Unfortunately, with each additional play the chances of a game breaking and being unusable for the tourney increases. It's the same reason that tournament players aren't allowed to practice between each round at tourneys - we need a good percentage to be working all weekend for the 'Main Tourney' and the 4 side tourneys.

This year 132 different players entered and attempted to qualify in the Main Tourney, and there were multiple 100+ player side tourneys and a 44 player Women's Tourney. Players travel from all around the South East and from across the state to enter the tourneys seeking to improve their IFPA World Rank and qualify for the annual State Championship Series. We even packed the Pinball Portal arcade on Thursday night with 92 players for a Pre-SFGE Tournament.

I'm always happy to see the large collection of rythm games that aren't normally seen outside Japan. Here are a few pics..

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Happy to snag a second place in the Classics Tourney with the level of competition this year.

https://gameatl.com/bring-your-games/

1 weekend pass per each working pin or arcade brought for the weekend is typical for a show.

I notice at Texas there were fewer pins so this has been happening to other shows as well. So why don't people bring as many pins as we did years ago? It's simple its not worth the risk for the reward of bringing games. When I first started going to shows 9-10 years ago I would bring 10 games in my trailer. They were 2k to 5k in value. So I'm risking 20-40k driving down the highway to offload them spend half a day setting them up then packing them up on Sunday. Now the values of typical SS/dmd/lcd pins are 4-10k so you have 40-70k rolling down the highway. All for the rich award of a free weekend pass, poster and t-shirt. Well why not spend $100 buy a pass and a t-shirt, I'll save gas, time and stress and after I'm home I will need to shop out the machines post event plus any issues that came up with 400+rapid plays over a 3 day period.

So why do I bring games to shows first and foremost I enjoy sharing the stoke of pinball? I do sell a couple machines at show but SFG is not a great show to sell machines out its not Allentown. Over the past couple years I only bring 1-5 machines and that number drops as distance increases. I feel that this will continue to be the trend until shows are more generous to game bringers. Be creative allow game bringers extended time in the venue pre and post open times raffles, room discounts, limited edition t-shirt or other swag. Other wise these shows will have fewer pins and more EM's than SS because of the risk of loss of an expensive game is not worth the rewards for bringing a game to the show.

This year they offered a party with a free dinner, and a nice one at that for people that brought four games. If you brought six or more games they give you cash to offset your truck/trailer costs.
https://gameatl.com/bring-your-games/

Does anyone know what the attendance was the show the three days? If so did it beat last year's numbers?

There are always people who don't appreciate what it takes to put on such a massive show, so don't be disillusioned. Everyone I talked to had a great time and I want to personally thank you for the effort to produce such a great show. I missed the last 3 years, so at the last minute I drove up from Florida and had a fun time at the show. The weekend flew by. There were tons of great games to play and the show offers so much more than pinball. I have 17 great pinball machines in my house, so I go to a show like this to do a lot more than just pinball or I would be bored within a few hours. I drove the racing cockpits with GT 7, hung out in the old time computer area for a bit, bought some D&D dice, hung out with friends, helped run the Project Pinball booth both nights, played the new Ice Cold Beer, ate some great food on and off site, bought some pinball parts and other things from vendors, watched some of the costume contest, and on and on. I also brought a lady friend with me and she really appreciated the new pins, board games, video games, VR arena and all the other things going on including all of the vendors for shopping of course... We both agreed it was worth the 7 hour drive up and 7 hours back. The hotel and parking is kind of steep, but so is everything these days!

I see some disappointment and a lot of love both in this thread. Here is my perspective....

I do not see SFGE ever leaving the greater ATL region. It is ran by passionate lovers of what started as just arcade and pinball games, but blossomed into all things gaming. I remember it spawning from the 1st ever Atlanta Pinball league, unheard of at the time when there was virtually ZERO pinball in the wild. That league has blossomed and grown, and SFGE as also blossomed and grown. I would dare say this helped {locally} fuel the rebirth here. Now we have Portal, Vertigo, My Parents Basement to name a few and more springing up all the time. I feel blessed to have helped in the early days, volunteered and watch it grow. Many of the people involved are family, if I sometimes only see them once a rear at this reunion. More businesses operating games mean some of the larger operators do have less to bring as the need theirs making money. Small collectors do have a greater risk vs reward to think about, some games still have parts that are unobtanium. A lot of the casual visitors don't know the effort and cost that goes in. I literally saw a guy lift the whole front end 3 feet up of a pin up and bang it down to knock a ball loose. (yes I said something). Those who do, do it for the reward of sharing the hobby we love.

My only complaint is the current location and the nightmare that is parking, and if it is a Braves weekend I am out. That being said, my understanding this is the only place that can meet the power demands of this kind of show.
My one suggestion, is those that bring the more rare and restored games that are candidates for being voted on be placed together and more showcased.
If I only wanted to play and complain about the lines for the latest Stern, gratefully there are finally more options out there than ever. A big thank you to the bringer of Joust, Williams Eight ball, Funhouse (always my fav) and all the other older games never on a route. Congo Bongo, Super Tank, Sniper and may others that really make the show special. Where else would you get to see and play those?
Thanks for reading my 2 cent rambling. I am (always) looking forward to the next one, and personally working on a game to share for next year (hopefully!)

I had another fantastic year at SFGE. Everything was so much fun and there was so much to do yet again. The hot pepper and oreo eating contests are always a lot of fun. My wife and I always enjoy the board game area as well. The vintage computer festival is great as always, really love seeing the old equipment. (Some pics below).

I really loved the effort that was put into promoting homebrew games by SFGE, Marco, Imoto, FAST pinball and Trident Pinball. A sincere thank you to everyone who was involved in making that decision and space available, apologies if I left anyone out responsible for that.

Bringing games is hard and takes effort, but I feel like SFGE has always taken care of game bringers. Spaceballs has only missed a couple years of the show in total, including missing this year, but will be back next year.

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First off I want to thank all the people who put a lot of effort into pulling off SFGE each year. Although we only live across town my wife and I typically make a long weekend out of it, stay on site and have a great time. This year was no exception.

I think if you go only to play pinball, you might come away a little disappointed. But, there are so many other things to do. They really go out of their way to make this event enjoyable for lot of different kind of people. It's amazing how big the board gaming part of the convention has become. I particularly like the large collection of classic video games and computers brought to the show.

While there were plenty of pinball machines to play, it does seem like there are fewer and fewer of the more "popular" games. Very few games from 90s now and other than than Marco/Classic Gamerooms "floor models" nobody is bringing any of the more recent Sterns. I too suspect that the value of those games outweighs the effort/cost. I must admit that even if I had transport, I'd have a hard time subjecting my fully restored WH2O, TZ, AFM or MB to open play. Most players are respectable but a few are downright abusive.

I honestly don't think the lines for the Stern games were too long, most of the time. Except for the busiest times we could typically find one where our wait was only 2 players away. Unfortunately, sometimes we'd get stuck behind a really good player. Then again someone was "stuck" behind my wife's best game ever on Bond. People get a bit spoiled.

I found my team at the show. I wonder how did the vendors do?

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I’ve attended for something like 8-10 years straight; not really keeping accurate count.

Past several years, I’ve spent nearly all my time doing the pinball tournaments. That approach becomes kind of all-encompassing, as there are tournaments happening pretty much start to finish.

This year, I limited myself to the Friday night tournament only. On Saturday, I spent the entire day attending panel after panel. Every panel was great! There were tech/repair panels, home brew panels, two Stern panels, a panel on routing games, etc. I want to thank and applaud every panelist who contributed to those presentations to us. The panels are an outstanding part of the show and I advise against ignoring them.

I had a fantastic time. I noticed it seemed to be less pinball, but was def more of other games. I like that the show has more than pinball.

People just like to be negative, for the people doing sfge, don’t let it bother you. These people will always complain about something.

I'm a long time attendee. I think I've missed maybe 2 SFGE over the last 10 years. I'm also a pinball tournament junkie. I spent the majority of my time in the tournament area. Qualified 5th overall. Finished tied for 10th.

All that takes an enormous amount of time. So my time on the floor was limited. But I still was able to play Texas Chainsaw, Barry O's BBQ, Big Lewbowski, some really cool and 100% working EM's, Missile Command and Defender. Had a chat with Dwight Sullivan, Mike Vinikour, and Ken Cromwell. Other than the newest Sterns and Elton John, the lines were fine.

I had a blast as usual. SFGE, keep doing what you're doing!