I went Saturday for about four hours (all my gf could handle) and we had a great time. There were hundreds of EMs that barely got any plays. I would say that all games 90s and more recent were typically 75-80% in use, so there were always some open machines. It was a great time and I will definitely be going to the next event they hold here, which I believe is INDISC in January.

Thanks for putting on such a great event!

These guys have an amazing facility and a HUGE selection of games, EMs are wonderfully present and highly appreciated by some and highly under utilized by most that attend. There is never a wait for long on those games, so go and enjoy old school pinball in HOARDS. Thanks for a wonderful time.

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Many of those stools were supplied by Marcos Specialties.

I might not have gotten to play Aliens at all (just once, as it turned out) or Houdini, had I not done so early on the Friday. That Houdini was said to be fresh out of the box, but I found its flipper strength to be barely adequate. Both Joust tables were down for the count by Saturday. You could always put money on that, and not lose the bet. Too bad. I only -- finally -- got to play it at the last Arcade Expo, and narrowly so at that.

The EM section is extra great for those times when the last-several-years-Sterns are crowded with too much attention. If you're not EM-aware, you have scant idea what you are missing. Some of them could always turn up in the "Classics" section at tourneys like INDISC. Fundamental skills, folks ! There will be times where you can't just game your way out of it via complicated-ruleset knowledge. Little-known side-benefit: the facility's A/C was working back there, but NOT in the front half. Considerable throngs of people in the front, boosting the temperature, but with the EM area largely ignored, guess where it was a whole lot more comfortable ?!

Wall-to-wall exhausting FUN ! Also an unexpected success, in that I significantly improved my 'personal best' scores on at least 25 pins. And some very good conversations with the Red Shirts. Their great volunteer dedication keeps an event like this running smoothly !

I also played a ton of those EMs. I played a lot of games on that Centigrade 37 trying to release the hot chick in the green. That dang red tape! That game is fun, it eggs you on trying to get that tape to the top.

The wife and I went Sunday and it was a great time. I mostly hung out in the back as well. My wife played in the tournament and did well. Hats off to the volunteers that were soldering and fixing games. They were the best to talk to and very friendly. Can't wait to go back in January for I never seem to play everything I intended.

My son and I were there on Sunday for a few hours. It wasn't crowded and we had a blast!

Amazing what JW has done and pulled off with 'local' (100s or 1000s of miles away visiting) talent in the tech, as well as getting the local community and churches to contribute both labor and time for dollars. Well worth the time to go and visit. Congrats on another round of for-charity-and-profiteering. God bless pinball, and God bless America particularly Banning, CA.

Made it back home yesterday afternoon. About ~2,000 miles driving total. Lots to remember!

Made one really good friend there. The old coot (like me) who was volunteering but had to wear a green shirt, not a red one. He showed me some moves where you waited for the ball to almost fall off the flipper before sending it up the opposite return lane. I just couldn't master that one! More evidence that we can really misjudge each other on these forums but are great folks in person.

Spent a TON of time playing Battlezone. 3 of us ended up trying to best each other until "KID" showed us amateurs how it's done! Doubled our highest scores no prob. The most fun shots were trying to pick off the tanks when they backed up after hitting something. Hard to do but really rewarding to make. That and picking off buzz bombs way off in the distance when they just came down to the playfield level.

Big Bang Bar. I thought that machine would have the longest lines of all.

Not so. It was set off in a small room with a dozen other machines by itself - coming out of the corner at 45 degrees with lots of room on both sides. I hardly ever saw it being played. This location made it easy to hear the audio.

It played perfectly. I fired off the knocker pretty easily on the first play. I loved the alien "mouth ball" ball lock catchers! Never done before or since.

I must say that it is the art and bold graphics that hold this machines intrigue. The nasal Jersey girl callouts got old very fast but I could listen to the pole dancer forever!

So check this off my bucket list. Played the "BIG'S" - BBB and Big Lebowski until I was sick of them. Not too many people can say that.

Alien - seemed OK. Was not working correctly when I got my chance to play it. Something about a percentage staying very high so that it kept giving you more balls like infinite multiball. I certainly wouldn't have the patience to own one. At least I can say I tried to play it.

Thunderbirds Are Go. I liked this game. I can tolerate the art now that I know where it came from. Puppets like the classic "Team America World Police". I obviously wasn't exposed to the show when it came out.

People that criticize this game just don't get it, IMHO. It is simple and fun, like most EM machines. I was super-glad I played it a bunch and would put quarters in one if I come across it in an arcade.

My favorite "discovery" of the event? Circus Voltaire!

I'd heard this was a popular game - after all the Pinball Amigos pinballrockstar have one! And it is beautiful.

What blew me away was there is one wireform loop that takes about 5 seconds to get back to the PF! It moves slowly down it, making you stare at the ball like a gomer and then does a little loop at the end before coming back into play. It really helped that the machine was in perfect repair. Thanks guys for making that possible!

The trip there. Lake Havasu City was the most interesting place I stopped. I'm all over all things technological and powerful. I stumbled on the "Nautical Beachfront Resort" which was a posh place for people to play with expensive toys in the sun.

First a bit about LHC - there are no boat speed limits and no exhaust noise restrictions. So it is like a dragstrip on the water. In Colorado all lakes have a speed limit of 40 and having a loud boat will get you in trouble right away. I have a boat that will do 75 MPH here. When we take it out the rangers will usually say something like "How fast will that boat go?" My wife has strict training to say "40" to which the rangers say something like "Good, keep it under that." Then we go do whatever we want ( - :

I ran into this machine in a parking lot. 20' tunnel hull with a pointed prow (not a picklefork). The owner was there to talk to and I drilled him. He built that motor after getting the boat. Fully dynamometer tested to a bit over 1,000 HP. The most interesting thing to see in this picture is the ~2" layer below the roots blower with "The Blower Shop" on it. That is a seawater-cooled intercooler. The pickup is on the pumper plate and is passive, just rams water through the system. Dyno tests showed this added 160 HP to the mix, impressive.

He said the boat cruises nicely at 3,500 RPM doing 55 MPH. No boost at that speed, just move right along. Boost is limited to 6 PSI. That day he did 106 MPH on the lake at 6,700 RPM. The boat is capable of 115 MPH and he is working to get it there.

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Thanks to all the people who worked hard to make this event a success. Some things are just too problematic...

Probably my biggest disappointment was not being able to play Ripley's Believe It or Not! while there. I asked and they said it had problems that prevented it from being brought back to life.

I think that is a great game and definitely go out of my way to play it. Not sure I'll ever own one though. It would be high on my list.

I agree and just makes me sad these events is only 4 times out of the year for 2019 Gotta attend.
Special thanks to the Tech team. They were constantly working to keep the machines working. I was happy to play A LOT of the EM machines... My favorite was Abra-Ca-Dabra. Thinking about buying that one.

I was happy this was not true. I got to play this a lot along with #total-nuclear-annihilation . I went to Arcade Expo and its much busier during that time. This event felt just right amount of people from a player's perspective (not business perspective).

Oh, did people play Stern's Obitor?? This was my frist time playing it since I have been researching unique pinball machines. I still get a trip thinking about the ball traversing the playfield in my head.

Totally agree that the lines were light. I did not mind that majority of the new pinball machines were taken, there were plenty of 50,60,70,80's machines open. Lets not forget the roaring 90's pinball machines!!!

I will be a repeated flyer to this place. Were I live, there is only two pinball machines in public. Thankfully, I just bought a NIB MET PREMIUM to keep me busy.

Keep it GOING Museum of Pinball!!! Great Job! The burgers were yummy too!!

Me neither.

Glad people are getting to play it, nice that Kelly was able to get his game to a spot where crowds can enjoy it.

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Orbitor 1, yes that was on my list. It was spooky when the ball got to the flippers. Seemed to be on the back side of them, then mysteriously move to the front. Almost creepy!

Give the designers some credit for creating a unique design on this one.

I think this meet really catered to the crowd which mostly cared about the new machines, not the old or odd stuff.

There were two older pins that seemed identical next to each other. When I asked a repair guy about them he said they could actually be interconnected and two people could actually play against each other. Makes sense that they were together then.

There were two Ghostbusters Premiums for some unknown reason, but I played them both.

Sounds like NBA Fastbreak?

Yeah, that's the title. Kinda like shooting hoops with the guy next to you.

I think it's clear that the only way to compete in pinball is to play on the same machine. Or in this case play the best of [ some even number ] alternating between machines with some sort of tie breaker if needed.

Didn't see them used this way but then most people probably don't know you can do that. Or "hate" the NBA like me ( - :

All I know is I had a great time and I hope everyone noticed my 16 yr old vintage Adidas shoes with the baby blue laces.

I bet Nimblepin was scoping them out

C37 is one of those (Abra Ca Dabra another) that turn out to be harder than they look. Great artwork !
(which anticipates cloning, well before that term was ever coined -- maybe even earlier than seen in "Astounding", or other SF pulps of the day)

It has been said that Oritor-1 has more appeal after several beers.

I added a game to my wish list after this visit. Medusa.

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There was a nice article in Saturdays L.A. Times about Pinball Madness:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/museums/la-et-cm-museum-of-pinball-20181026-story.html

Yes -- don't ever recall playing this prior to PM, though I knew of it.

Interesting how you start to recognize artists, their styles, and some of their recurrent motifs. In too much of a hurry to look it up right now, but judging by that guy @ left on the bg, I'm thinking this has to be the same artist who did "Viking" and several others. (Paul Freres ? Maybe also of "Paragon" fame -- one of the all time great back glasses, btw -- and its tag-along, very little brother, "Lost World." ?)

To the one person who picked up on the Jaws/AFM/RFM thing: I forgot to give you your prize!

I showed the latex Martian to a bunch of people playing pinball and they had no idea what it was ) - : Users, not owner/operators.

I was also able to get in and out of Cali without buying gas there! Bought in Parker, AZ before entering LA LA Land and was able to drive all around and get back to Parker. Good thing because the one station I saw was $4.99/gallon. I'm not sure why you people have to pay so much but I'm sure it's for some privilege...

And lastly the question I was asked most: "What kind of shark is that?"

Answer: "It's a large squalus, possibly onjumanus or Isurus glaucous" Another prize if you catch this reference

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The printed article has one different photo.

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Short answer: because Jerry Brown and the %!*#@$! legislature use every opportunity to pick our pockets, while shifting ostensibly dedicated-use funds already in hand to other of their favored purposes-du-jour. That is why I mutter "Eff-U, Jerry !" to myself, several times a day, and just voted in favor of Prop 6 on the ballot, which would repeal the latest Grand Theft.

The premium for gas is about 10-20% higher for both premium and diesel, of which goes to those that don't want to work or the socialist efforts that the state wants to put out there for feeling bad about people that don't work or won't work, or can't work. The latter is acceptable, if justified and qualified deeply and understandably. Cali is a land of fruits and nuts, without question.

What?

And here, I thought that designation went to Saskatoon.

I like how the Capital of Saskatchewan rhymes with "fun".