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The official Northern Lights Pinball Show 2015 thread

After hacking back down the M6 and other delightful major UK carriageways at a near constant 70mph we finally arrived at @astyy's just before 11.30. After throwing his HOOK and GOLD BALL off the van I was away again by midnight and finally got home by quarter to one. Didn't have the will or strength to unload so left everything in the van till this morning (the pins also have to come up 2 steps in the garden and there's no lighting). Up again at 6am to unload and get the van back to the hire centre by 8am.

Nearly had a disaster. As I set VECTOR back down after pulling it off the van the pallet wrap gave way and the back box dropped open!!! By a total miracle I'd left the sack barrow in just the right place and it landed on one of the pneumatic tyres!!! Phew!

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All in all a truly excellent weekend. I can't believe the effort that must go into organising such a event. Bringing just 4 pins between the two of us was a huge effort. Thank you to @replicas, @TYHO and the rest of the NLP gang for everything.

Brilliant line-up of pins. Best I've ever seen. I took a photo of everyone in order just before the Lights Out lock-in and by my count there were 131 machines (will upload to Flickr today). It was great to see new stuff like @philpalmer's WHOA! NELLIE and finally getting to play @Heighway Pinball's FULL THROTTLE (very impressive) but I was extra happy as there was also a fantastic selection of classics such as @DRD's PARAGON and @ronsplooter's FIREBALL 2. Thanks to @Big Phil for the S&T boards and to Jim @myPinballs for explaining all about HIGH VOLTAGE and walking through the code for his Bally home brew system.

Great to start putting real names and faces to the Pinball Info user names too!

Ive now got to nurse my two machines back to health. GOLD BALL had a few up and downs all weekend (weak trough kicker but managed to fix that Sunday morning) but has a broken plastic on the all-important gold button target. VECTOR was a trooper until 3pm on Sunday when it developed a switch matrix fault that left the 3 trough switches dead. Must have an entire row or column out. Not too bad for their first proper outing ;)
 
My poor Demo Man..... :(

Great efforts by the NLP team and pin donators once again. And all done with a smaller time scale!

It's great to see people running around and helping out without batting an eyelid. Everyone mucks in and it just works. Fabulous atmosphere. I'm honoured to be part of it. Well done everyone.
 
Big Phil said:
My poor Demo Man..... :(

Great efforts by the NLP team and pin donators once again. And all done with a smaller time scale!

It's great to see people running around and helping out without batting an eyelid. Everyone mucks in and it just works. Fabulous atmosphere. I'm honoured to be part of it. Well done everyone.
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What happened to it? I did see it was off, nothing terminal I hope.
 
Mysteriously, not one but TWO brackets underneath the playfield broke around the same time. One holding a coil in place on the playfield and the other holding the lane shooter rod.

I can understand one but two.... MAAAAAAN!
 
I saw some savage damage to a ramp on the Creech, quickly repaired by the NLP guys with Gaffa tape, but looked a nasty injury for that soldier :-(
 
JT. said:
Was that your TAF @Adrian Hufton with the coloured DMD? If so, I met you - I was there with my two young kids playing on it, one using a small wooden chair to reach it :)
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Yes mate is was and I forgot to pick up my name badge! good to meet you and glad you and your kids enjoyed my TAF (thanks to poibug for fitting the fix) it was ok for the rest of the show:clap:
 
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Another superb weekend of geeking on an epic scale. Hats off as always to the NLP crew :clap::clap: - unbelievably well organised, @Matt Adams and I were in awe of things such as 'floor plans', 'numbered keys ' ...... I mean the Slam had heard rumours of such things but we never got further than the back of an envelope and a plastic tub of lucky dip keys :D

As always didn't play nearly as much pinball as I should. The Moose chair was awesome @Mooseman :thumbs: Pinball Heaven lineup of new stuff was superb, thanks @philpalmer - really enjoyed Walking Dead, Kiss, I don't think Thrones is for me ..... the Pro looked a lot better than first pics suggested but theme wise all seems a bit too serious and po faced for me ... I want more 'fun' in a game :D

Great to catch up with @Heighway Pinball . Full Throttle really does feel like the real deal now. Very very impressed. And chatting to Andy am now so excited for Alien, have total confidence its gonna blow us all away next year :cool:

I thought Play Expo had slightly less stuff goin on this year overall ?? Whilst still a great selection of classic vids from the RGP lot, seemed maybe fewer and certainly none of the bigger/sitdown cabs. Layout seemed a bit meh too, the cabs and in general.

One real highlight was the talk/presentation by Warren Davis the creator of Q*Bert ! Had no idea this was happening and was really glad I caught it. Also learned he was the voice of Wet Willy on White Water !

Cosplay presented the usual dilemma of trying to explain to 'normal' folk why exactly you are sat watching a parade of young ladies scantily clad as obscure video game characters. I'm interested in the needlecraft that goes into the costumes in case anyone is wondering ;)

Oh and for the record, not one single person asked where TV's @Will Barber was. :D

Only took about 4 photos this year.

Sgt GrizZ in the Chair
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Lovely EM's
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@cooldan 's attempt to lure unsuspecting Cosplay girls back to his lovebus failed miserably.
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Looking at the list there's quite a few on the list that I didn't see, last minute substitutions I guess. That or I had my eyes closed all weekend. One nice little game that I found right at the end was Matt Adams's Break shot, that really surprised me. Looks like an old game but with a DMD and played very fast, looked like it had just come out of its box.
 
Brilliant show. Addams chair was mad , maybe link to a Metallica next time? Thought I'd gone through a time warp when 2 vectors came off a van on Friday - every POA show from 1983 to 2001 had at least one.
 
Awesome weekend as usual. Very tiring though I feel like I've run a marathon. I remember someone having a pedometer said they'd walked 10k and I think that was just on saturday!

The addams chair was brilliant, shame you can't put a high voltage across the handles set to go off when you drain to spice things up a bit :D

And the Getaway wired up to the xbox controller was fun too.

Big thanks to anyone who helped set up/ take down my machines it seems some people can't do enough to help!
 
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Hacking Lab in full swing. Spoke to a lot of people again over the weekend, so hope you enjoyed this years selection if you popped over. I've pretty much lost my voice and am now enjoying a few days sofa time!

This deja vu thing going on in my hall can wait till later!
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Stand out things for me were the expressions on people's faces trying to get their heads round the Indy port over, @Heighway Pinball 's full throttle hardware and game and @philpalmer 's effort to get a wide selection of the latest games available for people to see.

The Pinball scene looks pretty bright at the mo
 
It was nice to see how busy the machines were, not that the queues were long but that almost every machine was in use, the pinball area was easily the loudest part of the whole event, that may have helped. And yes my star trek could be heard everywhere :D
 
All,

Had a great time at this years Expo although agree that it seemed a little 'quieter' or less going on than last year (not the pinball area). Hat's off to all that helped organise, donate machines and especially the NLP guys who did a great job - it is appreciated by all us pinheads - thank you. Also great line up from the Pinball Heaven guys and finally managed to get more than one go on Walking Dead.

Managed to meet a few new faces @ronsplooter, @replicas and @Mooseman which was great. Didn't get to catch up and meet @Sgt GrizZ as apparently he was out on patrol at the time. @cooldan was true to his word and was seen smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat watching the cosplay masquerade. Had a good chat with Andrew @Heighway Pinball who looked very very tired from all his recent world tour promo. I think it will be worth it as had lots of fun on Full Throttle and cant wait for Aliens.

Highlights:
1) The TAF chair was awesome and helped me get an all time low score.
2) Cactus Canyon Continued 'Cowboys Vs Aliens' was a superb addition.
3) Game of Thrones? Although managed 322m on my first go (which was pretty bad apparently) it seemed like ACDC without the fun. Quite bland looking and just loops and ramps to aim for. Early code so should improve.
4) MMR - very good indeed.
5) Whoa Nellie - didn't like as much as I though I would. Too slow and it does (as previously suggested) have the worlds smallest LCD screen.
6) Explaining to my mate (first timer) that Cosplay really is (apparently) normal. It was a tough sell.

Although did both days this year still felt like it was over in a flash and never played nearly as many machines as I would have liked. Hey ho. Roll on next year.

Cheers, Tucks
 
kevlar said:
It was nice to see how busy the machines were, not that the queues were long but that almost every machine was in use, the pinball area was easily the loudest part of the whole event, that may have helped. And yes my star trek could be heard everywhere :D
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High volume is the way to go! I put mine up to double the normal volume. Hard to appreciate a pin when you can't hear it.
 
I'm just back home after a great but tiring weekend. Feeling a bit guilty about not being able to bring any games this time. :oops: Hopefully next time...

No Fish Tales, Monster Bash/Scared Stiff or Metallica alas, but there was a truly wonderful selection of machines to be played, and the show wasn't so busy that you couldn't get near a game at anytime, I was always able to able to walk up to a recently vacated game and play (often freeing a stuck ball or clearing four games off first) :rolleyes: Not too many machines ended up being switched off, although there were a few notable casualties by sunday afternoon. Great to meet up again with a load of old friends- and lots of new ones too, the PinballI Info badges were a great idea! :clap:

mark9 said:
The addams chair was brilliant, shame you can't put a high voltage across the handles set to go off when you drain to spice things up a bit
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Never did manage to get a go on this, I know it was broken for a while during the show. I thought it might have been a bit like the Deathball 2000 game that was featured on Pinside recently: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-articles-in-old-magazines-and-newspapers (post #30) :D

Thanks to @philpalmer for bringing along a wonderful selection of brand new machines for everyone to try out. I hope you got several fresh orders for machines at the show, along with Andrew Heighway with his wonderful Full Throttle machine too.

The food in the Event City hall was expensive and bland, I actually complained about getting around thirty chips for £3.75! Like most others, I brought food in, and also popped over to the nearby Trafford Centre for a decent hot meal when things got busy.

The "Lock In" on Saturday evening certainly lived up to it's name, as I had to leave early to get back to my hotel, and it took me 20 minutes walking round the hall to find a security guard to let me out of the building! :mad:

Enjoyed playing the brand new Stern games on Phil's stand. Whoa Nellie was surprisingly good. Sorcerer was the game that stood out for me amongst the excellent selection of older Solid State machines. I enjoyed battling against the Black Knight 2000, pity the sound was turned down. Was there some kind of restriction on game volume, as most games were inaudible?

Well done to all the organisers, machine bringers and everyone who helped make this one a cracking show! :clap::clap::clap:
 
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kevlar said:
It was nice to see how busy the machines were, not that the queues were long but that almost every machine was in use, the pinball area was easily the loudest part of the whole event, that may have helped. And yes my star trek could be heard everywhere :D
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It was like the one ring whispering at me. I NEED one of these in my life......
 
We only spent a few hours at the show on Sunday afternoon, but God! it brought back my pinball mojo (which has been missing for some time). Hugely impressed by it all, and it was great to see my wife leaping around as she played the Stern Star Trek. She also loved the MM and would happily have one in the house - why are they so damn expensive?

Very impressed by WOZ. Also by the Gottlieb Arena, which I've never seen before. Whose was it?

Well done to all organisers! Hope the raffle made a profit.
 
MM are expensive as many other people want them and theres only so many to go around, hence why MMr got made.

I think the Arena belongs to @JMP as were some other Gotties there
 
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