My Pinball Expo 2022 Recap

Cary Hardy·video·12m 23s·analyzed·Oct 25, 2022

Analysis

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TL;DR

Expo 2022 floor layout and operations significantly improved; community is the best part.

Summary

Cary Hardy shares his third attendance at Chicago Pinball Expo 2022, praising the improved floor layout that combines manufacturers, vendors, and free-play games in one space—similar to Texas Pinball Festival. He highlights operational improvements including better game maintenance, superior seminar audio, and significant growth in the homebrew section. The video emphasizes community connection and gratitude to fellow content creators and attendees.

Key Claims

This year's floor plan (2022) is the best layout Cary has experienced at Pinball Expo, combining all games and vendors in one large room similar to Texas Pinball Festival
high confidence · Cary attended three Expos total and directly compared layouts; this represents his first-hand assessment
Free play game uptime significantly improved in 2022 due to dedicated technician and repair cards on every machine
high confidence · Cary contrasts 2022 with previous year when many games were turned off or non-functional
Homebrew section has doubled in size from 2021 to 2022
medium confidence · Visual assessment by attendee; no quantitative data provided
Seminar room audio quality in 2022 was better than Texas Pinball Festival, with audio audible even in hallways via intercom system
medium confidence · Subjective comparison; TPF audio quality remains a persistent issue per Cary's observation
There were more retro gaming console vendors (at least 3) at 2022 Expo than in previous years
medium confidence · Observed trend; Cary notes surprise at not knowing about this in advance

Notable Quotes

“I wanted to be able to experience this show as a free spirit. I wanted to be out there being able to go where I want, when I want, with no responsibilities.”
Cary Hardy@ 1:03 — Personal decision to attend without vendor booth responsibilities, allowing for more authentic show experience and community engagement
“This was much closer to what Texas Pinball Festival does where they combine everyone into a giant room. And I think this is basically probably the best thing you could do for everyone.”
Cary Hardy@ 2:57 — Key praise for 2022 floor layout as gold standard, benefiting manufacturers, vendors, and attendees equally
“The audio can be heard actually even in the hallways around the seminar room... I believe the seminar room was actually really good as well.”
Cary Hardy@ 4:50 — Praise for seminar room audio quality and coverage, contrasting with ongoing issues at other venues like TPF
“That is the best part of the show. And that is you. All of you out there that came to this show and made it what it was.”
Cary Hardy@ 8:29 — Community emphasis; attendance and social connection emphasized as core value of Expo experience
“thank you to all of you out there that gave me their condolences about my recently passed brother it really meant a lot”
Cary Hardy@ 9:27 — Personal gratitude and emotional moment; reveals personal context for his attendance and community support

Entities

Cary HardypersonChicago Pinball ExpoeventTexas Pinball FestivaleventScott PennpersonStern PinballcompanyChicago Gaming Companycompany American Pinballcompany Pinball Brothers

Signals

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community_signal: Homebrew game section at Expo 2022 doubled in size from prior year, indicating growing grassroots developer participation and interest
medium · Cary observes 'the home brew section which honestly has doubled in size from last year' and notes increased community passion in this area
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event_signal: Growing YouTube and podcast creator presence at pinball events; Cary notes multiple content creators attending Expo 2022 and coordinating social time
medium · Cary mentions several YouTubers present (Todd Tucky, Jeff/Arcade Hollywood, Retro Ralph) and encourages blanket appreciation for all podcast/streaming creators
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event_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo 2022 floor layout redesigned to combine manufacturers, vendors, and free-play games in single unified space, moving away from segregated multi-room approach
high · Cary describes detailed comparison of three years of layouts, praising 2022 as best and most similar to Texas Pinball Festival model that all attendees he spoke to approved
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market_signal: Increased retro gaming console vendor presence (at least 3 vendors) at 2022 Expo, suggesting crossover collector interest or vendor portfolio diversification
medium · Cary notes 'I felt that there were more than usual vendors selling off the retro gaming console stuff' and expresses surprise at not knowing this in advance

Transcript

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0:00

Chicago, the Windy City, home of the Chicago hot dog, deep dish pizza, Wrigley Field, and the formerly known Sears Tower. But it's also the capital of pinball. Most of your favorite manufacturers build your favorite games right here. In this video, I'm going to be telling you about my experience at the annual Pinball Expo of 2022. What's up guys 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. So I'm back from Chicago and I had an excellent time with all of you out there. Now this is my third time at Chicago Expo. The previous two times were due to Scott and Penn Stadium flying me out and having a room for me, but I had to help run his booth. This year he offered to do it again, but I declined because I wanted to be able to experience this show as a free spirit. I wanted to be out there being able to go where I want, when I want, with no responsibilities. And by all means, nothing against those of you that run a vendor booth, but I had a much more pleasurable time being the free spirit, being able to go and see and do whatever I want. Major props to those of you that go to Expo and you're working, like running a booth and stuff like that.

1:38

Props, major respect, especially when you have to stand on that concrete floor for up to 12 hours. Now, speaking about floor, let's go over the floor plan or the layout, if you will, of the show. This is the second time this show has been at the Renaissance. Now, before that was my first time was at another place. I don't remember the name of it, but I remember the layout very well. But it was not appreciated by everyone due to the fact that basically at that time, Stern had their own room down the hallway that was strictly for all of their games as well as where I want to say the tournament was being held. And then all the vendors and free play and stuff like that was in the main ballroom. And then you had all the other games for free play and stuff were in another room. It was very segregated, if you will. but the next time around last year if they had it segregated once again but a little bit differently you would walk in and you would have all the games that were on free play and stuff like that in one area then you had it segregated off to where all the vendors and all of the manufacturers were in another area and it was only open like certain hours of the day now this floor plan for the year 2022 is by far the best that I have experienced This was much closer to what Texas Pinball Festival does where they combine everyone into a giant room And I think this is basically probably the best thing you could do for everyone The manufacturers, the vendors, and all the games that are on free play that people own. This is the best, because you get to see everything all in one walk around. The vendors get plenty of traffic, the people walking by to see manufacturers games, or going through to see the free play games. It's all there, and I want to say that I don't think anybody had a problem with this layout. Everyone that I spoke to said that this was the best layout so far, so they have improved on that. Last year, the free play section was quite poor because evidently there was a lot of games that were turned off or not functional because of issues. But this time around, they had cards on every single game and a dedicated technician to repair these games. So I want to say that the majority of these games were up and running at all times. So once again, a major improvement there. Now when it comes to the seminar room, it was moved, I believe. I don't recall last year's seminar section very well. I do believe it was one bigger room than this one. but I cannot recall what the audio was like. But I will state that this year the audio was what I wish TPF was like. That is something that I believe TPF still needs to work on is the seminar room. The audio is never up to par. It's always very hard to hear certain things where the speakers are set up. So it's something I know that TPF needs to improve on. I don't know if the seminar room for Expo can get any better really because the audio can be heard actually even in the hallways around the seminar room. So even if you're not in there, you could still hear it in the hallway because they had it set up through their intercom system. So I believe the seminar room was actually really good as well. When it comes to what manufacturers were on site showing off their games, you had CGC there showing off their Cactus Canyon prominently, as well as having a Medieval Madness and an Attack from Mars. Then you had the red carpet rolled out, of course, for the Stern Pinball area with their stage. And then showing off their new Bond Pro and Premium, Mandalorian, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Rush. There might have been a couple of other titles over there like Deadpool maybe. I cannot recall, but I think there was a Deadpool Premium over there. American Pinball showing off their Valhalla as well as Hot Wheels and Oktoberfest and even Houdini. Pinball Brothers was showing off both versions of the Alien Machines as well as both versions of their newly released Queen Machine. Jersey Jack Pinball of course showing off their newly released Toy Story 4 and their other titles like Guns N' Roses as well. Spooky Pinball was there showing off their Halloween and Ultraman. Now Haggis wasn there but luckily I assume someone brought their Mermaid Edition of Fathom just for future reference guys i will be releasing many videos in the future going over queen bond fathom stuff like that they will be in separate videos we had vendors all over the place just to point out a couple of them that i happened to notice what their product was and that was penn stadium showing off their new neo atom model which is a thinner bar that goes on your machine then you had outside edge are also known as hard tops showing off of course the hard top but they are also going to be dabbling in the decal region of things and they had like this really cool glitter version of said art they were showing off a tales of the arabian nights but evidently they're going to be doing stuff like fish tales and other games as well and it looked pretty dang good. Towards the back of the convention area you had the home brew section which honestly has doubled in size from last year. There were a lot more games there to experience from all of those of you out there that have a lot of passion for this hobby. Mad props and respect even more so after learning a little bit more about this area of the hobby are those of you out there that build your own game. Something I need to note is that I felt that there were more than usual vendors selling off the retro gaming console stuff, like game cartridges and hardware and stuff like that. There seemed to be at least three vendors that were set up to sell video games and hardware. Nothing wrong with that. I just kind of wish I would have known, I guess, a little bit better more in advance so I can actually have a better idea of what games I need to look for to add to my retro stock of gaming consoles. There was also a vendor showing off what I believe was called Polycades. I do have video footage of that. Showing off basically custom cabinets that looked really good. I only got a price quote from somebody else on what these things cost. And they are definitely up there on price though. But price aside, they definitely look very nice. Now let me bring this video to a close by mentioning the best part of this show. And that is you. All of you out there that came to this show and made it what it was.