Hello and welcome to our extended coverage of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival, held as usual at the Frisco Convention Center which adjoins the Embassy Suites hotel.
The history of the Texas Pinball Festival has seen it held at the Hilton in Grapevine, The Hilton Anatole in downtown Dallas and, since 2014, at the Frisco Convention Center. Although it could be argued that the Convention Center is not large enough for the ambitions of the show, it has proved to be a valuable and co-operative partner, with an outstanding range of accommodation options nearby once the host Embassy Suites sells out (which it regularly does within minutes of the show’s allocation of discounted rooms going on sale).
This year’s Texas Pinball Festival hosts an extraordinary selection of new titles from various manufacturers, including Foo Fighters from Stern Pinball, The Godfather from Jersey Jack Pinball, Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! from Spooky Pinball, Final Resistance from Multimorphic, Galactic Tank Force from American Pinball and Pulp Fiction from Chicago Gaming and Play Mechanix, with more new games possibly making an appearance.
This year’s TPF is going to be like no other, so join us for our extensive coverage of the whole show which will be updated throughout the event’s three days of public access.
Thursday is set-up day and not open to the public. Naturally, Pinball News has all-areas access and we can show you the setting up and what is going to be available to play once the doors open at 5pm on Friday.
One of the companies with a new title to promote is Jersey Jack Pinball who have brought multiple The Godfather machines to the show.
We had a preview of the Collector’s Edition and the playfield artwork sparkle effect around many of the features is quite extraordinary. We’ll have more on that later.
We popped back a little later to see how the JJP stand was progressing and saw some of the many games set-up in preparation for Friday’s opening.
Stern Pinball also have a new title to promote. They had many copies of their Foo Fighters game on their stand run in association with Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore in Mesquite, Texas.
Although Foo Fighters is their latest, it isn’t the only title from Stern Pinball at the show, as they also have multiple Dr. No James Bond games on the floor.
Another company with a recent announcement was Spooky Pinball who brought six of their new Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! machines together with a Mystery Machine and a claw game to dispense prizes to show visitors.
Although it is hard to gauge before the show opens, one of the most eagerly-anticipated new titles on the floor comes from Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming.
Four Pulp Fiction games have been brought to the show for the public to play.
Pinball Brothers have a stand with three of their Queen pinballs and two Aliens. Two more Queen machines are available to play on their distributor Coin Taker’s stand.
At the time of our visit, neither American Pinball nor Multimorphic had yet arrived with their newest titles, however Haggis Pinball were there with their Fathom Revisited game and their first title, Celts.
In a late update, we popped back into the hall after everyone else had left and confirmed American Pinball’s new Galactic Tank Force game had indeed arrived. On the way back we spotted game designer Dennis Nordman checking into the show hotel ahead of the American Pinball seminar about his game at 5pm on Friday.
While the newest releases grab all the attention, the Texas Pinball Festival is all about the full range of pinballs through the years.
The TPF organisers used their tried-and-tested system for unloading trucks at the back door of the hall in order to get the games out, checked in, and the trucks away as efficiently as possible.
It’s not all games, either. There are plenty of vendor stands selling mods, artworks, spares, and much more. We’ll cover those a little later in this report once the show opens.
Not all the action takes place in the main hall, as there are multiple tournaments held in some of the adjacent conference rooms.
That concludes our look at Thursday’s set-up of the Texas Pinball Festival 2023. Pinball News will be back on Friday as the set-up continues ahead of the 5pm public opening of the show, along with the first of the many seminars.
So, check back here for all the very latest updates as we continue our exclusive in-depth reporting from this year’s Texas Pinball Festival.
