2015 UK Pinball Party, who's going

[d-type]

Hi All,

I've been going to this event for years, but having an under-3 sprog now kinda means you have to ration your events a bit.

The UKPP this year is moving to Heighway Pinball's HQ in Wales, which is a bit in the middle of no-where, especially when you live 1000+ km away (like I do).

IMHO, the event's been in decline for a few years and the main reasons I really continued going was to help out with the tournaments and to meet up with old friends, especially the UKVACers, many of which I've known now for best part of 20 years!

I'm in too minds whether I should make the effort this time, frankly, there are better and nearer events to me and I also quite fancy some of the other arcade/pinball events in the UK.

The absence of any promotion on this forum probably tells a story, but is there a UKVAC crowd planning to attend?

 

[Macro]

well, I'll be wandering around as usual ....

 

[d-type]

By the quantity of replies, looks like you'll be the only 'VAC'er there, Mike :-(

 

[Mitchell Gant]

My girlfriend and I shall be going to this so Macro will have at least someone to talk to about the 'VAC.

 

[Alpha1]

I don't think I can make it dudes.

 

[Macro]

well, at least I may get to play some pinballs, assuming that someone takes some along ...

still there's always full throttle and aliens to play ....

 

[Alpha1]

lol

 

[Hurray Banana]

I'm unfortunately in Northumberland then

 

[steveflipout]

Yes. Andy heighway has plenty of space so borrowing a van full of my pins and vids which he is arranging collection of shortly. Not as closed for me as daventry but if we don't support events we will lose them!

 

[Lid]

I will be there as it's only 10 minutes from my house. From a selfish point of view I hope it is there next year as well

D-type why do you say the event is in decline? I haven't been to a pinball event before and I am super excited about this so I hope it isn't disappointing.

I'm wondering if I should offer my Judge Dredd pin and DDR 5th Mix for the event as I am not far from it. The problem is getting them in and out of my house.

On that subject does anyone know if you can get secure storage type places with power so I could use it as a personal arcade as I don't have any more space in my house or garage but want to start collection more machines.

 

[Blip]

Any vids at this event guys? 15 mins away for me.

 

[Lid]

Any vids at this event guys? 15 mins away for me.

It does list arcade video games on the site but doesn't have any details of what will be there.

Where do you live? I'm in Abercynon, interesting to have another video game enthusiast nearby. Are you aware of any places that still have a half decent selection of arcade games in South Wales? Went to Barry recently and was really sad as it is nearly all gamblers and kids stuff.

Lid2015-08-06 19:38:46

 

[d-type]

D-type why do you say the event is in decline? I haven't been to a pinball event before and I am super excited about this so I hope it isn't disappointing.

If you've never been to one before, you'll love it.

I've been to all the Pinball Show/Pinball Party events since 2005 (or was it 2006?) and every year there are fewer machines. To be honest, that's not such a big deal to me, as I've played them all before anyway, really it's all about the community. Nonetheless, it had become a bit of a procession and Daventry wasn't the easiest place to get to. (Especially for me, I live near Zurich.)

Also, the tournament format, which I helped put together many years ago, is also stale. It was great in it's day and had more players every year, but now it's not fit for purpose as the UK's premier tournament. However, since I originally posted here, the tournament has completely changed, the old format has been dumped, but because the show has now moved to the middle of nowhere, it's only got half the competitors registered. But it's the start of a welcome transition, I suppose.

However, the value proposition has now been shaken up for me. It's now even more awkward to get to from Zurich, and most other places in the UK, but it has the potential to be really interesting as Heighway Pinball hosts in their factory. Andy's doing something different and I applaud him for that. Attendee numbers will probably be down, but many of my friends will still probably be there. The hotels are separate, which is a bit more faff and it's nowhere near any of my relatives, so I can't double-up the trip. There are many other UK shows I'd also love to go to, but I can't go to them all. There's also a lot of much bigger European pinball events and I have a lot of friends there also.

The biggest positive is that my missus and sprog will be in Paris at the time, so I effectively get a free pass that comes without any strings attached. Maybe I'll pull the trigger yet... If only all the roads and trains around the UK south from London weren't so *shyty*, I'm too used to central European travel now

 

[Blip]

Where do you live? I'm in Abercynon, interesting to have another video game enthusiast nearby. Are you aware of any places that still have a half decent selection of arcade games in South Wales? Went to Barry recently and was really sad as it is nearly all gamblers and kids stuff.

Live up in Hirwaun.

I was told recently there are a few classics left at the back of the High Tide arcade in Porthcawl but I have not been down there to check.

Barry is a sad visit for sure, but that's the same for all of the old sites

 

[steveflipout]

there will be videos at the pinball party - along with around 110 pins!

Andy picked up from me:

Sega STAR WARS PODRACER twin
Konami SIMPSONS 4 player
Midway KILLER INSTINCT 2
Atari PRIMAL RAGE
Taito SPACE INVADERS / QIX 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Konami GUITAR HERO arcade

Andy and his team have additional videos but not 100% sure.

Probably a DAYTONA twin and a MK2

its mainly a pinball show (title tells you that) but a bit a variety all adds to the ambience

 

[Mitchell Gant]

This year's Pinball Party was the third time I've been to this event, after originally being told about it by a work colleague of my girlfriend who had been a few times before with his friend.

After the previous 2 years at a hotel in Daventry, which was conveniently about 90 minutes drive away, this year was nearly 4 hours drive away and appeared to put a lot of people off going judging by the response here on UKVAC. Indeed the two friends we'd met with before were having doubts themselves as neither have cars and public transport to Merthyr Tydfil was going to be very expensive and time consuming. We offered to take them in my car and make a weekend of it.

I was in some doubts about holding a pinball event in some factory in Wales compared to a hotel function room, and the weather forecast of hot and very humid did little to reassure me. I know how uncomfortable a factory unit can be in hot weather as I work in one.

On arrival it was obvious that there were not as many people as last year, but there were plenty of pinball machines, and with less people meant you didn't have to queue as much, so that was better already!

It was warm in the factory, but actually not anywhere near as hot and stuffy as the Daventry hotel of previous years, with it's low roof that seemed to trap the heat in. There was a makeshift bar and food stall, and plenty of tables to sit at alongside the pinball area. Typical factory unit toilets were perfectly good enough for the purpose and close by too. They were also a lot cooler than the Daventry hotel toilets that I remember being very sauna like! Surprisingly holding it in an industrial unit rather than a proper hotel function room was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared.

I spotted and said hello to a couple of UKVAC members, Macro and Dave2084, and chatted to a couple of other friendly folks too. We don't know anyone in the pinball community and don't enter the competitive tournament either, just like to play the different machines.

None of us were attracted to the hog roast evening meal either and chose instead to have a walk into the town centre before retiring to the hotel for some drinking.

On the Sunday I went on a group factory tour and talk by Andy Heighway who hosts the event and owns the factory. This turned out to be very interesting to me and really made the weekend for me as I'm very interested in the technical side of things. This is not something that could have happened at a hotel.

By far the highlight for me was the invite to the 'secret room' after the tour, where we could look at, but not touch or record/photograph the new 'Alien' pinball that they are developing. Seeing the new artwork, sound/video clips and playfield toys prototyped, and having the development process explained was really exciting. The amount of hard work in licensing a film like the Alien franchise for pinball is enormous, and I felt very privileged to be allowed to see it before official release. Thanks to Andy Heighway for showing this.

In hindsight what I thought may be a less fun Pinball Party this year turned out to be much better.

Only complaint I'd have is that unless we entered the tournament we could not play those games, and there were some nice tables that we wanted to play in there. I suppose the reply to that would be that we should have entered the tournament!