey it’s pinball.

Not sure how the video game vendors did. Always seemed like a lot less foot traffic for them. I get brining in new vendors to bring people in, but as was already stated, we already have a MGC near to expo now.

Cliffs prewar booth was really nice to see. Those games were amazing! Talking with him, I really hope he brings more next year as I know he has a nice collection of those games.

Homebrew games are always neat to see. The ideas and integration. The manufacturers should really take a look at some of these for ideas.

Lots of really nice social vendors. Nice variety of stuff for sale. I wasn’t really wasn’t looking for anything, but a lot of different kinds of stuff available and seemed to get snapped up pretty quickly. The non-new stuff that was older random parts looked to have sold really well. I know several of the homebrew guys were really into that.

Not many jerks. Very little issues attendees with bad b/o. However there were many there, that if I smoked pot, I could have smoked their clothes for a buzz.

Looking forward to next year. Thanks Rob and David

I just happened to be in Chicago filming some haunted houses and stopped by the Pinball Expo. Here is a complete walk thru and some interviews with guests and suppliers. You will see Queen, James Bond, Toy Story and much more.