Ontario Pinfest 2025 report

Last weekend we loaded up for Pinfest!  2 days of pinball in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.  I was asked to setup and run a pinball history booth, like last year's editiopn.

loading up the trailer.  My friend brought Elektra and Bali.

 Here is the history booth setup, just before opening:

full booth

this was the stuff I brought to sell

 

There are two walkthrough videos that pinball channels posted, but unfortunately neither cover the history booth.

 

 

 

I picked up a few things.  Most notably, this Ski-Doo (formally, Ski-Doo 23) pinball machine from 1932.

an extra copy of Terry Cumming's wonderful Pinball Ad Catalog vol 3.  

 a 1000 piece pinball puzzle, via the charity auction

 

Bought this Sky Kings for a friend of mine that grew up with this game.

I was given a few lovely prints of restored backglasses.

 

And some items for scanning... 

Marketplace vol 13 no 12, 1974-06-30

Canadian Coin Box 1983-07

they are all quite brittle, but I was passed a stack of Billboard issues from before WW2

schematics for Gottlieb's Around The World (1959)
I don't own this game, I just want to expand my collection of digitized Gottlieb schematics

I was passed these interesting light sockets.  Does anyone know what they are from, or clues to the manufacturer or era that might have used them? 2 have a jeweled dome.

 I was also given this project Contact, and have already found someone to take it.

 

View from the corner

 

Highlights from the show ...

These two played like a dream.  Counterforce and Asteroid Annie

 

2 brand new releases, raising money for the local food bank.  Evil Dead was great but I have a hard time finding my shots on Spooky pins since I barely get to play them.  The ramps felt wide and the other shots felt tight.
King Kong was the LE and it was a delight to play.  Absolutely loved it and I think it's going to be a hit.  Elwin has done it again.  With how much the upper flippers get used, I think this might be one of those games that plays extremely long in tournaments, like Godzilla.  But for players that aren't the worlds' greatest, it's perfection. :)

The Simpsons homebrew debuted here and it was AMAZING.  Highly recommended.  In fact, here's a video from Pinball Shenanigans going through it.  I was lucky enough to get a similar extended tour through the machine with the creator.

 

Tempest's vector output was also running through that oscilloscope for part of the show!  And what a beautiful Mappy.

 

Some decent scores on these next 3.  All super fun.

the ideal pitch-and-bat game. You need that handle for batting satisfaction.

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Please read:  Utah Republicans ignore study supporting gender-affirming care for trans youth. It's research they demanded

Please read: The New York Times’ Inaccurate Coverage of Transgender People is Being Weaponized Against the Transgender Community