I had more fun that I expected in York, PA!

The York show ended up being a lot of fun. I've had some medium to poor experiences there in the past, so this was a pleasant surprise. Even the crappy machines -- and there were several -- were enjoyable.
I finally got to play the Zaccaria game Farfalla, which I've been looking for for some time. I've played some European games before and haven't been so impressed, but Farfalla was good. Also got to try out Pirates, which I enjoyed but didn't really have a chance to study. I sank the ship a couple of times but then lost the ball before I could defeat the Kraken or whatever the heck you're supposed to do. It was good, but I didn't have the visceral wow that I got when I played NASCAR for the first time (that was the first of the modern Stern games that I really liked). I played a handful of games that I either had never played before or never as an adult. I got to play the pre-production Scared Stiff that a guy brought last year, too... they definitely tightened up the game play before release, because the pre-game just isn't as much fun.

I did have some amusing run-ins with crappy games... I had a Twilight Zone reset on me, then went to play a Fish Tales and had it reset too. The FT had already been sold -- the guy who bought it was ripped... $2500 for a weak game -- and the guy who sold it noticed it reset. A few minutes later I saw him helping the buyer load it into his car; I'm guessing he was getting it out of view so the buyer wouldn't know just how ripped he'd been. I saw the same guy try to convince some people that one of this overpriced games was a good buy even thought one of the flippers wasn't working! Lame.

I bought a bunch o' stuff: A somewhat messed up lockdown bar, so Doctor Who can give the one it's using back to Black Knight. I got some new balls for when the Doctor is in shapes, a bottom and side rail for the backglass (now it's covered on all sides), a connector so I can attach the new coin door to the game (did I mention I bought a coin door on eBay for $25 shipping incl? I should have). And best of all (heh) I bought a Firepower playfield and cabinet for $75 for the playfield project. When my wife heard about that she threatened me with offsite storage. For the next week, my brain would randomly say "FIRE POWER" and then make the game start sound. I can't remember what I had for breakfast but I can remember how pinball games sound that I haven't played in years. Sheesh.

I didn't get the mini playfield from eBay. I stopped for dinner at a diner outside of York and called my wife and walked her through the eBayage. It sold for more than I was willing to pay, and in retrospect I probably should have bid more, but oh well. My wife was more disappointed than I was... since I didn't do the actual bidding, I was removed from the process and didn't feel the post-auction let down.

I can't really think of anything else at York that I need to say. Next up, we're going to talk about my collector's frenzy and what I'm going to do with all these busted games I've acquired.