Let's Talk About Texas Pinball Festival 2019!

Cary Hardy·video·16m 50s·analyzed·Apr 1, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Cary Hardy's Texas Pinball Festival 2019 recap covers event growth, machine issues, and community connections.

Summary

Cary Hardy recaps his experience at Texas Pinball Festival 2019, discussing the event's significant growth (450+ machines), his four machine entries, setup improvements, and various operational challenges. He shares personal anecdotes about equipment failures, broken tempered glass, and connections made with other pinball community figures, while reflecting on the inaugural Twippy Awards ceremony.

Key Claims

Texas Pinball Festival had over 450 pinball machines at the 2019 event
high confidence · Cary Hardy stated directly during the video recap
Marco and Stern had almost 20 Munsters machines on display as part of a major promotion
high confidence · Cary Hardy directly observed and counted the promotional setup at the festival
Ghostbusters had only 2-3 machines available during its announcement/release at a past Texas Pinball Festival
high confidence · Cary Hardy recalled from memory for comparison purposes
Multimorphic sells playfield glasses at Texas Pinball Festival for $25 each
high confidence · Cary Hardy purchased a replacement glass from Multimorphic during the festival
Texas Pinball Festival has grown substantially year-over-year since Cary Hardy started attending
high confidence · Cary Hardy's direct observation and retrospective commentary on event evolution
The 2019 tournament area was moved to a side room down the hallway instead of inside the convention center, creating pros and cons
high confidence · Cary Hardy directly experienced and discussed the venue layout change
Setup at Texas Pinball Festival gets easier every year due to improved organization
medium confidence · Cary Hardy's opinion based on personal experience attending multiple years
Tempered glass breaks into small pieces rather than large chunks when broken
high confidence · Cary Hardy described his firsthand experience breaking a playfield glass for the first time

Notable Quotes

“It's now been one week since the Texas Pinball Festival came to an end. And I just actually recently finally got all my games back up on all fours and back in their position.”
Cary Hardy@ 0:41 — Sets context for the retrospective discussion and explains the delay in content production
“This year we had over 450 pinball machines inside this area. But we had a very big promotion going on with Marco and Stern with the whole Munsters premiums and all that setup. They had almost 20 machines set up for the Munsters showing off that game.”
Cary Hardy@ 4:47 — Documents the scale of the 2019 event and the Munsters promotional emphasis
“I remember when they announced and were releasing Ghostbusters, there was two. Two Ghostbusters machines for everyone to experience and play. There might have been three. But either way, definitely was not close to 20.”
Cary Hardy@ 5:07 — Demonstrates the unusual scale of the Munsters promotion compared to past game releases
“I want to basically say that, you know, thank you for coming up to me, shaking my hand, and saying that you watch my videos and that, you know, they either help you out or for me to keep it up and keep going.”
Cary Hardy@ 5:59 — Shows community recognition and appreciation for content creators in the pinball space
“I had my first playfield glass break... when you're sitting it on carpet and it just turns to water and just and it doesn't break into big old chunks everyone if you've never broken tempered glass it doesn't just break in two pieces like you know a regular glass it literally turns into one of the biggest messes that you will ever have to deal with”
Cary Hardy@ 9:34 — Describes a memorable firsthand experience with tempered glass failure and cleanup challenges

Entities

Texas Pinball Festivalevent Cary HardypersonStern PinballcompanyMarco Specialtiescompany MultimorphiccompanyPenn StadiumorganizationZach Sharpeperson

Signals

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event_signal: Major pinball media personalities converged at TPF 2019 including hosts from multiple podcasts and content platforms, indicating event's status as key industry networking venue.
high · Cary Hardy met: Straight Down the Middle hosts, Special One Lit Pinball hosts, Eclectic Gamers hosts, Jack Danger (Stern ambassador), Head to Head Pinball hosts
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event_signal: Twippy Awards (second annual) established as pinball industry recognition event with Grammy/Oscar-style categories including game design, soundtrack, coding, and podcast awards.
high · Cary Hardy: 'The second annual Twippy Awards that was hosted by none other than Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle... like the Grammys or Oscars... only for pinball-related items'
?
event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2019 marked significant milestone with 450+ machines, substantially exceeding previous years. Record attendance on opening Friday and sustained high traffic throughout weekend.
high · Cary Hardy: 'This year we had over 450 pinball machines inside this area' and 'every day was crazy day especially on friday which is usually just a rigmarole busy day'
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market_signal: Munsters pinball received unprecedented promotional support with approximately 20 machines displayed by Stern/Marco at TPF 2019, contrasted with only 2-3 Ghostbusters machines at previous event.
high · Cary Hardy: 'They had almost 20 machines set up for the Munsters showing off that game... definitely was not close to 20' when compared to Ghostbusters
~
sentiment_shift: Positive community feedback offsetting lack of formal award recognition; public validation of machine quality ('best Last Action Hero they've ever seen') despite judges' apparent lack of recognition.

Transcript

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0:00

so along with jackpot is telling me to check my fuses f-114 and f-115 all right well no restart didn't fix that so guess what that might be a future video as well

0:30

What's up everyone and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. It's now been one week since the Texas Pinball Festival came to an end. And I just actually recently finally got all my games back up on all fours and back in their position.

0:55

Sort of. Some of you that watch my videos are probably wondering why I've got dual wielding of Last Action Hero going on behind me, and that is because I'm working on other content as well as the topic for Texas Pinball Festival. I have footage of me going through the convention center at Texas Pinball Festival, which I will start now. But along with showing you what it looked like, I'm going to continue down my discussion list and topics that I would like to go over with you. First off, let's start out with what games I brought this year. Typically, I will usually bring at least two games, and that is because those two games get me and my spouse into the convention center all weekend for free. This year, I decided to bring four games, which is not my first time to do this, but it is definitely a task, especially whenever you're doing all the lifting and moving and setting up by yourself. This year, I had a little help, so I was more willing to do the job of four games. Not to mention those people that helped me got in for free as well. So there you go. I brought Back to the Future. I brought Jackbot, Last Action Hero, and World Cup Soccer 94. My Last Action Hero machine, also known as Arnold, was placed in the showcase area near the front of the convention center. My other three games were placed in the Penn Stadium booth. Now, in my opinion, setup gets easier and easier every year at Texas Pinball Festival. They have become so much more organized in the way they do this. And it just makes it so smooth to just drop off my machines. If everyone does what they're supposed to do, then this process is very easy. And that was the case for me. Everything was easy. It came in, dropped off my belongings, everything that I needed, put it in the section that was specified. parked my vehicle in my trailer came back grabbed my stuff and was directed where I needed to go to drop off my machine for setup got my games all set up and then I'm also assisting running the Penn Stadium booth this year so I helped Scott from Penn Stadium set up his booth as well so that's the canopies that are over the machines to give you much more of an effect while you're seeing his product let's go into the topic of basically the growth of pinball but mainly the growth of the Texas Pinball Festival. Since my first starting into this hobby, it has massively grown and grown substantially every year back to back. It just keeps getting bigger. Fridays are typically, you know, pretty busy and everything, but Saturdays is usually the crazy day where everyone is off work, everyone's driving in or flying in and experiencing Texas Pinball Festival. but that was not the case this year the case this year was every day was crazy day especially on friday which is usually just a rigmarole busy day but there was a line going all the way from the ticket booth almost all the way down to the hotel itself then they all get in there and it's just a lot of people a lot of machines there's a lot going on things were different this time around when it came to the show setup this year they tried something a little bit different by putting the tournament area in one of the side rooms down the hallway instead of inside the convention center There was some pros and cons to that and I not sure if they going to be doing that again next year I've only got a little bit of tidbits of information from people here and there. Evidently there was a lot of issues with the way that was performed this year. So either they're going to resolve those wrinkles next year with the same plot, or they're going to move it back into the convention center. Me personally, I like the tournament area away from everything else because that gives us more room for more machines. Because it's getting to the point, guys. I mean, this year we had over 450 pinball machines inside this area. But we had a very big promotion going on with Marco and Stern with the whole Munsters premiums and all that setup. They had almost 20 machines set up for the Munsters showing off that game. Which is a lot when you want to compare in the past. I remember when they announced and were releasing Ghostbusters, there was two. Two Ghostbusters machines for everyone to experience and play. There might have been three. But either way, definitely was not close to 20. So not only was there almost 20 Monsters machines in this huge promo area, with a big old pyramid or whatever for Marco and stuff, but along with having almost 20 of your Monster machines, the huge layout, you also had two large, movable, drivable Dragulas brought in from Butch Patrick that played Eddie Munster on the Munsters. Pat Priest was also there. She played Marilyn on the show. They were there in that area signing autographs. Speaking of autographs, not that, you know, I was signing autographs or anything, but I did get recognized by quite a bit of you guys. And I want to basically say that, you know, thank you for coming up to me, shaking my hand, and saying that you watch my videos and that, you know, they either help you out or for me to keep it up and keep going. So that really gives me a little bit more incentive to do this, and I thank you very much for letting me know. Now, along with having all the fun at Texas Pinball Festival and meeting all of you, I also had to deal with quite a bit of issues throughout the show, whether it be with my own personal games or helping out others with their games, too. One big issue that was with my World Cup Soccer, which I want to apologize to each of you that were wanting to play that particular game in the Penn Stadium booth, but it actually broke down, I want to say, within the first few hours of the show opening. I'm working on a video right now that goes over all the games that I brought and all the issues. That's all coming in the future in another video, so stay tuned. but yeah my world cup soccer went down on friday night beginning of the show pretty much and so i wasn't able to remedy that issue until the next day so then the next day it lasted i want to say almost all saturday and then it went down again right there the very end of saturday night and i think it was down all sunday because i was like you know what we're only going to be up and going playing for about four or five hours um there's no way i can get this thing going right now without it just continuously causing problems and my kids were there so I wanted to spend time with them. So along with... Jackbot is telling me to check my fuses F-114 and F-115.

8:17

Thanks, dude. So I got to experience something for the very first time and hopefully my last time when it comes to this particular issue but i had my first playfield glass break i was dealing with one of my issues on back to the future and let me be clear that i am always careful with my playfield glass and i don't set it on concrete i'm always setting it on something soft and since the convention center is layered with soft carpet i didn't think i had that much to worry about so i took the playfield glass off of back to the future to deal with an issue and i set it in between the machines and this trying to nestle it down and be all gentle with it and that's when the glass basically just turned to water i mean it just and it was an intensifying moment of oh my god did that just happen i was in total shock because i didn't understand how or why it did what it did now if i was to accidentally bump a leg or drop it or do something that was you know physically a reason for it to do what it did then i'd be like ah my bad but when you're sitting it on carpet and it just turns to water and just and it doesn't break into big old chunks everyone if you've never broken tempered glass it doesn't just break in two pieces like you know a regular glass it literally turns into one of the biggest messes that you will ever have to deal with so there was a kid that was playing the terminator 2 right next to me and it broke and a little bit of pieces even went on top of the terminator 2 at that time and the kid initially thought he did something wrong as if he broke the glass now in hindsight i kind of wish that i would have been like yeah kid what the heck did you do you broke my pinball playfield glass you better get your dad over here and tell him to give me 25 bucks so i can buy me another one that was all in hindsight i mean i wouldn't have actually done it but i i would have liked to see the kid's reaction if i would have blamed him for it that would have been kind of funny luckily i've got friends all around the place so one i knew immediately whenever i broke this plate filled glass and caused a big mess i was immediately thankful that it was not broken inside of the machine because that is something i have oh god just thinking about is giving me an anxiety issue but like anything i definitely don't want to have to deal with that especially at a show so immediately when i broke I was very thankful that it did not break inside the machine, but I was also thankful that Multimorphic sells play-filled glasses at Texas Pinball Festival, at least for the last two years in a row now, for $25 a pop. Deal. Shut up and take my money. No problem. So as that happens, a buddy of mine comes over, and I give him $25. I'm like, go get me another glass. He's like, I'm on it. And he goes and gets me another glass while I'm trying to get this glass away from other people that might step on it and hurt themselves. That was the main thing is that I just didn't want anybody getting hurt. And there's little bitty pieces of glass and I had to get it off the Terminator 2 machine and get things out of the way. But got the glass back on there and now I've got the biggest paranoia when it comes to handling Playfield glasses now. Another issue that I had to basically figure out what was going on, and I want to apologize to all of you that were affected by this, but my last action hero up front kept turning itself up higher on the volume. I can only assume that the shaker motor was rattling the game so much that maybe the potentiometer was trying to, was like, I guess, slowly, but like turning itself up I can that's all I can really suggest because I know I did not turn this sucker up this loud I am no I did not want to do that but every time I would walk by there once a while just to check and make sure everything going okay with the machine I would notice that that games a lot louder than I think it was this morning whenever i first turned it on some of you had no problem with it yeah you were jamming and rocking out to it so yeah good for you but i didn want it to be where everyone is like why is that machine so loud and especially at certain points of that soundtrack a little bit of a high pitch thing going on so i had to keep turning it down and a part of that makes me wonder why i didn't win an award for it. I'm afraid you're just too darn loud. Another good thing about that weekend is that I got to meet all of the other pinball personalities out there. Granted, a lot more popular than me, but I got to meet them, so that was really nice. I got to meet Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle. Even though I'm under their umbrella on their channel, I have never actually met them in person, so I got to meet them in person, and that was great. I got to meet Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb from Special One Lit Pinball Podcast. I got to meet Dennis and Tony from the Eclectic Gamers podcast. I got to meet Jack Danger, the ambassador for Stern Pinball. I got to meet Marty from Head to Head Pinball. And I got a little bit of a video chat with Ryan C. from Head to Head Pinball. So it was great to see all of you, and I really hope to be able to see you all again next year. Something different this year was the second annual Twippy Awards that was hosted by none other than Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle. But it was here at the Texas Pinball Festival where it was held, streamed live over Twitch, and presented to everyone. Now, some of you were like, what are these Twippy Awards? I mean, think of it basically like the Grammys or Oscars or something like that, only for pinball-related items. So, like, Best Soundtrack for Pinball Machine, Best Coding and stuff like that for Pinball Machines. I mean, there's even awards for the podcast and artwork. basically a Grammy style award show for pinball enthusiasts as well as pinball makers. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I need to bring up and talk about. And the only thing I guess I can mention is the Sunday, which is essentially the final day for Texas Pinball Festival. By that time, every exhibitor slash vendor is done. I mean, we're exhausted. We were probably up very late the night before. and now we're already dreading the fact that we're fixing to have to break down all of our machines and stuff and get it loaded up and begin the trek back to home. The awards ceremony was great as it normally is. I did not take home any award and that was a little bit of a downer. But what I can take away with this is that even though I did not get an award for my last action hero, I did get many, many, many compliments from the public and from other fellow pinball enthusiasts that it is definitely the best last action hero that they've ever seen or played. So I don't have an award to show for it, but I do have all of you that have given me the word saying that it looks great. I've even gotten the pin side email messages letting me know that they played my game and they thoroughly enjoyed it and it's the best one that they've ever seen. So if I didn't have any of that, then it would definitely be a downer. So even though the judges didn't enjoy my game as much as I thought they would, I'm afraid you're just too darn loud. at least you, the public, enjoyed it. So I'll take that. So that's where I'm going to bring this video to a close. Were you at Texas Pinball Festival 2019? Did you even play My Last Action Hero or my other games in the Penn Stadium booth, for that matter? And most importantly, are you coming around next year? Let me know down in the comments below. Don't forget to give me that thumbs up. And if you haven't already, do not forget to hit that subscribe button. That way you can be notified of whenever I upload new content for your viewing pleasure. Until next time, peace out.