I just looked at the schedule for the first time. So there's officially no Expo Brawl this year? If so, that sucks. It was one of my favorite events at Expo. I've been playing in it for eight years.

I guess I'm out of the loop. So Phoebe and her whole continent aren't coming this year? That's a real bummer.

I sure hope so, since I live about 10 minutes away from the Westin.

People who aren't from the Chicago area see the statistics and get the false impression that it's a war zone out here. The reality is that 99% of the homicides occur in specific neighborhoods with a lot of gang activity. The Chicago metropolitan area is huge. Just stay away from those neighborhoods and you'll be fine.

Ironically, the fancier the hotel, the more likely they are to charge for internet.

That's bullshit about them cancelling your rooms. I'd be furious.

Which optos are unobtanium?

What part do you need? The target face with the interuptor, or the opto board with the LEDs? I'd have to check, but I may have one or both laying around somewhere.

Is this what you're looking for? If so, remind me to bring it to Expo with me. I no longer have the game, so it's not like it's doing me any good.

I500 Opto Board (resized).jpg

Please lay off Mike. This is obviously a very emotional situation for him, and pouring salt into the wound is just plain cruel. If you can't refrain from doing so, you will be ejected from this thread.

I'm bringing a game to Expo for the free play hall on Thursday. Do I need to provide my own hand truck?

Interesting. It looks like they changed things around this year and moved the entrance.

That's interesting. I guess one's experience depended on who happened to be watching the door. I went to go check on my game, and the person initially stopped me. I told them I wanted to make sure my game was still operational, and they happily let me in.

There is a patch for the ROMs that allows you to set the game to free play using the DIP switches. See this page for more info:

http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

I thought the show was great! The vendor hall was hopping the whole time, and every vendor I talked to seemed to be in a great mood. I can assure you, this has not always been the case in the past. I brought a game, and the load in procedure was very smooth. I didn't even know about the VIP party until they handed me my wristband for it, but it turned out to be a great perk. They actually had a quite a nice spread with salad, mini cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, toasted ravioli, pizza, dessert, beverages, etc ...

My Farfalla wound up in the overflow room, and it lasted the whole show without a single problem. Then again, my game got a lot less plays than the ones in the main free play area. Not only was the overflow room closed along with the vendor hall, but there were also just a lot less people in that room in general. They definitely need to do more to advertise that room. I think a lot of people didn't even know there were games in there. Every time I went in there to check on my game, the room felt kind of empty.

I personally liked having the arcade games there. While I prefer pinball, I still have a lot of nostalgia for those old games, and it was fun playing them. I had a blast playing that color vector game where you have to shoot inside the mother ship to blow it up. The team based play reminded me a lot of one of my favorite games from that era, Rip Off. Can anyone tell me the name of that game?

The one thing that I really missed this year was the Expo Brawl tournament. Expo just didn't feel the same without it, and I hope they bring it back next year. I know one of the main complaints in the past was that the tournament monopolizes the free play hall on Friday, but with so many pins in the overflow room, it would have been easy to run the tournament in that room without disrupting anything else.

I totally get that, and it's a legitimate gripe, but wasn't the overflow room closed during the hours that Expo Brawl is typically played anyway? It's not like the general public had access to the games in that room on Friday morning/afternoon, so wouldn't that have been an ideal time to have the tournament?

I'm not saying there aren't potential hurdles, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of people love Expo Brawl. I talked to many friends over the course of the weekend who were really bummed that there was no Brawl this year. It's a unique tournament because there is much more emphasis on the social aspect of it. Hopefully, something can be arranged for next year that will make everyone happy.

He's alive!!! It's been seven days since you last posted. That must have been one crazy Expo if it took you a week to recover!!!

I don't get why some people are so vehemently opposed to the arcade games. It's not like they were taking up space that could have been used for pins.

So the show isn't allowed to evolve? Look at MGC. Basically the exact opposite happened. People love that show, and it didn't start off with any pins at all. In fact, I think it was originally some kind of Atari Jaguar enthusiast club.

I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure penicillin has never had any affect on ANY viruses.