A storm seemed to grow in force the closer we got to Allentown, Pennsylvania.
A gathering of pinball wizards was being threatened by gusts of wind and
rain but it didn't keep any of them away. We came to worship the silverball
and play some games with other wizards. We came to buy, to sell, to trade,
to see, to play. And that 's exactly what we did.
The show consisted of a large room where there were many pinball machines set up for free play and/or sale.
There were lots of cool pinball machines for sale inside, but the most action seemed to be outside at the "flea market" in the parking lot.
It poured rain sporadically on Saturday which made things pretty messy and forced some of the vendors to bundle their stuff up and close their trucks for a few hours that afternoon. Late on Sunday, one of the vendors offered the rest of their inventory for FREE!!!!! There was a feeding frenzy in the parking lot. When the price is right, stuff sells. Haha. FREE!!!!!
There were also fun tournaments inside. They had a mens tournament on Wms. Jackbot, a womens tournament on Bally The Addams Family, a long ball contest on Wms. Dracula and a blind doubles tournament on Data East Tommy.
Steve Marsh (FSPA) won the mens. Jessica Harrison (FSPA) won the womens. Yours truly won second place in Womens! If only that extra ball hadn't been a SDTM, I coulda been a contender.
There were many pinball machines that you don't see very often.
One of these was a Scared Stiff prototype game with a keyline playfield .
Some others were a Gottlieb Central Park, Wms.Jackbot, Data East Checkpoint, Gottlieb Spirit, Gottlieb Rock, Bally Mousin' Around, Atari Middle Earth,Bally Granny & the Gators, Gottlieb Lady Luck, Gottlieb Seven Seas and my favorite game in the whole place:
1966 Gottlieb Dancin' Lady
There was a good selection of games to play and I wanted to play them all. Some of the ones I got to play were Wms. Medieval Madness, Bally Corvette, Wms. Dracula, Wms. Jackbot, Capcom Breakshot, The Addams Family, Wms. Terminator 2, Bally Dr. Who, Data East Tommy, Strikes & Spares (Bally & Premiere), Wms. Indiana Jones, Data East Rocky & Bullwinkle, Bally Safecracker, Wms. Star Trek Next Generation, Data East Monday Night Football, Data East Hook, and numerous electromechanicals including a Bally Nippit and a Bally Four Million BC. I could never get a game on either the No Good Gofers or the Scared Stiff prototype so I guess they were the most popular games.
There were many machines I would have liked to take home for our COPA pinball league at TNT Amusements in Columbus, Ohio. After careful consideration, the Data East Tommy seemed like the obvious choice. Some of my favorite features are the music, the spinning propellors on the airplane, the hood over the flippers during Tommy scoring, and that great silverball on top . And since my husband's name is Tom, what more could I want?
Sold!! to me. :)
Sunday, most of the day was spent winding up deals, loading up trucks, and saying goodbyes. The best part of the weekend was meeting the other wizards and getting to kick back and play some real pinball. I hope everyone gets a chance to do that soon. Wizards need to have fun or they get cranky......Hope to see YOU at the next pinball show.
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