I went to the Texas Pinball Festival back in 2003 with a buddy as a last hurrah before getting married. Full disclosure, I've never been to any other show and, though I've owned machines for most of the last ten years, I've been in and out of the hobby. This year I went back with my wife, two children, brother and a buddy of his. We had a great time and I decided to share my thoughts.

The venue was great. The room was huge and the walk from the elevators wasn’t bad at all. My wife has Celiac disease (even a tiny amount of gluten makes her extremely ill) and several nearby restaurants catered to her allergy. We even managed to catch the KU/K-State game at a gluten-free restaurant on Saturday. Room service was pretty expensive but my kids enjoyed the indoor pool. We had some trouble getting the parking gate to accept our room key at first (Friday night/Saturday morning) but the valet showed up to let us in and out. I make it to Dallas 1-2 times per year and almost always make a pilgrimage to Hard 8 BBQ in Grapevine (about 20 minutes away). Great stuff if you haven’t been.

The PA system wasn’t really adequate given the noise from the games. I don't know how to solve that one but nobody could really make out the announcements, especially if you were in the middle of the room. There were a few projectors around the room but they were used more for disco-like effects then for showing useful info. I would have preferred the projectors have the current tournament standings or rotate through slides (or ideally, a countdown) for upcoming events. The schedule on the back of the badges were a nice touch but I lost track of time while playing.

We had the foresight to bring a small fold-up stool for my four-year old daughter. That worked out great and I’d encourage everyone to do that. I saw a few poor guys carrying around full size chairs for their kids. There were tables in a few places that would quickly get loaded up with empty cans or bottles. Having more trash cans scattered throughout the room would have been useful.

Several vendors had surcharges for using credit cards. I get why and it wasn’t a big deal but if you plan to make a few purchases (I went looking for some mirror blades and a variety of LEDs) I would highly recommend taking cash.

I also didn’t realize how readily available hard-to-find parts were at the shows. I paid $100 for a WCS ball a month or two ago and Gene @ IPB had 10+ available for $50. Lesson learned – give him a call instead of relying on the website. I am in the middle of a WCS project and have a few broken plastics. Stupid me, I didn’t jot down which I need. Starship Fantasy had a huge bin of miscellaneous plastics for a variety of games, including WCS. They were blowing them out for a song and I didn’t know which ones I needed. In the future, I’ll have a much better idea of exactly what I need…just in case.

I had never played in the tournament. The area was cordoned off but it felt a little unorganized. A few signs or a whiteboard would have cleared things up. My wife took care of registration so it’s possible it was clearly explained then. As it was, I asked one of the friendly guys behind the counter and he set me straight.

Two of the WOZ machines were in the tournament area. There were times, especially on Friday early evening and Sunday morning, that nobody was playing them. Meanwhile, the single machine in the FUN vendor area always had a line 5+ people deep. One of the guys I waited with lamented that he wished the organizers would allow anyone that had preordered a WOZ to wait in the tournament line. I don’t know how the logistics would work but it seemed like a reasonable idea.

Overall, the show itself was fantastic. My brother and his buddy are not all that into pinball and admitted on the way back that they thought the show would be a little lame and the nightlife in Dallas was the reason they were going. As it turned out, they spent a ton of time at the show and only went out for a few hours during Saturday night’s St. Patrick’s Day party. Everything was really family-friendly and everyone seemed to tolerate children really well.

I finally got a chance to play Avengers. For the price difference, I personally would go with the Pro. Aside from the Hulk LE (which looks amazing with mirror blades) I’m not really a fan of any of the translites. The first two LEs I played had some issues with the Black Widow ramp properly resetting. It didn’t quite make it all the way back down so every shot to the ramp would hit the lip and be rejected. The right inlane really is tough to see which is a shame – it’s key to the Loki MB mode. Overall, it was an enjoyable game but it didn’t feel spectacular. We are space constrained to 3-5 machines and it didn’t become a must-have after 15-20 plays.

I feel like I spent a quarter of the con waiting to play (or playing) WOZ. I did fairly poorly on the tournament, my first to plays ever. I don’t think I cracked 10k. I started getting the hang of it towards the end and put up some better scores. To me, the code appeared to still be a work-in-progress. In all of the games I played in (10-15 4-player games) nobody ever made it to the right mini-playfield. Several people got multiball and lots of people got to the left miniplayfield. It’s possible we just couldn’t get it figured out. One of my groups also had an issue where I locked two balls and trapped a third looking for the Cowardly Lion lock. After a minute or two, the game went into a ball search and released the two locked balls. I played with all three but the flippers went dead as soon as the first ball drained. For some reason, every player after me had two balls auto-ejected and got dead flippers after the first drain.

Overall, the WOZ was quite a bit of fun (though the left outlane was brutal and the lack of ball save irritated plenty of people after the 15+ minute wait to play) and I would absolutely consider picking one up. My wife and I preordered a Hobbit a few months ago before the (then expected) price increase. Playing the WOZ reaffirmed the decision for both of us. We attended the JJP presentation/Skype session. I’ve never met Jack but he came across as a really down-to-earth guy. He showed off the LE topper and said they hope to be cranking 6+/day while shipping live games this month.

JJP seems to be a polarizing topic around here but after meeting/listening to Jack and the team, I’d feel comfortable that my money is safe and my machine will eventually make it. If anyone is looking to unload a WOZLE spot (especially if you’re interested in trades), hit me up. Jack mentioned WOZ is drawing women and children on location. I have no clue if that’s true but it certainly held up at the TPF. I waited in lines to play MM, machines with ColorDMDs, Tron LEs and the Avengers machines. A majority of those lines were just me, my kids and a couple guys. The WOZ consistently had women (including my wife for repeated plays) waiting in line. Of the machines at the show, the only thing my wife repeatedly waited in line for was Theater of Magic (her favorite) and WOZ.

If you've ever thought about picking up a ColorDMD, you should. It really adds a lot to the game. I'm sold on shaker motors and after the show, I'm sold on the ColorDMDs and maybe the external subs. Even the single-color displays (blue in Tron) really looked sharp. Same with chrome mirror blades. They really make a machine pop (IMO).

A local buddy of mine powder coats parts for his cars and has been doing stuff for me. After seeing of the side rails and lockdown bars, I'm more willing to take a shot. My SM has powder-coated blue legs/rails/lockdown bar and I saw several really sharp machines. WoF looked fantastic with yellow rails, mirror blades and LEDs.

I saw the thread about George Gomez’s comments around the upcoming Stern innovations. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they bring out in Star Trek. I was hoping to see an Avatar, a Shrek or a WPT (budgetish Sterns) there but alas, no luck.

Overall, all six of us, ages 4-34, had a great time and my hat is off to the vendors and organizers for putting on a great show. It’s clear that a lot of people put a lot of hard work into making it an enjoyable experience. We’re looking forward to going back next year.