YEGPin 2022: Pinball Overload!

This yearly event is heaven for silver ball aficionados and it’s been happening since 2016. Twenty twenty-two marks our second visit to the Edmonton Pinball & Arcade Expo and as a good time, all the boxes are checked. It’s pinball overload and we’ve not only here to document the goings-on but maybe sneak in a few games ourselves. Come reminisce with us about YEGPin 2022 and through our camera eye, view the fun.

It’s July 2022 and we’re at the Millennium Centre in Sherwood Park (just outside Edmonton). The event occupies two complete hockey rinks in the giant facility and there’s hundreds of machines waiting. We lost count, but something more than one and less than a thousand. Old, new, restored, customized. vintage video games and all are on free play. Could it be any better?

There’s a tournament area for the competitive folks and those guys take it seriously. Dead serious. We coined the phrase Pinball Face in a magazine article a while back (it never really caught on), and that expression is seen on all contenders duking it out. It’s that look of unwavering concentration that comes when you’re in the zone and where the only thing that matters is the game.

It a focus of such intensity that everything else is blocked out. The phone could ring and it’d go answered. This building could be on fire and they’d be oblivious. It’s the end of the world, but they won’t notice. It’s full immersion and everyone into the game gets lost in the moment.

It’s you and a little metal ball, some targets, bullseyes, drops, spinners and ramps. There’s the chiming of bells, a disco light show, sound bytes, call outs, and everyone on a determined quest to reach the highest score. At any cost. This describes the face of almost anyone playing at YEGPin 2022 today, but those in the tourney seem even more possessed.

Entering the building, the anticipation builds and soon, bid welcome to a wonderous place. Spin around and take it all in. There’s distractions at every turn. The bright colours, the intense lights, so much din, games played as kid and not seen since, or those more familiar today. Which one first?

Look around to the many smiling faces or others with that look of disappointment that only comes after being bested by the game. It’s you vs machine and more often than not, the machine wins.

Now let’s get take a look at the photos captured at YEGPin 2022 and chat about the stuff seen.

1) Welcome! It’s a first look and there’s new machines for sale (from maker Jersey Jack – a newer company). On the left it’s one bank (of many) with playable machines and covering many eras. The one front left is from the ’50s but most others are newer. Their design is little changed over time as you can see.

1) Welcome to YEGPin 2022 in Sherwood Park Alberta!

2) Retheming pinballs, that is adding new art and sounds, is a thing for some collectors. Usually the playfield layout remains the same and the original electronics + mechanicals are kept, but anything else is fair game. It’s up to the whims, and the budget of the person doing it. We’ll show you a respun game with a Donald Trump theme sometime…or maybe not given the current political state of things.

This particular machine is a former Williams Demolition Man from 1994 and is based on the movie of the same name. It’s now done up in the style of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “Oh, don’t grovel! One thing I can’t stand, it’s people groveling.” If you know the movie that passage will resonate, but it might be lost to non-Python fans.

Williams was one of the Big Three pinball makers traditionally, but they closed up just before 2000.

3) We have a family and some stopped by to play.

4) Eight Ball Deluxe (third run, 1984) from Bally-Midway Amusements. This has to be one of the most infuriating games of all time, and it’s a real challenge to best. Bally (Bally-Midway after 1982) was another of the big players, but was sold to Williams in the late 1980s. Williams continued to make games using the Bally pinball brand until they too closed.

Most games of the classic era were made in one batch and it was odd to see follow-up production runs. Eight Ball Deluxe proved popular enough that they did three. There’s Eight Ball Deluxe 1981, Eight Ball Deluxe Limited 1982 (with a different backbox) and Eight Ball Deluxe 1984. The last one looked much the same as the ’81 run.

Well over ten thousand combined were made and the third run appears to be the least common. A Bally-Midway Attack from Mars (made by Williams) is from 1995 and seen to the right.

5) Stern is the most recognized maker these days and they produced this Kiss game in 2015. Classic rock themes are a staple with the firm. They often produce pinballs with various trim levels (like car makers do). You might see limited, premium, home, signature, diamond, platinum or pro editions depending on the model. Stern will sometimes do follow up runs if a title proves popular.

The Stern name has long been associated with the industry and the latest incarnation of company dates from the late 1990s. For the time in the early 2000s (dark days indeed), they were only ones making pinballs.

6) These machines are high maintenance and many techs were kept busy keeping them running. Games at this event are loaned out by various enthusiast groups or individuals and the organizers of YEGPin take care of any breakdowns during the show. If you own a pinball, it will fail eventually, so it’s good to befriend a tech. Not that there’s a lot of them out there.

7) A Gottlieb Queen of Diamonds from 1959. Gottlieb, in various forms over the years, was another of the Big Three and made arcade games (primarily pinballs) from 1927 to 1996. They’re often viewed with a fondness greater than any other maker and certain Gottlieb titles are some of the most sought after pinballs by collectors.

8) Between photographing and chatting with players or techs, we played a few rounds ourselves. You’ll often see us donning some yellow piece of clothing and it’s been a tradition almost as long as we’ve run this website.

9) Our dear friend, tech Gary Makota and he’s probably got more experience than anyone. Starting in the 1970s, he specializes in electro-mechanical games and early electronic games. We often shadow him on Calgary service calls and go here to see the list: Pinball Tech Gary Makota.

Gary is working on a Gottlieb Gemini, a late model electro-mechanical from 1978. Gottlieb was the last holdout for electro-mechanical pinballs and this model was produced during their transition into electronic games. Only a few hundred were produced and it’s doubtful many survive today.

A Williams Fish Tales from 1992 is seen to the right (over 13k made) and a Stern Black Knight Sword of Rage to the left (2019). The Black Knight series (three different issues) was begun by Williams, but continued by Stern.

10) YEGPin 2022 took up two hockey rinks at Millennium Place in Sherwood Park. There were public play areas, a section for tournament play and another for concessions.

11) Pinball…beer? Pinball or beer? No, pinball and beer! Retro arcade themed brews are a great idea from the Analog Brewing Company. Power Up is a fine one and being here makes it all the better.

12) Speaking of beer…Stern’s Pabst Can Crusher is from 2016 and done up with many old-style pinball features. So it has mechanical scoring reels, shorty flippers (used widely in the 1950s-1960s) and a simple, single level playfield. So no ramps or stuff like that.

Like many of the machines here, this one is for sale. Play before you pay is a good way to test drive a machine and see how it feels.

13) It’s not just about pinballs, although they’re the biggest part of it, and there’s retro arcade video games present too. Here’s a Midway Mortal Kombat from the early 1990s. Who doesn’t get tingly, when after a hard battle, they hear the line “finish him!” and know victory is but one strike away.

14) Pinballs developing mechanical issues that can’t be addressed on the floor are pulled from service and looked at later. Specialized jacks for lifting the games, seen here as well, come in real handy for servicing or moving them about. There’s nothing sadder to a pinball crazed person than seeing a game out of commission and dark like this.

15) Tournament play is shown on screens at the event and for one this allows entrants to size up the competition. There’s an overhead view showing play, another of the player themselves (did that guy just mouth something in a four letter form?), the scoreboard and the colour commentators. It’s deadpan stuff and not taken lightly.

16) You can’t miss the Nitro Pinball Van and they distribute games, parts and merchandise. That’s a Big Lebowski from Dutch Pinball (Netherlands) on display in back and company techs are working on a problem.

17) Countdown from Gottlieb (1979) and with almost 10k made. The late ’70s were a boom period for pinball and it was not odd for the better titles to sell in the five digits. In contrast, when the game’s popularity ebbed, selling a few thousand per title was considered good. This pinball is for tournament play – note the camera.

18) Rose Bowl, made by Gottlieb 1951 and this makes it the oldest one we noted at the show. Like others here it’s for sale and for $950. Some games can be had for pretty cheap really. Pinballs from this era have rather simple layouts, but by no means are they easier. In fact, they’re often more challenging and unforgiving than modern equivalents.

19) There’s the yellow cap and it’s sure hard to miss

20 & 23) If you’re good you can take one of these home.

21) Tournament machines in back and tournament control in front, during a break in the action.

22) YEGPin Pinball and Arcade Expo has been going on since 2016 and this visit was the second we documented. The first: YEGPIN 2018. It’s the best time a person can have and one day we’re coming just to play – no media stuff or obligations.

24) Pinball wizard Robert Gagno is one of the better known names in the game. Look up the documentary Wizard Mode – The Life of Robert Gagno and get to know the fellow. We chatted quite a bit.

25) In 1980 Bally created a pinball companion to the hugely successful Space Invaders arcade game (from sister company Midway) of a couple years earlier.

Bally had some amazing art on the their pinballs – pop art all the same, but still well done – and the Space Invaders Pin is no exception. That nasty beast is very reminiscent of the nightmarish creature seen in the Alien movie franchise. The first installment was popular the year before the SI pin was released and we believe it lead to some heat between the film production company and Bally.

Space Invaders was perhaps the first pinball based on a video game.

26) Gottlieb produced about thirty five hundred of these Gigi games in 1963-64. Clowns were a popular subject for pinballs in the past, but they seem a little creepy now. Thanks to all the those evil clown pop-references. Gottlieb’s single player games often had a tapered backbox (called a wedgehead) and to many collectors these are some of the most desirable machines from that firm.

That a wedgehead has only one scoring mechanism makes it mechanically simpler, than two or four player models.

27) Looking down on the playfield of a late 1980s Williams Space Station. Played that machine to death as a young adult, but the same could be said of any of the era. Playfield toys, like the space shuttle Columbia seen here, became a thing in the 1980s and have been an essential part of pinball ever since.

28) The playfield of a Gottlieb Lancers from 1961 and it looks in pretty decent shape. Just look at that flipper gap and they must be a mile wide. Keeping the ball in play had to be a real challenge and older machines were often brutal this way. We didn’t see the backbox, but it must have be somewhere close by. There was lots of interesting odds and ends in hidden corners at YEGPin 2022.

29) A Williams Hayburners II from 1968 and the photo shows a close up of the mechanical backbox animation. Horse race themed pinballs were once popular and in this instance, hitting specific targets would move specific horses forward. If your horse wins, you win. Mechanical backbox animations were most popular in the 1960s and are still seen every once in a while.

30) Even though the pinball posts on this website aren’t the most popular, they brings us great joy. We hope it shows in this photo or this whole piece in general. We’ll happily photograph theses machines and their players till we can’t any more. The flashing lights, the bright colours and artwork at YEGPin 2022 had us in a spell.

31) Most pinballs came/come from the US – Chicago in particular – but there were/are manufacturers elsewhere in the world. This is Dragon from Interflip in Spain and it’s a late model electro-mechanical (1977). By mid-1979 all machines would be solid state.

During the pinball boom of that era, any machine would sell and in response many Spanish-produced games (with English lettering) were brought over. To help with the demand. Spain had many pinball firms and from what we’ve seen first hand, their machines are all pretty fun to play. Our friend Gary says they seem well built too and are easy to service.

32) Genie is a Gottlieb from 1979. This maker’s electro-mechanical games were well regarded (especially by techs, it seems – Gary again) but their electronic machines suffered from reliability issues. To a young me (Chris), the playability of Gottlieb’s about this time seemed lacking compared to Bally and Williams. And even the first incarnation of Stern, but your mileage may differ.

33) Backglass art from a Gottlieb Big Hit (wedgehead, 1977, ~2300 made). Baseball themed games were big once, but today it’s all movies and rock bands. Note the cracking of the paint and this is a common problem with older games.

34) Like many pinball companies Williams dabbled in the video game market and they had some good successes starting in the early 1980s. Defender, Joust and Robotron are well known from this maker, but Moon Patrol (1982) seems a footnote. While pinballs always seem to be the obsession at YEGPin (it’s even in the name), they appear to have a soft spot for vintage video games too.

35) Data East was a big player in the late 1980s/early 1990s but later sold out to Sega, which then later became Stern (2.0). Tales from the Crypt is from 1993 and is one of the last from the firm before they were sold.

Data East didn’t pioneer making pinballs using licensed themes but they sure embraced it. Now that’s pretty much all there is, but so goes it. This theme is is based on the Tales from the Crypt TV series that was popular at the time.

36) Recall the discussion of flaking backglass paint? Here’s another example made all the more obvious with the machine on and in dark room. Heat, cold and other factors can cause it to detach from the glass over time, but it can be repaired too. This is a Williams Love Bug from 1971 and it’s an add-a-ball, single player game.

Add-a-ball games awarded additional balls instead of credits. In some jurisdictions credits could not be awarded (it was seen as gambling), yet extra balls were acceptable.

37) Stern’s Nine Ball is from 1980-1981. This was the first incarnation of the Stern company, in business from 1977-1984, and it evolved out the long established firm Chicago Coin. Stern always seemed like an also-ran back then, verses the dominate Big Three.

38) A Williams Alien Poker from 1980, a Williams Big Daddy from 1963 and a Bally Fireball home edition from 1976. The first was a popular one based on our own experiences, the second is our first introduction and the last is one we’ve heard of but never seen.

In the mid-1970s Bally tapped the burgeoning home market and produced a number of titles. These were the first electronic games from this firm and being simpler than commercial pinballs, allowed them to test the waters. Home machines like it, of the era, lacked coin slots and were generally quite simple and less robustly built.

We played it and came away feeling a tad underwhelmed. The Alien Poker has been done over well and seemed to play like new. Felt like a kid again and even did well at it.

Holy cow, this is a long post and we better end it here. We could go on forever but it’d crash the system. Documenting pinball culture is one of our great pleasures, but even we have to concede the floor at some point. But, but, but, we don’t want to go…

2) A rethemed Williams Demolition Man – “now stop your grovelling!”

Team BIGDoer stayed at YEGPin 2022 well into the night and were exhausted at the end. By count there was hundreds of photos snapped, of machines, the artwork, the players and anything else that looked interesting. While this was a long one, it pales compared the the fourteen hour session done in 2018. Nine AM to eleven PM. We were really in the groove that year and milked it to the very end. To read about that visit, go here: YEGPIN 2018 and here: Just Pins @ YEGPIN 2018.

Good night all, and we’ll surely drop by the Expo again sometimes in the future. Thanks for reading this post.

Know more about our subject: (new tab): YEGPin Pinball Expo.

They’re saying…

“Always very interesting and well researched.” Peter Kroeger.

Things we love doing…
Great Beater Challenge 2021.
Alone in the Gulch.
Nelson and Fort Sheppard in Under a Minute.
Twilite Drive-in Wolseley.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: Contact Us!

Date of adventure: July, 2022.
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Everyone at @ YEGPIN Edmonton Pinball & Arcade Expo 2022, Internet Pinball Database and pinball tech Gary Makota.

3) Kids and grandkids.

4) Bally Eight Ball Deluxe (third run) 1984.

5) Stern Kiss 2015.

6) Techs were kept busy…

7) Gottlieb Queen of Diamonds 1959.

8) Sneaking in a few games…

9) Tech Gary Makota has been fixing them since he was a kid.

10) The show occupied two hockey rinks at Millennium Place.

11) Time for a Power Up!

12) Stern Pabst Can Crusher 2016.

13) It’s not just about pinball…

14) Out of service.

15) To keep tabs on tournament play.

16) Can’t miss the Nitro Pinball Van.

17) Gottlieb Count-Down 1979.

18) The oldest one in this posts, Gottlieb’s Rose Bowl from 1951.

19) Selfie time.

20) For the winners.

21) Tournament control.

22) YEGPin: since 2016 & we’ve attended two.

23) For the grand champions.

24) Pinball Wizard Robert Gagno.

25) A evil looking alien from Bally’s Space Invaders 1980.

26) Gottlieb Gigi from 1963.

27) A playfield toy on a Williams Space Station from 1987-1988.

28) Gottlieb Lancers 1961.

29) Details on a Williams Hayburners II from 1968.

30) There’s no greater joy.

31) From Spain, an Interflip Dragon from the late 1970s.

32) Gottlieb’s Genie from 1979.

33) Backglass art from Gottlieb Big Hit (1977).

34) Williams Moon Patrol Video Game 1982.

35) From a Data East, Tales from the Crypt 1993.

36) Williams Love Bug 1971 – flaking backglass paint is common on old pins.

37) Stern Nine Ball 1980-1981.

38) Williams Alien Poker (1980) & Big Daddy (1963) + Bally Fireball home edition (1976).