Off to the APE

[Robert Hunt]

I'm heading over to Fort Lauderdale right now for the final day of the Florida APE (Arcade & Pinball Expo!)

There appear to be about a dozen TPA games among the hundred or so games listed including three I haven't played yet this year - Bride of Pinbot, Elvira and the Party Monsters, and Taxi.

Full report tonight!

www.floridaape.org

 

[laughing_lunatic]

nice dude, have fun, I'm jealous... take pics ~!!!!

 

[Robert Hunt]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ob7akh4v95s3cfr/APE 2013-02-24_14-35-42_29.jpg

The APE was amazing! There were no fewer than fourteen tables from the current TPA line-up of 24, and while there was a good crowd, I only had to wait once or twice to get on a table. And for the most part the games were in excellent condition.

The pins were in four main areas. The first room had four gleaming Stern machines along one wall, and then five machines that were reserved for tournament play - Gottlieb's Jack in the Box from 1973, AC/DC Premium, a Pin·bot that looked immaculate, Stern's new Avengers Pro, and a beautiful Bally Star Trek from 1979. I didn't play any of these tables yesterday, but I got to play both Jack in the Box and Pin·bot at the Silveball Museum last month, and I played the Let There Be Rock LE AC/DC in North Carolina a week later on the same trip.

The next room had nine EM's in it, the oldest of which was Williams' "Oh Boy" from 1964, but the best playing tables were both 1976 issues from Williams - Grand Prix and Aztec. Another highlight from that room was Bally's Bon Voyage from 1974, which is a bit of a dud as far as gameplay is concerned, but features backglass art from Dave Christensen that is as good as any in pinball. (If they let me post PICS I would. I have HUNDREDS of great pics in fact.)

So the first two rooms were like appetizers, but the next room had a fantastic collection of early solid state games (although there were a few Bally EM's in here too, including a Capt. Fantastic and a Monte Carlo, but they were in pretty rough shape.) Genie was here, looking and playing beautifully. The one I saw at Silverball played a little floaty, but this one seemed brisker, and it was a joy to get the ball into the upper playfield and have it stay there a little while! Gorgar was in there too, along with Black Knight, and Firepower, which looked absolutely amazing and played great. I got multi-ball going more than once on that table. Also in the room, and looking and sounding incredible was Centaur. And nearby I got great games out of Paragon, Pokerino, Nitro Ground Shaker, Joker Poker, and Fathom. Another high point was seeing an example of Stern's Orbitor 1 in great shape. It had the add-on speech package which was a riot to listen to, and was a blast watching the ball loop around and even behind the flippers before returning to play.

The last room was the big one, and I'll get to that in a follow-up post.

 

[Robert Hunt]

The main game room at Florida APE in Fort Lauderdale was reserved for Solid State machines dating from about 1985 to the present, and there were about fifty-five tables all flashing, blinking, and calling out at once. And the room was quite dark, so all of the illumination was being provided by the tables themselves. It was a sensory overload!

There were no less than nine tables from the current TPA lineup in the room: Taxi, EatPM, Dr. Dude, TM:BoP, CftBL, ST:TNG, TZ, AfM, ToTAN, and Monster Bash, and except for Taxi, which showed some wear, they were all in excellent playing shape (although Bride of Pinbot was turned off for the final two hours.) It was great to get off a few Picard Maneuvers, and beat back a few waves of Martians (Revenge from Mars was also there.) And speaking of Attack from Mars, the table was immaculate (the guy was asking ten grand.) It played great but the kickout was aimed at the left slingshot, which seemed odd, but it never seemed to trigger it, the ball would just carom down to the flipper every time.

I got to play Space Shuttle for the first time in about twenty years, and Sorcerer, and there must have been DOZENS of other tables in there that will also soon be part of TPA. There was White Water (two examples), Terminator 2 (&3), both of the High Speed tables (My vote? The Getaway), Comet & Cyclone, Bad Cats, Earthshaker, Mousin' Around, and Diner. And there was certainly no shortage of machines from either Data East or Stern. I got to play Tales from the Crypt, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Back to the Future, The Simpsons, and WWF Royal Rumble. And it would be faster to list the Stern titles that WEREN'T there, but it was fun to try out some of the latest ones such as Transformers and X-Men (but sadly I didn't get to try The Avengers because it had been reserved for tournament play.)

So I had a total blast at my first pinball expo, and it won't be my last. The collected machines there, taken together, would probably surpass any permanent collection in the US outside of the Pinball Hall of Fame, but even that collection is nowhere near so top-heavy in modern machines. The Florida APE was one for the books!

 

[Ark Malmeida]

Sounds great! I'd love to get to one of these shows some day.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

You having a problem with posting pictures? or your not allowed? Going to a pinball show is awsome! Sounds like you had FUN like a kid in a candy store wich one where do I whoa!

 

[IronSabbath88]

Awesome. I wish I could go to something like this. I know there is one in Ottawa, but that's still pretty far for me as I'm closer to Toronto.

 

[Robert Hunt]

I signed up for dropbox, but I'm either not using it correctly, or it won't do what I want. I want to be able to add PICTURES to these posts like I see in other posts, not just lame LINKS to pictures!

???????

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv3kbnz5938sqvf/APE 2013-02-24_14-35-42_29rr.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv3kbnz5938sqvf/APE%202013-02-24_14-35-42_29rr.jpg

tried reducing the size, twice. ??!!!

 

[Carl Spiby]

Press the framed tree icon and paste it in the box that comes up.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Use the direct link and click on the picture icon and paste it there.

 

[Robert Hunt]

What direct link? What picture icon? Are you talking about icons on the page at dropbox or here?

 

[Nik Barbour]

What direct link? What picture icon? Are you talking about icons on the page at dropbox or here?

If you are using your N7 to browse the forums, buy the Tapatalk or Tapatalk HD forum browser app.
Both feature direct hosting of images.

 

[Robert Hunt]

No I am on a Windows 7 PC using IE9. I don't have any images on the Nexus 7, and I no longer have them in my phone either.

 

[Carl Spiby]

You need to put the pics in your public folder, then click 'copy link' on dropbox.

 

[Robert Hunt]

Victory!! Finally figured out what was going on with Dropbox! They eliminated the public folder for new users some months ago, and these forums won't accept the secured links that are generated by the new system. It took some digging thru THEIR support forums to find that they WILL install the public folder for you if you just press one simple button (that took me three weeks and 300 clicks to find!)

But I DO have a ton of pics to share from my recent pinball odyssey (including the Texas Pinball Festival and an evening at Pinballz in Austin) so I guess I'll get to it!

(And thank you Carl. I puzzled over that public folder business for AGES before I sorted it out, but it was your clue that done it, so thanks.)

And the link at dropbox for anyone else who may have been stymied by this:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/16/en