NWPAS Overview 2016

My trip to the NorthWest Pinball and Arcade show really began months before hand. I had these ideas on what I wanted to do for the show. Only one of them really worked out. The first was work on a wireless pinball table. You would set up a bumper or paddle on the board, and it would work without needing to be connected by a wire. What I found out was that the technology is ready for it, but there were laws blocking the path.

The other one was to give a video tour of the show. I had a programmer and others helping out, but ultimately just walked around with a 360 camera and posted the video to youtube.

I left my house the day of set up instead of the day before. My sister thought she might be going to Seattle so I made arrangements to driver her there. She ended up backing down, and thus making all of my helping her sort of worthless. Still, it was a good drive and I don’t remember a lot of incidents on the way there.

As soon as I arrived I was helping move games to their place, and setting up various items. Someone asked me to help out with the Pinball tournament set up, so I helped with that.

I don’t think a single one of these games was on the main floor, so the competitors got a real treat. I met with folks that knew their stuff, and these machines were kept extra safe by the one setting them up. There were extra pads, and things to do to make sure they were all in good condition.

Pinball tables are a lot more work to set up than an arcade videogame. A vid -as the vernacular describes it- is pretty much set up as is. You wheel it in, and maybe play with some dip switches inside. For the most part they turn on without any extra work, and only a few need you to do things like hook up the controls, or make sure the settings are correct.

A Pin -vernacular again- needs you to set up the top, put in balls, make sure the display is lit and placed, screw in several parts, and place legs. This means a lot more work, and time spent making sure the machine is ready than a vid.

This year we had a lot more pins.

As someone points out, we actually had less vids, but it felt like the pins were encroaching onto the vid territory. This meant a lot more work, and those of us not as much into pinball were left wondering what to do.

We had our pizza break, and I chatted with various folks. The Kid Zone was set up, and I found some cool new games at them.

I’ll get into games I played in another article, but the next day I had played pretty much all of the vids several times in a row. I had also played multiple pins out of boredom, and found a few I enjoyed.

Once again, I’ll leave that for another article. However, I did get the hang of pinball a bit more than usual, and did pretty well in a few. I only got to play the Big Lebowski once because after that time there was a long line forming even before the show started. At some points the line actually blocked a path to the entrance. There was good reason for that since it was likely the only one in North America.

I spent my resting time at a friend’s house. His dog enjoyed jumping on me and demanding I pet him. A bulldog is a lot heaving than my little beagle. The first morning I actually had difficulties getting out of bed because he was leaning on me so much.

Getting to his place at night was actually difficult because my GPS decided to not work, and I didn’t have clear directions out. I guessed that a road led north, and followed it until I got to the needed freeway. That was a very long path, and I discovered a much easier way the next day.

The first day of the show the pinball people showed up in droves. I warned the folks setting up booths that they shouldn’t expect a lot since the pinheads -thats what they call themselves- tended to ignore all else.

By the next day, I was having a problem going onto the convention floor. Pins are very loud, and we had well over 200 of them. When I tell people there is a wall of sound, I am not joking. I eventually had to use earplugs just to get through the day.

They were handed out at the entrance by a security guard. By the last day, I was having a hard time even talking to people I was simply so exhausted from dealing with the constant sound. It was actually making me tense up, and hurt a bit.

The convention was trying something new this year. The seminars would be taking place on the same floor. This meant having to set up areas for the major guests to autograph and not bother people.

The big one was Nolan Bushnell. I admit, I sort of teared up when he started talking about modern ideas for arcades. His kids are now old enough to make their own companies, and some have begun making arcade games. I had been thinking about the same things he was presenting, and I admit, there may have been a religious moment. I sort of want to make an arcade with modern ideas for gaming, and he was presenting that same thing.

I helped set up the line for autographs, and even got a person running a stall to get her classic Atari 2600 signed. She was thankful, but I ended up unable to interview Bushnell. I told people I chickened out, and there is a lot of truth to that. There is also the reality that any question I had, he answered in his presentation. I felt at a loss.

The other big thing for me was the really nice pizza I ate.

I had passed by this place for the first two shows, and never walked in. So I decided to try it at least once this show. The pizza is amazing. I was actually in the process of eating a slice as I took this picture.

Saturday we had a catered breakfast, and of course the great lunch on Sunday.

On Sunday I tried to fast since it was the first of the month. That was a mistake, and I don’t intend to do it again. I ended up tired and useless. However I did go to church that day.

All in all, I think the show was a success. The next article should be about the games I played, which was a lot.