PINBALL EXPO 2007 |
Date: 24th - 28th October 2007 In this last part of our Pinball Expo report we'll take a more general look at the show, explore the main show halls to see which games and vendors were present and give our video walk around the event with our Three Minute Tour.
This could be the last year Pinball Expo is held at the Wyndham. Next year it is scheduled to move to the Westin Chicago North Shore, some 10 miles north in Wheeling. It is also looking highly unlikely PinBrawl will be part of next year's Expo after a falling out between the organisers and the Expo organisers at the end of this year's show. All that is yet to be decided but for 2007, PinBrawl was definitely a significant part of Expo and the organisers - John Kosmal, Josh Sharpe and Zach Sharpe also took over the Flip Out individual tournament at short notice. As usual, the machines were divided between the two halls. The majority were in the side hall in preparation for PinBrawl while the rest joined the vendors in the main hall. The main hall didn't open until 6pm on Thursday but the outer hall (called the PinBrawl Hall here) was open for play on Wednesday night as part of the Bumper Blast welcome party. PinBrawl Hall
* machine was depowered or not working when list was made
As the Bumper Blast party continued in the lobby and the PinBrawl room, inside the main hall the vendors were setting up and games were being assembled.
Main Hall
* machine was depowered or not working when list was made
As is customary, the Flip Out tournament was played on a row of machines in the lobby next to the main hall entrance but in a change from previous years, the row of 10 of the newest Stern machines was replaced by 3 of each of the most recent Stern models plus 2 Stern Meteors. Lobby
So that's 115 in the PinBrawl room, 71 in the main hall and 11 in the lobby for a total of 197 machines, down slightly from the 212 of the previous year. Because, as with any large show, machines are being brought in and others are being sold at various times, the list was made late Friday evening when most of the machines would have arrived and few - if any - would have been sold and removed yet. Once again Mike Pacak brought a number of interesting and rare machines. Jolly Park was back from last year's show and was joined by a curious game called Still Crazy made by Williams. Miniature balls are served up by a paddle wheel bottom left which then roll along an incline towards a flipper at the bottom right. The flipper sends the ball up a level to a series on sloping ramps leading to a second flipper just above the paddle wheel which can be used to send the ball up to another level and on to the top. It sounds easy enough except there is a constant stream of balls served up by the paddle wheel, so concentrating on just one means you lose all the others which costs you points, while keeping track of several balls at once is a tricky task. Here's a list of vendors starting at the main entrance and following the path of the Three Minute Tour video below. Vendor List
As last year, playfield restorers and clearcoaters were out in numbers while there was an overall move towards improving the look of your game with specialist balls, trim, displays and mods. Several games featured LED lighting, splitting opinion over whether LEDs are suitable as replacements for incandescent lamps in all pinball uses, some areas only or not suitable at all. Meanwhile over at the PinGame Journal booth they had a whitewood of Wheel Of Fortune showing how the game was at one point in its development.
This was as close to a real Wheel Of Fortune as visitors saw at the show. On the right-hand side of the hall, Mike Pacak had his regular huge collections of flyers and translites on sale, Graphic Dimensions were actively printing game-specific t-shirts on demand, Nighthawk Games were promoting their pinball lifter and Z-plating were showing how nice a game can look with lots of polished chrome trim and legs. Towards the centre, Pinball Inc had their impressive display of replacement ramps, Bay Area Amusements had teamed up with PinLED to show their replacement displays and boards while Rick had his own parts stand for BAA. But it was the left side of the main hall that really belonged to the parts vendors with the 3 Ms - Mayfair, Mantis and Marco side by side. Marco were pushing their new Pin Score LED displays while the area opposite was filled with upended and separated machines for sale. Pinball News Three Minute Tour You've read about Pinball Expo but now you can see it for yourself with our exclusive Pinball News Three Minute Tour. Simply click on the play button below and take a walk around the show. Get the Flash Player to see this video clip. |