We are back in Manchester at the EventCity exhibition complex for the annual Play Expo gaming show.

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.

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 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.

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.

Heighway Pinball’s Full Throttle was also here.

Before it is allowed to be played, each machine has to be tested for electrical safety (PAT tested).

There was also a nice line-up of Gottlieb solid-state machines here, including several lesser-spotted varieties.

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.

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.

It didn’t take long before the aisles between the pinball machines became crowded and all the machines were occupied.

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.

Tournament Machines

Heat Wave No Good Gofers Shrek

 

Further into the Pinball Zone, the machines were just as popular with a few parts vendors setting up their stalls.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Not everything needs to have a power supply to be fun. Tabletop games were a popular part of the show.

However, if you could find a power outlet…

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.

When it all got too much, there were several food stand at the front and back of the hall.

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.

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.

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…