The 40th edition of Pinball Expo is upon us and Pinball Magazine will try to report on a daily basis from the event. As Pinball News is reporting from the event as well, including all videos of recorded seminars (in which Pinball Magazine is assisting), this report will be more of a personal diary.
Monday, October 14, 2024: Travel day.
Flew from Amsterdam to Dublin, and from Dublin to Chicago. Clearing customs in Dublin was surprisingly easy, no lines whatsoever. Arrived in Chicago around 7:00 PM, arrived at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel by 8:00 PM. I’m sharing a room with Martin Ayub of Pinball News, who arrived before me. Dropped my bag in the room and checked out the Pinball Expo showfloor, which was mostly empty; a few pallets here and there and the red carpet for the Stern Pinball booth was already layed out.
Speaking of Stern Pinball: they announced Metallica Remastered to be revealed on Wednesday, October 16th. The game will be shown at the Stern Pinball Factory tour, which is part of Pinball Expo, on Friday the 18th and at the Pinball Expo booth on the Saturday of Pinball Expo. Pinball Magazine will report on that game in a separate article.
The rest of Monday evening I spent at the hotel, catching up with several friends that also just got in.
Tuesday, October 15: Pinball Expo kicks off
Setup in the vendor hall started early in the morning. Around 10:00 AM, the registration desks opened and attendees could pick up their wristband, Enterrium playing card and show program.
The first official event of the day was the factory tour to Chicago Gaming Company / Churchill Cabinets. In the lobby outside the Pinball Expo vendor hall a line formed of attendees waiting for the busses to arrive to take them to Cicero, IL.
Martin and I were in the luck position to get a ride from Mick and Terry Brown, so we left before the busses.
Once the tour started, there was a strict No Photo or Video policy. I’ve asked CGC whether they would be willing to provide photos themselves. If I receive such photos this section will be updated.
The tour of CGC was impressive. Martin and I have visited CGC in 2016, but we didn’t remember the factory being as clean as it was today.
Following the Chicago Gaming factory tour, our next stop was the Galloping Ghost arcade.
The arcade consists of several rooms, each packed with videogames and a new videogame added every week. This is the largest collection of Arcade videogames in the world and well worth a visit.
We didn’t stay long, just took some photos and played one game. Next up, we went for lunch at Portobello’s, known for their hot dogs. From there it was a 45-minute drive back to the hotel.
At the hotel, I dropped my swag bag in the room and went to take a look at the vendor floor. Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball both have most of their booths already setup. PinGame Journal was also setting up its stand, which has at least over 30 different pinball flyers of games from the ’90s and ’00s by various manufacturers. The flyers are free of charge as PGJ editor Jim Schelberg is cleaning out his archives. Jim also brought many key chain plastics, including all Doctor plastics for Doctor Who and all seven different martian plastics from Atack from Mars. With upcoming editions of the So You Think You Know Pinball quiz in mind, I seized the opportunity to bring home some prizes for upcoming quizes. The first one coming up being the quiz at Dutch Pinball Open Expo, the weekend of November 2-3.
Once the vendor hall closed, I took the stuff to my room. I went back to the bar where I joined Jersey Jack Pinball animators (and fellow Dutch citicens) Jean-Paul de Win and Olaf Gremie, and Eric Bartels, the technician who managed to turn Magic Girl into an actual working pinball machine. Around 10:00 PM I went up to my room to finish my report today. Tomorrow is another busy day with Stern Pinball revealing Metallica Remastered, a factory tour at American Pinball and the traditional Bumper Blast Perty at Enterrium. Somehwere in between all that, Martin and I have to set up the seminar rooms with all audio and video equipment for the seminars starting on Thursday.
This article will be updated during Pinball Expo. For more live reports from the event, visit Pinball News.
Wednesday, October 16
I was up early and headed to the vendor floor where I met with Nicolas from PinSound and Juris Purin from Quetzal Pinball. Quetzal Pinball is a Spanish pinball company founded by Antonio Arturo, who designed several games so far. His Super Hoops design was taken into production by Bitronic, also in Spain. He also designed a game called Tokyo Perfect Drift, which was shown at Pinball Expo several years ago. That game is currently being by Bitronic and will become available soon. Both Super Hoops and Tokyo Perfect Drift will be setup in the vendor area.
Around 10:00 busses arrived for the factory tour at American Pinball followed by a visit to Logan Arcade, or the other way around, as the attendees were split into two groups, without knowing where they were going. I didn’t join them, but may visit American Pinball later today if I can get a ride.
I returned to my hotel room before 11:00 AM to report on the reveal of Metallica Remastered. Then it was down to the seminar room to setup all audio and video equipment for the seminars that will start tomorrow.
While helping out setting things up in the seminar room, I was offered a ride to American Pinball to attend their factory tour. There was a strict ‘no photos’ policy, but I visited American Pinball last year and those photos were part of my Pinball Expo 2023 report. So those will give you an impression of the factory. What was interesting today was that a short tour through the Aimtron side of the building was included. Aimtron manufactures printed circuit boards for all sorts of parties, including the boardsets for American Pinball’s pinball machines.
Following the tour I picked up a few boxes at a postoffice as I may need these for my return trip.
Back in the vendor room, the amount of progress in setting up booths and games is huge. I’d say 70% of the vendors is now set up.
In the evening the traditional Bumper Blast party was held at Enterrium. International visitors were invited to come first to this Barcade. Busses departed late in the afternoon, but I missed those and had to wait for the next round, which was an hour later.
At Enterrium, there was a long line of people waiting to get food at the buffet. The buffet included salads, mac ‘n cheese, pasta, bread, chicken and more. Later in the evening, chocolate and lemon cakes were added as deserts. The quality of the foor was pretty good. Although it wasn’t that warm, it was still very tasty.
At Enterrium it became clear how many people have arrived for Pinball Expo as I saw many familiar faces that had just arrived in the afternoon. As I was very tired, I left Enterrium around 9:00 PM, as I could get a ride back to the hotel. With the seminar program kicking off early Thursday morning, I went to bed early.
Thursday, October 17
Just updated the Metallica Remastered article on the Pinball Magazine website with the main part of the official press release, which wasn’t available immediately at the moment of launch, yesterday.