This was the first time I attended the Chicago show and the experience was great! Billed as Expo #18, this is supposed to be the one show not to miss for pinball enthusiasts, so I knew that I had to attend at least one show to see what it was all about. Others like me obviously had the same idea…when MC Rob Berk asked the seminar crowds on Thursday and Friday how many were there for the first-time, it seemed that over half the crowd put up their hands. At left are good friends Brian and Sharon in the Stern factory.   Met some great legends of the game….Alvin Gottleib, Steve Kordek, Barry Oursler, and Steve and Mark Ritchie, to name a few, and lugged around books and flyers for their signatures during the 4 days.

Great moments at the show….listening to Alvin Gottleib and Steve Kordek tell stories about the good old days….playing Roller Coaster Tycoon in the factory and at the show….Tim Arnold's “17 things that killed Pinball”, playing The Korn’s 200 watt supercharged Black Knight 2000 (and it was great watching Steve Ritchie play it!). And hearing Steve Ritchie tell about his games at the fireside chat.  At right is Gene Cunningham of Illinois Pinball with the reproduced Kiss playfield overlay.   Disappointments? Sure, there were a few – John Popaduik not being able to attend was one of them, and while I was able to get some sorely needed parts, I had thought that more vendors would have attended the show. Still, getting some stuff for my HH restoration as well as some CV and CFTBL plastics alone made the trip worthwhile.

Also interesting was the Gary Stern and Joe Blackwell discussions on Stern Pinball and the new Tournament System being put into the new games. Despite the rants and raves on the newsgroup, seeing the enthusiasm that these 2 individuals bring to the last surviving pinball company should have the pinball community at large really supporting their efforts – their games have improved greatly and let’s hope that their efforts in this regard continue. Attracting design stars like Pat Lawlor and Steve Ritchie can only make them better in the end.   I had heard that the Pinball Expo could be on it’s last legs, that there had been rumblings about the future of holding the show. Based on the turnout and enthusiasm of the participants I met, let’s hope there’s another one next year! See you at Expo 19.   More pictures of Expo are here.

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