Texas Pinball Convention

We have an old pinball machine we inherited from my parents. Someone owed my Father some money and paid the debt with a used pinball machine. This would have been in the early 1950's.

The machine is a 1948 Gottlieb Roundup. We considered selling it and checked around to find a suitable venue to do so and found there is a yearly convention of pinball aficionados in Frisco, Texas. We disassembled the machine and heading to Texas to find out what the convention was all about. 

Convention was several days long and ran from mid morning to midnight. The convention hall in the Embassy Suites hotel was packed with hundred of pinball machines all set up for free play. Pinball fans from all over the country (and world) showed up to play, trade and compete for prizes.

The hotel had beautiful blown glass chandaliers

On Saturday morning they sponsor a swap meet for pinball machines

Duncan Donuts showed up with their portable rig

All kinds and conditions of machines were for sale

Folks loaded up their purchases and headed home to start restoration work

 

We opened up the mini van to show our pinball machine and get feedback from the swap meet attendees.

Many knowledgeable folks stopped by to discuss our pinball machine with us. It is one of the first machines to have 'flippers'. This change obsoleted all previous machines and became the new standard for pinball machines from that point on. We have what is known as a "wood rail" machine. The legs and trim were all made of wood thru the mid 1950's. After that they were replaced with metal.

The guru of wood rail machines stopped by to visit and spent the better part of an hour discussing the machine, restoration and maintenance methods, and why we should keep the machine. 

I expected the convention to be full of aging baby boomers and was quite surprised to see most of the attendees were in their thirties. Some brought step stools so their small children could see the machines to play.

There were hundreds of pinball machines on display, all were setup for free play. You could move from machine to machine and try your skills on equipment from all generations of pinball machines. 

It was interesting to see the machines opened up for repair and maintenance

Many of the "pre flipper" machines were there. These were lovingly restored by collectors with the wood cases and play surfaces showing great attention to detail.

Parts for rebuilding and restoring machines were available with many more able to be ordered.

Attention getting display!

Many machines combined traditional pinball and LCD display screens

Juke boxes and pinball machines seem to go together

Julie tried her hand at all kinds of pinball machines

Here she is on a wood rail machine

Some folks put a lot of effort into their display booth

Julie at a metal rail machine

The newest machines do everything with software and liquid crystal display screens

You need to have some pretty good mechanical skills for keeping up the older machines

Many people came to compete in tournaments and their scores were posted

Learned a lot about the artwork used on the back glass of the machines. Pinball artists have quite a following and the backglass art is a collectors item all by itself. The art is silk screened onto the back of the glass and lit from behind. 

So many colors and lights! With hundreds of machines all going it was pretty loud.