PINBALL EXPO 2019 – THURSDAY

Hello and welcome back to our continuing coverage of this 35th annual Pinball Expo.

While Wednesday features the kick-off Bumper Blast party, Thursday is the first full day of events and, as in previous years, that begins at 9am when the buses arrive to transport Expo attendees to the Stern Pinball factory tour.

The Stern Pinball factory is located in Elk Grove Village, which is around 30 minutes by bus south of the Pinball Expo hotel in Wheeling.

Once guests returned to Wheeling and had a chance to get some lunch, the Pinball Expo 2019 seminar schedule began.

13:30 – Dino Gaspari: A Custom Pinball Is Within Your Reach

The first seminar was by Dino Gaspari from Pinballdepot.ca who spoke about how his company can create a custom-themed pinball to your own specifications. He said the cost is within your reach and usually takes around a month from start to finish.

He showed pictures of several custom games he has created, including a special Pinball Expo machine which he was displaying at the show.

14:00 – Jim Schelberg: Pinball – To Infinity And BEYOND!

Jim returned with more clips from his vast archive of pinball references in TV, movies and advertising.

In addition, he played a multiple-choice pinball quiz with prizes for those getting the correct answers.

3:00pm – Roland Nitsche: Pinball & People

Roland’s showed a series of pictures from his game hall in Germany where he has a collection of one hundred machines.

Roland said on social media in Germany, people don’t like pinball because the games are made in America, although he admitted that was just his take on their attitude. He buys both brand new and older games, with his most recent purchases being Black Knight: Sword of Rage and Elvira’s House of Horrors.

3:30pm – Neil Shelton & Kyle Troy: Pinquest 101- Learn How To Play From The Creators

Neil explained what Pinquest is, why he and Kyle created the pinball location finder and challenger app and how they launched it in May 2019 to bring new players into the game.

Kyle then explained how members of the audience could download it, find a location, see which games they have and the challenges they need to complete to finish the quest and win a prize.

The duo then answered questions about how the location or operator is incentivised to participate in the scheme.

4:00pm – Doug Watson: The Origin Of Ideas

Doug talked about his history in the games business, both in pinball and in video games, before going into teaching. He then spoke about the history of art in pinball and how it changed over the years, allowing far more detailed imagery to be printed on pinball backglasses.

Doug said the artists who most influenced the direction of his art were Paul Faris who spearheaded the new creativity and Gordon Morrison who Doug said he rebelled against in his initial style of design but subsequently came to appreciate it.

4:15pm – Gordon Hasse Jr.: The Golden Age Of Pinball; The Men The Machines, The Memories

Gordon said everyone has their own subjective ‘Golden Age’ but he said most people would agree that the post-war period up to the 1960s was pinball’s true Golden Age.

Gordon examined the popular culture of the time, the trends, aspirations and innovations which sparked the public’s imagination, making them ripe for use as themes in pinball.

He then listed all the innovations in pinball design which were created during the Golden Age, with many types of flippers, bumpers, kickers and scoring features.

6:30pm – Josh Kugler & Joe Schober: American Pinball Talk

Josh and Joe began by introducing some of the Oktoberfest and American Pinball team members in the audience before moving on to some of the changes made to the Oktoberfest game in the year since it was revealed.

Those changes include re-shaping of various playfield features – ramps, scoop, flippers – as well as improvements and additions to the artwork, music and the display animations.

Josh and Joe then explained the basics of the Oktoberfest game’s rules, including the role of the various steins, the different tents you can enter, how the Ducks affect the rules and scoring, why calories matter, and strategies to use or avoid.

7:30pm – Mark Bakula & Don Caldwell: The Entire History Of Pinball By The Goofballs

Mark and Don began with a pinball quiz, giving out candy bars as prizes if audience members got the answer correct.

After that, the looked at the pinball artists in the solid-state era who defined the look of games during their time in the business.

They then looked at more modern DMD games, exploring the unique toys and game modes on each machine.

8:30pm – Rob Berk: A Recap Of 34 Years of Pinball Expo

The final seminar of the day saw Pinball Expo organiser Rob Berk looking back at the last 34 years of the show.

Rob showed pictures taken over the 34 previous shows, naming the many people in the industry and the hobby who have attended.

David Marston then looked at the state of the pinball business when the first Pinball Expo was held in 1985 and how Pinball Expo has helped shape how other pinball shows operate.

Gary Flower then presented a Lifetime Achievement Award plaque to Rob. His family then took to the stage to present him with a special Pinball Expo clock.

Finally, everyone was given a piece of celebratory cake.

The Game and Vendor Halls opened to Pinball Expo attendees at 6pm on Thursday. Let’s look at the Game Halls first, and this year there were two of them on opposite sides of the main Vendor Hall.

Game Hall A was the primary room, with Game Hall B being set up later with the Spanish games and those machines arriving at the show later during the set-up.

Outside Game Hall A there was a Firefly game built by Duncan Brown from a design by Harry Williams. Harry continued to send new designs to Williams Pinball long after he officially retired from the business, and Duncan has been building the most interesting ones as he and Clay Harrell detailed in a seminar two years ago.

Walking from Game Hall A to Game Hall B, there were several more exhibits and points of interest.

Game Hall B was around the other side of the block of halls, next to the Seminars Room. Inside were four rows of machines – two running down the side walls and two more down the centre of the room.

There was a good mix of machines in the hall, from the very latest to some older classics, plus a line of Spanish machines. Sadly several of these didn’t withstand the long hours of play which began with Wednesday’s Bumper Blast party, but despite that, for many it was their first chance to see these rare (in the US) titles.

You can see our exclusive Five Minute Tour combined video of Game Hall B and the autograph session in Saturday’s report.

The Vendor Hall is where the majority of sellers are located, along with exhibits of custom or enhanced machines.

In all previous years when Pinball Expo has been hosted at the Westin the entry to the Vendor Hall had been at the side, next to the Game Hall. This year, with the tournaments moved to their own room, the entrance moved to the front of the building, just along the corridor from the Registration Desk.

We’ll begin our pictorial tour of the Vendor Hall on the right of the entrance shown above.

Next to American Pinball was a display of custom-made machines. Most were definitely work-in-progress but were here to show their progress so far and, perhaps, get some ideas for additional features which could be incorporated.

Finally for Thursday, you can experience the Vendor Hall for yourself in our exclusive Twenty Minute Tour video walk-through.

We will be back with much more from the show in our daily reports for Friday, Saturday and Sunday as we continue our extensive coverage of Pinball Expo 2019.