Vintage Flipper World (Ann Arbor MI) 2016

[Crawley]

Just a friendly reminder the Vintage Flipper World show in Ann Arbor MI is coming up mid May. This is the probably the best show to attend to play fantastically maintained pinball machines with little to no waiting. Plus quite a few rare machines you likely won't find elsewhere.

I did a write up on the 2014 event here and Extork and I posted our write up's of the 2015 event here.

This year's table lineup looks really strong. They've swapped out a fair number of tables to bring some new stuff while keeping some fantastic tables from the previous two years. The biggest changes I'm seeing are a lot of Zaccaria tables (18 total!). So if you like the Ask Homework Zaccaria app then this is your chance to play Robot, Mystery Castle, Time Machine, Zankor, and a bunch of others that are also in the app. Some other new tables this year that I'm looking forward to playing: Wheel of Fortune (I never played it), Last Action Hero (awesome game!), Grand Prix (MIA Lawlor from TPA), Baywatch (theme terrible, table awesome), Red & Ted (never played in person), and Bride of Pinbot V2.0 (p-roc custom changes - added DMD and rule changes).

Plus can't wait to play Af-Tor again. Will try and get a video of the pop-bumper action on that one which is like no other.

Here's the URL to Vintage Flipper World where you can buy tickets. If you have any interest in playing a large selection of pinball tables in fantastic condition, and no waiting to play, this is just the event to attend.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Sadly a bit of a trek from central PA - 6 hours to Toledo and then a bit more....

Still we have Allentown in early May, but sadly I doubt we will see any Zaccarias there.

 

[Extork]

[MENTION=2300]Crawley[/MENTION]. Thanks for bringing this up. I will be there no matter what. Hell, even my friend that came with me last time is on board. All I had to do was say, "hey, there's an event coming up that we need tickets for, mid May". And he said, I'm in.

So I strongly suggest to anyone that might have to make a long drive to get there. It will be worth it.

 

[Crawley]

For those still on the fence (or planning to come) there's a thread Clay has put together showing some of the new tables he's fixing up and putting in the show - including a bunch of the Zaccaria tables that are rare to see in North America. Thread on Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/official-ann-arbor-mi-pinball-show-2016-thread

 

[Crawley]

made the 4 1/2hr+ trek to the show today. Won't have pics till you get back home. But a lot of new games on hand. Including 2 Ghostbusters, a Kiss, a Game of Thrones, and a Hobbit. Plus a bunch rare tables I hadn't played before including a bunch of Zacarrias.

Word has gotten around how good the show is. Sold out all three days.

Exausted but looking forward to more pinball playing tomorrow.

 

[Crawley]

So another great year at VFW in the bag. The Michigan weather was crazy though. Was nice on Friday then on Saturday it was cold, rainy, and there was some hale. Then on my drive home on Sunday it started to snow and was almost blizzard like conditions on the road for short spurts. I thought we were done with the snow.

In any case the show sold out all three days for the first time this year and they put up a sign to show that achievement.



Usually Friday there are not a lot of people but was surprised to find a full parking lot when I got there that day. And confirmed there were a lot of people when I went inside. Still the ratio of pins to people was great so there were plenty of machines open but the most popular ones you usually had to wait till one person finished their game. I also read they sold 900 tickets for the show for the three days - so 300 people per day.

With the increased numbers they contracted outside help for some security...



So no issues that I'm aware of took place on the premises.

And as usual the orange shirt staff were fantastic and plentiful. If a ball got stuck (which happens often) you could easily grab a staff member and they would remove the table glass and get the ball. On the Zaccaria machines a lot of people wouldn't realize most of the machines have timed unlimited balls after the 3rd ball drains so would walk away with another ball in the lane. So I saw staff members regularly go down the Zacc line and pull the plungers to get the left timed ball out of there.

Basically the most attentive staff put together for a show I've come across. So high praise to each of them.



The first game I went to play and the last game I played was Capcom's Pinball Magic.

There's some fun magnetic tricks on Pinball Magic. When you shoot the ball in the lock the ball will float along the underside of the magic wand. It's so neat to see. There's another neat levitation trick on the stage show where the curtain opens up and the ball levitates up the stage. Seeing those little things on an actual table are just so fun.

But the unique thing about this table is that each mode must be completed in order. I actually enjoy the challenge, and bit of frustration, of trying to make the shots necessary to move to the next mode. You may be in a mode where you can only make the shot from the right flipper but the ball keeps landing on the left. So being able to control or pass the ball is valuable skill for this table.

On top of that the light show is pretty good for the table and as usual the DMD animations on Capcom's are top notch.



The first two years I totally missed that there was a second building with pins at the show. It wasn't until after the second year that I read about it. So made sure to go in there this year. And what a nice surprise to have some current Sterns and a Jersey Jack on hand to play.

I hadn't played the Kiss before so made sure to play that. I think it was the Pro version. I couldn't hear the music over The Hobbit machine, which was turned to 11 or something, so that took away a bit of the experience of playing it. But the table was ok. It seemed a bit easy to me. Multiball wasn't difficult to trigger as The Demon shot was pretty easy to make. The table layout itself is pretty simple. You have a wide open area in the middle, some targets on either side to hit, and then about 7 different shots you can make pretty easily in any direction.

Without being able to hear the music that probably took away from my experience with it. But I can see it being a fun pin to play when you just want some mindless action.

The Game of Thrones was a Pro as well. I had only played the Premium version of it which I loved. The Pro plays differently. It's a much faster game and before I knew it my first game was over. No one was waiting so I played a second game right away which I did better at but was also pretty quick - that ball moves so fast on this table. So if this makes it to TPA I can easily see getting both the Pro and Premium versions of this table as they'll offer totally different experiences.

There were two Ghostbusters on hand and always had a few people waiting to play. The Hobbit constantly had people waiting to play it so didn't bother waiting as there was so much else to play.

I'll post a bit later on some of the fun games I came across.

 

[Crawley]

There was a pretty significant number of Data East tables at the show. Last Action Hero, Lethal Weapon 3 and Rocky and Bullwinkle being new to the show. But they also had:

Guns & Roses (color DMD)
Tales from the Crypt
Jurassic Park
The Who (color DMD)
Laser War
Phantom of the Opera
Robocop
Secret Service
The Simpsons
Time Machine
Torpedo Alley

I have to say the more I play the Data East games the more I'm kinda liking them. Initially I wasn't huge on any of them (LAH being an exception) but I think they all play pretty well. Laser War is still probably one of my favorites to play outside of LAH.



Lots of Zaccaria tables in the annex building. It was really neat playing these in person. I've seen a few of these at shows before (Time Machine, Black Belt, Farfalla, and Devil Riders) but the rest on display I hadn't seen or played in person. Mexico '86 is actually pretty fun to play with the mini playfield in the upper-right where you have to knock down 6 or so defenders to try and score a goal. Similarly Soccer King is pretty fun with the upper ramp flipper to try and score. Pool Champ was also pretty fun with the oversized drop-down targets. But then you have games like the creepy Clown that shouldn't even be made.

You can tell the Zacc game quality isn't anywhere near as good as what you seen in Williams, Bally, or Stern. These games were probably about as well maintained as you'll see too. But they played pretty slow and the flippers do feel cheap. So while the Zacc App phyisics are great they still don't behave how the real tables do - and I think that's actually good as you could get bored waiting on the sluggish ball movement.



BMX is a rare game with only 407 made.

It has the normal flipper buttons plus two additional buttons you'll need to use a lot.

The outlanes feed in to the flippers - ala Goin' Nuts. The thing is there is a wide gap in those outlanes. That's where the other buttons come in to play. Pressing the button will plug the outlane temporarily turning it in to an inlane. This same thing is done on the Dungeon's & Dragon's table. And as I found out they're designed by the same guy.

It really adds a new element to the game to remember to press those extra buttons to plug the hole as the ball goes down the lane. And if the ball is going fast, which can happen on this table, it's going to drain before you know it.

The table itself isn't bad but I had no clue of how the scoring works on it. There's a lot of lit numbers in the center of the table but no idea what any of them meant. But it didn't matter. That additional trick of turning outlanes in to inlanes had me playing this one multiple times as it added a pretty fun dimension to the game play.



Heavy Metal Meltdown is another table with extra buttons. I only was able to figure out what the extra left button did, which was change the rollover lanes. No idea what the extra right button did. Anyone know?

Anyways this game requires some major nudging skill as the outlanes are hungry. And to make things worse there's like strobe lights on the machine that flash and blind you. I gave the game a few tried but each game was terrible and over quick.

My friend Algar was sitting next to it too. This is the Gorgar sequel who's table layout is nothing like the original. It's a rare table with 350 made and I play it each time I go to the show. This time around it was gelling a bit more than it had in the past and I had a few good games on it. It's definitely an intriguing table and is grabbing me the more I play it.

 

[Crawley]

Wet, cloudy and cold day on Saturday. Even had a bit of hale that day going on.

In the morning everyone was parking on the grass but by lunch when I went out to the Cracker Barrel here the grass was muddy. So thankfully they were parking people on the limited pavement area when I came back. But the damage was done with my car. Just driving the car on and off the grass the one time it was so muddy. So before heading back on Sunday I hit up a local car wash.



Black Flag made a late arrival on Saturday. Was thankful for that as I've never played one in person. This one was in pretty mint condition and played really close to the TPA version. I was never a big fan of the table but had fun on it. Plus was able to play several games in a row as no one was waiting on it.



Time Line, from Gottlieb, was another one I hadn't seen or played before.

I actually liked this table quite a bit. It was a fast SS with the Tic Tack Toe style gameplay some other tables have. Plenty of drop targets to shoot for (big fan of drop targets), some decent sound, and a nice mini-playfield in the upper-left portion of the table. Hopefully it'll be there next year as I'd love to get more familiar with it.



Another great SS I played was Joker Poker. Actually this may have been an EM - can't recall, it had chimes. I do love the layout of this one, again drop targets, but the scoring was pretty fun too. Each ball you have a different set you need to put together so that keeps things interesting and has you focusing on making accurate shots rather than batting the ball around the table. It's definitely a score chase game but a lot of fun to play.

 

[Crawley]

Here's the other Ghostbusters I didn't play. But like the other it was certainly popular.

I did play Whoa Nelly! again and have to say that is really an exceptional modern take on an EM. I really hope that makes it in to the Stern app at some point. I think people will be surprised at how fun it is.

Can see an Al G's World Tour there. The last few times I've played it I've had bad games. The spinner seemed to send the ball SDTM. And it didn't help that I seem to have problems making any shots that don't put me in danger.

Ugh, I see Starship Troopers in the pic and I had meant to go back to play it and forgot about it. I had only played it once before at another expo not knowing any of the rules so have wanted to play it since it made it in to TPA since I knew what the heck I was doing. Next year.



Ok. Here's an odd table - Space Team. It's from some Italian company called Technoplay and had some interesting things on the table. Lets take a closer look.



Not the best picture but near the top of the table you can see that horseshoe star field. If you shoot the ball right it'll curve around it which makes for a pretty fun shot. The problem was the ball would keep getting stuck coming out of there. It happened to me once and I saw two other groups it also happened to. The game wasn't that great, the flippers felt kinda strange, and I never got to use either of those habit trails in the center of the table. But I certainly appreciate playing these oddity pinball tables that you never get to.

Sometimes you hit home runs like Af-Tor but most of the oddity machines are forgetful or you don't want to play them again (Orbitor 1 anyone?).

So before I finish up here just wanted to mention a few tables that I didn't take pictures of or didn't post:

Corvette -> This game is actually pretty great. I've played it before but didn't really get in to it. This happened to be one of the games on hand that you could plug headphones in. And I happened to bring my earbuds to plugged in and started to play. Yeah it helps quite a bit to actually hear the callouts - which are very good for this game. So I actually knew what I was doing on it. I love challenging other racers and winning their cars. And the races themselves are a hell of a lot of fun as you try and make the lit shots before the red car crosses the line. Great game, hope it makes it in to TPA.

Rollercoaster Tycoon -> Spent some quality time on this one and it's a lot of fun even if the artwork is gaudy. Hopefully it has a chance to get in to SPA. It's a Lawler on top of that and I don't think there's one of his I dislike.

Grand Prix -> Another Lawler and so much fun. Get this one in TPA or SPA. Can skip the Nascar licensing issues with just getting the Grand Prix version which is just fine.

Skateball -> A solid SS drop-target game. I dunno why but I love this table and keep playing it. And it looks like others enjoyed it too since I often saw people trying it out as well.

Solar Fire -> Yeah I mention it each year. It's a clone of Black Knight with a terrible 80's sci-fi theme to it. But damn this game plays so great. I had a nice game where I managed to get 3-ball multiball going twice and was effectively using the magnetic ball save.

Fire! -> Why is this not in TPA yet? It's such a fun game. And if it comes to TPA just get the multipler bell sound right and it's all good.

Sorcerer -> Yeah that needs to get in to TPA too. I was leaning more towards Medusa before but I think Sorcerer has a bit more legs.

Doctor Who -> I'm gonna get real sick of that Dalek death scream when this comes to TPA. Heard it a million times at the show. Ugh.

Ok, that's enough for this year. As always if you have a chance to go to this show, even if its a bit of a drive, make plans to go. It's really the best chance to play a large number of pins with minimal to no wait. The machines are in incredible condition, there are quite a few rare machines you likely won't see at other expos, and the staff is just amazing.

 

[Snorzel]

Nice pictures and write up, thank you Crawley ^

 

[Dedpop]

Thanks for sharing Crawley.

 

[Biff]

With the increased numbers they contracted outside help for some security...

A sniper on the parking lot? Or is he from Star Wars?