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<\/a>We arrived at the show hotel on Wednesday afternoon. The full Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) doesn’t begin until 4pm on Friday, but we’re here early to preview the show and document how it all comes together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WEDNESDAY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The venue is a combination of the Frisco Conference Center and the Embassy Suites hotel. The hotel is the primary accommodation for show attendees, but the block of rooms allocated to the show sells out in a matter of seconds once they become publicly available at the discounted TPF rate.<\/p>\n\n\n Although joined, there is a clear line of demarcation between the hotel and the Conference Center. The hotel is run by the Hilton Group, whereas the Conference Center is run by the City of Frisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of the show effort goes into the planning which stretches back from today for several months. Although the venue only comes together a day or two before the doors open to the public, much of the planning has been taking place ever since the previous year’s show closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were other events in the main hall and the side rooms earlier on Wednesday, meaning the TPF organisers and vendors could only start bringing in their wares later in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n Some banners and a few pinball machine boxes from American Pinball and Euro Pinball Corp were on the show floor by 5pm, but nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n The main part of the hall remained largely empty so far.<\/p>\n\n\n Outside the main show doors, the corridors were eerily quiet, while some action took place inside the ticket office.<\/p>\n\n\n On the corridor back to the hotel, there is a small staircase leading to an upper level where the tournaments have been held in previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n We returned to the show floor around 11pm to check on progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Show organiser Paul McKinney was busy measuring and taping the floor to mark out the boundaries of each booth.<\/p>\n\n\n He was working from the overall floor plan for this year’s show.<\/p>\n\n\n Some vendors were setting up their stands already. Marco Specialties has a large area to show ten new Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye machines along with a bunch of other recent titles.<\/p>\n\n\n Nitro Pinball had some machines set up, including The Blues Brothers<\/em> and Evil Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n Mayfair Amusements also had some of their spares in the hall, along with wooden batons to build their backglass display racking.<\/p>\n\n\n Work carries on into the night to continue preparing the Conference Center’s main hall for this year’s Texas Pinball Festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n THURSDAY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By Thursday morning nothing much in the hall had visibly changed, but that soon began to change as machines and vendor stands started to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n Here’s our look around the main show hall on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everything at the Texas Pinball Festival takes place in the main hall, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n FRIDAY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By Friday morning, the show was really starting to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n The show opens to the general public at 4pm today, but a limited number of special VIP passes were also available which allowed access from midday. So, the pressure was on to get the show floor completed in the remaining few hours.<\/p>\n\n\n When they are first powered up and made available to play, there were many who wanted to see the game for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n We stopped by the Turner Pinball to talk to Chris Turner and play their new Merlin’s Arcade game.<\/p>\n\n\n Elsewhere in the hall, the other stands were also getting show-ready.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>