So my take..

Parked in the same garage this year.. $5 is a bargain (not sure who parks for $20 literally next door). This year there were 2 guys taking money at entrance and giving out receipts which I preferred. Last year the credit reader at the exit had issues. sucks the elevators weren't working but oh well, I need the exercise.

Entrance Line: Holy crap there was a lot of people, it literally went back a city block and took 30 minutes to get in. This isn't a complaint, I'm glad to see that many people want to attend the show. Yes I could have prepaid tickets and had a much shorter line, but life has been touch and go this past month with family health issues and didn't want to risk it. Heard the lines moved slow because the credit card readers went down, but volunteers started walking back and taking cash for those that had it (which did speed me getting in a little bit)

Food: As far as I can tell, jersey mike's was the only food vendor, which was fine. Though because it was in the hallway there really wasn't a place to sit and eat other than hopping in one of the windows. Also those vending machines were strange. nothing was labeled, the screen didn't make sense, so I gave up trying to get a drink.

Pinball Hall:
Tons of hobbyist games brought in, very few down. Some weird issues like the virtual pin that ran stranger things was running super slow (like it needed a reboot badly). There was a lethal weapon that kept losing balls and leaned horribly. There was a TNA where it sounded like the speaker jack was loose because you'd get some of the song, then you'd get this humm, then music came back. Ghost in the shell continues to progress, plays better every show.

Between Marco bringing all the Sterns, Chicago gaming bringing like 20 remakes of AFM and MB, and Kingpin games bringing spooky games, jersey jack games the new section had TONS to choose from. Even beyond the early morning start, there were hardly lines to play anything. I left around 2 as usual because that's about the time the casual idiots that don't understand turns start hogging games and I lose patience.

Black knight played brutal, tried it 4 times. Pro feels empty, premium definitely plays better but still brutal. both the pro and premiums I played had ball hangups. Pro got stuck at top inlanes, premium got stuck when I didn't plunge hard enough and the ball got stuck between the drain ramp and the wireform ramp. Had to slam the cabinet to get it loose. If I'm gonna spend $7500 on a game, I think Wonka is a much better buy. Shoots so smooth, so many things to shoot for, code is pretty decent already (lots of modes), love the theme. Pretty sure I'm gonna buy a standard edtion, it'll be my first JJP game.

Cool man, looks like you've successfully trolled me in every thread now. I tried to ignore you but it looks like you won't quit until you get some sort or rise out of me. Glad I didn't sell you my pin now, your personality hasn't changed a bit. Not really sure why you're holding a grudge when by skipping buying my pin you ended up getting your dream pin of apollo13. Get over it man.

Cool, glad that works for you. My wife likes pinball too, something many wives don't in this hobby.. So I support her decision to change her mind. I'm not the first person to change their mind about selling a pin. It would be different if I sold it to someone else after telling you it was yours to buy.

i see dan garrett had the high score on wonka, that guy is good

Pretty sure Dan has pursued dozens of options over the years, and this venue made the most sense (I think I remember it was possibly going to be the baseball stadium nearby at one point). The existing venue at the hotel sucked, there's no other way to describe it. It was massively packed, often times where you can't even walk by (ESPECIALLY IN THE PINBALL ROOM). I was apprehensive the first year too being downtown (I'm a suburbanite at heart), but I don't really see why that's a big deal? You drive right by the front, hang a right, park in the parking garage half a block away for a measley $5 (try parking downtown chicago sometime at say the house of blues, it's like $35).

Does the $45 entry fee kinda suck? Yea, but I get why it has to be that. It's a HUGE venue hall, tons of gaming related celebrities coming in, and honestly if that's the price I have to pay to play the newest games shortly after the announcement than so be it.