Date: 15th-18th October 2025 Location: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, 1551 N. Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL 60173, USA Welcome to the start of our extensive coverage of this year’s 41st Pinball Expo show, held at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Convention Center is attached to the Marriott-owned Renaissance hotel to form one large complex. The hotel partners with Pinball Expo to offer discounted room rates and these normally sell out soon after the discount rate becomes available. The Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center hotel The Convention Center and Renaissance hotel are in a slightly remote location, but a shuttle bus service is available to take guests to nearby shopping and dining options. There are a few local restaurants around 10 minutes’ walk away, or the large Woodfield Mall is just a few minutes away by car. The hotel’s surroundings are pleasant and well-maintained, with water features and botanical habitats. The lake in front of the hotel Plants to encourage pollinators The Renaissance hotel on the right, linked to the Convention Center on the left The entrance to the Convention Center The entrance to the Convention Center The Convention Centre consists of multiple rooms ranging from small meeting spaces to huge exhibition halls. The larger halls can all be configured in several ways to combine or divide them into suitable sizes. The Convention Center houses several large exhibition halls Pinball Expo occupies three large exhibition spaces for the main show floor, named Adventure, Discovery, and Exploration. In addition, it uses four smaller rooms combined into one – Schaumburg E, F, G & H – for the tournaments. Last year these housed the free play machines, but those have been moved onto the main show floor for 2025. Finally, the Schaumburg East room – half of a larger ballroom – which was the home of the tournaments last year has become this year’s seminars room. We arrived at the Convention Center on Monday, but the setting-up got underway properly on Tuesday. TUESDAY Inside the main show hall on Tuesday Unloading is easier when you can drive the truck into the hall Unloading some of the free play machines Ron with another of the free play machines Hanging the Scorbit ring banner More of the free play machines Setting up the Jersey Jack Pinball stand Setting up the Jersey Jack Pinball stand Along with all the brand new games, the Stern Pinball stand has some very welcome soft carpet More of the latest titles on the Stern Pinball stand There will also be a merchandise stand to buy your Stern swag The expanded homebrew section is in the back corner of the hall The registration desk where guests pick up their pre-registration packs or purchase their show tickets Opposite the registration desk, Expo merchandise will be available Leaving the hall, the tournaments area was coming together very quickly. The modern machines all come from Tilt Amusements and they make an impressive sight. Schaumburg E, F, G & H are the rooms for the tournaments Earlier on Tuesday, the machines were still being brought in. Machines for the tournaments It wasn’t long before everything was in place. Later in the tournaments room There’s a definite Star Wars theme here More tournament machines Outside the tournaments room is the corridor with the main ballroom, part of which will be used for the seminars Inside the seminars room before anything has been set up That concludes our look at Pinball Expo on Tuesday. The show begins properly on Wednesday evening with the Bumper Blast welcome party, held at Enterrium in the nearby Woodfield Mall. WEDNESDAY Before that though, the build-up of the show continues in the main hall, the tournaments are and now in the seminars room too. The seminars room is coming together Registration for pre-paid passes is now open The main hall is rapidly filling with machines Notice anything odd about this Black Knight 2000? More on this later… Barrels of Fun are here too, and they’ve brought four Winchester Mystery House machines with them Three of the four Bitronic are here too with Super Hoop and Tokyo Perfect Drift Melvin Brouwer-Williams from Dutch Pinball Exclusive has a new range of character models from Williams/Bally games Wonderland Amusements had brought multiple Alice Goes To Wonderland prototype games Pinball Expo really starts on Wednesday night with the Bumper Blast party, held at nearby Enterrium. International attendees are invited to a special welcoming event an hour before domestic guests. Buses for the international visitors departed from the Convention Center at 5:45pm, arriving at Enterrium a few minutes later. Buses for international guests arrive at Enterrium Inside, Pinball Expo Chairman, Rob Berk, welcomed everyone, gave a short talk about the history of the show, before inviting representatives from each country to step up and say a few words in their own native language. At the party for international visitors Rob welcomes visitors from around the world Rob then invited everyone to enjoy some snacks and drinks, before the domestic guests arrived and the main food was served. Snacks and drinks in advance of the main hot food being served Once everyone had arrived at Enterrium, a buffet was served with a selection of hot dishes including chicken, pasta, bread, vegetables and cakes. Part of the line for the buffet Some of the food available Alongside the Bumper Blast, the finals of the IFPA Circuit Championship were taking place. The Circuit Championship finals The final, won by Raymond Davidson, used two banks of machines which were available for Bumper Blast guests to use once the final was over. Bumper Blast guests enjoying the machines Bumper Blast guests enjoying the machines As well as the pinballs, party guests were issued with an Enterrium game card which allowed them unlimited play on the arcade machines for the duration of the event. When guests had had enough fun, buses departed every thirty minutes for the return journey to the Convention Center, bringing Wednesday’s Pinball Expo opener to a close. THURSDAY Thursday morning saw the start of this year’s seminars schedule. Seminars at Pinball Expo have always been a draw for show guests, with a large number of industry personalities living nearby able to make presentations. As a result, all three days of the show at the Convention Center include a full schedule of continuous talks, running from early morning to late night. All the seminar presentations are also available to watch on the Pinball News YouTube channel in the Pinball Expo 2025 playlist. 8:00amGeneral Pinball Repair & Troubleshooting Tips” Q&ASpeaker: Ron Coon, Jr. Ron Coon, Jr. Frank Lindenmuth Ron Coon, Jr. hosts his annual repair tips seminar. This year he is joined by Frank Lindenmuth to share their experiences of fault finding and repairs, along with tips on tools and products they recommend. 9:00amRoll it. Wrap it. Bag it. – Pinball Protection with The Missing Pin Co.Speakers: Wes Merkel & Ed Owens Wes Merkel Ed Owens Wes Merkel and Ed Owens from The Missing Pin Co. show and demonstrate their pinball wrap and leg bags designed to protect your machine during transportation. They also show some of their other protective products. 9:30amFrom Pixels to Pinball: The Cuphead HomebrewSpeaker: Scott Miller Scott Miller Scott talks about how he discovered the Cuphead game as a Visual Pinball, downloaded it, made some modifications with the original designer’s agreement, and then decided to turn it into a physical homebrew game. 11:00amRevolutionizing Connected Pinball in ArcadesSpeakers: Ron Richards, Jay Adelson & Kaite Martin Ron Richards, Kaite Martin & Jay Adelson Ron Richards and Jay Adelson from Scorbit reveal their latest 2.0 version which brings many new features including simpler installation, new payout tournaments, a cashless payment system, an improved app and NFC login support. They are joined by Kaite Martin of Buttermilk Bar in New York who talks about her Scorbit implementation and the advantages of the new features. 12:00pmDP/DPX – What to Expect in the FutureSpeaker: Melvin Williams Melvin Brouwer-Williams Melvin Brouwer-Williams of Dutch Pinball Exclusive updated the audience on the production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – the first DPX title, before revealing the second title will be Retro Atomic Zombieland Adventure. There were details of the timeline for the reveal and expected production, as well as the timing of Dutch Pinball’s next game. 12:30pmBox-in: Homebrew on a BudgetSpeaker: Craig Monyhan Craig Monyhan Craig Monyhan described how he built his Steamboat Willie homebrew game with a budget cap of $1,000, the design choices he made and how he kept the project on-track and goal-focused. 1:00pmPlunge In: A Pinball-Inspired Experimental Sonic Playfield PerformanceSpeaker: Stephanie Vasko Stephanie Vasko Unfortunately, the speaker requested her seminar was not recorded, so we are unable to bring it to you here. 1:30pmThe Early Years at Data East & Sega PinballSpeakers: Joe Kaminkow, Gary Stern & Orin Day Joe Kaminkow Gary Stern Gary, Joe & Orin Day Joe Kaminkow and Gary Stern are joined by Orin Day to look back to the formation of Data East Pinball and the early games they made, reminiscing through stories about the people in the industry and how many of their Data East Pinball titles came to be made. 3:00pm1930s Pinball Machines: Mechanical to Electrical. Playing & Some Praying & Everything Else You Want or Need to KnowSpeakers: Phill Emmert & Mike Zagrobelny Phill Emmert Mike Zagrobelny Phill Emmert and Mike Zagrobelny look at many of the earliest pinball machines and talk about the features they introduced to the game as well as the best resources to find out more about these landmark titles. 4:00pm1950-1980: Pinball Adolescence From Folksy Art, Bulb Scoring, & Woodrails to Pointy People, Score Reels, & Solid State CircuitrySpeaker: Fred Ryland Fred Ryland Continuing Pinball Expo’s look at the earlier years of the game, Fred Ryland talks about the technological innovations and the varied artistic styles used by pinball artists from the ’50s onwards. 5:00pmWifi Leaderboards, Video Aprons, & More for EMs, System 11, & WPCSpeakers: Paul Mullin, Maxwell Mullin & Tim Crowley Paul Mullin Maxwell Mullin Tim Crowley Paul Mullin, Maxwell Mullin and Tim Crowley spoke about the Warped Pinball plug-in board system which reads scores and game data to create leaderboards, show live scores, allow in-game adjustments to be made remotely, and much more. Tim also spoke about his replacement score card displays which tie-in to the system to show live game data and status information. 6:00pmThe Pinball Scene in MexicoSpeakers: Ivan Munoz & Manuel Hernandez Ivan Munoz Manuel Hernandez Ivan Munoz and Manuel Hernand described the pinball scene in Mexico, explaining the unique challenges the game faces there, along with some of the titles which are the most popular amongst players. 6:30pmHexa Pinball – Space Hunt: Our Story & What Comes NextSpeakers: Alexandre Mak & Antoine Depelchin Antoine Depelch Alexandre Mak Alexandre Mak and Antoine Depelch from Hexa Pinball described HEXA Pinball’s origins and values which led to the creation of their first game, Space Hunt, before revealing the theme of their second title. They also talked about their open Plungr score, feature and achievement recording system. 7:00pmHow to Increase the Beauty & Value of Your GameSpeaker: Ivan Cicognani Ivan Cicognani Ivan Cicognani showed his latest beauty project, a Stern Tron: Legacy game. He pointed out some of the many enhancements he made to the game before letting the audience play it for themselves. 7:30pmPinball Pin-Ups: A Visual Celebration of Pinball Art & the Women Who Grace Its Backglasses & PlayfieldsSpeakers: Michael Thomasson & Doug Watson Michael Thomasson Doug Watson Author Michael Thomasson has just released his book about the depiction of women in pinball art through the decades. For this talk he was joined by artist Doug Watson who described how he portrayed women in his pinball artwork, describing the process behind many popular titles’ art. 8:00pmWomen in Pinball – Working in the IndustrySpeakers: Kristin Browning-Mezel, Imoto Harney, Rachel Bess, Elizabeth Gieske, Melissa Marquette, Cheryl Lininger and Rebecca Hindsdale Kristin Browning-Mezel Kristin Browning-Mezel hosted this panel discussion of the advancements already made in employing women across the pinball industry together with some of the challenges they still face in a traditionally male-orientated business. The Women in Pinball panel: Imoto Harney, Rachel Bess, Elizabeth Gieske, Melissa Marquette, Cheryl Lininger and Rebecca Hindsdale 9:00pmForming a Community: How to Create an Inclusive Pinball EnvironmentSpeakers: Lexi Whiltemore, Jackie Olson & Bird Arzoumanian The Forming a Community panel: Lexi Whiltemore, Bird Arzoumanian & Jackie Olson Lexi Whiltemore, Bird Arzoumanian and Jackie Olson discuss ways the pinball scene has developed and can become a more welcoming and inclusive community for people of all ethnic, sexual and gender types. 9:30pmFor Your AmusementSpeaker: Justin Tolliver Justin Tolliver The TNT Entertainment team behind For Your Amusement Justin Tolliver and his team from TNT Entertainment introduced their movie, For Your Amusement, and explained how a visit to the Stern Pinball factory led to the film about the wider industry and its many struggles to survive. The movie itself was then screened but isn’t included in the recording below. Thursday also saw the opening of the main hall at 11am. Lines to be amongst the first into the hall began forming an hour before opening time. As 11am approached the lines stretched out of sight. Thirty minutes before opening, the queue already reached down the corridor Five minutes before the doors opened We have a full report from the show hall in Part Two of this Pinball Expo 2025 report along with our exclusive walkthrough video of the show floor, the tournaments area and the seminars room. We’ll be back later with many more seminars, the Stern Pinball factory tour, the tournament results and a tour of the Autograph Session, as well as our full main show hall report. So check back here at Pinball News for all the latest updates.
