Date: 16th - 18th March, 2018 Location: Embassy Suites, 7600 John Q Hammons Dr., Frisco,, TX 75034, USA As is traditional, Saturday at the Texas Pinball Festival begins with the Swap Meet, run by the DFW Pinball & Arcade Club and held in the car park behind the hotel. The Swap Meet The first order of the day was to get fresh donuts and coffee generously provided by Dunkin’ Donuts. Start the day right All around the car park, cars, trucks and trailers were opened to reveal a wide mix of pinball and game parts and machines. Complete machines could be bought Or just assorted parts And everything in between More parts and games Not everything was necessarily game-related There was great excitement at 8am when Fun opened up a trailer of project games and assorted cabinets and playfields they were clearing from their warehouse. The Fun trailer is opened to an excited crowd The main show hall opened at 10am, with the first of a busy day of seminars taking place at midday when the Circus Maximus team talked about their Kingpin project. Before they started though they provided the audience with a pizza lunch, with stacks of pizza boxes and plates set up at the back of the room. The Circus Maximus team of Paul Kiefert, Jimmy Lipham and James Loflin James began by explaining how the Kingpin project began and how they set a deadline of this show to make and show their first game. Paul then described how it was on the way home from Pinball Expo last October that they decided to build the game and managed it in a little over three months. They had access to an original Kingpin game which they took apart, documented all the components and then reassembled it, all over the course of two days. The prototype game they were showing used the P-ROC boardset and was running an emulation of the Capcom operating system. Jimmy said they were taking two paths with the code; one emulating the original system, and another with bespoke rules and a display which uses the whole LCD panel. The emulation option developed quicker, so that was the one they were presenting at the show. https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-circus-maximus.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here Then, at 1pm, Barry Oursler took to the stage to answer question about his long career in the pinball business from host This Flippin Poscast’s Tommy Skinner and the audience. Barry Oursler Barry spoke about his time designing a number of games for Heighway Pinball in Wales and more recently with the Deeproot Pinball startup in San Antonio, Texas. He compared designing games in his early days with now, saying the main difference is at Williams they could design a part and take the drawing to an in-house mechanical department who would make it either the same day or the next morning. Now, Barry said, it takes quite a lot longer. Barry said he is currently working on two designs for Deeproot Pinball – one licenced and one original theme. https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-Barry-Oursler.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here At 2pm the Multimorphic team of Gerry Stellenberg and Jimmy Lipham (with another of his current projects) held their presentation to talk about the company’s current products and details of their newest release, the Cosmic Cart Racing game. Gerry Stellenberg Multimorphic is now on their second production run of pre-ordered P3 machines, shipping machines each week with new stock available to purchase in 2-3 months. Gerry described the new upper playfield module for Cosmic Cart Racing which features nearly 800 individually-controlled RGB LEDs, before turning to the feature set of the rules, such as the power-ups you can use to boost your car or block your opponents. The game can be played as either a single-player, multi-player or networked. He said Cosmic Cart Racing is around 3-4 months away from shipping as the game needs more work on the sound and on the software. Jimmy then talked about how he developed his first full game for the P3 pinball platform, the up-coming baseball-themed Grand Slam Rally which uses the Cannon Lagoon module. He said he’s also looking forward to making his second game on the P3 although he couldn’t give any details of what or when that will be. Jimmy Lipham https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-multimorphic.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here In the first seminar of its kind at the Texas Pinball Festival, Bowen Kerins came to the front of the hall at 3pm for a live tutorial on how to play Spooky Pinball’s new Total Nuclear Annihilation (TNA) game. Bowen Kerins While the game and camera were set up, Bowen took questions from the audience about his series of video turorials. He then moved over to the TNA to explain the rulesof the game and the overall objective of destroying reactor nine. Bowen with the TNA game He began a game and showed how the various shots flowed, where the dangerous shots were and how to get control of the ball. After two tough balls he managed to get to reactor six on his third ball. With extra balls awarded after destroying reactors three and six, he had a couple more balls in-hand. He drained the first of those with reactor nine lit but not completed, and couldn’t quite complete it on the second of his extra balls either. Fortunately the game was set for five-ball play, but even then the end of the game looked out of reach when ball four drained with reactor nine still not completed. However, the final shot was achieved with the fifth ball, destroying the reactor and ending the game. Sadly our feed of the audio dropped out towards the very end, but you can listen to the first forty minutes of Bowen’s tutorial below. https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-bowen-kerins.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here The only full new game reveal at the show took place at 4pm as Spooky Pinball took the covers off their Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle. The Spooky Pinball team: Kayte Emery, Bug, David Van Es, Scott Danesi and Charlie Emery Charlie Emery was dressed as Alice for the reveal, but before that there were a couple of announcements. The first was that Bowen Kerins would be working for Spooky Pinball to direct the game rules and software for their upcoming titles. Then Pinball News’s Editor, Martin Ayub, presented the Game of the Year 2017 award to Scott Danesi for his concept and complete design of Total Nuclear Annihilation which is built by Spooky Pinball. The poll by Pinball News readers saw TNA win with a third of the votes, ahead of Dialed In! and Lexy Lightspeed: Escape from Earth. Martin Ayub presents the Pinball News Game of the Year award to Scott Danesi for Total Nuclear Annihilation (picture: Neil J McRae) Charlie looked back at the past year for Spooky Pinball and then showed a promo video for Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle featuring Alice himself. Then it was time for the covers to be taken off the Alice Cooper game so everyone could see the playfield for the first time. Charlie with the new Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle game Charlie explains the playfield features You can read more about Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle in our report here. https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-spooky-pinball.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here At 5pm there was a seminar by Brian F Colin, the game designer, animator and artist behind such classic video games as Rampage, Xenophobe, General Chaos and Star Trek Voyager. Brian F Colin As Brian’s seminar wasn’t about pinball we took the opportunity to grab some food before the start of the next event. That next event was the autograph signing in the corridor outside the seminar room. The autograph session at TPF 2018 There were a lot more pinball game designers at the show who weren’t holding seminars, so the speakers were joined by the likes of John Borg, Mark Ritchie and Dennis Nordman to sign flyers, translites, plastics, playfields, show guides and much more. The seminars continued at 7pm as George Gomez delivered his Stern of the Union talk. George Gomez hosting his Stern of the Union seminar George showed a video of the making of Stern’s Guardians of the Galaxy game before presenting a slideshow of pictures from the Stern factory and the game design areas. He then made the announcement about Brian Eddy joining Stern Pinball as a Senior Game Designer. After opening the floor to questions from the audience, George spoke about software updates coming for Aerosmith, Kiss and Ghostbusters, adding that it is their wish to be able to ship games with complete code, although acknowledging that they are not there yet. He also said that the much anticipated Star Wars topper is mechanically complete but is awaiting artwork approval before it can go on sale. Asked about the Elvira 3 game, he said the physical elements of the game are well developed but there is nobody assigned to write the software yet. Despite the addition of Brian Eddy and Keith Elwin to the team, George himself will still be designing pinballs and he said we might even see one of his designs released later this year. Talking about the Supreme pinball which is a private label model, George said Supreme approached Stern to make the game and Supreme are handling all sales and deciding on the numbers being made. He said it deliberately has a red LED dot matrix display as that matches the Supreme red branding. George also revealed that the upcoming Iron Maiden pinball is slated for release in April. https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-george-gomez.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here The final seminar for TPF 2018 was from American Pinball and it began with new Director of Sales, Ryan White, introducing the team of Mukesh Vasani from manufacturing partner Aimtron, Dhaval Vasani – head of American Pinball, Josh Kugler – programmer for the Houdini game, and Joe Balcer – Houdini designer. Mukesh Versani, Dhaval Vasani, Josh Kugler and Joe Balcer Mukesh Vasani began by thanking the pinball comunity for their support and encouragement, and congratulated the team behind Houdini in taking it from a prototype game to a production model with more than 100 shipped in just one year. Joe Balcer spoke about how the game developend during those past twelve months since they showed their prototype at TPF 2017, saying a year ago they promised to be shipping the game by this year’s show and they kept that promise. He said he thought they had created a special team at American Pinball to be able to pull that off. Joe Balcer He then talked about the Houdini’s features, describing it as a good, solid game. It’s not a big hitter with multiple playfields, he continued, but it is a good, satisfying game to play. American Pinball want to be a serious player in the pinball business, he said, and he thins they now are. Josh then analysed the different types of players – novice, enthusiast and advanced – and the split in how long each type spends playing the game. He then gave an overview of the rules and explained how each playfield feature ties in to the gameplay. Josh Kugler https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/shows/tpf-2018/tpf-2018-american-pinball.mp3 Download the audio of this seminar here Once the gruelling seminars schedule was over, we could at last get into the main show hall and see what we’d been missing. By all accounts it had been particularly busy in the hall during the day and into the early evening, but fortunately by the time we arrived there was plenty of space to move around and take our pictures. Inside the main show hall on Saturday evening So, let’s start at the entrance and the show sales desk where T-shirts from this and previous Texas Pinball Festivals could be bought, along with raffle tickets for the grand prize of a brand new Guardians of the Galaxy pinball. The front desk Buying tickets for the grand prize draw T-shirts for sale at the front desk Promotional flyers at the front desk The first group of free play machines were right at the front of the hall, featuring popular titles such as Batman 66, Total Nuclear Annihilation and Cirqus Voltaire, while behind them were a selection of ColorDMD-equipped machines. Free play machines near the entrance Move a little further inside and you find one of the show’s special guests, former Incredible Hulk actor and professional bodybuilder, Lou Ferringo. Lou was there to meet fans and sign autographs, while his desk was flanked by two beautifully-restored The Incredible Hulk pinballs. Lou Ferringo One of the two Incredible Hulk games at Lou’s table Continuing on our tour, let’s see which vendors were at the TPF this year. Brian F Colin has lots of his artworks for sale and was happy to sign items from his games We first highlighted the return of Atari’s Pong as a physical game back in January at the EAG show, but it was here at TPF too Multimorphic has a large stand promoting their new Cosmic Cart Racing title They also had eight more P3 machines showing all their different games Right at the end was Jimmy Lipham’s remade Wizard Blocks which also uses the P3-ROC control system PinGrafix has a large show of their cabinet inner art and speaker panel decals Kimballs Pinballs were showing a lovely-looking Stern Star Wars with custom lighting Artist Flint had a display of character-based artwork for sale or to take commissions Pinball Plating were shoing some beautifully glossy chromed parts along with some vivid, glossy powder-coated metalwork Double Danger also had a large display of their pinball-related clothing and other appareil Universal Billiards had two of both versions of Gizmo Game Design’s All-Star Baseball pitch-and-bat games Pinball Pro had their range of pinball speaker upgrades on show… …but were also selling brand new machines from Stern and Chicago Gaming LED vendor Comet Pinball were showing their range of products Chicago Gaming had their Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness remakes as well as two of their multi-game video cabinets Arcade Components were selling assorted electronics test equipment American Pinball had brought four of their new Houdini machines Various designs of T-shirts were also available Around the corner Pinball Inc’s stand had a wide assortment of common pinball parts Of course, they also had the Circus Maximus-built Kingpin prototype Pinside had a large stand this year Pinside T-shirts Elephant Eater Comics artist and Pinball News author Ryan Claytor was on the Pinside stand to sign his books Pinstadium Lighting has a row of brightly-lit pinballs to demonstrate their products Pinstadium LED playfield lighting It’s not all pinball though, as the National Videogame Museum demonstrated Video continued with the large VPcabs display of video pinball machines VPcabs video pinballs VPcabs also had their Dead Man’s Hand tabletop bingo game Player One Group brought along some fuin games to play Key Arcades had their DeLorean with a Back to the Future pinball as part of their display Chris Munro had his regular selection of used pinball and video game parts and glass Chris and Melissa at CoinTaker were selling their LEDs and new-in-box games, but also an expanded selection of mods Some of the mods and swag on the CoinTaker stand New-in-box machines for sale Arcade Fit-It has a colourful selection of arcade novelties on their stand Marco Specialties and Fun joined together to create a large display of brand new and restored games Marco had twenty of the newest Stern Pinball titles as well as a selection of parts and Stern merchandise Fun had a mix of pinballs and video games Opposite Marco, Wizard Enterprises had their stand full with illuminated pinball designs Bumper cap night lights ColorDMD had two games and two displays on their stand They were showing their new 192×64 large LED displays for Sega games Lighted Pinball Mods’ stand really stood out in the darkened hall More lighted pinball mods from…err…. Lighted Pinball Mods Now you can control your pinball from your phone with PinRemote Pinballz have three locations around the Austin area, all great for pinball, arcade games and parties Solid State Pinball Supply is a real parts store located in Kansas City Some of the parts Solid State Pinball Supply sell 1984 Arcade, Ozarks Pinball Syndicate and Queen City Pinball came together for this display of games Flip N Out had their Escalera stair-climbing pinball movers on display Artovision had plenty of video game images in frames, prints and in postcard form Back Alley Creations makes sculpted and moulded parts for pinball machines and sells custom mods too Here’s a selection of the mods they had on sale Starship Fantasy always have an impressive display of backglasses, translites and ramps This year was no exception Spooky Pinball had two Alice Cooper games and two Total Nuclear Annihilation machines on their stand Spooky’s stand There were always queues to play all four machines Jersey Jack Pinball with their distributor Kingpin Games had a nice selection of their titles for visitors to play JJP’s prototype Pirates of the Caribbean was in great demand You could also pick up manuals, flyers, translites and posters for their games Kahr.us had circuit boards to fix, upgrade and bulletproof your pinballs Titan Pinball had their silicone pinball rubbers and pinball mats too Pinball mats from Titan Mezel Mods had a nice showing of ways to enhance your game Pinsound had three pinballs fitted with their replacement sound system complete with custom soundtracks Pinball Wheezer had pinball clothing as well as leg-mounted cup holders Christopher Franchi had his own stand to sign and sell his artworks The History of Pinball exhibit is always both popular and astonishing There were some beautiful restorations on show The designs of some of these early pinballs continue to amaze The vivid colours still draw the eyes seventy or eighty years after they were made Not everyone in the hall was selling though. There were lots of machines on free play – some randomly mixed, others part of a more formal collection. Bob Herbison’s woodrails are always a treat to see Some classic wedgeheads to enjoy too The DFW Pinball & Arcade Club brought a great assortment of games Free play machines More of the DFW Pinball & Arcade Club’s machines More free play machines More free play machines More free play machines Here’s a list of all the 404 pinballs in the hall, courtesy of the organisers. 24 (Stern) 300 (Gottlieb) 2001 (Gottlieb) 4 Roses (Williams) AC/DC (Stern) AC/DC Luci (Stern) AC/DC Luci (Stern) AC/DC Luci (Stern) AC/DC Pro (Stern) Ace High (Gottlieb) Addams Family, The (Bally) Addams Family, The (Bally) Addams Family, The (Bally) Aerosmith (Stern) Aerosmith (Stern) Aerosmith (Stern) Airway (Bally) Alive (Brunswick) Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (Spooky) Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (Spooky) America’s Most Haunted (Spooky) Andromeda (Game Plan) Andromeda (whitewood) (Game Plan) Apollo 13 (Sega) Army and Navy (Rock-Ola) Atilla the Hun (Game Plan) Attack From Mars (Bally) Attack From Mars (Bally) Attack from Mars Remake (Chicago Gaming) Attack from Mars Remake (Chicago Gaming) Attila the Hun (Game Plan) Austin Powers (Stern) Avengers Hulk LE, The (Stern) Avengers LE (Stern) Avengers Pro (Stern) Back to the Future (Data East) Barnyard (Multimorphic) Barracora (Williams) Baseball, Fun With Pinball Batman 66 Premium (Stern) Batman 66 Premium (Stern) Batman 66 Premium (Stern) Bay Watch (Sega) Big Ben (Williams) Big Casino (Gottlieb) Big Lebowski, The (Dutch) Black Knight (Williams) Black Pyramid (Bally) Black Pyramid (Bally) Blue Ribbon (Bally) Bow And Arrow (Bally) Breakshot (Capcom) Bride of Pin*bot, The Machine (Williams) Bugs Bunny’s Birthday Ball (Bally) Bumper (Bally) Cannon Lagoon (Multimorphic) Capt. Fantastic (Bally) Card Whiz (Gottlieb) Caveman (Gottlieb) Centaur (Bally) Centaur (Bally) Centaur II (Bally) Centigrade 37 (Gottlieb) Centigrade 37 (Gottlieb) Central Park (Gottlieb) Champion (Bally) Champion (Nordamatic) Cherry Bell (Segasa) Circus (Bally) Circus Voltaire (Bally) Cirqus Voltaire (Bally) City Slicker (Bally) Cleopatra (Gottlieb) Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (Gottlieb) Combat (Zaccaria) Comet (Williams) Congo (Williams) Coquette (Williams) Corvette (Bally) Cosmic Cart Racing (Multimorphic) Cosmic Cart Racing (Multimorphic) Cowpoke (Gottlieb) Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally) Cross Town (Gottlieb) Cue Ball WIzard (Gottlieb) Cyclone (Williams) Demolition Man (Williams) Dialed In! (Jersey Jack) Dialed In! (Jersey Jack) Diamond Lady (Gottlieb) Dolly Parton (Bally) Dr. Dude (Bally) Dracula, Bram Stoker’s (Williams) Dragonfist (Bally) Dungeons and Dragons (Bally)/Midway Eight Ball Deluxe (Bally) Elektra (Bally) Elektra (Bally) Elvira and the Party Monsters (Bally) Elvis (Stern) Far Out (Gottlieb) Favorite (Buckley) Firecracker (Bally) Firepower (Williams) Firepower II (Williams) Firepower II (Williams) Fish Tales (Williams) Fish Tales (Williams) Five Star Final (Gottlieb) Flash (Williams) Fleet (Bally) Flight 2000 (Stern) Flinstones (Williams) Flintstones, The (Williams) Flying Carpet (Gottlieb) Flying Turf (O.D. Jennings) Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s (Sega) Friendship 7 (Williams) Funhouse (Williams) Funhouse (Williams) Funhouse (Williams) Funland (Gottlieb) Future Spa (Bally) Galaxy (Stern) Gamatron (PinStar) Gamatron (whitewood, Pinstar) Game of Thrones Premium (Stern) Genesis (Gottlieb) Getaway, The: High Speed 2 (Williams) Getaway, The: High Speed 2 (Williams) Getaway, The: High Speed 2, William Getaway, The: High Speed 2 (Williams) Ghostbusters Premium (Stern) Ghostbusters Pro (Stern) Ghostbusters Pro (Stern) Ghostbusters Pro (Stern) Gladiators (Gottlieb) Golden Gate (Exhibit) Goldeneye (Sega) Gorgar (Williams) Grand Lizard (Williams) Grand Slam Rally (Multimorphic) Guardians Of The Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern) Hang Glider (Bally) Hardbody (Bally) Harlem Globetrotters on Tour (Bally) Heads Up! (Multimorphic) Heads Up! (Multimorphic) Heavy Metal Meltdown (Bally)/Midway Hee Haw (Chicago Coin) High Speed (Williams) High Speed (Williams) Hobbit, The, Jersey Jack Hobbit, The (Jersey Jack) Hobbit, The (Jersey Jack) Hollywood (Williams) Houdini (American) Houdini (American) Houdini (American) Houdini (American) Hurdy Gurdy (Gottlieb) Hyperball (Williams) Incredible Hulk, The (Gottlieb) Incredible Hulk, The (Gottlieb) Incredible Hulk, The (Gottlieb) Indiana Jones (Stern) Indiana Jones (Williams) Indiana Jones (Williams) Indianapolis 500 (Bally) Iron Man (Stern) Ironman (Stern) Jackbot (Williams) Jet Spin (Gottlieb) Jiggers Jr. (Genco) Jiggers Sr. (Genco) Johnny Mnemonic (Williams) Joker Poker (Gottlieb) Joust (Williams) Joust (Williams) Judge Dredd (Bally) Judge Dredd (Williams) Jungle Princess (Gottlieb) Jungle Queen (Gottlieb) Junk Yard (Williams) Jurassic Park (Data East) Jurassic Park (Data East) Jurassic Park (Data East) Kingpin (Circus Maximus) Kings (Williams) KISS Pro (Stern) Klondike (Williams) Lasercue (Williams) Last Action Hero (Data East) Lethal Weapon 3 (Data East) Lexy Lightspeed: Escape from Earth (Multimorphic) Liberty Belle (Gottlieb) Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The (Gottlieb) Lights Camera Action (Premier) Lord of the Rings (Stern) Lord of the Rings (Stern) Lost in Space (Sega) Lost World (Bally) Magic (Stern) Major League (PAMCO) Masquerade (Gottlieb) Mata Hari (Bally) Mata Hari (Bally) Mata Hari (Bally) Maverick (Data East) Medieval Madness (Williams) Medieval Madness (Williams) Medieval Madness Remake (Chicago Gaming) Metallica LE (Stern) Metallica Pro (Stern) Metallica Pro (Stern) Meteor (Stern) Meteor (Stern) Millionaire (Williams) Monopoly (Stern) Moulin Rouge (Williams) Mr & Mrs Pac-Man (Bally) NASCAR (Stern) NBA Fastbreak (Bally) NBA Fastbreak (Bally) Night Moves (International Concepts) Night Rider (Bally) Nine Ball (Stern) Nitro Ground Shaker (Bally) No Fear (Williams) No Good Gofers (Williams) No Good Gofers (Williams) Old Chicago (Bally) Olympic Hockey (Williams) Panthera (Gottlieb) Paragon (Bally) Party Zone (Bally) Phantom of the Opera (Data East) Pinball Pool (Gottlieb) Pinbot (Williams) Pinbot (Williams) Pinbot (Williams) Pioneer (Gottlieb) Pioneer (Gottlieb) Pioneer (Gottlieb) Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern) Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern) Pirates of the Carribean (Jersey Jack) Pirates of the Carribean (Jersey Jack) Pirates of the Carribean (Jersey Jack) Playboy (Stern) Police Force (prototype, Williams) Polynesia (Williams) Pontiac (Genco) Popeye Saves the Earth (Bally) Pro Football (Gottlieb) Raven (Gottlieb) Raven (Gottlieb) Revenge from Mars (Bally) Road Show (Williams) Road Show (Williams) Rob Zombie’s Spookshow International (Spooky) Robo-War (Gottlieb) Rock Encore (Gottlieb) Rocky & Bullwinkle (Data East) Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, The Adventures of (Data East) ROCs (Multimorphic) Rollercoaster Tycoon (Stern) Rollergames (Williams) Rollergames (Williams) Royal Ball (Royal Ball Mfg) Royal Guard (Gottlieb) Safe Cracker (Bally) Safe Cracker (Bally) Safe Cracker (Bally) Scared Stiff (Bally) Scorpion (Williams) Sharpshooter (Game Plan) Shrek (Stern) Silverball Mania (Bally) Simpson’s Pinball Party, The (Stern) Simpson’s Pinball Party, The (Stern) Sinbad (Gottlieb) Sinbad (Gottlieb) Sing Along (Gottlieb) Sittin’ Pretty (Gottlieb) Six Million Dollar Man (Bally) Six Million Dollar Man (Bally) Skill-Ball (Williams) Skyrocket (Bally) Slick Chick (Gottlieb) Sluggin’ Champ (Gottlieb) Soccer Kings (Zaccaria) Solar City (Gottlieb) Solar Ride (Gottlieb) Sorcerer (Williams) Sorcerer (Williams) South Park (Sega) Space Invaders (Bally) Space Invaders (Bally) Space Mission (Williams) Space Odyssey (Williams) Space Shuttle (Williams) Space Station (Williams) Spider-Man (Stern) Spider-Man (Stern) Spider-Man (Stern) Spider-Man (Stern) Spider-Man (Stern) Spider-Man (VE) (Stern) Spinal Tap (Custom) Sportsman (O.D. Jennings) Spot Ball (In & Out-Door Games Company) Star Pool (Williams) Star Trek (Bally) Star Trek (Stern) Star Trek (Data East) Star Trek (Bally) Star Trek (Data East) Star Trek (Data East) Star Trek LE (Stern) Star Trek: The Mirror Universe (Pinball-Mods.com) Star Trek: The Next Generation (Williams) Star Trek: The Next Generation (Williams) Star Wars (Data East) Star Wars (Stern) Star Wars Episode 1 (Williams) Star Wars LE (Stern) Star Wars LE (Stern) Star Wars Premium (Stern) Star Wars Premium (Stern) Star Wars Pro (Stern) Stargate (Gottlieb) Stargate (Gottlieb) Stargate (Gottlieb) Stargate (Gottlieb) Stellar Wars (Williams) Stingray (Stern) Superman (Atari) Sweet Hearts (Gottlieb) Swing Time (Williams) Swords of Fury (Williams) Tag Team (Premier) Tales from the Crypt (Data East) Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams) Teed-off (Gottlieb) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Data East) Terminator 2 (Williams) Terminator 2 (Williams) Terminator 2 (Williams) Terminator 2 (Williams) Terminator 2 (Williams) Theatre of Magic (Bally) Tommy (Data East) Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky) Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky) Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky) Transformers Autobots LE (Stern) Transformers Pro (Stern) Transformers Pro (Stern) Transporter: The Rescue (Bally) Trilogy Brewing Co (Custom) Tron: Legacy (Pro) (Stern) Twilight Zone (Bally) Twilight Zone, Midway Twilight Zone (Bally) Twin Joker (Bally) Viking (Bally) Walking Dead Premium, The (Stern) Walking Dead Pro, The (Stern) Walking Dead Pro, The (Stern) Walking Dead Pro, The (Stern) Whirlwind (Williams) Whirlwind (Williams) Whirlwind (Williams) Whitewater (Williams) Whitewater (Williams) Whitewater (Williams) Wipe Out (Gottlieb) Wizard Blocks (Williams) Wizard of Oz, The (Jersey Jack) Wizard of Oz, The (Jersey Jack) Wizard! (Multimorphic) World Cup Soccer (Bally) World Cup Soccer (Bally) World Cup Soccer (Bally) World Poker Tour (Stern) World Series (Rock-Ola) World Series (Rock-Ola) World’s Fair Jig-Saw (Rock-Ola) WWF Royal Rumble (Data East) X Files (Sega) Xenon (Bally) Xenon (Bally) X-Files (Sega) X-Men (Stern) X’s & O’s (Bally) Not all the vendors were located in the hall, as there were three more in the hallway outside. Team Worldwide were happy to ship your game or parts purchases for you Comic Wreck had comics, books, posters and DVDs of popular sci-fi and pop culture themes More from Comic Wreck 8 Bit Dreams had console and arcade-themed merchandise Here’s a full list of all the vendors at the Texas Pinball Festival 2018, including those manufacturers represented by their distributors: 8 Bit Dreams American Pinball Arcade Fixit Arcadecomponents.com Artovision Back Alley Creations Caricatures by Jonathan Chicago Gaming Chris Munro Circus Maximus Coin Taker Color DMD Comet Pinball Comic Wreck Double Danger Pinball Flint’s World Flip N Out Pinball Fun! High Class Pinball Iron Transfer LLC Jersey Jack Pinball Kahr.US Circuits Key Arcades Kimball’s Pinball’s KingPin Games Lermods Lighted Pinball Mods.com Marco Specialties Mezel Mods Multimorphic National Video Game Museum Old School Gamer Magazine Pin Stadium Lights Pinball Plating Pinball Pro Pinball Wheezer Pinballz Arcade PinGraffix Pinside PinSound Player One Snag A Game LLC Solid State Pinball Supply Spooky Pinball Starship Fantasy Stern Pinball Team Worldwide Titan Pinball Total Pinball Restorations Universal Billiards Valley-Dynamo VP Cabs Wizard Enterprises Although there was a bar in the main part of the hotel and a selection of food trucks outside, you could buy snack food and bottled drinks in the hallway too. The food stand in the hallway Finally for Saturday, a few words about the pinball tournaments at the show. We say a ‘few words’ because the qualifying ran from 9am on Friday – eight hours before the show opened – until 4pm on Saturday, when the play-offs and finals began. Sadly, we were busy in the seminar room bring you our reports on the speakers and presentations there, followed by our review of the show hall, and so couldn’t cover the results of tournaments. The main event was the Texas Wizards Tournament which was restricted to 160 players and sold out online long before the show opened, leading to a waiting list of nearly 70 hopefuls. Entry cost $70 in addition to any show entry required. That $70 bought 20 attempts on any mix of the 12 qualifying machines. These were: 300 Bow and Arrow Metallica Solar City Solar Ride Space Mission Stargate Stars Tag Team The Addams Family The Walking Dead Total Nuclear Annihilation The same machines were used throughout except where there was a fault and a machine had to be substituted. All scores on each machine were ranked and points awarded for each position. Only the highest-ranked score on a machine counted towards a player’s total, so at most 12 out of the 20 attempts counted assuming they played at least one game on each machine. When qualifying finished, the top 24 players continued in the A Division play-offs, the next 8 went into the B division as long as they were not ranked in the top 500 by WPPR points. The top four in A also got a bye through the first round. In addition, the top eight women who were not qualified in A or B (or if they were, if they chose to drop out of those) competed in the Women’s Division play-offs, and the top eight players ranked outside the top 3,000 but not qualified for A or B (or choosing not to play in those) could play in the Novice Division play-offs. The A Division qualifiers were: Bowen Kerins Jason Werdrick Colin MacAlpine Robert Byers Frederick Richardson Karl DeAngelo Donavan Stepp Preston Moncla Germain Mariolle Will McKinney Johnny Modica Lindsey Most Brad Holliday Bridge Morgan Greg Poverelli Phil Grimaldi Dave Bell Grant Mortenson Sebastian Bobbio Sunshine Bon Dave AndersEn Trent Augenstein Robert Gagno Jackson Fry The B Division qualifiers were: Sam Hall Collin Foust Eric Leon Chad Lower Donny White Louis Marx Jeff Rivera Mark Gunter All play-offs were played in groups of four playing three machines, with 4-2-1-0 scoring on each machine. After all three games, the two players with the most points continued to the next round. In the A Division, the final was between Robert Byers, Karl DeAngelo, Brad Holliday and Trent Augenstein. Robert won on the first game – Paragon – and was second on the next two – Space Mission and Metallica – which was enough to give him victory. Trent’s win on Space Mission and third on the other two earned him second place. Karl won on Metallica but was fourth on the others for an overall third place, while Brad second, third and fourth places left him fourth overall. The B Division only had a semi-final and a final, and that final was between Collin Foust, Chad Lower, Donny White and Jeff Rivera, which was won by Chad, with Donny second, Collin third and Jeff fourth. The Women’s Division, like the B Division split the eight qualifiers into two groups of four for the semi-finals. The qualifiers were: Kelly Moncla Jessica Shepherd Keri Wing Rachel Morris Snow Galvin Jeanine Leon Elizabeth Dronet Tracy Abrahams The final was between Kelly, Keri, Elizabeth and Tracy, with Keri winning after a tie breaker on Solar City. Kelly was second, Tracy third and Elizabeth fourth. The Novice Division was played in the same way between the eight qualifiers who were: Tony Macevicius Garrett Shahan Matt Sjoblom Shawna Teale Cameron Doyle Melania St. Onge Jeb Lock Nick Gall Matt, Shawna, Jeb and Nick contested the final, where Shawna was triumphant. Matt was in second place, Nick third, while Jeb took fourth place. There was a separate Classics Tournament played on six machines. These were: Attila The Hun Elektra Paragon Stingray Sweet Hearts Viking The top sixteen players continued to the play-offs and they were: Raymond Bourgeois Trent Augenstein Sebastian Bobbio Robert Byers Germain Mariolle Grant Mortenson Steve Strom Jason Werdrick Austin Trent Zach Palmer Bob Matthews Brian Dols Howard Dobson Craig Squires David Smith Brandon Wheeler The same groups-of-four format was used to reduce the sixteen to eight, and then to a final four who were Robert, Steve, Bob and Brandon. The final was played on Attila The Hun, Viking and Stingray and saw Steve take overall first place with a win, a second and a third. Brandon was second, Bob was third and Robert fourth. There were also a couple of fun tournaments held during the show – a Kids’ Bump ‘n Win which was won by James Zsohar, and the Parent-Child competition won my Molly & Lynn. The tournaments bring us to the end of Saturday’s coverage. We’ll be back with all Sunday’s events, but in the meantime here’s our video tour of the hall shot on Saturday evening after the final seminar once the crowds had dispersed a little. With space to see everything, we took our time. As a result, it ended up forty-six minutes long. Enjoy.
