We're home. Bank-A-Ball will be getting some fresh wax, a few coil sleeves, one o' them repop backglass, and....

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Had a blast this year at PAGG! Great seeing familiar faces as well as meeting many new ones. Camping out in PAGG Village was a new and fun experience. Got to know and hang with Mark (Fireball 2), Mike (PinballLew) and Hawkmoon. Had fun talking vintage vans with Dan Kramer and the others that came by to chat. Big thanks to JJ for the meet and greet and keg, and to Sparky for the bbq! It was a record turnout this year! Thanks to NorCalRealtor (Bryce) and Steve T. for the tiki cocktail! Already looking forward to next year in Lodi! Cheers everyone!

Todd

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Oh, and big thanks to Jellikit (Brad C.) for making the long trip from Chicago to deliver the Spirit of Steve posters. A gracious gesture for all pinheads that loved Steve, and for donating the proceeds to the Charland family.

Todd

Michael Lee Huntsman has a great set of photos of the show. They are on the shows Facebook page. Hey pinheadpierre great shot of you and Volansky!

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Well, another great year in the books! I'm sure I can't say much that hasn't already been said, but a huge thanks to all the organizers and staff and volunteers for putting together another fantastic show. This was my second year bringing games and while I brought my games to let the attendees play and have fun, the staff made me feel like I was an attendee and was always there for me with how helpful and thoughtful they were.

Had a great time hanging out with and talking to old friends and making new ones(and even connecting the dots of how small a world we truly live in). Got to pet Taro numerous times again. A big shout out to Dave- bicyclenut for hauling my games up for me. It made my life SO much easier. Glad we were able to avoid having those D-rings ding up our cabs!

Taking the opportunity tomorrow night to make some long overdue cab repairs before setting my games back up for the year. As for my games' totals: TZ had around 640 plays and TAF had 660. Not bad for TZ considering there were so many all super close to each other! Nothing major to report as far as issues over the course of the weekend. I changed a coil sleeve on TAF because I felt that flipper was s little sluggish. Changed a couple bulbs on TZ. Had to tighten the right flipper button on TZ and when I did, I accidentally tweaked the opto interrupter, only to notice about ten minutes later that the lower right flipper(and not the upper) was staying up. I was so worried I had a transistor that failed. Turns out it was just me that failed when I tightened the nut on the back of the flipper button.

Right as I was starting to pack up TZ, I noticed someone left TAF with balls in play. I go to plunge and drain the game back to attract mode, only there are no balls anywhere. I open it up to look for a stuck ball and nothing. I reset it from the coin door to start the ball search and nothing. I lift the playfield and I can hear balls rolling around somewhere so at least they're in there! I start looking at kickout coils and I notice that the Thing box's scoop kickout has a wire that came off, the one I didn't resolder back on two years ago. Oh well! I just shut it off and started packing it up. I'll fix it when I get it set back up this week.

All in all, a very tiring, but extremely fun show. Again! Thanks again to all who volunteer, contribute, bring games, and attend! Looking forward to 2018 in Lodi!

-Mike

I was just happy you got to play Baby Pac-Man Mike

Michael definitely has a great eye! Are you guys setting up a Flickr group as well for 2017 pics?

Didn't know there was a previous one. I will have to look into that! Would be great to have a cache of pics of the show from multiple photographers

How long to Pagg lagg wears off? I think my feet are still throbbing, must have walked 30 miles this weekend.
Big Guns delivered yesterday to awesome pinsider who couldnt make it to show. But saw a pic and really wanted it. BG had over 500 plays, havent checked surf n safari yet.
I set the Big Guns up and played one last game. Ganna miss it.

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someone remarked they had put 18000 steps on their tracker 1 day. That's 9 miles!

WOW What a great time!!! Nice to see everybody had a great time!! Happy Trails pinheads,"Until we meet again"Peace!!!! CAX is Next!!!

I met Hawkmoon !!! Is there a button for that?
mof

Monterey Flipper Pinball had the Best time. Though it comes at the small cost of ghostriding our lives for a short period thereafter.

We brought in 12 of our games, and took 16 home. I had some fun with Brad on Sunday, trying to work him into a deal for his Lost in Space. In #362 days we may have a shot at it!

Fully maxed out the trailer, well, in that it should only have 2960 lbs of load, then do the math on 16 games. We made it, so I guess we need to try fitting 18 in there next time.

Monday we trailered down to MFP League Headquarters in Salinas, set the games back up, leveled and wiped them down ... then had League that night! Super tiring, but I don't think we would have it any other way. This is how we celebrate the Golden State PAGG weekend.

A few stats to leave you with:

Dirty Harry
Average Ball Time: 44 Seconds
Total Plays: 531 Games
Extra Balls: 41

Big Buck Hunter
Average Ball Time: 27 Seconds
Total Plays: 843 Games
Extra Balls: 6

Game of Thrones
Average Ball Time: 37 Seconds
Total Plays: 711 Games
Extra Balls: 14

Tron
Average Ball Time: 27 Seconds
Total Plays: 949 Disc Kicking Games
Extra Balls: 4

#ghostridingmylife
#365
#364
#363
#362
#lostinspacewillbeours
#stuckwithbuckfornow
#mathisforthosethatdon'tbringhomeenoughpinball
#mfpinball
#pinagogo
#goldenstatepinball

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a year is too long, let's plan a meetup in the fall

You guys are straight up pinball beasts. I love it!

A most excellent idea!

I haven't checked Gilligans yet, but it was sitting at 482 plays on sat night when I popped in briefly. I am curious to see the total!

Your GI was popular. Everytime I went to play it, someone was on it. Fun game.

My Dr.Dude had 489 plays on it. Way more than I ever thought for that old game

I think NGG came up shy of 500 plays for the weekend. It didn't help that it sat for a few hours on Friday with a ball stuck on the playfield.

I didn't count my plays, so I'm going with 576, just because I never saw it unplayed the whole weekend. Not for 60 seconds.
-mof

You guys in Monterey Flipper Pinball set your games up to be hard as hell. My first game on GOT was over in like 10 seconds. Probably makes you extra good at playing them though.

Awesome sticker .....just sayin

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It's always a pleasure to play this Tron. Thank you for keeping it fast and sexy.

Yes we do. We take rings off of posts, move posts, remove posts, use a mix of different rings (rubber, poly, silicone), get the slings slinging, set flips to low (except Godizlla, those flips are like buckets when trapping, it's on the list for fixing), set games to hard(er) rules, no ball save, usually no extra ball (but we put those in for the show). It makes for quicker rounds during league, and it sets a high bar for everyone. It also makes it Super satisfying when you pull off a good game.

There are moments when I wonder if the games are set Too hard, those are fleeting.

So who wants to take credit for that 94 mil game on Tron? You know, the one that every league member is gunning to take down

I propose at Pin-a-Lo-Di, we have a contest for games with most plays AND fewest tech calls...
I'll see if I can get that Space Shuttle back in there it was a champ.

0 tech calls.
mof

Who had the DE Simpsons for sale? I know someone interested.

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Hey, between Baby Pac-Man and Gilligan's Island, I was a happy camper. Two games that a lot of people consider turds, I really like 'em both!

dsuperbee : If that was your Gilligan's in the small building in the last row, I'm the "MIK" that put up the 73mil score. Thanks for the great playing game! Well done with the LEDs, too. Wasn't annoying at all(I'm typically not a fan of LED conversions).

Yup, that was mine. Thank you for the compliments! I really like how it came out with the leds too! The secret is not making it look like a unicorn puked on it

Or...look like a unicorn pooped all over it...

Hey everyone... does anyone know who was selling " The Simpsons" game that was LED crazy bright? I have a friend that would like to buy it if it didn't get sold?

Those are some of my favorites too and...Austin Powers. Pretty sure I'm going to pick that one up this weekend.

I also really enjoyed that Gilligans Island, thanks for brining it.

Next year I need to make a list of games to play, there were so many I wanted to but forgot about until I saw them walking out the door sunday afternoon.

For a guy who avoids DMDs "in general":

Austin Powers
Lost in Space
Elvis

were fun...

But it could just have been the fun company I had...
/shrug

-mof

Oh yeah, put up #6 on Lost in Space, that was mildly cool.
Then I thought... #6? WTF is that... Top-4 or go home!
-mof

Clean up is fun. Reminds me why I might be a bit tired..

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My Skill Pool can say the same thing. 450+ plays.
Nightrider broke a wire @ the right flipper, but I was there when it happened. Back in action mighty quick.

Punk got 496 plays.
Harlem's mpu had reset itself when we came in on Saturday so it shows 336 plays for Saturday and a couple of hours Sunday.

My Data East Simpson's got 830 plays last year when it was setup approximately where Houdini was this year. That's the most of any game I've ever taken.

Thank you for your kind words. The support I received from California (including you) was nothing short of fantastic. I am so glad that both Sandy and I had a chance to experience the show in person.

Brad

Finally getting over my PAGG lagg .
I had a great time meeting new friends this year and hanging with my buds. Doug,practicalsteve,mof,IamNan,chedder,pinballholder,alwayrockin777,pinheadpierre,and of course our PAGG and GSPF ambassador MrGone .
Brad it was really nice meeting you and your wife. I was touched by your story about Steve Charland and booking the trip to finally meet him, then keeping the plans in tribute to him. He was looking over us all weekend in Spirit. Amber it was really nice meeting you,your sister ,and mom. Your Dad was a kind and generous man. I had to snap a pic as you and your mom were playing your dads Spirit one last time at PAGG.
My favorite em was fireball2's Night Rider . Ripping those spinners and watching the reel do a full revolution was Rad!! I didn't introduce myself but will be sure to next year at GSPF .
Favorite solid state chedder's Eplipse. The pink,yellow and orange... Rare and soo Sexy
Bang up job on the guys running the show, I am excited to see what you guys have up your sleeve for new venue.
Its gonna be pretty hard to top this one

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I was probably 20 or 30 of those at least. It's my new fave. Those punk kicker targets really speed things up. Super fun.
Ugliest game @ the show, but somehow that just makes it better.

Here's an interactive 360° panorama of the main room show floor. There's a good reason this show has the reputation of being the friendliest pinball show around!

www.pinsane.com/pinorama/events/PAGG_17
center of main hall
view from entrance

steve SDTM

Wow! That's insane!

And THIS is Pinsane!

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Wow - that's incredible!!

Big thanks to everyone who puts in gobs of volunteer hours to put on a fun event that supports our hobby and local children! Each year, I look forward to seeing folks in person that I usually only chat with online. @practicalsteve, @pinwillie, @fireball2, @pinballholder, @hawkmoon, @ericpinballfan, @jbovenzi, (and so many others whose pinside handles I don’t know).

Special thanks to Greywolf and Patrick for patiently going through Old Chicago with me and getting it up and running for most of the show. (And to the Monterey crew for graciously letting me photograph the underside of their Old Chicago to see what the funky drop target bank on my new (to me) Old Chicago is supposed to look like.)

Special thanks also to Hawkmoon for giving me a brand spanking new piece of glass and to ericpinballfan for arranging the 15 bucks a sheet glass (and for not knocking my block off after I asked him for like the millionth time if it was there yet).

How much fun was it to find practicalsteve’s little sticker packs stashed here and there? It made me smile a little extra throughout the show. This is part of what I love about PAGG. Just like the amazing interactive panorama above, you never know what ingenious treat someone is going to come up with and bring to share with everyone.

Every year I try to make a point of meeting new people and playing not just games that I know I like but more so games that I have never played. My favorite “discovery” from this year: Vector. I loved the odd outlanes and those funky double rows of targets that block the left ramp. I also made a point of playing every single machine in the EM room. (Well, almost maybe - I might've missed one or two, but I tried.)

As always, I am amazed by and deeply appreciative of the dedication of countless volunteers who come together to make this happen.

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Great photo Pinsane!!!

Lets make it more than once a year Pinheadpierre, invite me over to play your pins

You all were awesome. I enjoyed talking to some of you, and I was so very impressed with your enthusiasm and sense of community with the MFP. I enjoyed playing many of your games, and was amazed at the great condition of them, how well they were "tuned up", and just how many your brought. I seriously want to come and visit for one of your "taco truck evenings" - it sounds like a great time.

We certainly hope you will join us again next year in our new location for what we know will be a great show. Thanks again for coming and adding some spice to the pinball community.