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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This blog stands in solidarity with all of the youth who are being terrorized by a fascist president who has declared them to be threats that must be eliminated.

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

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4 notes on interesting bagatelles

Let's chat about parlor bagatelle toys again. 

1)   One Man's Toys, Games and Tools Collection

There is an incredible auction of bagatelles coming up, one person's lifetime of collecting.  Many incredible pieces, but also the comprehensiveness of the collection combined with the robust and exceptional photos provided by the auction house makes this one quite special.

We have collected all of the bagatelle photographs from this auction.  For the bagatelle historians out there, I've made a single ZIP file with all of the lots I find interesting.  There are 3 folders here:  Redgrave/Singer tables, toy bagatelles, and one for other marble games of note.

2242 files, 590 MB.  Download the ZIP of images from the One Man's Toys, Games and Tools Collection.

 

2) my new solar system bagatelle from Japan

Here is a solar system-themed corinthian bagatelle from Japan.

No confirmation on name / date / maker, but I assume it's 1930s because the Corinthian craze came to Japan in the early 1930s, and in 1939 Japan went to war and I assume made few toys.  The text itself does not appear to be post-war.

Here are the pockets on the board and their translations:

10 太陽 Sun
20 上弦 First Quarter
30 下弦 Last Quarter
40 海王星 Neptune
50 天王星 Uranus
60 水星 Mercury
70 土星 Saturn
80 地球 Earth
90 木星 Jupiter
100 金星 Venus
110 火星 Mars
120 満月 Full Moon

Then there are TA and ST pockets at the bottom left and right sides.  These are features you see on some other Corinthian boards, sometimes labeled and sometimes not. 

pictures courtesy James Masters

So assuming the same rules, if you pocket TA you take all of the balls that went to the bottom without scoring and play them again.  Do you also replay the ball that fell in TA?  Perhaps not.  What does TA mean?  Try Again?  Take All?  I am unsure.

The ST pocket might be for STOP or Stop Turn?  But it would mean the game ends, regardless of any balls left to shoot.  A trap to avoid!

 

3) Sugiyama-san's UK bagatelle in Japan

I am happy to showcase this bagatelle game owned by Sugiyama-san of the Birth of Pachinko Musem. He purchased it on a trip to the UK and was told it was from 1890-1900 by the dealer. 

It is fascinating to me because it copied many parts of the classic Redgrave design, but keeps the cue/mace shooter lane on the right and slaps in a spring plunger on the left.

While the means to propel the ball are unique from the Redgrave design, so is the upper  area with 3 arched wires protecting the king ball divot.  Also different is that the mid-playfield cups have a nail beneath them to ensure the ball falls into it.  The bottom uses classic Cockamaroo-style vertical slots to award small points to balls that fail to score on the main playfield.  Redgrave never used Cockamaroo-style bottom channels, typically opting for a series of cups with nails funneling the balls to them.

 

Kazuo Sugiyama showing off the backside of the bagatelle

I really like this style of game because it merges the classic cockamaroo designs with the then-contemporary Redgrave & Singer design ideas.

Looking through my archives, I found a photo of a similar table.  The point values differ slightly.

the scores are slightly higher on this model, and it is longer with an extra bell & gate section

 

Redgrave bagatelle examples:

 

 

4) Le Basket Francais by Samud

This next one comes from a catalogue from a prestigious seller of rare papers and books.

I want to caution against purchasing this for the 3000 Euros being asked.  Currently there is a copy on Ebay for 220 €. (archive)

ebay France

This one sold for $60 USD.

And this one for 110 €

And this one sold 50 €:

 

There is also a restoration video of this game on youtube:

 

Very cool game, but definitely not a 1930 game or the first usage of Basket Ball in a game.

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This blog stands in protest against the horrific eliminationist policies being enacted by the USA to remove trans people from society.  Trans people have always existed, in every society, but this fascist administration has declared a war against reality and says that trans people can no longer be allowed to exist.  Trump's executive orders say that trans children should be abused at school, in their home, in public, and at hospitals.  Trump's orders are a decree to destroy all traces of trans existence from society, and that all trans people are subhuman threats and liars who should not be allowed to exist publicly.  He is attacking children, he is attacking families, and he is delighting in his sadism.

This blog stands in solidarity with all of the youth who are being terrorized by a president who has declared them to be threats that must be eliminated.

Live to read his obituary.

Please, stay alive.  Even if just out of spite.

exploring the arcade in 1992-01 TVムック故郷は欧州 意外なパチンコ進化論 / TV Mook Mystery Journey: Surprising theory of pachinko evolution

I just recently was able to share 1992-01 TVムック故郷は欧州　意外なパチンコ進化論 / TV Mook Mystery Journey: Surprising theory of pachinko evolution in another post, so of course we need to dive in and focus on the games!  The machines here follow the video, and so we early games from Japan, USA, UK, and France.

Be sure to check out the post about the video, but here is the English subtitled version again:

ダービー2 (Derby 2) by 京楽 (Kyoraku)

The next 2 games are toy Corinthian game bagatelles from Japan.  They do not use a plunger, they are played by using a small wooden cue to hit/push the ball up the shooter lane.  While most USA bagatelle toys had plungers, many places around the world still loved the versions where you used a small cue.

These next two photos show large Corinthian bagatelle games, probably from the 1930s.

large Corinthian tables, part of the birth of smartball

this is most likely a sign for a Corinthian parlor