Quoted from HydrogenHuman:Very excited to be going to pintastic tomorrow! I'll only be there for several hours, but it's gonna be great!
How do the pinball vendors work there, by the way? Can you actually order new machines from them at the event?
Sure. If you want to put in some effort this weekend you can even take one home! Check with each directly.
Can someone go to the vendor area where there are 3 Cactus Canyon Remakes and look at the LE please?
The LE has the topper and the grey powder coat.
Trying to find out if it is a production game (sticker on the back will have serial number and production date) or a prototype (has a small sticker that says proto 008 or something like that)
If anyone can confirm one way or the other (a pic would be awesome!) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Pintastic has been awesome so far! My room on the other hand has a serious mold problem, the hotel should be ashamed.
Quoted from mudflap:A birdie told me some “NEW” Games were added to the “Free Play room” for tonight. Might want to take a peek.
I hope so, that free play room has barely been half full all day
Quoted from HydrogenHuman:How do the pinball vendors work there, by the way? Can you actually order new machines from them at the event?
It's really a game-by-game question. Some games at the show might be ones that the vendor wants to retain as "showroom" games, and they will take an order to get another copy shipped to you. Other games might be pre-sold, but the buyer has allowed them to be shown at the show. Yet others might be available for you to buy and take home. Just ask.
.................David Marston
Quoted from jfh:Confirmed that the CCr LE is a prototype.
Likely the same game they had there in November.
Quoted from HoneyBadger:And no hot water or AC…absolutely brutal
And no fridge in the room!
Quoted from Pinash:And no fridge in the room!
For a mere $10/night (!) you can rent one. It's clear the hotel is generally in rough shape and not doing well. For the money, I told my wife "the room is JUST enough".
My eoom was Ice cold and decent! The vendor hall had one ac unit down but fixed by 4pm and cool again...I thought rest of the rooms were comfortable.
Quoted from toddtuckey:My eoom was Ice cold and decent! The vendor hall had one ac unit down but fixed by 4pm and cool again...I thought rest of the rooms were comfortable.
I just got out of the shower. In true Host Hotel fashion, the water was lukewarm at best. Just. Warm. Enough. We've killed about ten mosquitoes and an earwig. You must have the penthouse suite that includes in-room bug zapper!
Quoted from arcyallen:I just got out of the shower. In true Host Hotel fashion, the water was lukewarm at best. Just. Warm. Enough. We've killed about ten mosquitoes and an earwig. You must have the penthouse suite that includes in-room bug zapper!
I caught a large spider in my room. If you want, I could bring it over to take care of your bug problem 
Quoted from ForceFlow:I caught a large spider in my room. If you want, I could bring it over to take care of your bug problem
I just spit my water all over myself reading this lmao
Quoted from ForceFlow:I caught a large spider in my room. If you want, I could bring it over to take care of your bug problem
wow. LOL 
Quoted from ForceFlow:I caught a large spider in my room. If you want, I could bring it over to take care of your bug problem
No joke: there are spiderwebs in our room (no wonder) and we've decided to keep them. That's probably the momma.
Quoted from ForceFlow:I caught a large spider in my room. If you want, I could bring it over to take care of your bug problem
Nature’s pest control!
If anyone see’s a Shaq VUK wireform at a vendor booth let me know! I have a WTB ad in marketplace.
Quoted from jp1985:Pintastic has been awesome so far! My room on the other hand has a serious mold problem, the hotel should be ashamed.
This hotel was made for perverts. It wasn’t locked…
Hasn’t this hotel had years of complaints, they claim to renovate… and then somehow the complaints get even worse?
Why is the show still there if it’s bordering on a health hazard? That place in Westford sounded way nicer.
I was considering going but heard it’s hot AF there and super stuffy (and it’s even hotter today).
Quoted from Yoko2una:Hasn’t this hotel had years of complaints, they claim to renovate… and then somehow the complaints get even worse?
Why is the show still there if it’s bordering on a health hazard? That place in Westford sounded way nicer.
I was considering going but heard it’s hot AF there and super stuffy (and it’s even hotter today).
I think the renovation was just a fresh coat of paint over the mold spores.
Quoted from Murphdom:This hotel was made for perverts. It wasn’t locked…
[quoted image]
At least they spackled over the glory holes.
One day I’ll get to this show. Not sure I’ll stay over though. 
Quoted from TheFamilyArcade:At least they spackled over the glory holes.
One day I’ll get to this show. Not sure I’ll stay over though.
Gotta say that's exactly what I'm thinking. I'm too old to be putting up with sh*t accommodations. When I was 20 something I'd sleep in the car but not anymore. And if I'm not staying, I'm not bringing games.
The Super 8 on the other side of the parking lot was actually pretty decent; clean, big fridge, good A/C. If anyone needs a room tonight check with them as I had to leave a day early.
Also I thought I saw every pin but there has to be a dozen in ForceFlow's photos I never saw like Multimorphic, Elvis, Coney Island, SharpShooter II, Pool Sharks -- that whole row I seemed to miss.
Quoted from VALIS666:Also I thought I saw every pin but there has to be a dozen in ForceFlow's photos I never saw like Multimorphic, Elvis, Coney Island, SharpShooter II, Pool Sharks -- that whole row I seemed to miss.
There's a club room across from the seminar room.
There's also the extra ball room at the back of the hotel lobby.
Quoted from ForceFlow:There's a club room across from the seminar room.
There's also the extra ball room at the back of the hotel lobby.
I was in those including the EB lounge until like 3am last night, but I never got to check out the club room for long. I thought they'd still be open after the midnight knockout tournament ended but they weren't. I guess that Elvis/Sharpshooter II etc. row was in there.
Saturday photos, including free play, vendors, and extra ball lounge.
20220625121908953.jpg20220625122021875_1.jpg20220625122036249.jpg20220625122051493.jpg20220625122106657.jpg20220625122122844.jpg20220625122145700.jpg20220625122207157.jpg20220625122338669.jpg20220625122356852.jpg20220625122431412.jpg20220625122550747.jpg20220625122610921.jpg20220625122625840.jpg20220625122637946.jpg20220625122721581.jpg20220625122736355.jpg20220625122803677.jpg20220625122814073.jpg20220625122836011.jpg20220625123004162.jpg20220625123118662.jpg20220625123204368.jpg20220625123258394.jpg20220625123314515.jpg20220625123328694.jpg20220625123349178.jpg20220625123401429.jpg20220625123426455.jpg20220625123521484.jpg20220625123541632.jpg20220625123557595.jpg20220625123622182.jpg20220625123629806.jpg20220625123639364.jpg20220625123647693.jpg20220625123702669.jpg20220625123716617.jpg20220625123744656.jpg20220625123757824.jpg20220625123808199.jpg20220625123819360.jpg20220625123828225.jpg20220625123847681.jpg20220625123856962.jpg20220625123913294.jpg20220625124357771.jpg20220625124412549.jpg20220625124434386.jpg I had to checkout of the hotel in a bit of a rush this AM (originally planned to be there through Sunday) and left something behind in my room 
. Is there anyone from seacoast NH/ME who is up for grabbing it @ the front desk? When you get back to NH/ME I can meet whenever/wherever is convenient for you. I'll throw you an ipa 4-pack for your help. Thanks!
All set! Thanks all
Quoted from Pinash:I had to checkout of the hotel in a bit of a rush this AM (originally planned to be there through Sunday) and left something behind in my room . Is there anyone from seacoast NH/ME who is up for grabbing it @ the front desk? When you get back to NH/ME I can meet whenever/wherever is convenient for you. I'll throw you an ipa 4-pack for your help. Thanks!
If someone can’t get it all the way up there but can get it to close to me, I’m driving through Kittery later in the week and can take it (as long as it’s something that doesn’t require an “awkward talk” with my son).
I have to say, this was my first time back to pintastic since pre covid, great show Gabe and crew, i cant say enough positive things about this show.
Does anyone know what time the freeplay drawing is on Sunday? I didn't see it listed on the website.
Quoted from ForceFlow:Does anyone know what time the freeplay drawing is on Sunday? I didn't see it listed on the website.
10 am I believe
The show was great. It was my first time bringing a game and the tech staff was awesome. They were more than eager to help out troubleshooting, and got my game back up and running when it went down. It was a fun weekend and I look forward to bringing games in the future. Thanks to the pintastic team!
Thank you Pintastic team! Had another great show. We had a great time as usual. Can’t wait till next year. Hopefully the economy hasn’t collapsed by then and we can still have it!
Was there all day Sat, dropped a lot of cash ( bought 3 pins, 1 NIB) and had a great time as usual. When you really think about it, this event seems to take a LOT of planning and coordinating and is MUCH appreciated! It's run smoothly and the fun factor is a 10. Looking forward to next June (or Nov?) . Either way, thank you to all the volunteers and principals!
It was another great time! Thanks again to all who spend time putting this show on. I can’t imagine the effort behind the scenes. It is a tradition now that my dad and I can share together as we have been the last few and all have been a blast!
As a quick aside…and apologies if this is not the best place to ask but I’m foolish and forgot to ask around while at the show. Does anyone know any local resources (that covers north shore in MA) that could repair a mid-90s IGT Double Diamond Deluxe slot machine?
Forceflow thank you for posting the pictures. A nice memory review. Those that were not able to attend it’s a great pictorial of the event.
Went to the event yesterday, and it was a lot of fun! Considering how many people were there, the Pintastic staff really handled everything well.
I couldn't believe the noise from all of the machines going, it was a bit of sensory overload for me. But then again, I'm not normally a person that likes or goes to events for that reason. Hence why Pintastic will probably be a one time thing for me, but it was very enjoyable!
I wasn't able to try out all the machines I wanted, but I was able to confirm which machines I definitely want to get in the future: F-14, Swords of Fury, and Earthshaker.
I also tried playing Godzilla, but it was only the pro version and I didn't have much interest in it.
I did get to play the Tron though, and man was that amazing! I can see why it got best in show.
Just got my pictures up from Friday. My first pin con, and it was a blast. Spent most of the day playing, did a little shopping, and had a good sit at the TNT crew's modding seminar.
THANK YOU to everyone who brought a table for free play! 
This year was a mixed bag for me...
The positive:
1) The selection of games was pretty decent, though there were certainly less games than in prior years.
2) The seminar schedule was fantastic-- I spent most of yesterday in that room. Congrats to Dave M. and anyone else who had a hand in making this schedule.
3) And due to unfortunate circumstance, I learned how excellent and responsive the tech team is (see the neutral).
The neutral:
1) The game I brought was badly damaged sometime between 1am Friday and 10:30am Friday. I brought a really old game with me, the type that uses a lever to push a metal plate under the playfield to drop the balls from the top of the playfield back into the trough. Someone pushed on the coin slide so violently that it broke that metal level in half. It's fixable, but not something that I could repair on-site. Game sold anyway (for less than I wanted, but the new owner was willing to make the fix, and was excited about the game, so I let it go).
The bad:
1) If you bring little kids, keep an eye on them. I hurt my leg and a little kid ended up scraping his knees when he and another kid came tearing around the corner in the free play area and smashed into me. It's not the kids fault, it's the parents fault that their children are misbehaving.
2) The food situation was completely unacceptable, and had we been made aware of that, we would have prepared better. I saw a lot of people eating pop tarts and cheetos from the vending machines as meals. In the past, the hotel had two restaurants to feed us. One of those was open for breakfast-only on Friday and Saturday. We ate there friday, and I was charged $19 for a cup of coffee, a scoop of scrambled eggs, a grocery store bagel, and two tiny sausage links-- outrageous. Lunch and dinner were non-existent unless you wanted pre-packaged, paper thin burgers or steamed in the bag and a little soggy hot dogs. Just awful. If the hotel can't find staff to work, they shouldn't be taking on bookings for such big events. There's *NO* late night food options that will deliver to the hotel. The latest is Domino's which will deliver until midnight.
3) Our room was... less than sparking clean. We were all the way in the back, in the room next to @forceflow. Everything smelled a little musty, and the hallways in between the buildings smelled like someone had taken a dump in them (literally-- it was wretch inducing).
4) Just call the show closed at 2am on Sunday morning (or whatever). This morning, there was very little left in free play, and all the vendors were already gone (and a doll show was setting up). I'm kinda pinballed out by Sunday anyway, but I know of at least one person who was planning to travel to the show just for this morning. I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm sure it was a huge disappointment and a lot of wasted fuel for him.
5) With regards to the vendors... the roster was too thin. Mayfair was the only parts vendor there, and they don't really bring much in the way of parts. The rest were people with some neat mods and tchotchkeis... but not a bottle of Novus or an LED light in sight. Cointaker is listed as a sponsor, which I assumed meant they were also a vendor- that was a poor assumption on my part.
6) Either give up or try to go all-in on the outdoor flea market. Only two vendors there, one of whom I will have no dealings with.
Personally I don’t think the Host hotel is long for this world. Probably a good idea to explore other options at this point; if I were running a show I’d have a hard time paying a deposit to a place that could well be tits up before my event happens.
In the off chance this place somehow survives another year, you should know there are numerous food options within a 5-10 minute walk if you are willing to go off campus. The Thai Place is good, there’s a pizza place, there’s a mediocre bbq joint that people don’t know bbq like to proclaim is “the best I’ve ever had!!”, other stuff like that. And of course there a Burger King and a McDonald’s in the parking lot (BK will have shorter lines generally)
Pizzeria uno and an Applebees are both open late and a 5 minute drive away.
You cannot count on the hotel to feed you; their restaurants haven’t been opened for years now and doesn’t look like that’s going to change.
I had an LE badge this year and felt it was worthwhile. The vendor hall and main room have become too crowded for me. I really appreciated getting to know the games in the EBL without feeling rushed and being able to hear most of the call outs.
My only issue was the venue chosen, of course I’m not privy to the reasons it was chosen again after years of issues. It may have been to maintain a healthy profit or just to sustain the show. Either way I believe a building inspector would have sound footing condemning most of the property due to high levels of mold and other hazards.
The walls in my room felt spongy when pressed and it was apparent that they had/have a substantial water issue that requires the walls to be taken down to the studs.
The lack of food in the hotel was odd but then again would you want to eat anything from that hotel?
In a hobby with many machines now costing over 10k it’s ironic we are relegated to such a venue.
I’m not a big Rush fan but the cover band was awesome!
I picked up a few 80s horror inspired fan art posters from a vendor that I’m pretty happy about too.
Quoted from jp1985:I had an LE badge this year and felt it was worthwhile. The vendor hall and main room have become too crowded for me. I really appreciated getting to know the games in the EBL without feeling rushed and being able to hear most of the call outs.
My only issue was the venue chosen, of course I’m not privy to the reasons it was chosen again after years of issues. It may have been to maintain a healthy profit or just to sustain the show. Either way I believe a building inspector would have sound footing condemning most of the property due to high levels of mold and other hazards.
The walls in my room felt spongy when pressed and it was apparent that they had/have a substantial water issue that requires the walls to be taken down to the studs.
The lack of food in the hotel was odd but then again would you want to eat anything from that hotel?
In a hobby with many machines now costing over 10k it’s ironic we are relegated to such a venue.
I’m not a big Rush fan but the cover band was awesome!
I picked up a few 80s horror inspired fan art posters from a vendor that I’m pretty happy about too.
Yeah that guy always has cool stuff, and he was cranking priest on Friday!
I'll add in my 2 cents here on the show itself.
Thank You to everyone who brought pinball machines and made this another excellent show! Thank you to Gabe for always bringing it with his pinball collection. Some people mentioned the vendor hall didn't have as good of a selection of pinball machines as they did this past November but it was still pretty cool. My issue with the Vendor Hall is that the main vendor Automated Services pretty much starts packing everything up at 6:30 Saturday when the hall is suppose to be open til 9pm so as they begin to pack up and the other vendors also start wrapping everything up which really pretty much closes the Vendor Hall to anyone wanting to play pinball at about 7pm. The Free Play Hall (probably 75% full) wasn't as packed with pinball machines as it has been in years past but they had a nice selection of pinball machines for everyone to play. I thought the techs did a great job as machines broke down to get them back up and running as quickly as possible. The Extra Ball Lounge is a nice addition if you buy a Pro Pass or more.....I personally was in there from 9pm Saturday Night until 4AM Sunday morning....I just couldn't stay awake anymore. This is the first show since the economy and inflation has really ramped up and that could be the reason some Vendors decided to pass this year.....it's just going to be a rough few years ahead of us....hope everyone continues to support their local pinball groups and businesses to keep everything afloat while we muddle thru this difficult economy.
As a sidebar for all the curious people....there was 4 Toy Story Pinball Machines including one in the Extra Ball Lounge.....no Pooling.
I stayed at another hotel because the Sturbridge had no rooms but it looks like that was a good move on my part as there are some complaints about the rooms.....sorry to hear that.
I hope they keep the show at Sturbridge, MA as it's close to NYC and Eastern parts of NY and not far from Boston either....seems like a good central meeting spot.
Pintastic is always great.....congratulations to Gabe & the crew for another great show.....hope to see everyone next year!
As for the food.....yeah I went to that Barbecue place that someone mentioned above....it's average at best....far from the best barbecue ever! Also ate at a pizza place in Southbrige called Great Oak Pizza....had the best reviews.....it was pretty bland, sauce had no flavor and way too much cheese...I'd give it a 6 out of 10.
Can't wait til next year!
Quoted from drsfmd:1) The game I brought was badly damaged sometime between 1am Friday and 10:30am Friday.
Sorry to hear that. As a possible suggestion for fragile games, maybe drape them in cloth after a certain time, so the late night crowd doesn't mess with them?
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Probably a good idea to explore other options at this point;
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Personally I don’t think the Host hotel is long for this world. Probably a good idea to explore other options at this point;
I'm not sure if you recall the advertising materials that were released pre-covid, but another hotel was explored in Boxboro MA for what would've been the 2020 show. It was a larger venue, but somewhat geographically isolated.
Quoted from jp1985:The lack of food in the hotel was odd but then again would you want to eat anything from that hotel?
After limited options in past years, I brought most of my own snacks and food, and supplimented with (ugh) burger king, since it was within walking distance. The food there tastes like a salt lick block on a bun, though.
Once I park when towing a trailer, I don't usually like to move it if I don't have to. Plus it's harder to find a decent parking spot once the doors for the show open.
Quoted from drsfmd:Our room was... less than sparking clean. We were all the way in the back, in the room next to ForceFlow. Everything smelled a little musty, and the hallways in between the buildings smelled like someone had taken a dump in them (literally-- it was wretch inducing).
Yeah, I was expecting freshly renovated rooms...not the same old musty room from years past. That was a let down. At least the ancient AC unit in the room worked, so keeping that running 24/7 seemed to combat the smells.
While I really like the convenience of staying on-site, the condition of the room was certainly a sore spot in the overall show experience.
As for the show itself, I liked having a chance to play some of the newer titles. There were plenty of copies of rush and Godzilla. I don't like waiting on lines for games (standing still for too long after being on my feet all weekend tends to hurt a bit), so I didn't get a chance to play toy story. Maybe I'll get a chance at the next show.
Thanks to everyone who brought games to the show. I had a chance to enjoy playing many of them.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-real-official-pintastic-new-england-show-info/page/17?hl=pinballomatic and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Winooski, VT
