PINBALL EXPO 2004
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October 14, 2004 It's day one of the show and the Stern factory tour began at 8:30am. Well, it didn't really. Some buses turned up then, but not enough, so some had to wait until after 9pm for their bus.
And when we got there, there was more waiting around, first in the buses and then outside the factory.
But it wasn't too bad. At least there was a cabaret.
We were still outside at 10am and with the first seminar starting in an hour it was looking like we might miss the first talk of Expo. And then suddenly we were in. Starting with the wiring loom manufacturing.
The wires have their connectors attached.
The looms are then tested by plugging them into a test rig.
Here the various assemblies are made. This is the Elvis drop target bank.
Meanwhile, the backboxes are coming together.
The (almost) complete Elvis games are stored awaiting packing and shipping.
Before they are packed....
...and shipped.
It was also the start of the seminars today. Speakers were: Mark Patzke on Multiproducts range of motors and motor repairs, Gary Gayton about his time at Bally, Dan Kramer recalling his time at Atari pinball, Rob Hayes advising on the best way to run home tournaments, Dave Link showing and talking about the models he has made, Mike Eady telling us about collectable games and the 1930s, John Osborne looking back at his time at Gottlieb and John Whyatt teaching electromechanical game repairs. And later in the evening it was the turn of Medieval Madness game designer Brian Eddy to talk us through the game and pinball in general. Brian was joined by four members of the Medieval Madness team:
They spoke for almost two hours about how Medieval Madness came into existence, how each team member's skills contributed to the whole and why the game became so phenominally popular despite only selling 4,000 units.
All the day's events will be explored in detail in our full Pinball Expo report coming soon but meanwhile, look forward to day two's events.
© Pinball News 2004 |
