It's a wrap! Amazing show again, thank you Erik, Jerry and everyone that brought games, sponsored the show, worked the door or helped in any way. It was completely worth the trip back to attend and hang out with everyone, first thing that's made miss home since leaving. Let's do it again next year!

Had a great time, enjoyed it and got a friend into pinball.

Enjoyed the AC/DC the most, but it was taking some abuse. First time I played AC/DC was in Florida, but didn't enjoy it.

Really enjoyed it this time, also enjoyed the BK, Jungle Lord, Varkon, Solar Fire, Led Zep Prem, Rotation VIII, and one of my favorites was surprisingly Pharoah.

Thanks to all for the efforts!

Glad I got the chance to make it there today. Gave me a chance to play some of the 'new' games that haven't been on location like Led Zepplin, Pro & Premium, Halloween, Ultraman, Alien, Celts, G&N SE, Big Lebowski....Good crowd. Keeps getting better every year.

Godzilla is definitely all everyone says it is. Really fun game.

Halloween is also everything everyone says it is...unfortunately. I was begging Michael to just put me out of my misery.

Ironically, Ultraman was a blast even though it's the same game. I guess it's all that campy Ultraman footage, falls in the same realm as Godzilla.

Alien was fun but DAMN that game is dark.

Cactus Canyon was a hoot and probably the 2nd best topper behind BKSOR, but the game may be too easy. I played for a loooonnnng time on my very first game.

The biggest surprise for me was Celts. It's a fun game with an interesting layout. That upper scoop off the upper flipper, through the pop bumpers is fun and tricky. Haggis seems like they've got their act together when it comes to developing new games.

G&R SE was a sleeper as in, it was putting me to sleep.

Led Zepplin Premium was fun but just seems sooooo empty on that playfield.

Big Lebowski was broke when I got there, up later, then my very first shot went off the left ramp and lodged behind the wire form...DOH!

Thank you to everyone who worked to put this together and brought games. My wife and I went Saturday and had a lot of fun.

Fun to play new games, but I like the off the wall games even better. Deadly Weapon and Hardbody were two of my favorites. Also appreciate the 70s and 80s games that people put so much time into. Black Hole, Alien Star, and Time Fantasy come to mind but there were many more.

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This show keeps gettn better!
Great job Team Pincinnati!

Can't express enough gratitude to all the folks who bring their collections for us to enjoy. Huge props to Erik, Jerry and everyone who put this thing together. So many people put so much effort in and it really showed.

What an amazing weekend. Only bad thing is now I guess I need to find room for some older games, as this show made me gain a whole new respect for them and how much of a blast they can be.

P.S. - Godzilla is the best new game put out in the past 5 years, maybe longer...... fight me.

What a blast. It was so great meeting and hanging out with so many awesome people, and playing a ton of awesome games.

It's kind of sad when fun things end, but I guess Erik has to sleep at some point.

Such a fun weekend! Props to Erik & Jerry as well as all the supporting players. I met so many nice people and played a bunch of great games I'd never seen before. Looking forward to next year!

It was mentioned to me that it was a smaller show than some major cities but had better games and selection. 2 aliens? Cactus Canyon, plenty of Godzilla, great classics and 90s Williams. Celts, banzai run, big Lebowski - JJP Pirates, Halloween, ultraman... Thanks to all the vendors and locals it may not be the largest show in the country but Ohio can certainly bring it. Big ups to chuckwurt and @jjsmooth.

Just wait until next year…

This was a fantastic show. I had a great time being back to a show since TPF 2019. Erik and Jeremy are just absolutely killing it. The fact this is only the 2nd or 3rd year and it is hitting all cylinders this well, man, I can't imagine 4-5 years from now.

Great job, guys!!

What a effing blast. So sad it has to be over but c'mon! Erik and Jerry need to sleep *sometime* From my perspective everything was top notch and well run. I told Erik many times that even though the "post-Thanksgiving/First December weekends" are the most horribly conflicted clusterf***s on my personal calendar (something many of ya'll finally saw bear out first hand even without the infamous "tilt"!), bringing games is the *least* I felt I could do. I feel honored to be a small part of it.

And mad respect for the work all the distros put in to share the latest and greatest (Godzilla FTMFW)! And the private collectors sharing their prizes and prides - so may cool and weird games at this show! The red Meteor was awesome, the Getaway-thru-Taxi row are among the best playing restorations you'll find, Signal Jr and Knockout were amazing rarities, the P3 system (with THREE modules) was great AND a true labor of love to haul. In the same building you had a Banzai Run within 20 feet of a Lebowski, Celts, and Valhalla... while on the opposite wall were ALL the Sys7 dual-levels in a row. How can you go wrong? Congrats to the best in show winners!

Most important for me personally, I must say that after almost a 2-year show hiatus, I'm amused and humbled to discover I've made so many friends in this local community. Despite my wordiness here, I'm usually reserved and socially awkward. So I was a bit bemused on Thursday to have so many folks stopping and saying hi and chatting and whatnot, I didn't know what to think. I'm terrible with names and stupid in other ways but even though I'm inept, I don't take outreach for granted. Pinball folks are some of the best I've met and the Cincy crew is always welcoming. Frankfort is too off the local path and my life schedule is too chaotic, otherwise I'd be way more active in the scene. Anyway, if any of you passing through or looking for a bourbon tour, look me up. And if I left someone out (you know who you are), yell at me.

Oh yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the girl we sang Happy Birthday to on Friday night, GC'd GnR with almost 10M points this morning. I think My Michelle is probably her new favorite song

Can't wait for LAX!

Wow, thanks for the comments! Glad to share the games at the show, and glad you liked them. Yep that was my Fire too. I’d say your high score is pretty secure. Had a great time seeing familiar faces and chatting with folks from past shows. What a great community of pinball folks.

Great event guys!! See you next time.
Leebo

Awesome show and great times. Got to go Saturday and was nice playing some great games. But, as always was even better see old friends and new. That tournament section though, definitely want to get in on that next year. Great venue and show, thanks to everyone who brought games. Great job Eric, and glad I got to say hi during the mayhem of running that tournament.

I only took one pic but here is the show from the back row.

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Sad I missed it, Looked like an awesome show. Glad those who were able to attend had a great time and played old and new titles. I would have camped on that sweet Black Hole.

Ken

Watch your language

What an amazing weekend! Congrats to Erik and everyone else involved. This is as good as it gets!

The tournament area being in the lobby amongst the fountains and waterfall was really special.

The freeplay area was amazing. I had limited time in there since I'm a tournament guy, but some standouts for me:

That Taxi was the best I've ever played. New PF and everything just worked perfectly. Same goes for the Firepower.
The Time Fantasy with overhead UV light was awesome.
Celts was WAY better than Valhalla. Almost no comparison. Those outlanes on Celts just need to be opened up.
There were two DE TMNT there and the one next to Taxi was by far the nicest one I've ever played.
Also two Aliens there but I didn't find time to play.
The Banzai Run played fantastic.
CCR was a pretty big improvement on the original. Just a touch too easy IMHO.
Great assortment of EM's and early SS on hand.

Finishing 2nd Friday and 1st on Saturday was just icing on the cake!
I hope to make it to Pincinnati again next year!

Side note: I tried the Skyline 3-way. Sorry, not a fan. The chili was almost black and had a weird flavor that I can't really describe.
I did see White Castle but didn't have time to try.
Sadly, I didn't stop to get Grippos. By the time I was knocked out of the Gauntlet on Sunday I just wanted to hit the road. Seven hours is a long drive, especially after dark. I made it home around 9:30 central time, tired but very happy!

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Great venue, glad to see the outside tropical area being used for the tournament. Probably the fanciest on the circuit.
I have to disagree with everyones review on Celts. Maybe if I heard the sound it would make more sense? I was bored to death playing it. There are EM games that do a better job of a horse shoe in the middle of the playfield than that. Cuts off the upper playfield, Fish Tales got it right.
Then when I thought it was finally over I got an extra ball. Oh the torture.

Celts certainly has a lot of charm in the audio department: plenty of whimsical / stereotyped / hyperbolic battle sounds and callouts in a perfectly balanced tone of humor and aggression. In that regard it's the polar opposite of Valhalla (which is total alpha metal bloodlust) but comparing the art packages, neither is surprising and about what you'd expect.

At any rate the audio on Celts saved it for me because I was laughing at its lightheartedness. But I also felt the pf was far too constrained by the poorly-placed and needlessly wide horseshoe. The upper portion seemed unreasonably difficult to get to, with minimal payoff for the effort. It reminded me of a bad EM where the points are in the pops at the top of a PF but the flippers / layout prevent you from ever getting back up there after a plunge, and there's not much else to do. Certainly some clever ideas and intent are evident but the execution is just a bit off. It's a game you play for spite because you want to see... and then be done once the humor wears thin.

OTOH, alpha-bloodlust is seems an almost overdone trope these days yet Valhalla shoots like a dream and is amazingly fast. The wide-open playfield betrays some reasonably tricky shots and timing; the lock shot is not a gimme but the flow keeps you trying. Again, the two games couldn't be more different, so it's definitely a matter of personal preference.

My first time to a pin show Saturday was great! Was bummed all the large shirts were sold out by then.
Standouts and thoughts:
The Getaway - if there was a reward for best in show, this would have won it. Absolutely gorgeous, you'd think this was remade and just rolled off the line.
CCR - have only played CC virtually via vpx until now and wow this game is Hella fun. Shoots great and good play times.
Banzai Run - been wanting to play one of these for a while, did not disappoint.
Halloween and Ultraman both look better than they play.
Godzilla may be the best stern game yet.
JP pin plays and shoots great, but the game and cabinet just kinda overall feels eh and cheap. Extremely loud even in a already loud environment.
Got my best score yet on TZ on the best looking TZ I've played on.
Can't wait till next year!

It was so great meeting you finally in person! Thank you for coming that far and congratulations again!
I definitely can understand that you wanted to hit the road, i only had a 30 minute drive and was pretty toast at the end of the day!

Hopefully we'll see you again next year or at a show in between!

Next time we'll go together to skyline, my treat!

Some games you only need to play once. Celts was one of them.

No doubt - as with every spooky game

Awesome!

Will there be a 24hr free play room or an option for something past midnight at some point..?

Had a great time at our first Pincinnati!!

Agreed, 24 hour rooms are a bit much.

Don't let him fool you....Erik is 24/7 pinball...

That’s unfortunate - but we all need sleep.

Hopefully at some point!

You know the saying, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old..”

For people who aren’t there all weekend, work 2nd or 3rd shift, are trying to beat some of the crowd.. An option to play late night/early morning would be helpful, so I asked.. And I have an answer..

I cant speak for anyone but I can tell you the people working this event were on the go for 14-16 hours a day, maybe more. I don't think anyone is trying to exclude 2nd & 3rd shift workers, but rather maintain their sanity by locking things up during the rare few hours the organizers do sleep. I can only imagine the stress of having a room open all night. Hopefully you can work it out where you can come next year, it was a fantastic event.

Great show, as usual. Tournaments were great. Erik runs a tight, but fair ship as a TD.

Yes, those were the show hours. We were inside and playing by 9:50am Saturday. Sadly we only had the one day for the expo. Just thinking ahead for next year, trying to avoid some of the crowds if possible.

I’d seen late night/24hr game rooms discussed/supported in other threads and didn’t realize it was such a divisive issue. My bad.

Great show, had a blast.

I may not have organized this event but of course I know of and appreciate all the hard work people working, volunteering, bringing machines etc did! They did a hell of a job keeping things running smoothly!

I don’t believe I said they’re trying to exclude anyone. But for those of us who aren’t 9-5 with weekends off, a late night game room option one night would have been awesome and helped with crowds. Plus, it’s a great way to increase revenue - most would pay more to play more!

Hopefully as the show grows, they’ll be able to get more people working/volunteering, and less people will being doing those 16hr shifts and maybe a late night game room will be considered.

After having seen late night game rooms discussed/support in other threads, I didn’t realize it was such a divisive topic. Yikes.

We had a great time, looking forward to next year! Thanks again everyone.

It is a hotel it could be noisy for the people staying there to sleep.

Good point! However, if this were an actual concern, I’d think the hotel hosting the event would insist that the game room be closed well before midnight - not to disturb guests.. most of whom are probably there that weekend for the pinball show.

And correct me if I’m wrong.. But it seems like most pinball shows that are at a hotel, like Pincinnati, place games in a ballroom/event space which is often away from guest rooms or has been designed to isolate sound/not disturb guests, so that the hotel may host loud events?

Thanks again everyone!

I was there pretty late (doors shut behind me) 2 nights and prior to that there really weren’t that many people there. Maybe just a handful and they were vendors or helpers. Not sure it be justified to commit the time. I’m sure if Chuck could be it off he would!

Yeah I would say a big NO to this...Expo tried this for a few years and I know a few folks who hung around and played till 3 or 4am but not enough to make it worth it. IMHO I bring alot of older games and even though they're "bullet proofed" so to speak, I'm not a fan of leaving them on 24 hours for multiple days. there's nobody there to watch them and no one who knows what is up if something should go wrong so it's a non starter as far as I'm concerned with my games anyway. I know they had a game bringers after hours thing till 2am at least 1 night but I feel that Erik and Jerry do it right! There's plenty of time for folks to play and not to crowded for folks to have to wait in really long lines to play so if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Phoebe

Yeah, that’s what I thought..

Hopefully as the event continues to grow, you’ll be able to get some more staff/volunteers so that it won’t be a complete non-starter!

Thanks for the thumbs down. Did you notice there are no one giving you thumbs down? Welcome to Ohio! I hear you’re new in town and looking for new friends that play pinball.

I don’t want to bring negativity to such a positive thread, but yeah, dick move to come in and just thumbs down folks who put so much time into this.

I understand it’s “just the internet” but dick move in my opinion.