It's about the same "pinball size" as MGC. I think overall MGC has more community and home brew support which ends up with some really cool things showing up. Expo has more pinball related seminars.

Marco and Stern are back this year, but head over to pinballlife to see the spooky stuff.

-c

I believe marco and Stern will be at expo this year and some rare games should round out the show. Last year was somewhat transitional...

Just bring a game and skip the tickets entirely. I think this is the most not-communicated part of expo. I know it's a hassle, but free admission and more free play access.

Pro-tip: Revolution brewing cans look like an ice tea or go with a beer coozie. Get a cooler that looks like a tool bag and jam it under a game.

Things are changing a bit this year to move out or not set up games that have no chance of running during registration. Effort is going toward game management and repairs to hopefully make this a lot better.

Agreed! But if you're local-ish, why not?

I always forget to look at the country circle

-c

Not too late! Just bring your game to the loading dock (to the left of the hotel) up the ramp and through the dock doors. There is a room there for registration. You will get an arm band to use while your game is there.

There will be people to lend you a hand and tell you where to go.

I have never seen games turned away, even when John Petersen brought 50 EM games we set games up in the hall. This year with better dead game management, we hope to keep the free play room on point.

Thursday, no problem. Friday, I'm not sure. I would confirm with Andrew and Rob A if that is ok to make sure you can get out. Find us on Thursday and we can make sure you will be fine for Friday load out before you bring it in.

I would Think the best plan would be to leave it in the game hall and make sure we can get you access Friday morning (ping APB).

That's a neat game so would be great to get it on the floor.

Confirmed you can get out from the game hall Friday AM, no issues. Thanks for bringing a game! See you Thursday for your wrist band.

Sure, you can always reach out to anyone staffing the free play room. Sometimes people are running around not fighting glare, so just grab someone and ask . Input is appreciated and I will try to remember.

Still looking for free play staff. if anyone wants to help direct game volunteers where to go, help coordinate stretch wrap removal and leg bolt insertions, that will help make the show better for everyone.

You will look fabulous in a fancy free t-Shirt with your free admission and rife with the definitive first hand knowledge of will what game fit in what car you can now lord over all pinball fandom.

there's a sign up sheet available as part of this thread...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/expo-2019-free-play-area-looking-for-expo-staff#post-5242611

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4aaeae23a5f94-pinball1

It was really loud and the hotel didn’t like the compressor in the hall or by the door. With a quieter compressor it would have been a fun experience.

One big open space like MGC would keep people moving around, but then people would need to give up the 24 hour free play situation. I'm generally a junk Scrounger so most of what was for sale was not for me. The only stuff I bought was pre arranged junk, stuff from James, and posters from Logan.

maybe Rob can bring some parts games too cannibalize next year

With the truck parking barricaded off in the parking lot it sucked up a lot of the open spaces. I made my own, but maybe we can move empty semis to the overflow lot.

The layout of the vendor hall could use some tweaking. It might be better to feature the home brew AP and jjp games in the middle to get circulation/flow happening.

if expo continues to grow, an open space like MGC could help all these problems. This would probably mean the end of 48 hours of pinball, but I'm too old for that anyway.