Was my second show, had a great time. Notables for me:
- Lineups for Hobbit and KISS were not crazy long, at times you could walk up and play right away or within a minute which I did (which was great as I had no intention of waiting to play so I hadn't even planned on trying them). I've never much liked WOZ in looks/theme/lighting or gameplay, but Hobbit is stunning gorgeous. Gameplay not sure about, way more wide open feeling but maybe too slow for my liking from a single play impression. KISS on the surface looks pretty good visually but I just didn't feel the excitement yet even after playing several games on it. Obviously many more plays needed on both to get a real idea.
- It was very cool for me to see a Hercules in person. I always remembered seeing a huge machine in the 70s as a kid in an arcade and later wondered what it was when I got into pinball recently. I saw pictures of Hercules online but it never looked as big as I remembered so wonder if this was really it. In person at the show it looked quite large though so I am sure it was the machine I saw as a kid. Had one game on it and it was indeed slow and boring as hell, but still cool to finally see it and try it!
- The highlight on the floor for me was Tim Meighan's beautifully restored bank of EM machines. I don't love EMs more than other eras, but I like how you can go to a show like this and play a wide variety of them that you might never see elsewhere. These machines looked and played like brand new and they weren't super busy so lots of fun to be had there. Very much appreciate that he would share these with us to play after what must have been a massive amount of work getting them pristine.
- I like playing in tournaments and they were great fun, so thanks very much to the organizers, and everyone involved with putting on the show for that matter. My only real wish here is that the show was another day longer as I spent 2/3 of my time playing in or resting for tournaments and didn't have as much time as I'd like to hit all the machines I'd never played before on the floor.
- Always cool to see some interesting arcade machines. I thought Night Rider was pretty interesting, I didn't know an arcade version of it existed.
- Had a shopping list of parts to buy as ordering into Canada is prohibitive. Picked up about half what I needed. Would always love to see a bit more of the common products offered like all super band post rubbers and pin-butts and similar.