I went last year as I thought it had been ages since I did anything related to pinball. I had a great time, and it set a fire under me to get in the room and fix something... I had 5 machines - all not working at that time.
I ended up with 3 working now, and solid plans for those last 2. I wanted to offer to bring my AG Soccer-ball for 2 reasons... one was it isn't a machine many get to get their mitts on, and two was to finally get it all together and reliable again, as it was a solid goal with no way to wimp out.
I had the most fun from that machine over the weekend just seeing it get played... played and enjoyed. The audits showed 297 games over the weekend - probably more than it had in the ...considerable... number of years I owned it.
Out of practicality reasons (I just could not make it fit in my space being a head to head machine) I had it for sale there, and while it was hard to see it go, I am also happy to see it head off and be appreciated somewhere else...
I did not play anywhere near as much as I would have liked - unfortunately real life was in the way of being able to come to the contributor sessions, but next year I am hoping to have better plans in place. Not that it mattered too much at all, I spent a lot of the time just talking to people. I'm also hoping to be able to have one of my currently down machines primed and ready to contribute next year!
I gladly paid for tickets to bring my kids and Mrs to a Sat session, as well as to drag a mate on the Sunday one.
I really appreciate all the effort that went into organising the event - to make it feel so easy and well oiled takes a huge effort behind the scenes. I also want to thank everyone who put in the effort to drag in a machine, and trust the public with them. After doing it myself I see why you lot go through all that effort.