You and me both, dude!
More than a dozen people from Seattle are already here, and we're gonna kick ALL your butts!

I saw safecracker in the video! I hope someone brings one to chicagos expo.

Thanks for the video! Looks like it is going to be a GREAT time!!! I only wish I was going to be there. Bring back some pics and more video.

Have a great time all!

Thanks for posting! Wish I could go to more shows...I've only been to the Seattle show a few times...would love to do some others as well...

@drbond - yeah that was Danny's vid. I tried to shoot one of my own but I ran out of time. I was helping set up the tournament area on Wednesday but we lost some of our space due to needing more room for a vendor (the place is PACKED with vendors), so we had to do some frantic re-design of the tournament area.

Had an awesome but sort of dizzy time today. Mads Kristensen and I had to put on a "how to play pinball like the pros" seminar and we were both up till nearly 2am Friday morning with EBPL league finals (I got 3rd out of 16).

Yes there is a safecracker, and it was giving out the tokens. Some EBPL friends were trying to win as many as possible. There is also a Congo. Right next to Medieval Madness. I believe there's also a party zone, but I always confuse that game with Doctor Dude...

drbond, I'll mostly be in the tournament area, so you can find me there. If you have your NBA Fastbreak or Stern NBA translites, make sure to get them singed by 7' Todd Macculloch, former NBA player. He is playing in the tournaments.

Can't wait to see some photos, guys. It's hard living on the other side of the pond with all the pinball action going on in the U.S.

By the way, if you see Steve Ritchie tell him Robin from the Pinside says hi. Steve rocks.

do you know of any expo's in Canada?

Toronto has one.

none on the west coast?

drbond, great hanging with you again. Fortunately, I wasn't running around as much like a nut at CAX. Yeah, Tim Hansen is definitely a top player and he was playing at the peak of his game. Hopefully we'll see some vids of the action.

438 games was the final PPE count, last I heard. There may have been more, I know a fair few games had been switched out during the three days.
@WolfZ: This WAS a West Coast show! The other is the Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show, that's usually in June here in Seattle at the Science Center.
Avatar: Not Bad. It's got some replay value to it, but we'll see how it does once actually placed at Shorty's. Now what possessed Stern to have the debut tournament at the Seattle Waterfront Arcade?

My local overpriced store is having a after hours invitation only night this weekend to come play machines. I think I will go just to play some and buy nothing. I really wish I had the time/money/lack of family responsibility to go to one of these majors.

(Don't take that wrong .. I just can't leave the Mrs alone to indulge myself having a severely handicapped child)

drbond, you are absolutely correct on that one. I had no idea DMD's were being turned away. I think it is pretty clear which machines got the most play. DMDs should not have been turned away. They may get better attendance and actually get some people to catch the pinball bug if they had less EM's and more DMD's. A friend came with me and it was his first time and he liked it his only complaint was that they had way to many EM's. You are right on the money on this one. That is absolutely silly that they turned away DMD's when some of the EM's probably didn't even get played this year.

Hi Guys !

I agree with you , about the ratio DMD's > EM's ,even i collect old machines - if I found new , recent DMD's for cheap , i would collect it for sure ! OK

So , the video posted (thanks DRBond) is really fast , or my brain is too old to catch all the pictures.

You're lucky .

Do you have some pictures to share (DMD or EM..) ?
Thks .

Yeah, and this year there were probably about double the DMDs as last year.

The PPM is basically more focused on the historical side. It used to bother me that there weren't more DMDs, but I've become a big enough fan of 70s EMs (long-flipper EMs) that I always have something worthwhile to play. The only games I haven't gotten into are 80s SS, but some of the Todd Tuckey videos have gotten me more curious.

The other thing to do is GO ON FRIDAY. Seriously, that is the absolute best day to go. Then you can get all the games in that you want in the best condition and relax with the seminars and vendors at a leisurely pace when the crowds get too out of hand. Although, I will say that even Friday was busier than last year.

I agree with a lot of what was said here.
Friday was definitely the best day to go, and Friday night wasn't too bad. Saturday was a nightmare, and Saturday night wasn't much better, even at 11:00pm!
Sure there were a lot of DMDs, but some of them were ones you don't see very often anymore, if ever. Likewise it was nice to see quite a bit of the 1980s represented too!
I enjoyed the hell out of the old Stern lineup, how about you?

Pet Peeves:
People who think that "Two Game Maximum when Other People Are Waiting" means that solo four-player games are acceptable as one game.
People who abandon games in mid-play because something else opened up they wanted to play.
People who brought obnoxious little kids to the show and let them loose. At least a couple of games would have been rendered unplayable if I hadn't been there to catch panels falling off games (one with a heavy mirror) when Little Obnoxio And Friends decided to screw with the door and panel keys.
Unattended kids banging on the Add-A-Ball plungers on the Very Old games, even when the ball shooter lane couldn't hold any more balls.
Idiot kids slipping in between you and the game you were about to play, even while you're still playing. Eventually the Seattle Nice gave out and those little morons found themselves running into a brick wall (my pointy elbow more than once).
T-shirt vendors who don't stock (or who never printed) anything above an XL, despite the fact that quite a few people attending the show were 2X (like me) or larger.

@ drbond :Thank you so much for these videos .

..
Are all these pins labelled Pacific Pinball Museum in the regular exhibition. ? If so , the museum would be to visit !

I like these big posters on the wall , made with reproductions of BackGlass - Do someone this kind of work at home ?