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Date: April 27th - 29th, 2012 The Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown returned to the Embassy Suites in Centennial for it's second year based at the southern-Denver hotel.
The show lasts three days - from Friday to Sunday - so set-up began on Thursday as games and and boxes of parts arrived through the loading doors at the side of the hotel.
The show is split across the floor of the atrium and several side rooms, taking over most of the ground floor of the hotel.
When most of the setting up was complete, it was time to head over to the small town of Lyons where Lyons Classic Pinball were hosting their annual pre-show tournament.
The tournament didn't start until about 8:15pm by which time the sun had disappeared behind the Rockies and thunder clouds had gathered. Nevertheless, the draws for matches in this double-elimination took place in torchlight at the front of the building.
Inside, there was a smaller than usual crowd for the pre-show tournament with several of the big names who usually turn out for the weekend absent. That said, it was still a busy and exciting evening of competitive pinball in the great surroundings of LCP.
Once our participation in the tournament ended, it was back home to await the start of the show at 11am the next day. While we were on our way home, Austin Quinty was busy taking first place back at Lyons, winning $360 and a trophy for his troubles. Michael Morrison taook second place along with $90 and a trophy, while Dan Gutchess was third and Dean Grover fourth. Firday morning and it's off to the Embassy Suites. At the entrance to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown was a Monster Bash machine. This was available to anyone - whether a show visitor or not - and set on coin play, with all proceeds going the Denver Health's Newborns in Need scheme.
As you walked past the Monster Bash you came to the main registration desk where entry could be purchased along with assorted branded RMPS goods.
Entry to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown cost $20 per adult per day, or there was a three-day pass available for $50. Kids aged from 7 to 12 got in for half price, while those younger than 7 had free show entry with a paying adult. Apart from saving $10, there was an additional benefit to buying the three-day pass as we shall see later. Once entry had been purchased and the appropriate wristband applied, you could walk down the steps into the atrium and start exploring the rest of the show.
There were 86 machines set up in the free play area, plus another 10 in the tournament area. The first batch of machines were in the atrium, starting with Jolly Park at one end, and finishing with Whoa Nellie!, AC/DC Premium and Transformers LE at the other.
Before we leave the atrium though, there was also a custom conversion game - Tales of the Rat Fink, based on Ed Roth's outlandish artistic creations - positioned next to the entrance.
Next to the bar were two more machines, this time from Flipper McGill's Pinball Parlor in Idaho Springs, Colorado.
Passing the bar, we come to the corridor outside the main hall. It is here we find four pinballs - a Baseball, a Space Shuttle, a Mustang and a Bobby Orr Power Play.
The Space Shuttle came as a surprise to a lot of people who didn't realise Zaccaria had made a Space Shuttle game and only knew the Williams version. Although it lacked some of the quirkier design elements found on the more well-known Zaccaria games, it still proved fun to play. A little further down the corridor were the first video games of the show.
Other video games available to play were Sea Devil, Major Havoc, Robotron 2084, another Defender and a Star Wars Cockpit game. Turning right takes us into the main hall where the vast majority of the games were set up in a central back-to-back row, with other machines arranged around the outer walls.
In the main hall were three more vendors - Pinball Classics, For Amusement Only and Juke Joint Johnnie.
Juke Joint Johnnie had a number of older coin-operated machines, including pinballs, slot machines and novelty games.
The flipper-less pinball games they had set up were Ballyhoo, Victory Ball, Sport Ball, The Ace, 3 in Line, and Bumper.
To find the other major vendor we have to leave the main hall and head into the tournaments room, passing a Stern 24 machine as we go.
Gene Cunningham had his usual vast selection of pinball parts but he also had a surprise or two.
The first surprise was his entry into the anti-glare glass market. He had a sample piece to show the coating, however the thin glass he was displaying and the lack of any regular glass made comparison difficult.
He says he expects to have regular and widebody glass available in a couple of weeks at a price of between $125 and $150 a sheet. The other surprise was on display next to the glass at the IPB stall.
This new range of boutique pinball legs was seen at the Pinball at the Zoo show the previous weekend, but when questioned about the legitimacy of using Williams and Bally logos, the company representatives would only say they were in discussions. Well, it transpired they have signed a deal with Gene and he is now selling their products at shows. Opposite Gene were the ten machines used in the three main tournaments.
They were:
We'll return to the tournaments later, but those machines complete our look at the pinballs set up and available to play at the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown 2012. Here are the other 86 pinballs which were not used in the tournaments, but were set up and available to play:
There were some other machines but they were not playable as the formed the History of Pinball exhibit which was on display in the atrium.
There were two unnamed machines in the exhibit along with Cross Line, Traffic, Baffle Ball, Jiggers, Baby Contact and Five Star Final.
Standing alongside the machines was a timeline of notable events in pinball's history from 1777 to 2011.
Let's take a look around Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown with our unique Four Minute Tour - a video walk around the show floor on Saturday evening, letting you experience the games, the vendors, the people and the sounds for yourself. Get the Flash Player to see this video clip. Got problems seeing the video? Consult our help page for assistance We mentioned earlier how buying a three-day pass brought an additional benefit, and that was in evidence on Friday evening when those with the appropriate wristband were invited to the Plunger Party, held in a suite on the hotel's top floor.
Those at the free party were treated to a selection of sandwiches, drinks and cake.
In addition to the party, the games to play and the parts to buy, the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown organisers had also arranged for a number of "PinChats" - informal seminars from notable names in the pinball business. The first of these took place at 3pm on Friday when Greg Freres and Dennis Nordman spoke about the creation and development of their Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons game. Friday 3pm - Greg Freres and Dennis Nordman The duo talked about how the original idea to create a custom game was born, and the steps they took after that to choose a game as the basis for their work. They went on to examine the ideas they wanted to incorporate, and showed the various stages of development.
Greg described how the theme evolved from a shared interest in fruit crate art to the creation of the main characters and the setting. He also spoke about the numerous small details he wanted to include in the artwork and what many of them meant.
Dennis picked up to explain how the design of the cabinet was based on fruit crates, and went on to talk about the way the original electro-mechanical hardware was replaced by Kerry Imming's modular electronic system which uses several small circuit boards under the playfield, each of which controls a number of lamps and solenoids and receives switch closures. The boards are all linked together and connect to a main controller board in the base of the cabinet.
Greg and Dennis produced four of their custom games, all of which were now sold, but one of the buyers had allowed them to bring their purchase to the show for visitors to enjoy.
The second PinChat took place on Saturday and featured Jack Guarnieri of Jersey Jack Pinball. Saturday 12pm - Jack Guarnieri
Jack spoke about his reasons for starting Jersey Jack Pinball, the way the company's first design - The Wizard of Oz - has evolved, the involvement of the buyers in a discussion group and the ideas which flowed from that, and the expected schedule for testing and delivery.
During his talk, Jack was joined by Greg Freres who talked the audience through the various plastic pieces to be used in The Wizard of Oz. In the pictures below taken from Jack's presentation, the playfield artwork is shown for reference in washed-out colours.
Jack also showed an image of the Wicked Witch mechanism, although it didn't feature the Witch model currently being used.
He said the black pad at the bottom is a single switch and the Witch drops down so that only her hat is visible above the playfield. He also said the Witch mechanism would be inside a clear plastic tube to protect it from damage and prevent ball hang-ups.
Now you can listen to the whole of Jack's talk from the show.
Get the Flash Player to see this video clip. Got problems hearing the audio? Consult our help page for assistance The third PinChat featured Gary Stern of Stern Pinball and took place at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. Saturday 3pm - Gary Stern
Gary spoke about his life in the pinball business, from his father's co-ownership of Williams through the opening of his own pinball company to the present time with Stern Pinball Inc. He talked about the three distinct markets for his company's products - operators, collectors, casual buyers - and how those market segments had changed over time. He explained the company's philosophy in producing different versions of the same model and talked about their current AC/DC machine.
Gary then took questions from the audience and discussed the pros and cons of using licensed themes for the company's products, making and selling pinball machines in China and whether a return to simplified single-level playfields is viable.
He also revealed that the company will be selling an add-on to turn a regular pinball into a redemption game - issuing tickets, as seen at the Amusement Expo show in Las Vegas.
Gary also showed a promotional video with the Muse track Uprising as the backing music which gave a series of glimpses behind the scenes and featured many of the people who are involved in the production of a Stern pinball machine. Now you can listen to the whole of Gary's talk from the show.
Get the Flash Player to see this video clip. Got problems hearing the audio? Consult our help page for assistance We showed the machines in the tournament area a little earlier, and there were a number of competitive events held there over the show's three days. The main Open Tournament had a qualifying session which ran all day Friday and Saturday, and from 9am until 11am on Sunday after which the play-offs took place. The Electro-Mechanical Tournament's qualifying ran all day Friday and Saturday with the play-offs starting at 10am on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Solid-State Tournament held its qualifying throughout Friday and up until 7pm on Saturday, with the play-offs beginning at 8pm.
In addition to these three main tournaments, there were several side tournaments held in the free-play areas; Team Tournament, Kids Tournament, Classic E-M Tournament, Quick Draw Tournament, Parent-Kid Tournament and Charity Tournament. All the side tournaments followed a single-elimination format and cost $5 per entry.
In the Electro-mechanical Tournament, it was a win for Adam Lefkoff who, having lost against Mark Pearson in the quarter-final on Joker Poker came through to win the loser bracket and then beat Donovan Stepp twice in the final on Outer Space to win. Results for all the other tournaments will be published as soon as they are available. The show closed with a series of awards for the best machines in a number of categories as voted by visitors to the show. In the best Electro-Mechanical Game category, the winner was Mike Brogan with his Baseball machine.
John Burbank picked up two awards for his Zaccaria Space Shuttle - Best '80s Game and Most Unique Game.
In the Best Dot Matrix Display Game category, the winner was Kevin McCarthy for his Medieval Madness.
The award for the Best Crowd-Pleaser went to Marco Specialties for their AC/DC Premium.
The final awards were for the Best-in-Show games. In third place was the Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons from Whiz Bang Pinball. The runner-up was AC/DC from Marco Specialties, but the winner was Basil LeBlanc for his Fathom.
Those awards marked the end of the show, although there was still an hour or so to enjoy the games before the tear-down began.
And that brings us to the end of this year's Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown report. Many thanks to Dan, Holly and the team for their hospitality and for putting on another action-packed three days. Even that is not enough time to fit in all the events and socialising that goes on in the Embassy Suites. So we may just have to go back next year!
© Pinball News 2012 |
