Old games and homebrews. It was a very hipster expo for us

Just like life, everybody’s expo experience is unique – both in its triumphs and its tragedies. A million stories play out over the course of the weekend. We have rich guys tryna outmaneuver each other for a chance at the rarest gem of the show — a Winchester Mystery House. We have tournament players waiting 2.5 hours just for a chance to play Iron Maiden. We have influencers doing…whatever it is they do. And then we have grouchy old me.

For some people, expo is as much about doing party scene stuff as it is about the pinball. I get that, and I definitely love the social element of pinball, for fuck’s sake, I LIKE that Nudge is an on-location magazine. I like that about us. But when I’m on location, I’m non-verbal a lot. So after manning a booth for the majority of open hours, I usually don’t wanna do anything that involves talking a lot. I wanna turn the brain off. I wanna drift away. I wanna quietly take some drugs in the parking lot and play old-ass, weird pinball that I know I can’t play at home.

I told a Stern employee who invited me to the Stern Party on Friday night that I was good. I didn’t wanna chase the night. I was sorta sick of feeling like I “had” to make a party – so instead I had the expo I wanted to have. I still saw all my friends, I still had tons of awesome convos with people who fuck with Nudge (THANK YOU), and I still got plenty of time where I zoned out and got down and dirty with those funky, funky pins. So what were the highlights for me? Old games and homebrews.

Past Times arcade/donor games are where it’s at

*Pretty awesome crew. They keep these games up and running throughout the entire weekend*

I’m going to tell you guys a secret and I just know it’s gonna come back to BITE ME IN THE ASS. But I’m going to do it because that’s the kinda selfless publication we run. It’s always just me over here doing nice stuff for other people, just like Gandhi or Oprah – both of which would make absolutely terrible homebrew themes. Anyway, here’s the secret:

You almost never wait in line for an old game.

Context: Most of expo is a waiting game. You wanna play Winchester Mystery Mansion (House? still not sure.)? You gotta wait in line for an hour or two. You wanna play the incredibly popular Big Trouble In Little China homebrew? You’re gonna wait an hour! You wanna try out Portal for the P3? You guessed it! YA BE WAITIN.

But you almost never wait for old games. Maybe you wait for a game, and I mean a game TOPS on something super popular like TX Sector . We’ve covered some of our weird favorites before (Orbitor 1), but one of the best places in the world to play games you might not have at home is Expo. Rob Berk and his Past Times crew make sure that the free play area has TONS of rare stuff that is in great shape and frankly rips. Here are the three that I played the most.

BMX rules (Bally 1982)

*I played this game so much that this is legit my only pic of BMX. Did I mention we were doing drugs?*

BMX, the pinball game, is an amazing upper-playfield game from 1982. It has these flex save inlanes that you control with secondary buttons, it has an actually fun-to-play upper playfield, and it’s got some of the sickest backglass art I’ve ever seen. One problem: I played this game SO MUCH and yet still don’t have a good picture of it. Seriously, I started thursday night, played it for about an hour with friends, then came back friday AND saturday to play it by myself. I tried to take a flash-less, artsy fartsy pic with my shiddy camera, but we can all see how that turned out.

Don’t miss this game if you see it. The mechanics of it actually DO make you feel like you’re doing jump tricks on a BMX bike. It’s an incredible game. I want one. I just don’t wanna pay 4k for it. Thanks Expo for bringing it into my life. Next year, I should remember to take a pic with flash.

Time Machine (Data East, 1988)

Time Machine is my favorite Data East system 11. That’s bound to be a controversial statement from someone who literally owns a Torpedo Alley, but this expo trip cemented it for me. This banger of a pin is WAY too good to be from 1988 – and yet here we are.

For those who haven’t played, Time Machine has this really cool mechanic within the game where you’re literally traveling through the different eras of pinball. There are standup targets marked 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and depending on which one you choose, the game will behave like a machine from that era. Mostly that means changing up the music and sound cues (they have ACTUAL chimes AND digital sound in this bad boi) – but my god is it incredible.

It doesn’t hurt that this game does have the best tunes of any game from that era – and maybe the best in pinball. Makes me wish we still did music reviews so I could send to Matt. C’est la vie. The shots are awesome and it’s a great example of how atmosphere can be created by stuff as simple as great art, coordinated lights, and compelling gameplay. It really is that simple sometimes.

Viper Night Drivin’ (Sega 1998)

To be honest, this game totally sucks. It’s got that weird photoshop art from the late 90s/early 2000s. It’s got a cheesy theme (Like, wtf why is Mancow, the 1990s shockjock, in this game?) and it uses glow-in-the-dark powerballs instead of pinballs. And yet – I had fun when I played it! I mean look at this. I has the tobacco-outlet version of that mountain from Close Encounters of the Third Kind replicated on a playfield.

If you ask me what the rules for this game are, I won’t be able to tell you. But if you ask me is it cool to shoot glow in the dark balls inside a mystery mountain as bizarre radio clips of UFO abductees scream behind me – well, I’ll say yes. Good job, Viper Night Drivin. You accomplished your mission of letting me have fun by myself for a while. For that, I am indebted to you. Mancow. So weird.

Homebrews, homebrews, everywhere, so let’s all have a drink

This year’s homebrew area was bigger than ever. Marco always does a great job, but this year was extra notable for not just the number of homebrews, but the quality of their design. This was also supported by Fast Pinball, which is quickly becoming a standard in the industry for the software integration behind most of these games.

*Yes, it’s this happy bastard that is getting all y’all to build your nutso homebrews.*

Congrats me, that was the most boring way to intro what is, without fail, the brightest, freakiest, and most unique spot in the entire expo. There’s honestly nothing I look forward to more than wandering through the homebrew area during an off-hour. It’s amazing to see the lengths these freaks take to bring their vision of a game to life. It’s especially great when it’s something that feels missing from eras that are already represented. Can you imagine a Coming to America pin? Well, guess what, idiot? Someone already did!

One of the things that surprised me most: it wasn’t just old dudes building these things. There were kids in their twenties cranking em’ out. And good games too! Like, not just playable but actively fun. They were handing out awards at one point and realized that The Mass Effect game was made by someone who looks like a literal child. When I was that age, I was playing keyboard in pajama pants, so I gotta commend them on their fine life decisions.

I’m not gonna go around and say favorites because who cares? That’s like walking into an art museum and picking your favorite one. If you do that, you’re an asshole. Or rather, I guess you can do it, but it sorta misses the point of the whole experience. The beauty of these games is that NONE is best. They’re all just IRL manifestations of the maker’s insane pinball brains. There are obviously themes that I resonate with more than others (Ed’s Ghost in the Shell pin is a forever fave), but some of my most memorable experiences were with games that are original IP – Like House of Blood and Guts or that weird barrel game that everyone loves so much.

*Barrell Ball? That’s not trademarked, right?*

We’re gonna do a bigger thing on some of these homebrews in issue 6, so I don’t wanna give too much away – but like I said, I’m amazed at not only the breadth of games (dozens and dozens these days) but the depth of their code and playability. The Pokemon game is a legit PLAYABLE game right now. Its layout is great, and its code is good. Same with the Harry Potter game. It’ll be interesting to see how these are received, as both seem destined to be the primary comparison points for the commercial counterparts to those themes.

The Harry Potter Game was beautiful. It was full of inventive stuff that I know was a labor of love over years. I know that because the dude told me. That’s taking absolutely NOTHING away from the Jersey Jack Pinball Harry Potter game, which I’ll tell you this: WAS the one commercial release that I kept coming back to over and over again. I had a ton of fun on it. But some of the fun of comparing them is that a homebrew has the benefit of being a one of one, the things that work in a homebrew game couldn’t be replicated in a commercial game — and vice versa. As good as the homebrews are, nothing flows as fast and as controlled as the Harry Potter JJP games I played. For real. Anyway, here’s a pic of the HP Homebrew

And the Jersey Jack Harry Potter.

Hell yeah, homebrews. It’s kinda crazy we’ve gotten to this point. I hope you continue to be a breeding ground for good ideas. And like all good breeding grounds, you will stay incredibly stinky.

One more for the road

Now, all this isn’t to say that I don’t like talking to people. LOL. Jeff from Dirtypool told me “You seem grumpy, or not, it’s kinda hard to tell.” And I think that about sums it up. Sometimes I don’t even know if I like talking to people – but I do always love the genuine connections that come from expo.

If you’re a nudge fan and we linked up for even a minute and you were cool, then know that those kinda interactions are super important to me and are cherished. I never want you to feel like you can’t. For real, it’s amazing to connect with everyone and I love when people tell me about how the magazine has touched them in some way (preferably on butt).

But at the same time, some of the magic for me in Expo will always be in solitary experiences. I love walking around late at night, just the right amount of THC and psilocybin in my body, looking for the next game from 1982 that I didn’t know I needed in my life. If you’re on the floor and you see me, just wave and wish me luck on my cosmic journey. I’ll be seeing ya when I’m back on earth

No days off.

Pinball Expo for One