Got back home about 10pm. There wasn't any way I was gonna unload 7 machines by mice elf last night. Took today off so's I can do it leisurely, because I am still tattered. The show was the BEST EVAR. Lots of machines, lots of opportunities to play, killer swap meet, and of course the people... and the campground. Oh baby, it was a great time out there. We are definitely going to take it up a notch next year. I think more money went over the glass in gambling on Oh Boy in camp than I paid JimmyB for the machine! Aaron's Star Wars Pro was getting jealous of all the attention. The late night tourney was a kick to watch, and it was just groovy cruising camp and hanging with people.

I was going to do some name-checking here, but the list is too long and I would have trouble remembering all the actual names... But there were a lot of people I met for the first time in person that I will definitely be hanging out with again next year, if not sooner.

Still trying to think of a name for the campcade/hangout... Mebbe The Decompression Chamber? There seemed to be a lot of that.

Wotta time. Steve, I have your money! I found mine!

I MUST HAVE A TX-SECTOR!

The tx sector sounds carried over all the other games for me. I have a friend who has one. I like it.

BEA AHBECK/NEWS-SENTINEL Mark Coward, of San Luis Obispo, sporting a hotdog hat, gives pointers to Darren Ensley, of San Francisco, right, as he plays the Excalibur pinball machine during the first day of the Golden State Pinball Festival at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds in Lodi Friday, May 18, 2018.

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Special thanks to Rob Anthony ( Borygard ) for the surprise of this cool "best restoration" trophy that I found sitting on the head of my San Francisco Sunday morning! It makes the countless hours I spent bringing that machine back from the dead as a doornail bare grooved wood roach that it was all the more worthwhile.

Thanks as always to all the folks who work SOOOOO hard to make this special show happen every year. I really enjoyed the new venue. Everything was vastly more comfortable and roomier than Dixon. I also can't say enough about the overall excellent organization of the event and the helpfulness of the techs.

As for those hand dryers - hey, that's what your shirt and pants are for! But now that so may folks are talking about them, I want to see someone salvage one of those hand dryers as a special GSPF topper for a Whirlwind.

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That sucker was BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL! Way killer. Better than it looked when it was new!

Great vlog Drewster. You captured the essence of GSPF-1 very nicely!
~Steveo

... and yes, Greywolf (HALF ELF) is a great guy... with an over the top wicked Firepower.

Great to meet you in person, save me a slot in SLO town, some day I will get back there.

The new venue in Lodi was a huge success. Really impressed with the overall setup & all the events going on this year. Great job everyone Pretty bummed I did not run into the people I was looking for this year, but as usual, there was too much going on. Only thing I really missed from pinagogo was the darkened lighting in the main hall.

I was really surprised at all the new titles from Stern & JJP, along with those hard to find titles like Alien & TBL. Big thanks to whomever brought the Tron, BK2000, Fireball and BSD. Found myself playing them over & over all weekend long. Embryon, Centigrade 37, The Shadow, Firepower, Paragon....I could go on & on. Best selection of titles ever.

Special thanks to both the Reno guys for bringing the TMNT, Robocop & TX-Sector! Always wanted to play a TXS, and I was not disappointed. TheDrewster did a great job restoring those DE titles, both looked gorgeous & were a blast to play. Hope to see you guys in our Reno league next season!

Can I share this on the shows facebook page Drew?

BEST NEWS I HAVE HEARD ALL DAY! So glad you found your money! Was it returned? I want to hope it was so I can confirm that pinheads are still the best folk around. No worries on the $20, next time I see ya

I made the Lodi paper too! Okay, so I was off by a decade.

BEA AHBECK/NEWS-SENTINEL Todd Gilbert, of San Jose, plays a clear version of the Gottlieb Surf Champ game, which he estiamted was from the sixties, during the first day of the Golden State Pinball Festival at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds in Lodi Friday, May 18, 2018.

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The show was a pure blast! Camping out in Camp Silverball was great. Happy to see familiar faces and met some new folks this year too.

Radical! held up well the whole show afaik. SoF had some drop target woes, and heard there was some resetting going on when the games were being heavily played (Sat.). AMH kept launching balls out of the trough and getting stuck under the apron. Have to mod the trough to keep that from happening again.

Had fun playing the new titles and my old favorites too, plus the seminars were fantastic. Find myself gravitating towards early solid state games lately. Mark's setup with the EM and SW was so cool (and the Hamm's sign). A big thanks to the organizers, the exhibitors & vendors and those who brought their games as well as the volunteers, plus JJ and Sparky, and the speakers to make up an epic show! Got my AMH NOS playfield signed by Charlie too. See you guys next year.

Todd

Might have been my favorite game at the show this year. I kinda wanted one before and now REALLY want one

Thanks - 318 plays and not one game between you and I on it. We can't let that happen again!

Great show and love the new venue. The RV/camping was spot on and I think we wanna try and do a "Dory Hill" type thing as part of this next year. My two favorite games I played/learned/discovered for this year are Oh Boy ($1 games!) and Counterforce b/c I think I figured out some of the rules and it's pretty sweet!

The worst? hand dryers are weak sauce! Maybe the venue can improve those? I washed and just air-dried outside which was still 3-minutes faster than those dryers (which are obviously NOT Fast Dry!):

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I made a joke to a guy while i was drying my hands as he was washing his. "I think i could blow on my hands with my mouth and they would dry faster" lol. However it a bad hand dryer is the worst we have to complain about, then that also shows how awesome of a show this truly was.

So, after MGC this year, I added 'gel insoles' to my list of items to take to shows, so I guess I should add (especially if I to to Lodi) . . .

hand towels,

be good for wiping down games along the way as well. I can see the comments from cleaning staff at hotels near the event "why are all the hand towels missing?"

I really enjoyed that pin as well but I'm afraid the secret is out and most sellers will want big $$$.

Likely either get one for a fair price from a buddy or prepare to get bent over.

Absolutely!

I will say one day truly was not enough to do/play everything i wanted to. I was shocked when it was time for me to have to leave, how much pinball i actually didn't play in comparison to seeing/talking to/catching up with people and the other stuff going on, BBQ, pingolf tourney, etc etc.

I'm so glad that this show was a success. I couldn't get down there, but I REALLY wanted to. The old Pin-a-Go-Go was fantastic, and based on what everybody is saying is that this show not only maintains what was great about the old show, but it made a lot of improvements. I plan on going next year.

Keep the sandpaper like powder soap. The hand dryers were horrible but at least the abrasive soap made me feel like the flipper button grime was throughly scraped off.

I thought that powder soap went out in the 70's.

Fantastic show. The extra space and better temperature control compared to the old venue was welcome. As was the seminar room.

So many games in good condition and there seemed to be some decent deals too.

What does Mr Gone always say??? Oh yeah!

NEWS FLASH!!!!
We just finished a great conversation with Lodi Grape Festival folks (who are awesome) and they have now ordered new hand dryers for the restrooms! We have a lot more ideas as well that we will be working on for the future. This year was about making the big move, now we can focus on make improvements!

My Getaway took 452. Not bad.

Back in Portland, what a wild ride.
I love the new venue! Even drying my hands on my pants. The RV camping was awesome.

Thanks for everyone that came by and gave Kill Bill a play. As the show progressed Dennis was able to tweak the code and make the game stronger. Next year the game will be bulletproof at the show!

Super excited to win a Taro Legacy award, it meant a lot.

Looking forward to seeing you crazies next year.

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Probably already on your radar, but there was no drinking water that I saw. No fountains. No water coolers. Not ideal

And if you are going to sell water at the show, please don't get the smallest water bottles you can find.

The other thing about my WW I noticed is that my 17m high score is now the third high score on my game. I am taking it as a personal challenge to reclaim the high score on my machine without resorting to resetting it. 27M may take me a while to beat.

I had an amazing time. This show felt more kick back than other expos I’ve been to. Machines were beautiful and in great shape. I enjoyed meeting a few people and smoking with them. I sure wish I went more than just Saturday. I spent all day Sunday thinking about how I needed more than one day. Great show guys. Definitely will be coming back next year.

Big cheers to PDX -- he's got some love for the hobby man... We are lucky to have him on the west coast... Super generous guy.

-mof

What's the cheapest vehicle to rent for 3 days to bring up more pins than will fit in your car?
I wish I had 2-3-4-5 pins with me, and I went with 1 cause that's all I can carry in the old rav4...

-mof

I, too, was actually a fan of the powder hand soap. Although my hands weren’t dry, they sure felt cleansed and rejuvenated.

Did I put up initials on yours? GXH would be me

Speaking of initials... who is ALX?

-mof

I may be installing one of those borax dispensers in my game room bathroom -- it was a fun nostalgia hit -- and I think it might be superior for cleaning real pinball dirt off from restoring machines... lol

-mof

When I was on Security duty, I was asked that question about 5 times. The only water fountains I found were in the Training hall, right in front.

Same here, I kept crossing the quad and sneaking in there for a sip. My case of IPA was not keeping me hydrateded well enough. Need H2O as well.

Lol I left the show with 5 Cases of water left over... So I guess when you were in my area you found better things to drink! =)
J

like ZIMA!!!

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id say rent a small open uhaul trailer and use your rav to pull it, they are like 25 a day i think.

My high top ford transit extended length was about $70 a day from Enterpirse commercial. I’ve fit 10 EMs (plus our cooler and luggage, tools) or 8 DMDs. This year we hauled four games. However, the gas mileage on the ford was HORRIBLE. we probably spent around $300 on gas to and from L.A. The Sprinter has given us best mileage up there. Followed by Nissan, Dodge then this Ford dead last.

Does anyone happen to know who owned the Night Moves cocktail pinball machine? I remember the card said it may be for sale, and after I told the wife about she thought it sounded pretty cool. So I'd say that's a free pass, but of course I forgot to snap a picture of that owner card...

The numbers.
Op Pop Pop (em) 275 plays
WWFRR (ColorDMD row) 365 plays
Ghostbusters (Marco booth) 459 plays

I liked how on my Whirlwind MANY women played it... I'd say 2/3 of the people on it.
It's just an observation on a light-blue, non-porny, original themed game...

On the final day, a young hockey player was on it for hours. I told him it's ok if you keep looking back for people in line...
I gave him some tips, and he turned his 2mil average into a whopping 26million HS... Prolly top-10 all time on that machine. He said that made the show for him - hopefully he wanders into coin-op Sac and gets his toes wet at some point.

-mof

My machines were set up right across from him and I spent a lot of time playing Night Moves. Neither of the NM machines were for sale as I was going to make an offer myself but he was selling the Cruise themed one. I do know he was out of Reno, I'm sure somebody will chime in. I LOVED his 4 player round pool machine but it sat unplayable quite a bit.

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Not sure who the owner was, but I really got a new appreciation for those machines at this show. I put up the high score on the Night Moves closest to the pingolf area. The tilt bob was tight, and it had such a low center of gravity that nudging was hard. It shifts the focus of the game a bit.