Its at times like these that I fall back on Nike for marriage advice.

JUST DO IT

If she's stronger than you, yes. And post pictures. I'd like to see you in the leather red ball harness. Again.

LTG : )

Just a heads up for anyone who will be in town on Thursday, March 21. The National Videogame Museum will be hosting The Official TPF Pre-Party from 7-10pm. This is one of our NVM: After Dark events where you get to hang in the museum after hours. Get your Video Pinball game on in an adults only setting (21 & over). All of our consoles will be loaded with video pinball games! Music by DJ Terminator Mike B! Enjoy beer, wine or a specialty cocktail from the NVM bar. Live podcasts, tournaments and NVM prizes. Sponsored by Free Play Arcade! Get your tickets here: http://freeplayinc.com/afterdark/

LOL! Downvotes!

It's true. GB debuted 3 years ago this month. It's been in Stern's archive for several months.

Thanks, NVMUSA! This is a great place to visit. Highly recommended.

Does anyone know if there will be show posters produced and available for sale at the show?

True. Some New Yorkers are just brutally honest and those are the best ones.
I was fortunate to meet up with pinaholic in NYC a few years back while holding a DA 31 pass.
The guy made me feel like a family member and drove me around in his cooper to other pinball establishments.
Good bless that guy with all his endeavors.

It's getting real close, me and my buddies are getting super excited about this trip and what it has to offer. Thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread as it has been very informative so keep them coming.

Understandably this is a Pinball event however I was wondering what about arcades machines?
Locally is there something that we can go and play or what about purchasing arcade parts can anyone recommend something along those lines.

Much appreciated.

Locally, check out cidercade, freeplay richardson, and regeneration arcade.

There is a swap meet at 8am on saturday rught outside the hotel. You can also check out some sites on Facebook:

DFW pinball and arcade club
-and -
DFW pinball, arcades, and coin op classifieds

Hey guys, any advice for a first time buyer at TPF? Never bought a pin at a convention before, only through websites or private sale.

Great place to buy pins. Just remember, if you plan on removing a pin from the floor before the show is over there is a $60 charge.

What pins are you looking for? New, used, em, modern? Lots of things to consider. The nice thing is you can play them beforehand.

If you're looking for new (or show demos) there are a few different distributors putting in the time tim set up and answer all your questions. I would suggest one of them over someone just handing out cards and a smile.

As I've said in multiple threads, anyone can sell a game. A real distributor is there for you when things dont work.

If this is your first game I would stick with a local distributor (fun! comes to mind).

Let me know if there is anything I can help with. We are distributors for Jersey jack, spooky, Chicago gaming, american pinball and namco.

Good advice. I’ve bought pins before, just never at a convention. Really looking forward to it. Appreciate the info!

you are right 10th of march 2016, but they must have got the license earlier to start the artwork etc on it.

See post 362. You can't go wrong with Kingpin Games. Chris is great before sale, during sale, and after sale. He personally doubles any factory warranty. He cares about his customers.

LTG : )

I was going to list a game, but a "Pre-Sale" Pinsider figured it out and decided to grab it before I even thought of listing it...

Pre-sale (resized).jpg

Im sure there will be. as an exhibitor I got a couple last year. And I'll have my embroidered patches again.

Ken

That would be true of any game, and yet most of them ran for 3 years after announcement.

How is the current hotel availability within walking distance of TPF? I had an AirBnB reservation for a place within walking distance and the host just cancelled on me tonight. Now I need to scramble and find a hotel that doesn't require a rental car or lengthy Uber rides. I will be checking for hotel availability first thing Monday morning, but if someone has made a recent reservation for a hotel near TPF I'd like to see if I can jump on that first.

All three games are cleaned, 100% and ready to load! I'm early this year... Can't wait to see all of you. (And even meet some of yous!)

Here is a screenshot from hotels.com - show is in the center of the 4 grouped red points (hotels without rooms). The green points are walkable hotels with available rooms:

Screen Shot 2019-03-11 at 8.04.38 AM (resized).png

The two on the very bottom of the image - Sandman and Staybridge - are a much longer walk than the two at the very top of the image (Homewood suites and Aloft). I'm staying at the Hampton Inn - red dot that is essentially across the street from the two at the top of the image. It might be a 5 minute walk from there to the main entrance of the venue.

On their site I plug in my dates and then re-order the results by distance from dr. pepper ballpark - this will ID the closest ones for you. Looks like the Sandman and Staybridge are around $110 and all of them are $150 a night or more.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync combiner kit

I am staying at the Indigo, which is very close and not on the previous map. reasonable cost too

I went with them as well, it was the most affordable (~$120 per night with tax) and close option when I was looking at rooms. I think the hotel is less than 3 years old too, so It should be in decent condition still.

I would check out
Bishop Cidercade

You can go to the "TPF may be for sale thread" and post what you are interested in to see if someone might have one they would bring or are bringing to the show.

I'm sure Evin the Pinsmith will be at the show fixing pins as they break down & for a small fee you could have him look over any pin you would like to purchase and check its operating systems to ensure everything is working and in good order.

I have purchased from dealers and individuals and have not had any issues with either. If you are at all mechanically inclined pins are pretty simple to service and do general repairs yourself. Pinside market place usually has competitively priced games and there is also a ton of info in the threads on troubleshooting, repairs, mods, etc.

Appreciate the shout out Chris.

Here is what we are intending to bring to the show for Free Play. sale I addition to the 30+ new Sterns we’ll have demo’ing in our FUN/Marco/Stern booth.
Gotta also kick a BIG SHOUT out to all of our demo game buyers! THANK YOU for helping making the TPF one of if not the best Pinball Events in the country.

Our list....
Munsters Premium New
ACDC Premium Vault New
Ghostbusters Premium New
Star Wars Premium New
2 x Beatles Gold New
Kiss Pro freshly shopped, excellent
WWE LE freshly shopped, excellent
Game of Thrones Pro - freshly shopped excellent
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (shopped, new cab decals, Premium LEDs, purdy!)
Space Station - very nice, LEDs
MM - original, very nice, shopped with color DMD and LEDs
TOM - freshly shopped, LEDs, spinning saw, color dmd, excellent
Pacman Multicade
Space Invaders/Qix Multicade
Oktoberfest New
WMS Record Jackpots Slot Machine w/topper and stand & stool (very nice with Tito printer)
....and MBr’s and AFMr’s NEW

...I think that’s it

What is the deal with the tollways in the area? Do I need to prepare somehow with my rental car, or can you always pay manually?

The tollways in Dallas take pics of the cars license plate and bill the owner of the car.
You may want to ask the rental car company how they handle this as the NTTA does not have toll booths anymore.

The deal is they are a bad deal (or perhaps a "borderline scam") for visitors. The rental car companies use the toll roads as a source of revenue. Here is what is on the toll road web site about the topic: https://www.ntta.org/custinfo/tolltag/tolltagrentalcars/Pages/default.aspx

And here is what it ends looking like to a traveller looking through their rental car agreement: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/avoid-rental-car-toll-charges/ . This year I'm going to tell google maps to avoid toll roads.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V Video Sync Combiner kit

Even though I go to TPF nearly every year, this is my first year with a booth.

I'm looking for a voluneteer that is bringing a S.A.M game that is willing to put their game in or near my booth. It will get a free LED speaker light and undercab lighting kit installed that will go home with the game. The system is tied into the game without any perminent modifications, does not involve an unreliable LED controller, and is tied into the game flasher system.

For the show I will have a number of LED items. I make LED displays and related stuff for games. Some of the items I will have at the show includes
-RGB Run-DMD jumbo LED displays (40"x11")
-Red Run-DMD Jumbo LED displays (40"x11")
-Red programmable Jumbo LED displays (40"x11")
-Pinball Run-DMD kits including frames and accessories
-Pinball DMD clock (prototype there. Taking orders though)
-LED lighting driver board
-LED speaker rings for Stern SAM and Whitestar games

Maybe some other cool stuff as well if I can get it finished in time...

As a DFW resident, I can’t disagree with that. Tollways are getting out of hand.

That aside, my recommendation is that people be honest about how much they’re really going to drive around during the weekend. When I travel on business, I never rent a car anymore. Usually everything I do is within a specific radius, so I Lyft it (or take turns picking up the Lyft with co-workers). Ultimately ends up at least a wash, if not ahead.

Anyway, just food for thought

I sent you a pm.

I agree, E-ZPass should have been a national standard. Our rental company is charging 3.95/day, which is not outrageous, but still annoying. I'm not sure you can avoid tolls from the airport. At least the cost of renting a car in Texas is cheap, at least compared to Chicago, where it's double the price.

Separately, we have been gearing up our inventory for the show and will have a heavily modded maiden pro in our booth on free play, so please stop by and check it out. If anyone knows they want any of our mods at the show, please let us know beforehand so we can put it aside. While we will have most of our mods available, they will be in limited quantities, unfortunately.

Just found Thrifty's policy. $15 administrative fee per toll + the toll. Ha, what a joke! You can opt-in to PlatePass daily rate instead but I can't find how much it is, just says to ask at the counter.

Found more details about PlatePass. Pretty lame, but it sounds like you can get it as a precaution, and if you avoid all tolling, there's no charges.

You will be charged for each toll at the highest, undiscounted toll rate plus a $5.95 convenience fee for each calendar day when tolls are incurred. There is no maximum PlatePass convenience fee.

I miss throwing coins in a basket.

I highly recommend using the Waze app for navigating around Dallas.

It will help you avoid (some) traffic.

Set it to avoid tolls and you’re all set.

I always just set Google Maps on my phone to "Avoid Tolls", and use the directions it gives me. It's never let me down so far.

Seen several good restaurant recommendations. Perry's Steakhouse immediately across the street is a little high end for me on a pinball trip.

Except... The Friday lunch pork chop deal. Huge and delicious pork chop meal for $15. Good for 11AM to 4PM Friday only.

I have a Toll Tag and "I just want to go Fast!"

Just remember..............

tenor.gif

Got a toll tag after my first TPF. Works here and Houston and for that big 4 lane free for all that lets me bypass Austin at 80MPH.

For a good reasonably priced homestyle meal I highly recommend Norma's Cafe across Gaylord Parkway and a block or two east. Great pie as well.

Shawn

Good thinking foot - It's possible for TPF... I didn't rent a car last year. The round-trip cost of Lyft from Love field equaled the cost of renting a car. But with one side trip you are better off with a car and I need to make two this year. But your advise is solid - I'm presently finishing a 5 day trip to Miami Beach without a rental car. In my mind it didn't make sense to rent a $40 car just to park it at a hotel for $35 a day. That's a lot of Lyft, plus no parking stress/cost at our destinations. We went to Everglades NP today so I rented an Enterprise car for the day for a whopping $35. Picked it up at 9:30 and I'm turning it in this evening.

Sometimes I feel a little bad climbing in a Lyft that pulls up past the parked taxis out front, but the service is so much better than the traditional taxis.

Anyway, see you all next week!

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V Video Sync Combiner kit

So my wife has a little box mounted on the windshield which serves for her pass in four states when she drives back home to new york. Can we bring that along and use it in TX? is there some registration process?

We are flying into Austin and spending a few days before Dallas and then back to Austin before we fly out and car rentals are cheap unless they wack you with extra fees.

Nope, that’s ezpass, not compatible with the system in Texas.

Still looking for a ride back to Austin (south) on Sunday. Just need to be dumped off the I-35 near 6th street exit. I will just have a suitcase. My brother is coming to TPF Friday on his motorcycle.

We're only going as far south as Waco on Sunday then finishing the drive on Monday. Sorry. Bound to be someone here who could help out!

Shawn

You can also see about riding the MegaBus: https://us.megabus.com/route-guides/dallas-to-austin-bus

It’s really inexpensive, has WiFi, and I’m told is actually pretty nice inside.

Ok, I have a question... is this the quietest you have ever seen Pinside be before a show in recent memory? Preperations must have everyone running around like a head-less chicken right about now... Better get the suitecases packed this weekend.

This will be our first time at TPF. I have been to Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown in Colorado. TPF sounds like it is much larger?

Everything is bigger in Texas......

......HUGE