Best of luck with the party my brothers from the other side of the pond.

Looks like a great party! But it's not on the Pinside event calendar, you might want to add it there. Will there be many UK Pinsiders?

Hope to see a bunch of pictures of the event. Have a great time.

I'll be there, and I bet I'm travelling from further away than anybody else!

...okay, so I'm not just going to England for the UK Pinball Party, but I will be at the UK Pinball Party since I'm gonna be in England anyway. Already registered for the Open tournament, can't wait!

I'll be there.

Hope to find some beautiful 80's games. And cool pinball action overall.

I'm there all weekend. Taking just two machines this year; Harlem Globetrotters and Mousin' Around.

I'm not competing in any tournaments, just there to play lots of pinball, meet up with lots of friends, and of course have plenty of pints!

Just bumping this up as the show is less than a week away now (starts on Friday evening until Sunday afternoon).

Who else from Pinside is planning to attend this excellent UK show with over 100 games to play.

Website: http://www.ukpinballparty.com/

_{Post edited by Outlane-Avoider: Added link}

I'll be there, the second largest event in the UK is always good fun

You guys HAVE to post pictures and a vid. Have a blast.

I'm going to be there all weekend!!!

Especially looking forward to playing on Full Throttle, Safecracker, plus all the other games I don't see too often.

I sadly sold all my games late last year, but still have that crazy pinball bug, had a little practice for the open yesterday and I'm hoping to improve on last year's poor performance.... fingers crossed.

Not sure, I read it on the yahoo Ukpinballgroup messages, apparently it's for sale too.

Copied off Yahoo group,

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ukpinball/conversations/messages

My Safe Cracker Game will be at Daventry and will be for sale. Contact me off list for more details about it and be sure to have a go on it during the weekend. I'll be around all weekend. Offers around £4K
A unique and rare game not often found here in the uk. Great addition to a medium sized upwards collection

Count me in too, should be great fun, nice to be able to finally check out Full Throttle

It's Jim Askey's safecracker I believe. I'm there sat sun

Most of my machines are out on loan at the moment due to an imminent house move.

Just bringing the two games mentioned above in my previous post. Looking forward to playing Safecracker too, one of the few games in the Pinside top 100 I've not played before.

Will be there at the end of the week to defend my title ! And i really want to play !! Excited to play the full throtlle again, some good feelings the first time I played it 2 years ago in Berlin...

Pretty cool that Barry Oursler will be there! Is he going to be doing some work for Heighway maybe???

My son and I will be there Friday and Saturday. Taking Theatre of Magic Friday and Transformers Saturday (Both on loan)

+1 from me..

The Pro...

Only one day to go!! I'll be bringing some pinball virgins to this year's UK pinball party. I'm looking forward to playing some games and drinking some beer.

I must say the organisers are quite silent. The show is about to open, yet no teasers - no news - since the tournament was presented.

Pinball Magazine will be present all weekend with a small surprise: Pinball posters by Santiago Ciuffo.
Pinball-posters-by-Santiago-Ciuffo.jpg
Following the publication of Santiago Ciuffo’s popular PINBALL book, Pinball Magazine had posters made of some of the most popular photos in the book. These posters will debute at the UK Pinball Party 2014. After the show the remaining posters will be available in the Pinball Magazine webshop. For the UK Pinball Party the following posters are available:

- Galaxy playfield detail (cover of the Pinball book)
- Centaur playfield detail (page 199 in the book)
- Nine Ball playfield detail (page 176 in the book)
- Pin-Bot backglass detail (not in the book)
- Time Line playfield detail (page 145 in the book)
- Xenon playfield detail (page 148 in the book)
- Gorgar (page 187 in the book)*

Besides these posters there are also posters of the cover of Pinball Magazine No. 1 (Roger Sharpe) and No. 2 (Dennis Nordman & Greg Freres). All posters measure 50 cm (w) x 70 cm (h) (= 19.7 inch (w) x 27.6 inch (h)). The posters are printed on 170 grams glossy paper.

* The Gorgar poster was done to tie in with pinball designer Barry Oursler’s visit to the UK Pinball Party 2014. Following Barry's fundraiser from earlier this year, all proceeds of this poster will be donated to Barry and Donna Oursler to fund their medical bills.

The posters are priced at 5.00 GBP each, 3 for 12.00 GBP. Besides the posters Pinball Magazine No. 2 and Santiago Ciuffo's PINBALL book will also be available.

For more info visit: www.pinball-magazine.com

Can I reserve the Centaur poster, please.

Sure, will you be at the show, or ordering from the webshop later on?

I'll be there.

Barry Oursler UPKK 2014.jpg
Pinball designer Barry Oursler holding a special Gorgar poster, taken from Santiago Ciuffo's PINBALL book, at the UK Pinball Party 2014. All proceeds of sales of this poster will be donated to Barry to fund his medical bills. More info on this and other posters: http://www.pinball-magazine.com/?p=2250

Last night produced possibly the worst ever 4 player game score in history:

image.jpg

Any blog for this show? Would like to hear how Full Throttle is going over.

Great day at the party today, took my 5 year old so it was her first one and she loved it. Cheers to all those who took pins!

Both Poibug and Andy Heighway took a dunking for charity. Poi raising money for British Heart Foundation in memory of a deceased pinhead, and Andy's split went towards Barry Oursler's medical bills

Didn't have time to write a blog about the show, but I did play Full Throttle. According to Andrew's presentation on saturday the game is about 85% done. To me it feels more like it was about 70% done as there were quite a few things that could be improved. The team was very open to feedback and suggestion, which I think is great. Then again, some of the suggestions from last year had not been implemented (positioning of the flipper buttons - the game currently has the buttons in a less comfortable position than on e.g. b/w games).

I came with quite a list of suggestions and Yanos Kiss was taking notes. To get the correct impression: these were mostly nitpicky things. e.g: there's a garage where you can collect stuff. One of the items is a new set of tires. On the image shown are 3 tires, but a motorcycle only needs 2. So that seems odd to me and I pointed that out.

After playing a couple of games on saturday night I played it again sunday afternoon and made a list of things I noticed that could be improved. I´ll email that to Yanos and/or other team members. Hope they can use it to present the best possible game for them.

One of the things that occured to me, and perhaps I should open a different topic for this, was the backbox. Ever since the introduction of the backbox people watching someone else play a game of pinball have been able to sort of see the progress on the backbox. Whether it was just a score, or a display, there was something there on which you could see how the player is doing. On FT you (currently) can't. You're just looking at this static art package. I do like the new backbox artwork, but not being able to understand how the player is oing felt weird to me. So I was wondering, and will suggest this to the team as well, whether it would be a good idea to present the game with an optional larger backbox that includes a second LCD that shows the (animated) art package, as well as scoring and progress during games. The game will have an output for a second screen, but I figured it makes sense to offer such a screen as well as an extra option. The current translite size may not match the size of a LCD monitor to replace it, but if height is not a problem a monitor could be implemented portrait wize (instead of landscape wize). That will actually give more room for (animated) backglass art as well as scoring and gameplay animations. Plus it will make the game stand out (pun intended) on location. Curious to see what other think of the backbox not showing any progress and how essential you think that is.

As for the show: I think it was very nice. A little less games than last year and tehre were some problems in the tournament area, but I think everybody attending had a great time.

Disclosure first: I was involved in the design of this (I am 2nd in the credits at the bottom) but have not been involved for the best part of 2 years.

First the backbox. Doesn't do it for me, looks like one off a cheap toy table. The lighting of the translite was nice, a vast improvement over the previous year. The artwork on the translight was better in person.

The cabinet buttons are in exactly the same place as a wpc. I know as I put them there! What isn't the same is the lockdown bar which is the same one as last year (and changes the hand position hence the buttons feel out). I'm sure they have a new one but parts didn't arrive for the show in time.

The screen in the playfield didn't work for me. I felt it was too low down and I found it harder to glance at than a traditional DMD. It needs moving up IMO.

The ramp works nice if you can make it. If you watch the promo video there's a lot of post hitting going on and I found that too when playing it.

The toys were pretty pointless. The bike is too small and hidden by the ramp but i suppose that's the scale of the toys available. The chap who moves with the ball a la PZ and TSPP wasn't working and doesn't interact with the ball or speech. Maybe that's to come.

You never ever tell the player to go away at the end of a game, "Challenge me again" would be more fitting.

There appears to be a WPC trough which I am sure they can't use. If this is a month away from production and they still don't have mechs ready and tested....

I don't see this being production ready in October. I'd say it's at least 4 months away with production another 3 after that.

In all it has potential but needs a lot of polish.

I'd say it would be ready around summer 2015 at a push. The software kept crashing alot, meaning you lost the LCD screen.

I posted some photos from the show and a vid playing Full Throttle in another thread when I got home last night. In case you missed it:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/anybody-play-full-throttle-at-the-uk-party#post-1870468

As you'll see, I agree with many of the comments above especially on the backbox needing to have at least a score or something for spectators to see what is going on. And It does need some polish as I experienced a lot of the issues mentioned above, however it was fun and I did think the new cabinet style looked nice

And the miniature pinball machines with lights and sounds for sale were awesome! I have some similar ones from another vendor I bought in the past, but these are in a completely different league. I didn't catch the name of the guy making them, but I'd have bought them all if I could afford it. Cool stuff.

miniatures.jpg

I'll bet you $ 100.00 (and dare you to raise me) the flipper buttons are in a completely different position than on WPC games. If they would be positioned in the same place I would not comment about them being in another position. And indeed that lockbar felt terrible. Did see several people complain about that.

For what the game currently is it is clear there are some very nice elements and they've come a long way, but it is far from being able to operate without a troubleshooter next to it. It is a great first effort, but operators will need a game that will run smooth without having to come over every 5 minutes. I'm hoping the team will get there fast.

The Full Throttle game was obviously an early stage prototype. Regarding remaining work to do, who knows if developement is actually a lot further ahead already.

That being said, I found it a bit dearing of Heighway to present a product that felt that unfinished.

I like the fact that the main layout features some elements that have not been seen for many years.

That's too bad to hear the machine has a ways to go yet. I think expectations were raised from the big pinball news reveal. I guess all eyes are on Expo.

Just to be clear: the game, and the factory, look very promising. I can't judge how things go at the factory. The games I played did play smooth, although I didn't like the slightly higher flipper angle. But the game needs a lot of finetuning. I once heard of the 20/80 rule: that finishing the last 20% takes up 80% of the time. If true then we'll have to wait for another 8 years. I'm sure it can be done a lot faster if the team is open for constructive suggestions. I wrote down a list that will be emailed to Andrew and some team members. It will be up to them to act on it. I do know one thing: both collectors and operators want a game that can operate on its own.

I'd take the bet but andy just posted on pinball info that the buttons are right...

These were the Tiny Pins, located next to the Pinball Magazine stand just outside the show hall. See www.tinypin.nl for more info.

You're on! Janos didn't believe me when I said the buttons were in a different place, so I showed him. I took a business card (credit card size) that I held against the side cabinet corner with lockbar of a wpc game at the UKPP. Anyone can test this for themselves: the flipperbutton will slightly overlap the lower corner opposite the corner aligned with the lockbar. I marked the position of the wpc flipper button on the card and then did the same on FT. Turns out on the FT game displayed last weekend the flipperbutton is closer to the front of the game and lower as well (just like last year). This forces the player into a less comfortable hand placement.

Thanks for taking the bet. You can pay me at Expo If you're not attending Expo: I also take paypal.

Thanks for all the comments.

For those who expected to see the finished version - we are sorry if we didn't meet your expectations.

For the many people who realise that is almost finished, but needs a little more work - we thank you for your understanding and your positive feedback.

To address the points:

1. This is not the final cabinet design and Phil (Epotech) had nothing to do with this cabinet design. The final version is weeks away from completion, and the flipper buttons will be perfectly placed (see lockdown bar/magazine)

2. Comments that the flippers are sometimes weak. The flipper power is adjustable. At the Party, we were running on only 20% of maximum flipper power. 100% would smash the playfield glass and destroy the playfield. The optimum is 30-40%. We chose low power for the Party as a precautionary measure only.

3. Right ramp - the ramp makers will be making an adjustment to the production tool. There is a bump at the entrance and it sometimes causes an air ball which ricochets off the top ramp protector. Nobody has commented on this - but it is easy to make the right ramp with a backflip from the right flipper. Since the Party, we have added a protector to the left side entrance of the right ramp, and increased the flipper power - it is much more reliable now

4. New motors for spinning wheels arrived today - 6 days late and too late for the Party. Yes, they will be 4-5 times faster

5. Stuck balls - on top of captive ball. Before the Party this never happened once. Not a single time. We had inductive switch targets for the lock targets but replaced these just before the Party with standard standup targets, to make the lock switches more reliable. This they did, but a negative side effect is that the switch was more "springy" and launched the ball onto the captive ball every 4-5 hits. Obviously this is an easy problem to solve

6. Screen/game crash - this happened more towards the end of the show. We believe we have a few software bugs causing this. However, it also appears the power cord was a little loose and could have been causing the resets

7. Lockdown bar/magazine - as discussed, the lockdown bar will be incorporated into the magazine. It will be seemless at the front with no raised parts and it will be comfortable for hands to lean on. Currently the lockdown bar sits too high, is uncomfortable for players and is harder to reach the flipper buttons. The new magazine is designed and about to be built

8. We are currently evaluating the backbox and whether a second screen can be incorporated there - maybe as an optional extra

9. Valentino - the motorized toy is not set up correctly yet. He was only there 'for show' at the Party

10. Software - this is 85% complete, as I mentioned at the Party

All-in-all, the game is nearly there. New parts arrived days after the Party and new parts are being built now. Our latest, and maybe final, PCB sets also arrived this week - and were therefore not on the prototype on show at the Party

Clearly, we will have ironed out faults, and have many new parts, by the time we have our 'official' launch party in central London in approximately 5 weeks time, and then by the time we get to Expo in October