Pinball Expo Celebrates the World’s Greatest Game

Few pastimes have had as many ups and downs over the last 40 years as pinball. Almost killed off by the rise of video games in the ‘80s, it saw a resurgence in the ‘90s, with increasingly elaborate and complicated machines retaking arcade floor space from video games, which were facing their own losing battle against console games finally bringing arcade-quality experiences into the home. A late ‘90s collapse almost brought an end to pinball entirely, though, with only one manufacturer, Stern, still making machines at the start of the 21st century. Stern kept the game alive, but it didn’t start to thrive again until the 2010s, when the arrival of new companies and new innovations drove the art to new creative heights. This in turn only made Stern, still the biggest player in the game, even better. The last decade has seen some of the greatest pinball games ever made, from a handful of different manufacturers, with machines selling for more than they ever have before. And through it all Pinball Expo, the original pinball convention, has celebrated the game, with its annual show drawing thousands to the Chicagoland area every year.

When this year’s Pinball Expo opens at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois, next week, it’ll have pretty much anything a pinball fan could wish for. You want to play pinball? There are hundreds of machines you can hop on, from across the whole history of the game. Want to try out the newest, most complex Stern or Jersey Jack games? They’ll be there. Prefer old EMs from the ‘60s and ‘70s, or the solid state machines from the ‘80s and ‘90s? Expect dozens of ‘em both. If you’re intrigued by “homebrew” pinball machines—one-of-a-kind games made at home by pinball fans, often with themes and concepts you’d never find in an officially released machine—Pinball Expo is probably your best opportunity to play them. (This year’s lineup includes that sweet-looking Big Trouble in Little China homebrew pinball machine we wrote about last week.) If you want to play competitively, sign up for a tournament. If you want to buy parts, paraphernalia, or even a whole machine, check out the large array of vendors that’ll be on site. And if you want to learn more about the game’s history, hear pinball designers and manufacturers discuss their art, or even meet the designers of your favorite games, Pinball Expo’s schedule is jam-packed with dozens of such events every day. Expo’s founder Robert Berk calls it the “everything for everyone” show, which is true, as long as everything everyone could possibly want was pinball. (And, okay, yes, video games, too, from retro arcade games to modern console machines.)

Recognizing the artists behind pinball was a crucial component of Expo’s birth. When Berk, who owns the Past Times arcade in Warren, Ohio, created Pinball Expo in 1985, the goal was to celebrate a game that had been decimated by the likes of Pac-Man and Frogger, and pay tribute to the people who made the pinball machines he loved. “I had a vision: to honor my heroes, the designers and the artists [who created pinball machines],” he tells Endless Mode. “All the recognition went to the guys inside of the penthouse, but the artist makes the game.” Among the guests of honor at that first show were formative figures from the earliest decades of pinball, like Harvey Heiss, Steve Kordek, Norm Clark, and Wayne Neyens. “When I had them come up front” at the first Expo, Berk recalls, “I said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, these four gentlemen are responsible for designing over 600 pinball machines.’ Everybody stood up and applauded. And to me, that was a great satisfaction, because my dream was to recognize these guys.

“What was really something special to me was several guys had tears in their eyes because they recognized they were just 9 to 5 guys. No one had ever sought them out and given them awards or recognition. To me, they deserve that so much, and I’ve kind of kept that same passion going.”

Expo will continue its exploration and celebration of pinball’s history at this year’s show. Its schedule includes panels by pinball living legends like Steve Ritchie, Pat Lawlor, and Roger Sharpe. Gary Stern and Joe Kaminkow will speak at a panel about the history of Data East’s (and, after 1994, Sega’s) pinball division, which manufactured games in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and became the basis of the current Stern Pinball in 1999. Thursday’s schedule has back-to-back lectures from 3 to 5 p.m. that covers pinball’s history from the ‘30s up to the rise of solid state tech at the dawn of the ‘80s, while multiple panels discuss the pinball scene of today, from Jersey Jack’s brand new machine (based, disappointingly, on Harry Potter), to a panel about the current homebrew scene and how to get involved in building your own pinball. And on Friday afternoon, at 5:30, the latest inductees to the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame will be revealed.