At the Museum of Pinball in Southern California, you rarely had to wait long for any particular game, but attendance was solid. (They had 700 machines when we visited in 2015; they've added roughly 400 since.)
Credit:
Steve Tsubota
At the Museum of Pinball in Southern California, you rarely had to wait long for any particular game, but attendance was solid. (They had 700 machines when we visited in 2015; they've added roughly 400 since.)
Credit:
Steve Tsubota
At the Museum of Pinball in Southern California, you rarely had to wait long for any particular game, but attendance was solid. (They had 700 machines when we visited in 2015; they’ve added roughly 400 since.)
At the Museum of Pinball in Southern California, you rarely had to wait long for any particular game, but attendance was solid. (They had 700 machines when we visited in 2015; they’ve added roughly 400 since.)Steve Tsubota
A panoramic taken before the crowds arrived. Many of these machines feature ColorDMD displays, which use LCD screens to show colorized versions of the original animations.
Steve Tsubota
A panoramic taken before the crowds arrived. Many of these machines feature ColorDMD displays, which use LCD screens to show colorized versions of the original animations.
Steve Tsubota
Spy Hunter is a personal favorite. You don’t see the full sit-down version too often.
Aurich Lawson
Spy Hunter is a personal favorite. You don’t see the full sit-down version too often.
Aurich Lawson
A panoramic taken before the crowds arrived. Many of these machines feature ColorDMD displays, which use LCD screens to show colorized versions of the original animations.
Steve Tsubota
Spy Hunter is a personal favorite. You don’t see the full sit-down version too often.
Aurich Lawson
Scorpion, a 1980 game by Williams, uses a very wide playfield layout. This was the machine I played during the Guinness record attempt. It still needs to be verified but should break the old record of 272 handily, with 331 people playing simultaneously. (Update: the record has since then been verified.)
Aurich Lawson
Some of the weekend’s tournament winners, Matt Topper (L) and Ron Rezendes (R) pose with John Weeks, the owner of the facility.
Steve Tsubota
Voltan Escapes Cosmic Doom, a very rare Bally game from 1979. Less than 400 were made. Hard to say how many still survive to this day.
Steve Frisvold
Bill Ung, famous for his Attack From Mars saucer mod that adds interactive chase LEDs to the game’s flying saucers, teaches the next generation how to play pinball on a Data East Star Trek (1991).
Several vendors brought classic console systems to the show so people could get their nostalgia fix on home systems as well.
Mark Fisher
Before the Master System, before the Genesis and Sonic, Sega manufactured electro mechanical games. This one is from 1970.
Kyle Takigawa
The tournament area. Each game was filmed from above by a video camera that broadcast the playfield action live to a TV above the game so spectators could see the action.
Aurich Lawson
You can’t have an arcade show without Tron! Better yet, why not classic Tron and Discs of Tron together?
Aurich Lawson
There were many eras of arcade games, but the early ’80s had the best representation.
Aurich Lawson
Some of the many pinball techs try to get a Police Force back up and running.
Bally’s Blackjack, from 1977. Though this looks like an electromechanical game, it actually uses solid state circuits.
Steve Frisvold
One long room was dedicated to electromechanical shooters. They track the angle and position of the gun, using gears to determine if your shot hit a target or not. Very clever bits of machinery.
Kyle Takigawa
Gottlieb’s Spirit, from 1982. A fairly rare and very well-regarded wide-body title.
Steve Frisvold
Bally’s Heavy Metal Meltdown from 1987. Cheesy guitar riffs and a voice screaming HEAVY METAL MELTDOWN! What more could you ask for?
Steve Frisvold
Space Ace and Super Don Quix-ote, two laserdisc games from 1984.
Mark Fisher
Awesome full sit-down version of Sega’s Outrun.
Mark Fisher
Stern’s new Walking Dead game, shown on the original S.A.M. platform (right) and the brand new SPIKE platform (left) which uses modular boards to reduce the amount of wiring required.
Kyle Takigawa
Some classic electromechanical games.
Jim Walser
Though the crowds were there, it was possible to find quieter moments when a row of games weren’t very occupied.
One of the organizers of Northern California’s Pin-A-Go-Go show comes down to check out the Southern California counterpart. He’s playing an Italian pinball called Dakar, notable for embedding a CRT monitor in the backbox.
Tempest, probably the all-time classic vector display game.
Aurich Lawson
These benches were custom-made for the show, featuring pinball- and arcade-themed fabrics from Spoonflower.
Aurich Lawson
BANNING, CA — The weekend of January 16, 2015 was host to the inaugural Southern California Arcade Expo. Featuring over 750 pinball and arcade games, the show was the largest in Southern California’s history. Unlike most arcade shows, where the games are brought by volunteers and enthusiasts to share with the general public, the collection is primarily owned by one man, John Weeks, who’s spent the last 40 years amassing his horde of games. Weeks also owns the 40,000-square-foot facility for the expo where the games are permanently housed and is hoping to make events there happen at least twice a year. The second one is currently scheduled for some time in October.
Despite some minor issues typical of a first time show, it went off spectacularly, with official attendance at 3,300 people, all enjoying the vast collection of games. There was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most games of pinball being played simultaneously, live music, various styles of tournament play, and several seminars as side attractions. But most people just came for the games, and we’ve attempted to document them for you above.
Special thanks to the members of Pinside who donated their photos to help make this gallery possible.
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