{"id":18272,"date":"2019-11-18T22:14:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T22:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/?p=18272"},"modified":"2020-01-02T22:36:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T22:36:43","slug":"grand-ole-gameroom-expo-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/2019\/11\/18\/grand-ole-gameroom-expo-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"GRAND OLE GAMEROOM EXPO 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nashville\u2019s Grand Ole Gameroom Expo (Grand OGRE) is now in its fourth year and for 2019 was again held at Millennium Hotels\u2019 Maxwell House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, home of the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As in 2018, a three-day adult weekend pass was offered by the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo which I feel is a very good deal for all ages – $60 got adult attendees three-day unrestricted access to all of the gaming areas as well as the seminars. Children\u2019s passes could be purchased for half the adult price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The entry desk<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The organizers offered attractive event T-shirts and posters for attendees for a small extra cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Show<\/a>
Show merchandise for sale<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 edition of Grand Ole Gameroom Expo offered attendees hundreds of pinball games, classic and modern arcade video games, and games of skill such as skee-ball and air hockey in the spacious Grande Ballroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A selection of the pinballs available to play<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As you would expect, all games were set on ‘free play’ or had insanely low free game thresholds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"More<\/a>
More of the free play games<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The main gaming area was open until 2am on Friday and Saturday night, and each night the gaming area was buzzing with activity until the doors were locked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Frenkenstein's<\/a>
Frenkenstein’s Monster tries to escape from the Monster Bash remake machine<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There were many of the newest pinball games available to play courtesy of Marco Specialties, Flip N Out LLC of Benton, KY, and Music City Pinball. The companies had representatives on hand to answer any questions, hand out flyers and also award prizes such as t-shirts and hats to attendees who achieved high scores. Marco Specialties also had Pinball-themed wearables for sale just off of their gaming area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"New<\/a>
New Stern Pinball games on the Marco Specialties stand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The new comic-art Star Wars models<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Free<\/a>
Free decals and key chain plastics from Stern Pinball<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Various<\/a>
Various pinball-themed items of clothing were available too<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"It
It certainly wasn’t all pinball though<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lots<\/a>
Lots of video gaming merchandise was available<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Most<\/a>
Most of the popular 8-bit characters were represented here<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A demonstration Pong <\/em>cocktail table near the Music City Pinball area seemed to be in constant use by young and old alike. Terri and I even tried our hand at it with Terri whipping me soundly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Pong table from Atari<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Promenade area outside of the Grande Ballroom was lined with vendors of all types selling clothing, accessories, parts and also console game cartridges. For this show you did not need to purchase an admission pass to have access to the vendor areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were dozens of console games set up in the International (Classic Games) and Embassy (Modern Games) meeting rooms for free play and tournament use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Classic<\/a>
Classic console games<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Forum West room had a lounge area dedicated to Playstation VR gaming; this gave attendees a chance to try out the latest virtual reality games and enjoy this new technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Checking<\/a>
Checking out the latest VR games<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Enjoying<\/a>
Enjoying some of the multi-player games<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Also in the Forum West were Xbox360 LAN games such as HALO and Unreal Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forum East room hosted the Grand OGRE’s seminars. The first two seminars on Saturday were in a ‘live podcast’ format held mid-Saturday morning by Whitney Roberts and Brent Griffith. Brent and Whitney may be known by some Pinball News readers as the hosts of the Broken Token<\/em> classic arcade and pinball podcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The seminars schedule<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first seminar was a highly informative interview of Pinball Media personality Imoto Arcade (Harney). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Imoto<\/a>
Imoto with Whitney and Brent<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Imoto discussed such things as her parents early influence on her becoming a passionate gamer and the trials of being on the road nearly non-stop for the last 5 years in support of Marco Specialties\u2019 presence at pinball and gaming shows across North America. Imoto also hinted at her involvement with a future feature-length movie with a pinball theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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