? The papa circuit events and schedules are known months in advance. sure they should give more pokes... but twitch will do that for you as well by notifying you when they go live.

Waiting in queues to buy passes.. and then collect passes == zero fun. Trust me, after spending my first 90mins of Magfest in endless lines... I would have gladly paid a few bucks.

1. Does 'magfest' tell you something? How about LaLaPalooza? These are brands you must establish.. Obviously Replay has a meaning.. and it is the Replay Foundation putting this on.. and festival.

2. Unless it was in one of the vendor areas or over to the far right side of the place.. it was probably Replay's game. If you ask Jon Replogle or Mark (mhs) you might get a confirmation on a specific title

You missed out on the best seminars then!!

Eugene Jarvis' session was the freaking highlight of the weekend... hysterical and insightful.

set the replays to lowest possible values typically... PAPA games don't typically get free credit switches installed (as the PAPA building is typically token play).. and I think techs were just racking up credits where the replays were not enough.

But this show also has an army of techs running around on demand all the time. For any pinball person, a tech was always just a 'page' away.

Right now I'm praying for all those helping breaking down the show

Can't wait till next year!

The celebrity list was great... the seminars pretty solid (some A+++). Hopefully next year we get a dedicated Stern presence and more showing from Chicago or PPS.

Getting to play games head to head with legends like Eugene Jarvis while having a blast? Or talking with game creators directly while standing over their games? You can't top that. Or just playing casual games with the world's best pinball players on the world's newest and most famous games, etc?

I may have had just too much fun this weekend... next time I'll stock the cooler better I probably had less than 13hrs of sleep since Tuesday. I'm just going to hide from my tab totals...

Any comment about games without credits is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. No one should focus on that as a take-away.

If anything I just want the vid collection to grow. For the first year this was an incredible haul... but I hope it can continue to grow and find more and more of those rare and unusual games.

Concessions... you're typically bound by the convention center. For offerings they were decent... but I do wish they had been running at higher staff levels more often. The waits were pretty tough. No food late at night was a bit of a PITA... but you can understand why. I'd just like more options there.

No carpet comments... Don't waste the money to rent that... instead buy a ton of pads people can take around if they want. That would be re-usable, cheaper, and probably better to stand on anyways.

Instead find an alternative to the Hall PA system. It just isn't very effective. Use distributed speakers and/or use a twitter and SMS distribution setup to send notices. A PA system is still desirable as we aren't always checking our phones, but the twitter/SMS setup would help those of us who step outside of the hall.

Honestly the only real 'complaints' I had were
- that Rm 407 was so far away from the only entry to the hall
- The PA being 'charlie brown' mode too much of the time.
- More concessions options/staffing
- Raffle times being conflicting with events outside of the main hall (and speeding them up)
- lack of seating in some of the pinburg rows
- the same feedback I've been giving for years for finals... we need large overhead digital signage showing the match points/progress

The re-arrangement at papa, and the setup this year continues to show people will watch the finals live... that was a massive crowd. Let's keep building that experience!

The pros
- Pinburg was insane that yet again you were able to grow more than 50% and the event went incredibly smooth for the players (one minor caveat, it was a bit confusing at startup for playoffs as we weren't even aware the different banks were setup and how it was going to be ran.. so we didn't know where to be)
- The bank games were INCREDIBLY consistent given the whole collection was moved and set back up!! insane
- Really appreciate all the touches like blacking out the hall, the signs, all the touches that made this a real PROFESSIONAL show (and Mark dressed the part )
- The staff - Knowing this is largely volunteer and given the incredible boost in scale compared to years past.. its stunning to see it all ran as well as it did and how well mannered and professional everyone was
- Having the 'industry' represented. More more more more please!! Pinstar of course always brings so much to the shows for us to beat on their games.. and Joe's booth was always a place to find the hot stuff. Thank you to JJP for ensuring the Hobbit was showing us what that game will really be. Very exciting. Thanks to P3, Heighway, Raw Thrills, and the others for representing!
- That the video side was well represented in the program and 'celebrities' present.
- Even tho we were in a 'professional, commercial' space -- the facility and staff never were a friction point in my observations. I was worried about losing the 'backyard' setting PAPA HQ has grown into over the years and how that helps the community aspect/value of the show... but we still had a great time. I hope everyone was well behaved enough to not cause mhs any grief, but I'd have no reservations about going back if we were given the same 'space' again.
- Working out those great rates for the hotels! Thank you for securing those reasonable rates!!!!
- Steve Golson's presentation was a great suprise and very interesting even tho I don't consider myself a well versed video guy (farsight was enlightening too)
- Eugene Jarvis & George Petro 's session was the crowning moment tho (sorry A div finals ). That was worth the trip alone. Not only was the session great, but the guys were so friendly and accessible after the speech. A time to savor forever.

I'm sure there will be lots of evaluating what was done/etc because Replay really has their heart into their mission. I hope the parts that were 'green' being a first year really continue to blossom for next year!

I should also mention that Cointaker and Stern having the Stern lineup represented was well appreciated! We got lots of KISS time in and having TWD and the Spike/SAM cabinets on hand was nice to see in person.

I hope next year Stern can bring the big guns!

I believe this had to go into this knowing it would be a multi-year investment.

You don't open a business and expect to be in the black in your first week. Most businesses know you need to be you need to be committed up front to have the resources and fortitude to press through the tough ramp up times to mature the business to a healthy one that supports itself.

When they make the choice to switch from running an event on your own collection, in your own paid-for building, with your own staff and volunteers (aka all your own stuff), to running an event that was going to include transportation, labor, renting facilities, contractors, signage, advertising budgets, staffing, appearance fees, setup/teardown overhead, etc etc etc its a WHOLE lotta new liabilities you are signing up for knowing you need success to pay for. Oh, and all of it is a brand new class of show to establish.

(using funny numbers...). When they sat down and discussed creating such a show, and figured.. "ok, this will take 500k to put this show on, and we don't know if we will take that revenue in.. are we willing to take that risk?". I'm sure the discussion was really like... "Ok, this will take 500k, 600k, and 700k over the next three years to try to do this, and we can't kid ourselves that we will make that back entirely, but we think by year three we know if it will be viable going forward and we'd decide to continue or not at that point. Are we willing to make that three year commitment and 1.8m investment?"

That's how business folks would approach it.. knowing there would be multi-year investments before viability is really proven or not. Kevin has proven over and over again his commitment (in time and crazy $$) in supporting the idea of promoting pinball. With Replay they have really taken it to the next level and each year proven this is not just a hobby/side-interest but taking a professional approach to try to advance the concept. I believe they went into this knowing they'd be bleeding red up front... knowing they were sowing the field, hoping for a future, fruitful harvest.

I am so thankful myself that we have benefactors such as Kevin Martin, and other people who pour their personal time and resources into concepts trying to advance the scene. Replay, these vendors, etc are putting in way more than just 'trying to make a business work' -- this isn't just a job, but a passion for them. And we get to benefit. That's amazing and I hope people continue supporting those who do sacrifice for us

Game volumes varied.. most were on the lower end.

mhs basically confirmed it would be on for 2016 during the Classic Gaming seminar. Saying it would be..

The laws make that tough.. the anti-competitive distances, time limits (30mins!!) and no setup at meters. Basically you're in a tight area that no one wants this mobile competition.

I played a few games of FTH.. couldn't get into it.
I played a lot of games of AMH.. and a handful of TH.
I played a lot of KISS... and enough to not want to play WWE anymore.

I never got to play the Raw Thrills games because they were always being played!!

I'm envious of anyone who gets to work at Raw Thrills simply because they get to work with Eugene.

Anyone else made this connection when listening to Eugene talk??

when was the group photo??

I was probably at the bar

The grant street transportation center.... 13 a day during the week,,, 5 a day for weekend

? The seminars were listed in the event schedule

If you are looking for replays/recordings of them -- they weren't streamed/recorded by Replay. You may find some people posting their own stuff on youtube/etc.

Thanks for posting this robotronjohn!

Seriously people need to watch this... not because it gives any 'new info' but because you get a candid look from an industry vet that knows what matters and what is just flack. Eugene is hysterical and this talk really made the whole event for me.

I got to play arcade games with him down on the floor afterwards too

I can't stop thinking of Norm MacDonald tho when listening to Eugene's cadence and voice