Welcome to Friday at Pinball Expo 2018, and we start the day back in the Seminars Hall for the first of today’s talks.
We begin with Ron Coon Jr with his Just Another Pinball Lecture.
Ron Coon Jr
Scott does pinball repairs and told the stories of several repairs he has done on pinball boards, including various surface mount devices and fixing the repairs other people have attempted. He also showed a sequence of pictures showing the damage caused by leaking batteries.
The second seminar brought Devin Durham to the stage along with Jason Durham to talk about how they made their Spinal Tap custom pinball.
Devin Durham
The game is based on a Flash Gordon machine and uses a Mac computer inside with the playfield switches simulating keyboard presses.
The custom Spinal Tap game
At 11:15 Tim Arnold began his talk about his plans to move the Pinball Hall of Fame from its current location to a new home on the Las Vegas Strip.
Tim Arnold
Tim said the Las Vegas Collectors Club has only two purposes – to keep the Hall of Fame open and to donate money to the Salvation Army. He said it became clear a couple of years ago that they had a problem with lack of space at the current location and have been saving up to help fund the intended move.
He also said that the neighbourhood had changed for the worse since they set up in their present home, and that two-thirds of their business is from tourists, so it makes sense to move closer to their majority customers.
Tim detailed the history of the plot they are purchasing, the Sombrero hotel that used to stand there, how it closed and changed hands several times over the years. Tim was negotiating to buy the plot but the seller broke off negotiations and put the land up for auction. Tim ended up buying it for $4,567,000 after all fees and taxes.
The site diagram for the new home of the Pinball Hall of Fame
A car wash company has agreed to buy the existing PHoF building and plot for $2,850,000 and get 21 month’s free rental while