You are free to bring some of your games if you'd like to help improve the show. But somehow I'm guessing you would never do that.

Honestly, criticizing the games as a unit at any show is ridiculous given that they come from a hugely varied pool of collectors with vastly different repair/restoration/"dialing" abilities. For every game that doesn't play very well, there's another that has just been shopped and plays great. We've even had some HEPs in the past. But yes, generally the people who are the most serious about making their games super mint are the same ones who would be way too uptight to let the general public play them for a weekend, sad as that is. It's still a wonderful thing to see so many people donating their time and games to the show, and to see how much it has grown from its humble beginnings in an Oak Harbor pizza joint.

I'm guessing you ignored all pre-DMD games as well, which is a shame since the show is known for having awesome lineups of wedgeheads, early solid state games, etc. One year we managed to round up every System 11 game. It was glorious!

Portland's pinball scene, or at least the segment that it is "world famous" for, doesn't really have much in common with the DMD collector culture that tends to drive a lot of the big pinball shows. I know all of the noteworthy Portland people well -- the guys who run the big tournaments, operate many of the games, etc -- and they are typically much more focused on the competitive, street-level side of things. Generally their favorite games to own and trade are early 80s Ballys and Sterns, EMs, etc. It's actually very uncommon to meet any with large DMD collections and I don't think I can name a single player who owns a 2000s Stern. They like playing in tournaments, usually in bars, and don't seem to really dig the squeaky-clean pinball show experience. This is obviously a generalization but I think it's pretty accurate when describing a lot of the people who are responsible for the surge of interest in pinball on location in Portland.

Seattle is similar in ways, but skewed a little more toward newer home collections. We have a pretty tight collector community with frequent house parties and in-home league events (50 players at our gathering last weekend for example, many of whom are collectors), a private local forum that we all post on, etc. The NW show and its volunteers and game donations are basically a product of that. I have no idea whether Portland has anything similar tying everyone together, but in my many trips down there for pinball events I haven't seen or heard of anything. Most DMD-era collectors that I've met and dealt with in Portland have felt more like one-offs who aren't really connected to a larger community. I know CFF (the Portland pinball "gang") has a forum that the tournament/location players hang out on, but that's pretty different.

So in other words, if a show ever gets off the ground in Portland I seriously doubt it would be handled by any of the people who have made the city the on-location pinball mecca. The Seattle show is never going to alternate with Portland. All of the organizers live up here, and it would be a logistical nightmare.

You should consider getting together with some local collectors and starting up a show yourself! I have no doubt that it would be successful. Like I was saying before, the NW show began as a bunch of dudes hanging out with their games in the back room of a pizza parlor. A Portland show might have to start the same way, but it would build momentum quickly. I'd come down and make a weekend of it for sure.

This is absolutely true, sorry if it came across like I was trying to be the voice of the show. In my other posts I was just trying to explain and defend the show as I understand it from the perspective of a marginal (volunteer) participant. I know nothing of the inner workings, planning, finances etc.

I do know that what they do is great and takes a lot of work and love, and that I can't imagine why any pinball (or arcade) enthusiast would be down on that.

Gomez is super nice, he'll be happy to sign it. Just approach him when he doesn't look too busy. Added bonus, his signature is awesome!