We are back in Manchester at the EventCity exhibition complex for the annual Play Expo gaming show.
EventCity in Manchester
Although the show didn’t open until the next day, we were here for the set-up so we can get a preview of what’s in store for the thousands of visitors who will line up outside the following morning.
With the public entrance closed, we headed round the back to the loading bays to get in.
The rear of EventCity – our way in
Heading into the main hall we found work well underway on setting up the scores of pinballs expected at the show, as well as the thousands of square metres of games of all kinds.
The pinball zone at Play Expo
The organisers of the pinball zone – Northern Lights Pinball – were expecting more than 100 pinballs, and with many machines already here they were confident of reaching that target.
Setting up machinesThere was a good mix of older and the very newest titles
The newest titles were there courtesy of Pinball Heaven who had the latest offerings from Stern, Jersey Jack and Chicago Gaming, as well as some restored games.
New Stern Pinball titlesJersey Jack Pinball’s first two titlesThe Medieval Madness remake alongside two high=end restored games
Heighway Pinball’s Full Throttle was also here.
Heighway Pinball obviously take their game servicing very seriously
Before it is allowed to be played, each machine has to be tested for electrical safety (PAT tested).
No shocking events here
There was also a nice line-up of Gottlieb solid-state machines here, including several lesser-spotted varieties.
Gottlieb gamesTag Team Pinball – one you don’t see at shows very oftenWe have more on this later, and in a separate articleThe tombola is always a popular part of the show
As important as it is, the Pinball Zone is only a small part of Play Expo, so let’s have a quick look around the rest of the hall.
There are hundreds of PCs and older 8-bit computers for visitors to playDon’t throw those old tube TVs away – someone wants themPlenty more CRTs in the Video Game ZoneThe Pinball and Video Game (Arcade) Zones sit side-by-sideLook out, it’s the cops – or is it?Transformers fans will know the meaning of this slogan on the cop carWe are assured this isn’t showing the way to the toiletsElsewhere, food trucks are set up to cater to the massesGamer food aplenty
The Play Expo show opened to the public at 10am on Saturday, and as usual there was a large crowd queueing outside eager to get through the doors.
The queue outside just before opening timeThe queue continuesThe doors open and the first guests are admitted
It didn’t take long before the aisles between the pinball machines became crowded and all the machines were occupied.
The scene in the Pinball ZoneThe machines were soon fully occupiedThe Nautilus EM machine had see-through panels on the cabinet and backbox sidesThe machines stood up to constant playing well, with very few casualtiesThe Pinball Heaven machines were especially popular
Here’s the list of free play pinballs at the show:
Free Play Machines
4 Aces
AC/DC Pro
Addams Family, The
Addams Family, The
Aerobatics
Arena
Austin Powers
Avatar
Avengers, The
Baby Pac-Man
Barracora
Batman, Dark Knight
Batman, Dark Knight
Big House
Black Knight
Black Knight 2000
Black Knight 2000
Black Rose
Blackwater 100
Bone Busters
Bride of Pinbot – The Machine
Bride of Pinbot – The Machine
Centaur
Circus
Congo
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon
CSI
Deadly Weapon
Demolition Man
Diamond Lady
Dirty Harry
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s
Earthshaker!
Eight Ball Deluxe
Excalibur
Family Guy
Fireball
Fish Tales
Full Throttle
Funhouse
Funhouse
Game of Thrones Pro
Genesis
Getaway, The: High Speed 2
Ghostbusters Premium
Ghostbusters Pro
Godzilla
Gold Ball
Gorgar
Grand Lizard
Guns N’ Roses
Hobbit standard, The
Hollywood Heat
Indiana Jones (custom)
Indiana Jones (WMS)
Indianapolis 500
Iron Man
Jackbot
Johnny Mnemonic
Jokerz!
Judge Dredd
Kiss Pro
Last Action Hero
Lord of the Rings, The
Lord of the Rings, The
Medieval Madness Remake
Medusa
Metallica
Mousin’ Around
Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man*
Nautilus
NBA Fastbreak
Pinball Magic
Pinbot
Pirates of the Caribbean
Police Force
Police Force
Popeye Saves The Earth
Raven
Revenge from Mars
Revenge from Mars
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!
Road Kings
Roadshow*
Robo War
Robocop
Robot
Rock
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Rollergames
Rolling Stones (Stern), The
Roto Pool
Scared Stiff
Sorcerer
Space Invaders
Space Station
Space Station
Spider-Man
Spirit
Spring Break
Star Trek Pro
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Wars (DE)
Star Wars (DE)
Swords of Fury
Tag Team Pinball
Terminator 2
Theatre of Magic
Twilight Zone
TX Sector
Walking Dead, The
Whitewater
Wizard of Oz 75th, The
Wizard of Oz standard, The
World Poker Tour
X-Files, The
X-Men Pro
There were three competition machines amongst the mix. A Shrek was the junior high score machine, with a No Good Gofers next to it performing the same role for the adult event. A William’s Heat Wave was used for the EM Challenge, where players vied to either achieve the day’s highest score, or raise the temperature high enough to ‘Blow Your Top’ and win a cash prize.
The junior, adult and EM competition machines
Tournament Machines
Heat Wave
No Good Gofers
Shrek
A new high score is recorded
Further into the Pinball Zone, the machines were just as popular with a few parts vendors setting up their stalls.
No free machines in this rowThe Scottish Pinball Association and Paisley Pinball were sharing a standPinball Daze had a large stand with numerous assorted pinball partsThe North-East Retro Gaming (NERG) team was there to promote their event
Jim Askey had his Hacking Lab to show a customised Stern Indiana Jones running a version of the Williams Indiana Jones rules, his replacement Stern flasher boards, custom saucers for Revenge from Mars, as well as demonstration PCBs and assorted pinball parts.
Jim Askey at his Hacking LabPinball Heaven also had a stand in addition to the games they brought
Making a return after its first outing at last year’s show was the Addams Family Challenge shock chair. Players sit in the chair and use the control handles to flip the flippers, but achieving certain objectives produces unexpected results from the chair’s lighting and sound effects, shaker motors and smoke machine.
The Addams Family Challenge shock chair was back after last year’s debutThe previous player really smoked the gameThere were several alternate translites seen in the games, including this Game of Thrones one
The Northern Lights Pinball team use this event to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and the charity was well represented at the show with their own stand.
The Teenage Cancer Trust standThey ran a competition to see if you could drop a parachuted toy soldier into one of the plastic cupsIt’s harder than it looks, but at least one player managed it
A predicted, the tombola stand was especially popular, with any ticket number ending in a 5 winning a prize. Tickets cost £1 for three, £5 for eighteen or £10 for forty.
The tombola standThe Pinball Zone
You can take our exclusive Twelve Minute Tour of the Pinball Zone by clicking below, or by visiting the Pinball News YouTube channel.
While it was obviously our favourite bit, the Pinball Zone was a relatively small part of the overall Play Expo show.
The rest of the Play Expo showThe show floor plan with the Pinball Zone highlighted
So let’s have a quick look at some of the other stands and exhibits.
Right next door to the pinballs in other half of the Arcade Zone were the arcade video games.
Everything from sit-down to stand-up arcade video gamesIt was an impressive display of videos with some unusual titles
Not everything needs to have a power supply to be fun. Tabletop games were a popular part of the show.
Card, simulation and fantasy tabletop games were on sale and being playedCard games can be played anywhere you can find a flat surface
However, if you could find a power outlet…
It was good to see gamers stop sitting in front of the TV at home and come to the show to… err… sit in front of the TVPC gaming appeals to all agesThere was no shortage of PC games to tryIf you wanted to socially interact, there was a full Rock Band set-upIf you wanted to learn from the experts there were plenty of seminars to watchIn another area they were relating the history of gamingVirtual reality is a small but growing part of the showBut it’s still hard to look cool wearing theseConsole gaming was well represented, such as this ring of X-BoxesThere were also multiple rows of PS4 console gamesIt may be a retro title, but Battle Zone still had them queueing round the blockJust as timeless was this little chap who roamed the show floorYet another retro theme, but this time Barricade had been joined by Bumblebee
Play Expo also featured an Education Zone, where college courses could be explored and gaming skills learned. One stand we especially appreciated was teaching visitors soldering skills – something often overlooked when everything seems to come pre-assembled with no user-fixable parts.
Learning soldering skills in the Education ZoneTraining the next generation of Electrical Engineers?
When it all got too much, there were several food stand at the front and back of the hall.
Lunch timeWe thought Wicked Wraps & Kebabs had the longest queue, until……the Longest Queue At The Show award went to the cash machine
Needless to say, there were dozens of vendor stands selling everything from knives and swords to T-shirts, framed prints, plush toys, game discs and cartridges, retro consoles and character models.
Here are just a few of them.
Masses of T-shirts were available on multiple standsSee. Told you.If it was gaming or super-hero movie related you could probably find it hereLots of fantasy artworks tooIf you thought your retro gaming console was worth a lot of money by now, it’s not – there are loads of them aroundSee. Told you.Pokemons need a cuddle too
You can see all the stands and gaming areas in our Twenty Nine Minute Tour video below.
And that concludes our look at Play Expo 2016 and the Northern Lights Pinball’s collection of machines. The team raised an amazing grand total of £6,950.41 for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity.
Members of the NLP crew
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer scale of Play Expo and the number of different types of gaming on display, but at the end of the day this mantra still holds true…
BrewDog is a Scottish craft beer brewery with an ever-expanding estate of their self-branded bars. At the time of writing, they have twenty-eight bars in the UK and sixteen internationally, including places such as Barcelona, Brussels, Helsinki, Hong Kong and São Paulo.
Each bar sticks to the same winning formula of largely BrewDog-brewed beers, with a mix of interesting guest beers.
The Shepherd’s Bush branch opened three years ago and is located close to the Goldhawk Road tube station, a short walk from Shepherd’s Bush Market.
Brewdog Shepherd’s BushThe front of the bar
Inside, the bar is spacious and trendy, with mood lighting and a large bar lined with beer taps.
The interior of BrewDog Shepherd’s BushPlenty of tables and seatingThe bar
The beers on offer are shown on large illuminated boards behind the bar. One shows BrewDog’s own standard selection while the other lists their prototype and experimental beers and the guest beers. All beers are priced around the £5 ($6.66/€5.97) mark, whether that is for a full pint, or a two-thirds, half or third of a pint for stronger brews.
Be aware though, they are not big on non-beer drinks. You might get a couple of different wines, and a boutique cola or two, but beer is what BrewDog is all about.
One of the beer lists
A limited food menu is also available. We have tried the pizzas and the chicken wings on previous visits and they were very tasty indeed and come recommended.
However, much as we love the beer and the food, we were here this time for the pinball, and BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush has four machines located at the back of the bar.
The four pinballs
When we arrived, the machines were just being swapped over by the operator. A Simpsons Pinball Party and a Getaway were leaving, to be replaced by a Congo and a Fish Tales. They joined the existing AC/DC Premium and the UK-made Full Throttle.
Full Throttle at BrewDog
All games are priced at £1 ($1.33/€1.20) per game or 3 games for £2, which seems to be standard London pricing. The games are visited by the operator frequently and any problems quickly fixed. While we were there, ColorDMD screens were being installed in AC/DC and Fish Tales.
Nearby seating is available
The selection changes approximately every three months which coincides with the start of the next season of the London Pinball Selfie League which operates here and at the Four Quarters in Peckham. On certain League event days, additional machines are brought in and a fixed entry fee gets you unlimited games.
The BrewDog management and staff are very supportive of the pinballs, providing vouchers as prizes for the League and joining in the fun on event days.
In fact it’s not at all uncommon for UK BrewDog bars to feature pinball machines – something we obviously applaud – but we also wondered why this was.
So we spoke to BrewDog and they told us, “BrewDog bars allow us to put all the things we love in one place and pinball is one of them. Customers love getting their retro gaming heads on and we’re glad that people recognise our bars as a place to do this. Americana is a theme that lends itself to BrewDog and the beer we make as we take a lot of influence from the incredibly inspiring American beer scene. In keeping with this, the traditional pinball arcade fits right in. Our customers (and staff) love the pinball machines, and we love to expand our collection when new bars open.”
With the recent closure of The Pipeline bar, West London’s BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush is now the bar with the most pinballs in the capital (although nearby Chief Coffee has more pinballs). There may only be four of them, but it’s a great mix of pinball, beer and food, and – even better – it’s on our way home from work.
A final couple of words about the beer.
US readers will be pleased to know BrewDog are soon to open their US brewery and distribution centre in Columbus, OH. Also, the Shepherd’s Bush branch is one of only three BrewDog bars which has a Crowler canning facility, meaning you can take away any of their beers in a special 950ml can, which they fill and seal for you.
We’re enjoying this lovely Electric India saison as we write this review (which might explain any spelling mistakes).
Review fuel
More details about this branch of BrewDog can be found on their website, while the London Pinball Selfie League’s Facebook page has details of how to play and submit your scores.