Unpopular opinion- I had a great time at Expo, but I came with no preconceived ideas of what it “should” be. Were there a ton of busted ass EM games... sure? Was there also an entire hall of new Godzilla Pro/Premium/LE, CC pro and LE, LOV, HW, GNR LE/CE, Wonka LE, all the JJP games in the free-play area.... I got to play a bunch of mid 90’s pins like SW, R911, Fire, Twister that I’ve never seen before. Did you have to wait in a 2 person line at times to play? Yes.... but to me, that isn’t unexpected. I got to meet Rob and his family, and I appreciate the effort they put in to make it what it was. I also got to meet Gary, Jack Danger, Eric Meunier, Joe Balcer, Pat Lawlor and a whole host of other people I’d been wanting to thank and say hello to since I own their work. Pinball Project did a great silent auction as well (Shout out to Dave and Sierra for shopping me the WOZ playfield

Bash it or Love it, I still enjoyed my time here and I’m thankful for all the people who put in work to make it happen. Also, putting up GC scores is a life’s mission, on all the GNR machines. I only managed to get 8 of the 14 though

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I would too, as this would result in a lot more well run shows. It's probably not going to happen though.

I went to Six Flags Great America for the first time in almost a decade this summer. The place has really gone down hill. Weeds taller than me, non-functioning main water fountain/reflecting pool, worn paint, 1/3 of the rides not functioning and a $25 hamburger I did not finish because I could not be certain it was actually food. Regardless of all the park's short coming,, I will admit I am not capable of building and running a better amusement park. Does that mean I do not have the right to to feel it was a less-than-expected experience? Or that the park is not all it could be?

Do you believe that only people capable of putting on a better pinball show than The Chicago Pinball Expo are qualified to give it a negative review?
I'm not asking this in a facetious manner, honestly.

I understand great effort is involved in such things as running water parks and/or pinball shows. But for either to be above a negative review from any but a handful of people on earth seems a bit extreme, IMHO.

Or maybe I misunderstand your point. It happens!

I thought expo was a great time. I knew what the games would be like in the free play area. Stern had plenty of games and there were more vendors than any other show, including TPF. What would Marco have added?

The only thing I'd change is the vendor hall hours. They could put Stern, AP and JJP in their own "vendor" hall and operate with the same hours as the free play area. That way the non manufacturer vendors could still get a break.

I can't complain too much about the show as I definitely fall into the "I didn't help make it better, so I'm partially to blame" group. I had fun despite the issues for the one day I was there (Friday). The vendor hall was pretty awesome, though the hours are a little baffling. Really no reason that didn't open earlier. American Pinball's booth was a huge draw for me, and it was great getting to play Valhalla and Hot Wheels for the first time. Both great games, and I love seeing these guys succeed. Stern's booth was great as always too. Lots of good stuff crammed into that hall.

The one "critique" I will give though...the free play area. It is painfully obvious that Rob just has movers move in his mountains of games to pad the numbers and be able to say X number of games were there. It was so sad seeing so many cool, rare games, and having them be either off or barely working. I can't imagine a world where I had that kind of collection, and just left them neglected like many of these obviously were. I'm torn saying this as it was cool to even see some of this stuff, but when they were unplayable or barely playable, was it worth it to bring them? Like I said...most of it was obviously just for quantity sake. I did see a couple techs running around doing what they could, but they could only do so much for some of them. My rough guess is Rob's games accounted for at least 60% of the free play hall (and I heard rumor a fake name was used for another good chunk of them that were actually his too, no idea if there is any truth to that). Of those, at least half were off or unplayable at any give time, and another half were just barely playable (no displays, flippers that barely made it half way up the pf, etc). Just really sad. Again, I fully admit I am part of the problem as I didn't bring a game to share either, so my criticism definitely deserves a grain of salt.

At the end of the day, I am glad Expo is still going and has been making strides in many areas. I do appreciate Rob and his crew working so hard to put on the show. It was a great time overall.

i helped in the free play area in 2019, they. let rob anthony run the free play room and no game was down over 30 minutes. everything went smooth. but being on standby for nothing for 3 days gets old pretty quick. not many people willing to work for free anymore. Pretty thankless job that most won't volunteer for.

Yes, I am fairly new to the hobby. However, I cannot understand the rationale of grown adults crying on Internet forums that not enough toys were voluntarily brought to a mid-pandemic toy expo. You’re all definitely old enough that spanking was the behavioral correction standard of your time, so I suppose that puts its efficacy debate to rest.

Be the change you wish to see and bring your machines next year. Maybe then you’ll appreciate the effort that goes into these events.

Easy way to avoid the unbelievable trauma this must have caused you: don’t come next year

Your opinion as is anyones is valid. The difference like your comparison of Six Flags is these events are Supported and possible by the fans. You don't bring a roller coaster to Six Flags to share. Expo like most shows is a Participation event not a production event. The hotel (not convention center) is designed for there use carpet or not, high ceilings or not. We don't get to design the room simply use it. If this was IMTS or Fabtech sure but those are 100k plus booths. Expo for the most part is what WE make it. I don't complain because honestly I'm a lazy ass not willing to drag a game in. I should though.... Met some great people and enjoyed the hobby on a grander scale. I'm happy.

Expo used to be an industry show. That forever changed after the 1999 one.

2000 - read about it. Maybe 10 games there. No more banks of games from a half dozen manufacturers each trying to out do each other.

2001 - People got together. This is our show too. What can we do to help ? They started doing what they could. Volunteer help. Bring in games. Expo turned into the premiere show. Play games. See the newest and greatest out there. Meet the stars of the industry. Meet old friends. Meet new friends.

2022 - Yet to be written.

LTG : )

There’s always pro and cons to every show. A lot of it is what you make of it.

I did feel bad about the layout of the vendor room- Several areas were kind of dead zones for some of the vendors. Id have been frustrated if I was some of them.

I never go to these shows but common sense tells you they take a lot of time and effort. You also don’t see people getting rich off of these things. These points alone would give me pause to ever call out someone’s show in a public forum and I’m not exactly the most sensitive person on these boards haha.

Private message someone if you have to. Just not a good look.

The freeplay area in 2019 I thought was solid too. Don’t remember a lot of games down. Some really nice ones in there too.

My biggest disappointment was that galloping ghost’s pinball section is not open on Sunday. I had fun at expo!

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Berks games are never working or playing. He's a collector not a player. So even if the game was working when he bought it, it won't be in a couple of years. Having his games at the show, just fills up space to make it look like there are games at the show, but in reality, they don't work anyway. We tried playing 10 games in the Free play zone, and out of the 10. 10 didn't work. So 10 out of 10 were just useless paperweights.

That's ok. MGC is a much better show and that is coming up this weekend. Best pinball show of the year.

Its sad when you remember ohio/il/mi probably has more large collectors then anywhere else in the country and “the” show still has poor engagement to build up the free play area.

This really is “berk expo” and i hope in the future rob finds some solutions to help nurture those relationships again.

The vendor vs freeplay split is well intended and needed for the vendors… but i hope some compromises could be made in the future like encouraging vendors to have clusters in the Free play area too.

Seminars were pretty bland… but I appreciate those who contributed.

We were there wed-sun… my feedback for anyone in the future would be to do two nights max.

The cancellation of the stern tour really screwed our trip. I wouldn’t have come on Wednesday.

I did not like the concessions offered for the change in the tour.

yeah it was awesome, and how it needs to be handled. if game was down there was a card on every machine that said send text to his number with the games identity number. then people were immediately sent to fix the game. no more than a 5-10 minute reaction time.

When the public is given little-to-no incentive to participate then they will not. This is the case with Expo. It's not a "people's event", it's a Rob Berk production.

No one is suggesting showing up at Great America with paint brushes (and paint brushes are EASY to haul around). Why would they? Same goes for Expo. There simply is not enough incentive for the community to bring machines. You didn't do it. I didn't do it. Most of the people I know didn't do it. Maybe we are all lazy? It's possible. It's more possible that we simply are not given enough incentive to do it. Or perhaps over the past 20 years we have been made to feel that it's not "our" show. We, the potential game bringers (me, you, and countless others that woulda, coulda, shoulda), don't tend to support something we feel has not supported us.

I went to the show on Thursday and had a fine time; got my 30 bucks worth. I'm happy. Sounds like you are too.

Did I bring a machine to Expo this year? Not a chance. I used to back in the earlier 2000's, but I never felt an ounce of gratitude. And when you are tearing down a 300 pound machine, lugging it out of your basement, loading it in your car, driving it down to Expo, dragging it out of your car and into Expo, setting it up, tending to it all weekend, then tearing it down, dragging it back to your car, loading it in your car, driving it back home, unloading it out of your car, lugging back down to the basement, setting it up and shopping it out, gratitude counts for something.

As far as I can tell, all game bringers got this year was a pass to the freeplay area. No seminars, no nothing.
If I'm wrong about this I will gladly stand corrected.

And if fair compensation is offered and thanks given (making it feel more like a "supported" show), I will not only bring a game next year, I will also do my best to rally my friends to do the same.

You with me Chicago?

Terry.

P.S. - And fuck it, I'm loading my paint brushes in my car right now and making my way to Six Flags Great America, being that they seem to be as much of a "supported" event as Expo. Which is to say, "not supported"; my point. They will be about as grateful as Rob to see me show up. Maybe they will give me a free pass for one ride.

And I get it if he's incapable of working on his own machines. But could he not have a tech come out to his home and do a diagnostic check / repair on whichever games he's bringing to the show? Or at the very least do what PAPA did, pay a tech to be at the show the entire time (start looking at his games while the show is being setup, and continue to work on them as the show is going). Not saying every game will be back up, but it would certainly mean more games up than was this year. I mean if you're a collector, would you not want your games to be working?

Didn't they have a truck running around the area for a couple years to help people ?

Maybe time to bring that back.

LTG : )

the problem is, he doesn't care if they work or not. He thinks people just like looking at them like he does. As long as it looks like there are lots at the show, he doesn't care beyond that. Working or not.

Love it and well said. Granted I can't paint for shit. Why not start a list of Suggestions for Rob to consider in the future.

1 Really like the truck idea though it seems the legistics would be tough.
2 Many of the OEM (Stern, JJP, Etc) are on a tare with these shows for marketing why not have them contribute a 50-100 voucher towards a new game purchase per game brought. (One voucher per purchase with Name of contributor to keep it honest).
3 Same could be requested of booth sales at a lesser value. (and reduced booth cost to get More vendors in and more revenue)
4 Rob should organize a commity of members (owners, operators, vendors, Pinball Life, etc) to evalute time schedules, legistics, etc preshow to consider valued options to make the show great.
5 Discounted room rates for contributing participants. Game providors.
6 Funds set aside (add $2 to the entry) to get a support team onsite to Help with failing games and contribute to the uptime. (like in the past with Pinball Mafia)
7 A gathering of donor pinball carts and dollies to speed safe setup.
8 Mandatory move half (split) of the OEM games out of the vendor hall so the can be appreciated by more people and extended times without tieing the vendors to watching their booth for extended hours.
9 (Rant) Still never understand why most of the seminars are fee based??? If anything many of the OEM's should be paying to do a private promotion of their goods. People go to Support their efforts with expensive purchases. Do a good seminar with Content and you will be rewarded!
10 Do a follow up "Thank You" acknowledgement letter to all the amazing contributors and game providors!

I can't imagine if many of these were considered that anyone would mind increasing gate costs 5-10$ to see it all happen?

That is correct and I was amazed. No seminars, no goodie bag, no early/late access, just access to the hall.

I know a washed up pinball designer that does great fake dioramas of pinballs, I can share his info. He'll even make them blink and appear to be a working pinball.

I just think it's easy for people to bitch and complain.

Now, those who come up with positive, constructive criticism or solutions - that's different. You're actually making a concentrated and concerted effort to provide both a critique and a solution.

Anyone can bitch and whine. In my line of work (active duty), we QUICKLY lose interest, respect, or faith in someone that cannot provide some form of solution or multiple COAs (courses of action) but can whine like a siren.

Then again, this is America - the land of entitlement and "it's not my fault!" redirection of blame.

** Edit - since making this post I read all the responses and see there's not much incentive for volunteers to bring games. That's a bummer. With these games about to cost $7K MINIMUM, I wouldn't be eager to bring one either.

Maybe Expo is the past and TPF is the future?

True that.
Still a great country, but she's limping.
Does not keep me from having plenty of civic pride.
I'm gonna carry on and play pinball!

As far as collector shows go, it’s been that way for ten years now. Expo is still the industry show for seminars and tours and what not, but it’s not a collector show. TPF could become the industry show but it would need greater support from the manufacturers. Stern didn’t even go to TPF in 2019…

Please tell me he at least looked over at you and smiled, then raised his glass and said "Cheers, but Elvira40 is still gonna cost you $25,000".

let’s just say I’m glad I got my premium when I did. This 40th LE edition only threw gas on the fomo fires, so I expect all editions to rocket up in price. But I’m a player, not a flipper. She’s bolted.

Saw the 40th LE on the floor at expo, and the matte/gloss finish on the side art looks really great! But honestly, the art that really blew me over was the Godzilla LE foil side art. Not super reflective, but a nice subtle metallic finish to the silver elements of the art. It will be a true end cap/crown to anyone’s collection. Bravo Mr. Yeti

yeah, haven't seen the LE in person yet. but goddamn, the pro i get to play everyday is unbelievably fun. and the art is fantastic, especially knowing the backlash it got at first. any version is a must have in any serious collection, IMO.

If you go to Expo with the expectation that the new games will be there, that there might be a cool announcement or two, that you can pick up some parts in person, and that it's mostly about the people in the end you'll have a fine time. Talk some shit, see old friends, meet new people, catch a seminar or two, see the latest and greatest. And sure, flip some games, but it's never been a great arcade.

I haven't seen a single person in this thread appreciate the homebrews, I saw a lot of cool photos, that's always one of my favorite parts.

I didn't go this year, been to plenty of others, it's the same every year and this sounds no different tbh.

This thread looks like every single other Expo thread we've ever had. You could switch the dates and a couple details like the cement floors and I'd have no clue what year we were talking about.

I'm not saying don't complain! Complain away, I get it. Always good to have pressure to improve. But if you want to have a good time at Expo you'll do better if you set your expectations to what the event is actually about. In my opinion at least.

As much as I love pinball, its the PEOPLE that make these events fun, no matter whats right or wrong with the event, working machines or not.

homebrew section was great, and so was the vendor sections. If it wasn't for them, it wouldn't have even been worth coming out one day.

I went a few years ago to Expo and it was Ok. I appreciate the effort of anyone willing to put this on, but you got to get people to bring their games and share them or the show will kind of suck. That is why arcade and pinball together helps the show more options to bring more stuff.

I have attended CA Extreme and Texas Pinball Festival and both of those are amazing. Very well managed and plenty of games.

I imagine in a COVID world getting people to bring their stuff to share is not easy. This show did not look like a lot of games were there to play in the free play areas.

This, exactly.
The freeplay area has become an afterthought. It's easy enough to walk past the 50 or so broken machines in that area. There are also some working ones mixed in if you want to hunt them down.
Go for the good stuff; new machines, homebrew machines and friends.
But please, please, please turn down the glaring halogen lights a little, or turn half of them off if they are not on dimmers. It would really help with the rather sterile atmosphere in there.
Terry.

The homebrews were great and really got some recognition.

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I hope some of those home brews make it to the Houston show in a couple weeks. They look fantastic.

Overall I had a great time, I can only speak on the vendor hall as I did not attend the seminars. Not my first Expo either.

In the free play area, there were some games down, but only 1 or 2 I can say were down all weekend. (Revenge from Mars). Heck I even saw a few of Rob’s games go down, but we’re also back working and I played them. Would it have been better with a tech on site? Sure, but guessing there were reasons they couldn’t provide that this time when years past they had someone working on games.

Homebrew area was awesome, nice to see the creative minds in the hobby, get to play their creations and talk with them.

Nice meeting many in the industry, and was happy to be able to support several of the vendors that were there.

Me \/

I LOVE seeing what people make. 20 years ago it was amazing to see anyone even do a retheme on an EM. Now people are creating pinball from scratch with custom code, its amazing what people come up with.

A show can't improve if people don't recognize where the shortcomings are.

Overall, I think it was one of the most enjoyable Expos I've been to (out of 18 or so). In part, maybe because it seemed somewhat lightly attended, I was able to connect with more industry talent than ever before.

It was a weird feeling show - certainly the semi-post-pandemic setting contributed to that. It felt more industrial (like MGC) due to the concrete floors and high ceilings.

It was nice to not have to worry that if I drove off-site for lunch or dinner that I'd have to spend 40 minutes trying to find parking when I got back. Although, I'm not convinced that the parking lot could handle double the attendance, which would be my estimate for a "normal" year. Friday night seemed notably busier than Saturday - I thought that was quite odd.

People I know emailed Expo with offers to bring (quality working) games and never heard back. Many of the games in the free-play area were non-working (including those that had no credits and no means of players adding credits). Some staffer/volunteer should be going around checking on games and adding credits and making minor repairs. I spent very little time in the free-play area due to the lack of playable games. Perhaps the Expo staff were so busy addressing issues related to changing venues, and trying to adapt to Covid related issues that they just didn't have time to work on the Bring-A-Game aspect (including ensuring the security of the games brought given the unknowns of a new venue)? I suspect that Rob just thought it was better and more efficient to bring lots of his own games than to try coordinating Attendee games this year.

Sound in the seminar room was awful. I found it very hard to hear if I was out of the front 1/4 of the room. I'm not sure if audio could have been routed to the video monitors deeper in the room (assuming they had speakers), but if so that might have helped a little. Additional speakers 1/3 or 1/2 back would have definitely helped. Not having the speakers next to the guest presenters would have likely helped too by getting the sound deeper and not fooling the presenters into thinking they were louder than they were.

The Bumper Blast initially seemed pretty lame/disappointing. It didn't help that at least one of the cashiers seemed brand spanking new and you had to order very ssssllloooowwwwlllllyyyyyyyyyyy so she could find the right button to press (convention center: consider training your poor employees). But it seemed like that cashier lady learned quick on the job - trial by fire - and the line started moving pretty quick. You could get a reasonable amount of food for the $25, and the quality of many items was fair at worst, and many items were actually pretty good. Our table did family style where we would go use 1-2 vouchers and share everything, and go back for more of our favs. At the end we were full and had a voucher left over, so... six $4 cookies for a not particularly needed dessert! Had the Bumper Blast been as well attended as prior years the lines would have been a complete disaster, plus even with the small crowd, they ran out of all kinds of items, especially the baked goods.

The onsite registration system was saving way too much attendee data in the drop-downs. It needs to be tweaked so as to not populate the drop downs with attendee data. I didn't see credit card data getting saved, but it is best to error on the side of caution when it comes to privacy and potential ID theft.

Bridget - as always - was friendly, helpful, and managed to keep a smile on her face despite the challenges. Go Bridget!

Rob, you were giving people nightmares/PTSD flashbacks with that damned scooter - heal fast man! (no offense intended to people with real PTSD)

This was our first one, we had a lot of fun there. Unfortunately i will not be able to get to MGC this year. i am very curious as to how EXPO compares to MGC?

Anyone know why no Spooky this year? was looking forward to seeing a Halloween and/Or Ultraman

No it isn't.
Ya'll stay home.
No seriously go to your own local shows. They need your patronage. There are already too many people that attend TPF.

Exactly; I went one year about 4 years ago... and refuse to go back.
Disrepect for the people that make the show is the reason I won't go back.
Loaning my machine to the free play area should get me 100% free access to EVERYTHING a show offers. Everything - even an awards show.
Anything less is an insult.

Holy cow! I can't believe that the "Rudy from Funhouse" costume contest kid was there at that game!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/disappointed-chicago-expo/page/2#post-6579643

This is because the current GM at Great America doesn’t care about anything. He’s the worst GM in the chain I’m sure of it. Hoping against all hope he gets replaced sooner than later.

Oh yeah, and Stern... Why would you schedule your costume contest at the same time as the Family Feud game/seminar that you are sponsoring? I would have liked to attend both.

I just want the freeplay area to be interesting enough to provide something to do when the schedule dictates thats the only activity going on.

Thank you to the group that brought rat race!! Loved getting to play that

You make a good point.

I’ve been tempted for years to attend expo, but haven’t made the trip yet.

I feel very fortunate to have the Texas show close by and the smaller but really enjoyable Houston show also nearby.

MGC sounds great! In retirement, maybe I’ll take long trip to both one year.

Mgc has really gotten interesting with new reveals happening. Seems spooky is content to do there vs expo. Honestly id say expo is in danger of being overrun by its neighbor to the north.

as it should. MGC has always been a far superior show.

Depends on dates. MGC moved later this year in hopes of being able to because of covid. If it were back in April it may not have happened.

One week apart makes it tough for everybody.

LTG : )