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Pinball Partay

Just remembered something funny, Cayle George was playing my Star Trek, had 2 balls on one flipper and one on the other, bent down and pressed the punch it button with his chin a few times :D.

Audits for sunday only ( didnt even think about it until Sunday morning ) were ;

Spiderman...80 plays
Star Trek...89
TSPP...92
Avatar...100
Iron Man..121

I guess that proves one thing, Iron Man is one tough game hence short games most of the time.
 
kevlar said:
Just remembered something funny, Cayle George was playing my Star Trek, had 2 balls on one flipper and one on the other, bent down and pressed the punch it button with his chin a few times :D
Click to expand...

I guess thats called, using your head!
wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net_80450F_comicsalliance.com_files_2011_08_csi.jpg

On a more serious note, that sort of play is what seperates the world class players from all of us airchair pinball players on here :)
 
Another Party over.

Thanks to everyone who came - you made history by attending the first, and likely only, ever pinball show hosted at a UK pinball factory.

To everyone who didn't come - you missed a great event.

To everyone who didn't come, but still criticised - you also missed a great event.

Thanks to everyone for either providing machines, or bringing games themselves.

Thanks to Peter for doing the electrics.

Thanks to Andy for keeping the games running.

Thanks to Peter B, Martin, The Raisons and anyone else who helped out - for the tournaments.

Thanks to my team for all their hard work over the weekend.

Thanks to everyone who either donated, or bought items at the charity auction. We raised an amazing £419.50 for Barry and his funeral fund. It just shows the amazing generosity of our community.

Machine numbers were much higher than I feared they would be a few weeks before the event. For those people who provided machines - a huge thank you. I also think that the machine allocation for the tournaments was unacceptable. I think a better system needs to be found. Personally, I think the 2-day Open format didn't work. The 1-day format worked much better. Some people who had qualified on Saturday had to drop out on the Sunday because they couldn't attend. Also, some people who stayed playing until 3am in the night session, couldn't get to the show by 10am on the Sunday - and were therefore disqualified. Finally, if it had been a 1-day Open, then the league finals would not have had to be crammed in on the Saturday - therefore freeing up more machines for the public. Clearly, a debrief and review of the tournaments needs to happen. All games need to be rotated to allow the public to play them at some point over the weekend. The few exceptions to this rule are the brand new, or mint condition, machines that some owners wish to be only used for the tournaments - and it is their right to choose this option.

Visitor number were way lower than last year - approximately 50% of last year's numbers. This will be mainly down to the location. Also, the Northern Lights crew did not attend this year - either by way of machines or attendees (except Darren Ball - always a pleasure to catch up with you Darren). The same goes for anyone associated with the Slam - no machines or attendees. There was talk of boycotting the Party by some - I choose not to believe this.

If the Party remains a 'regional' event, then it will not survive.

I have made a big loss with the Party this year, and need to decide if I will run a show again next year. Every year I hear many stories of bitching and complaints about the Party and possibly about the way I run it. Some people seem to believe that I have a secret Bahamas fund - topped up every year from the Party. These people, of course, forget that I have to personally guarantee the Party every year, and personally guarantee £10,000-20,000 of my own money personally - whether a single person attends, or not. For 2 years out of the 6, including this year, I made a loss. For the other 4 years - a profit of £500-£1,000 each year was achieved. Not a great return for 4 weeks of anyone's life. But as anyone who knows me knows - I do this for the love of pinball, and always have done.

I tried to incentivize machine pledges this year as much as I could. However, I ended up personally driving the truck for 2 days before the event, around the UK, to collect machines. On both days I arrived back home at 5.30am - mainly thanks to this country's f***ed up road system where roads and motorways are arbitrarily closed every night and f**k the motorist. With recovery time, this took me away from my business for 4 days. I have to do the same again now, after the Party. I just can't do machine runs around the country anymore - it damages my pinball manufacturing business.

I will let the dust settle for a few months now, and evaluate whether I will continue or not. If people are tired of the Party, or want me to step aside, then I'll walk away from it. If I do have an appetite to do another, and people want me to do another, then I'll review the venue situation - but it would almost certainly be another centrally-located hotel as in previous years. If there are pledges of 120 machines, and people will bring them to and from the Party with the help of van hire grants and free entry, then I'll seriously consider doing another one next year.

Thanks for reading.

Andrew
 
Andrew i would like to say a big big thankyou for all your hard work and also your great staff who were excellent, must be a nightmare to prepare and cater for such a large show and it allowed me to

1 play lots of pinball
2 play lots of different machines ( i was not in the tourney but played them Sat night and a fair few of them Sunday all day
3 drink
4 eat ( hog roast was great by the way)
5 meet people from the forum and have some great chats

i think it ticks most of my boxes, so certainly from me a big thankyou
 
Andrew. Can I also say thank you for organising this. I had a great time and would attend again if it were a carbon copy next year. I would also probably attend if it were changed

Everyone will have views on how something like this woulda coulda shoulda been run

Fact was it was run and delivered a great experience for the many addicted to this ridiculous activity

Given the flood of comments, suggestions, bitching and whining you are likely to get - is it worth setting up an email account or similar that folk can send them to? Then you can look at comments that are relatively untainted by whoever gets there first on a forum type system

D
 
Andrew

Many thanks for organising the event and saddened to hear you made a large loss. I hope you claw some of that back with new sales

I for one really enjoyed the opportunity to attend the HP factory, it was great to have a look round and loved the preview of Alien.

Well worth the extra effort traveling down
 
Mark Roberts said:
Andrew

Many thanks for organising the event and saddened to hear you made a large loss. I hope you claw some of that back with new sales

I for one really enjoyed the opportunity to attend the HP factory, it was great to have a look round and loved the preview of Alien.

Well worth the extra effort traveling down
Click to expand...

Agreed. It was an excellent advert for the Heighway pinball company and full throttle. I didn't get to see anything of Alien or behind the scenes but judging by the comments and reports everyone was most impressed.
 
Heighway Pinball said:
But as anyone who knows me knows - I do this for the love of pinball, and always have done.
Click to expand...

Andy,

Unfortunately was unable to attend this year due to prior commitments, however You hit the nail on the head there - You DO do this for the love of the game, and to support the hobby, which is where your roots are. You have LOTS on your plate currently, and I think it was appreciated by all who managed to attend.

Just a personal thanks from me to you, and your team :)

Paul

P.s. Wish i could have attended just for the factory tour - that alone would have been worth it!
P.P.s When you get your Bahamas fund sorted, let me know! ;)
 
Paul said:
You DO do this for the love of the game
Click to expand...

I don't believe anyone disrespects the job he does to keep the party going. I don't know where this comes from, I've never seen that anyway, from anyone.

It was far from a boycott, it's just well out of the way and a PITA to get to. The great thing about Daventry , apart from it being more central was that you're guaranteed more "public" players rather than die hards & torny players.
 
Andrew the organisation efforts you made will leave a memory etched in mine and my kid's heads forever. Not only from having a total blast playing all the machines, but having a tour round the chocolate factory and the hospitality of your team in general. Also Joe Balcer signed and personalised my little girl's pinball design which totally made her day (she's a huge WOZ fan).

Cheers Andrew. Hope you pick up the gauntlet again next year.

Kris
 
Heighway Pinball said:
Another Party over.

Thanks to everyone who came - you made history by attending the first, and likely only, ever pinball show hosted at a UK pinball factory.

To everyone who didn't come - you missed a great event.

To everyone who didn't come, but still criticised - you also missed a great event.

Thanks to everyone for either providing machines, or bringing games themselves.

Thanks to Peter for doing the electrics.

Thanks to Andy for keeping the games running.

Thanks to Peter B, Martin, The Raisons and anyone else who helped out - for the tournaments.

Thanks to my team for all their hard work over the weekend.

Thanks to everyone who either donated, or bought items at the charity auction. We raised an amazing £419.50 for Barry and his funeral fund. It just shows the amazing generosity of our community.

Machine numbers were much higher than I feared they would be a few weeks before the event. For those people who provided machines - a huge thank you. I also think that the machine allocation for the tournaments was unacceptable. I think a better system needs to be found. Personally, I think the 2-day Open format didn't work. The 1-day format worked much better. Some people who had qualified on Saturday had to drop out on the Sunday because they couldn't attend. Also, some people who stayed playing until 3am in the night session, couldn't get to the show by 10am on the Sunday - and were therefore disqualified. Finally, if it had been a 1-day Open, then the league finals would not have had to be crammed in on the Saturday - therefore freeing up more machines for the public. Clearly, a debrief and review of the tournaments needs to happen. All games need to be rotated to allow the public to play them at some point over the weekend. The few exceptions to this rule are the brand new, or mint condition, machines that some owners wish to be only used for the tournaments - and it is their right to choose this option.

Visitor number were way lower than last year - approximately 50% of last year's numbers. This will be mainly down to the location. Also, the Northern Lights crew did not attend this year - either by way of machines or attendees (except Darren Ball - always a pleasure to catch up with you Darren). The same goes for anyone associated with the Slam - no machines or attendees. There was talk of boycotting the Party by some - I choose not to believe this.

If the Party remains a 'regional' event, then it will not survive.

I have made a big loss with the Party this year, and need to decide if I will run a show again next year. Every year I hear many stories of bitching and complaints about the Party and possibly about the way I run it. Some people seem to believe that I have a secret Bahamas fund - topped up every year from the Party. These people, of course, forget that I have to personally guarantee the Party every year, and personally guarantee £10,000-20,000 of my own money personally - whether a single person attends, or not. For 2 years out of the 6, including this year, I made a loss. For the other 4 years - a profit of £500-£1,000 each year was achieved. Not a great return for 4 weeks of anyone's life. But as anyone who knows me knows - I do this for the love of pinball, and always have done.

I tried to incentivize machine pledges this year as much as I could. However, I ended up personally driving the truck for 2 days before the event, around the UK, to collect machines. On both days I arrived back home at 5.30am - mainly thanks to this country's f***ed up road system where roads and motorways are arbitrarily closed every night and f**k the motorist. With recovery time, this took me away from my business for 4 days. I have to do the same again now, after the Party. I just can't do machine runs around the country anymore - it damages my pinball manufacturing business.

I will let the dust settle for a few months now, and evaluate whether I will continue or not. If people are tired of the Party, or want me to step aside, then I'll walk away from it. If I do have an appetite to do another, and people want me to do another, then I'll review the venue situation - but it would almost certainly be another centrally-located hotel as in previous years. If there are pledges of 120 machines, and people will bring them to and from the Party with the help of van hire grants and free entry, then I'll seriously consider doing another one next year.

Thanks for reading.

Andrew
Click to expand...
 
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just to clarify why most of nlp weren't there.
Dave and Simon on holiday
Dave S busy saving up and preparing for his first child
Nigel very busy doing up his new house
Dans missus was 40 that weekend
Me n Mark were supplying machines for play Margate,something that was agreed back in January waaay before the party was announced. Andy was made aware of these reasons before the party.
I would have loved to see the alien stuff,but as stated,was committed elsewhere.
 
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I know we're talking about forum guys that couldn't make it but I think the point is the the location will fail to make money or even wash it's face. Posters up all over a busy city months in advance will hopefully make door money, but the few dozen guys here who will travel great distances for a meet won't make up the losses Andy incurred this time.
 
Looks like craig is counting on me for all pins at revival. Picked up metallica last month but my brother is enjoying it too much but should be back by November.
 
Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

I have listened to everyone's feedback as well.

I have been talking with some key players in the UK community about doing something special for next year. I want to keep the Party alive, but want it to be even bigger and better.

When the time is right soon, I will post ideas to everyone about how I propose moving forwards for next year.

Andrew
 
Sounds great Andy. Hopefully this will be a great year for Heighway Pinball.

Feedback on Pinside in almost universally positive and you don't get many tougher crowds than on there.

I couldn't attend this year due to pre-existing holiday commitments, but hope to support with a machine or two next year.

Lloyd
 
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