I attended and supported ZapCon 8.2 this past weekend in Mesa Az Convention Center and I must say, there was an abundance of great reasons to come and check it out this year. Beside playing as much pinball as you could possibly want over the weekend, the breadth and variation of titles to choose from ranged from wedgeheads and wood rails, 60’s, 70’, 80’s, 90’s, all the way to brand new Stern Godzilla’s, Rush, Zeppelin, plus Legends of Valhalla, Celts, Rudy’s Nightmare and everything in between. Now wrap this up with great tournament competitions, retro arcade gaming, classic video games, console gaming, as well as EM arcades, plus a gravy train of videos you haven’t played in decades.

I brought my HUO Monster Bash LE and HUO Family Guy to let others enjoy and a lot of collectors from around Phoenix brought games as well. I would say, the only difference between Texas Pinball Fest and ZapCon this year was that ZapCon had a better selection and possibly more pinball to play, and the wait to play most titles was no longer than a couple minutes. A big plus is longer solo playtimes as the number of attendees is split between playing arcade games and pinball.

I think as the vendors hear how big pinball is getting in Phoenix, ZapCon will continue to grow and as pinball vendors find ZapCon this show has no where to go but up. Hats off to Rachel and Wes for a great show this year.