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PINBALL EXPO 2025 – PART TWO
Pinball News
Welcome to the continuation of our extensive coverage of this year’s 41st Pinball Expo show. In Part One we covered all the set-up on Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to the opening of the show hall on Thursday, as well as all 18 of Thursday’s seminars.
FRIDAY
Friday is the day of the Stern Pinball factory tour. Show attendees purchasing the full $200 three-day package or the advance registration package had the Stern factory tour included. For everyone else it was available as a $35 add-on.
Those taking the tour could choose one of four time slots – 8:45am, 10:15am, 11:45am or 1:15pm – to board their bus for the 15-minute journey from Schaumburg to Stern’s home in Elk Grove Village.
Pinball News remained behind to run and record Friday’s seminars, but Jonathan Joosten, Editor of Pinball Magazine and seminars assistant, took the tour and got us all these pictures. As usual, photography is not permitted on the factory floor, but there’s still plenty of interest to see.
Tour guests boarded the bus at their pre-arrange time
Stern Pinball’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, John Buscaglia, welcomes tour guests
Stern Pinball’s reception area in Halloween decor
Tour guests are ushered into the reception lobby
Waiting in reception for the tour to begin
The tour group enters the factory
CEO, Seth Davis, and Chairman, Gary Stern, welcome the tour guests
Stern’s pinball machines lined the room
Stern’s Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, George Gomez, tells the guests what they will see on their tour
Some of the many open-plan office cubicles
Rather than have one guide show groups around the whole factory, there were dedicated guides posted along the route to talk about what happens at their point in the factory
All three models of the current Star Wars: Fall of the Empire title were set up with members of the design team on hand to answer questions
As is traditional, the Stern merchandise shop was open at the end of the tour
Take home a souvenir of the tour
The recently-announced King Topper was on display too
When the tour guests returned to the Schaumburg Convention Center, they could explore the main show hall or enjoy the full-day schedule of talks in the seminars room.
Just a reminder, all the seminar presentations are also available to watch on the Pinball News YouTube channel in the Pinball Expo 2025 playlist.
Jay Schneider
Jay Schneider talked about how he rescued a trashed Nevada flipperless game and restored it, describing the components and materials he used to make many of the parts it needed, and the techniques he employed.
Jeremy Saucier
Jeremy Saucier is an assistant VP at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. He detailed the Museum’s history and devotion to the history and exploration of play. He also explained how various exhibits are chosen and how their methods of exhibiting them has changed over the years from being glass-cased artefacts to becoming fully interactive and playable.
Ralph Ronzio
Josh Roop, Scott Larson, Joel Engelbert & Jared Engelbert
Ralph Ronzio (Retro Ralph) hosted this seminar looking at the ways podcasters create content for their channels, covering listener interactions, their approach to interviewing guests and dealing with feedback both positive and negative.
Neil Lerner
Neil Lerner gives his views on the top pinball soundtracks which are musically excellent but also have historical significance as the underlying technology and player expectations for pinball music evolves.
Andrew Goulson
Andrew Goulson is a new pinball fan from Minnesota. In this seminar he talks about his experiences of his first year of being involved in pinball, after being a retro gamer since he was a kid.
Andy Cavatorta
Andy Cavatorta is a sculptor from Brooklyn and here at Pinball Expo he related the story of how he built a hugely complex multi-player pinball machine in Mexico and the many challenges he faced, both mechanical and cultural.
Aaron Davis
Aaron with the team behind the Coming to America homebrew game
Aaron Davis of FAST Pinball talks about the explosion in homebrew pinball making and invites many of the makers of the homebrew games on the Pinball Expo show floor to talk about their motivations and experiences building their machines.
George Gomez
Seth Davis, Erica Frohm, Taylor Bancroft & Mark Guidarelli
George Gomez and Seth Davis host this talk which looks at Stern Pinball’s new Spike 3 control system, describing the improvements it brings to future games as well as the benefits it gives older Spike-based titles.
Each year, members of the pinball industry are inducted into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame. In recent years the new Hall of Fame inductees have been largely dominated by current or former Stern Pinball employees and that trend continued this year. However, amongst the list of inductees, there were a couple not from Stern.
Previous inductees were:
The first new inductee was artist, Doug Watson. His induction was introduced by Greg Freres and Steve Ritchie.
Greg Freres & Steve Ritchie induct Doug Watson
Doug Watson
Gary Stern and Joe Kaminkow then introduced the next new inductee, Tim Seckel, who designed a number of games for Data East Pinball, including Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, Hook, Last Action Hero and WWF Royal Rumble.
Tim Seckel
Further inductees were Mark Guidarelli from Stern Pinball and the key members of Keith Elwin’s design team at Stern Pinball – Keith Elwin, Rick Naegele, Jeremy Packer and Harrison Drake.
Larry DeMar & Pat Lawlor
Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar reminisce about their early years making pinball together at Williams, from their collaboration on Wreck’n Ball – later to become Banzai Run – through to the eventual closure of the company’s pinball division.
Eric Meunier
Members of the Harry Potter design team
Harry Potter is Jersey Jack Pinball’s latest release. In this seminar the design team, led by game designer Eric Meunier, talk about the creation of the Harry Potter game how so many aspects of the theme were integrated into the design of the artwork, sound, voice calls and playfield mechanisms.
Dave Marston began this segment of the Pinball Expo seminars schedule by talking about the life and work of voice artist Fred Young, including his voice talent on multiple pinball machines. Fred was inducted into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame last year, but passed away soon afterwards.
Fred Young’s induction into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame in 2024
The year since the previous Pinball Expo also saw the passing of the hugely popular pinball repairer, Rob Anthony. Rob and his dog would be regular fixtures at several major US pinball shows, setting up his stand to sell assorted parts, mods, books and novelties, while also performing board repair work.
J.J. Babich from Game Exchange in Colorado has been managing much of Rob’s estate, resolving outstanding orders and repairs. J.J. brought Rob’s ashes which have been housed in a pinball-shaped casket along with vendor badges from many of the shows he attended.
J.J. Babich with Rob Anthony’s memorial containing his ashes
Rob Anthony’s casket
His death came as a shock to the community, not least because he left no family other that his beloved dog, Antar. Fortunately, Antar has found a new home as we saw in one of the two video tributes.
Alejandro Torné & Mark Helms
Mark Helms and Alejandro Torné are the filmmakers behind the new pinball documentary Pinball: The American Game. The film charts pinball’s highs and lows since it was first created, looking at its origins, the way it developed over the decades and how societal changes impacted pinball manufacturing and operating.
Lloyd Olson
SS Billiards’ owner and operator, Lloyd Olson (known as LTG) held his regular late-night Q&A session at this year’s Pinball Expo.
Taking questions from the audience about his lifetime in the coin-op business, from helping his father with his machine route through the eventually buying the SS Billiards arcade outright, Lloyd recalls the most popular and profitable games he has operated, as well as some of the worst.
There’s plenty more from Pinball Expo 2025 coming up right here, including our full report from the show hall.
However, you can see everything the hall right now, as well as the tournaments and seminars rooms, in our walkthrough video.
We’ll be back later with many more seminars from Saturday, plus the tournament results and a tour of the Autograph Session.
So, check back here at Pinball News for all the latest updates.
Continue reading...
Pinball News
Welcome to the continuation of our extensive coverage of this year’s 41st Pinball Expo show. In Part One we covered all the set-up on Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to the opening of the show hall on Thursday, as well as all 18 of Thursday’s seminars.
FRIDAY
Friday is the day of the Stern Pinball factory tour. Show attendees purchasing the full $200 three-day package or the advance registration package had the Stern factory tour included. For everyone else it was available as a $35 add-on.
Those taking the tour could choose one of four time slots – 8:45am, 10:15am, 11:45am or 1:15pm – to board their bus for the 15-minute journey from Schaumburg to Stern’s home in Elk Grove Village.
Pinball News remained behind to run and record Friday’s seminars, but Jonathan Joosten, Editor of Pinball Magazine and seminars assistant, took the tour and got us all these pictures. As usual, photography is not permitted on the factory floor, but there’s still plenty of interest to see.
Tour guests boarded the bus at their pre-arrange time
Stern Pinball’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, John Buscaglia, welcomes tour guests
Stern Pinball’s reception area in Halloween decor
Tour guests are ushered into the reception lobby
Waiting in reception for the tour to begin
The tour group enters the factory
CEO, Seth Davis, and Chairman, Gary Stern, welcome the tour guests
Stern’s pinball machines lined the room
Stern’s Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, George Gomez, tells the guests what they will see on their tour
Some of the many open-plan office cubicles
Rather than have one guide show groups around the whole factory, there were dedicated guides posted along the route to talk about what happens at their point in the factory
All three models of the current Star Wars: Fall of the Empire title were set up with members of the design team on hand to answer questions
As is traditional, the Stern merchandise shop was open at the end of the tour
Take home a souvenir of the tour
The recently-announced King Topper was on display too
When the tour guests returned to the Schaumburg Convention Center, they could explore the main show hall or enjoy the full-day schedule of talks in the seminars room.
Just a reminder, all the seminar presentations are also available to watch on the Pinball News YouTube channel in the Pinball Expo 2025 playlist.
| 9:00am | Firewood to (Fun)ctional: Journey of a 1947 Flipperless Woodrail Pinball Speaker: Jay Schneider |
Jay Schneider
Jay Schneider talked about how he rescued a trashed Nevada flipperless game and restored it, describing the components and materials he used to make many of the parts it needed, and the techniques he employed.
| 10:00am | Preserving & Exhibiting the History of Coin-Op Games at the Strong National Museum of Play Speaker: Jeremy Saucier |
Jeremy Saucier
Jeremy Saucier is an assistant VP at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. He detailed the Museum’s history and devotion to the history and exploration of play. He also explained how various exhibits are chosen and how their methods of exhibiting them has changed over the years from being glass-cased artefacts to becoming fully interactive and playable.
| 11:00am | Pinball Content Creation Speakers: Ralph Ronzio (Retro Ralph), Josh Roop & Scott Larson (Loser Kid), Jared Engelbert & Joel Engelbert (Flip N Out & Triple Drain) |
Ralph Ronzio
Josh Roop, Scott Larson, Joel Engelbert & Jared Engelbert
Ralph Ronzio (Retro Ralph) hosted this seminar looking at the ways podcasters create content for their channels, covering listener interactions, their approach to interviewing guests and dealing with feedback both positive and negative.
| 12:45am | The Top 5 Original Pinball Soundtracks: One Musicologist’s Opinion Speaker: Neil Lerner |
Neil Lerner
Neil Lerner gives his views on the top pinball soundtracks which are musically excellent but also have historical significance as the underlying technology and player expectations for pinball music evolves.
| 1:15pm | Lunch Break Pinball Speaker: Andrew Goulson |
Andrew Goulson
Andrew Goulson is a new pinball fan from Minnesota. In this seminar he talks about his experiences of his first year of being involved in pinball, after being a retro gamer since he was a kid.
| 2:15pm | Hard Lessons from Building the World’s Most Complex Pinball Game Speaker: Andy Cavatorta |
Andy Cavatorta
Andy Cavatorta is a sculptor from Brooklyn and here at Pinball Expo he related the story of how he built a hugely complex multi-player pinball machine in Mexico and the many challenges he faced, both mechanical and cultural.
| 3:00pm | Making Pinball, Making Friends: Meet the Future of Homebrew Pinball Speakers: Aaron Davis & the Pinball Expo 2025 Homebrew Makers |
Aaron Davis
Aaron with the team behind the Coming to America homebrew game
Aaron Davis of FAST Pinball talks about the explosion in homebrew pinball making and invites many of the makers of the homebrew games on the Pinball Expo show floor to talk about their motivations and experiences building their machines.
| 4:30pm | Stern Technology Speakers: Seth Davis, George Gomez, Erica Frohm, Mark Guidarelli, Taylor Bancroft |
George Gomez
Seth Davis, Erica Frohm, Taylor Bancroft & Mark Guidarelli
George Gomez and Seth Davis host this talk which looks at Stern Pinball’s new Spike 3 control system, describing the improvements it brings to future games as well as the benefits it gives older Spike-based titles.
| 5:30pm | Pinball Expo Hall of Fame Presentation Inductions by: Rob Berk, Joe Kaminkow, Gary Stern, Greg Freres, Steve Ritchie |
Each year, members of the pinball industry are inducted into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame. In recent years the new Hall of Fame inductees have been largely dominated by current or former Stern Pinball employees and that trend continued this year. However, amongst the list of inductees, there were a couple not from Stern.
Previous inductees were:
| Oct. 21, 2024 | Jerry Thompson, John Buscaglia, Jody Dankberg, Fred Young, Steve Epstein, Art Stenholm |
| Oct. 20, 2023 | Chris Granner, Mark Galvez, Mark Weyna |
| Oct. 21, 2022 | Ray Tanzer, Zofia Bil Ryan |
| Oct. 29, 2021 | Gil Pollock, Keith Johnson |
| Oct. 17, 2020 | Tommy Grant, Eulogio Pingarrón, Jack Guarnieri |
| Oct. 17, 2019 | Mike O’Donnell, Cassandra Peterson, Pat Powers |
| Oct. 19, 2018 | Elliot Eismin, Jon Norris, Ken Fedesna |
| Oct. 21, 2017 | Gordon Horlick, Dwight Sullivan, Pat McMahon, Brian Schmidt, Neal Falconer |
| Oct. 15, 2016 | Don Marshall, Connie Mitchell |
| Oct. 17, 2015 | John Rotharmel, David Thiel, Lyman Sheats Jr. |
| Oct. 18, 2014 | Nolan Bushnell, Brian Eddy |
| Oct. 19, 2013 | Lonnie Ropp, Suzanne Ciani, Eugene Jarvis |
| Oct. 20, 2012 | Steve Kirk, John Borg |
| Oct. 22, 2011 | Mark Ritchie, John Popadiuk |
| Oct. 23, 2010 | Python Anghelo, Gary Flower, Michael Shalhoub, Clay Harrell |
| Oct. 17, 2009 | Dennis Nordman, Barry Oursler, Michael Stroll, Jim Schelberg |
| Oct. 4, 2008 | Ted Zale, George Gomez |
| Oct. 27, 2007 | Lou, Dave and Meyer Gensberg (Genco), Alvin Gottlieb, John Youssi |
| Oct. 2, 2006 | Paul Faris, Judd Weinberg |
| Nov. 19, 2005 | Margaret Hudson, Roy Parker |
| Oct. 16, 2004 | Robert Berk, Ed Cebula, Greg Freres, Gary Gayton, Kevin O’Conner, Michael Pacak, Joe Kaminkow |
| Oct. 18, 2003 | Tom Nieman, Edward Krynski |
| Oct. 19, 2002 | Christian Marche, Jim Patla |
| Oct. 11, 2001 | Gary Stern, Steve Young |
| Oct. 21, 2000 | Pat Lawlor, Roger Sharpe |
| Oct. 23, 1999 | Larry Demar, Greg Kmiec |
| Oct. 24, 1998 | Gordon Morison |
| Nov. 15, 1997 | Dick Bueschel, Steve Ritchie |
| Nov. 16, 1996 | Dave Christensen |
| Oct.28, 1995 | Norm Clark, Wendell McAdams |
| Nov. 12, 1994 | Wayne Neyens |
| Sept. 11, 1993 | Steve Kordek, George Molentin |
| Oct. 24, 1992 | Harvey Heiss, Harry Mabs |
| Oct. 26, 1991 | David Gottlieb, Harry E. Williams, Ray Moloney, Sam Stern |
The first new inductee was artist, Doug Watson. His induction was introduced by Greg Freres and Steve Ritchie.
Greg Freres & Steve Ritchie induct Doug Watson
Doug Watson
Gary Stern and Joe Kaminkow then introduced the next new inductee, Tim Seckel, who designed a number of games for Data East Pinball, including Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, Hook, Last Action Hero and WWF Royal Rumble.
Tim Seckel
Further inductees were Mark Guidarelli from Stern Pinball and the key members of Keith Elwin’s design team at Stern Pinball – Keith Elwin, Rick Naegele, Jeremy Packer and Harrison Drake.
| 6:00pm | Then & Now Speakers: Pat Lawlor & Larry DeMar |
Larry DeMar & Pat Lawlor
Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar reminisce about their early years making pinball together at Williams, from their collaboration on Wreck’n Ball – later to become Banzai Run – through to the eventual closure of the company’s pinball division.
| 7:30pm | The Making of Harry Potter Speakers: Eric Meunier & The Jersey Jack Design Team |
Eric Meunier
Members of the Harry Potter design team
Harry Potter is Jersey Jack Pinball’s latest release. In this seminar the design team, led by game designer Eric Meunier, talk about the creation of the Harry Potter game how so many aspects of the theme were integrated into the design of the artwork, sound, voice calls and playfield mechanisms.
| 8:30pm | Celebration of the Life of Pinball Repairman Extraordinaire Rob Anthony & Tribute to Fred Young Speakers: J.J. Babich, Dave Marston |
Dave Marston began this segment of the Pinball Expo seminars schedule by talking about the life and work of voice artist Fred Young, including his voice talent on multiple pinball machines. Fred was inducted into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame last year, but passed away soon afterwards.
Fred Young’s induction into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame in 2024
The year since the previous Pinball Expo also saw the passing of the hugely popular pinball repairer, Rob Anthony. Rob and his dog would be regular fixtures at several major US pinball shows, setting up his stand to sell assorted parts, mods, books and novelties, while also performing board repair work.
J.J. Babich from Game Exchange in Colorado has been managing much of Rob’s estate, resolving outstanding orders and repairs. J.J. brought Rob’s ashes which have been housed in a pinball-shaped casket along with vendor badges from many of the shows he attended.
J.J. Babich with Rob Anthony’s memorial containing his ashes
Rob Anthony’s casket
His death came as a shock to the community, not least because he left no family other that his beloved dog, Antar. Fortunately, Antar has found a new home as we saw in one of the two video tributes.
| 9:00pm | Pinball: The American Game Introduction: Mark Helms & Alejandro Torné |
Alejandro Torné & Mark Helms
Mark Helms and Alejandro Torné are the filmmakers behind the new pinball documentary Pinball: The American Game. The film charts pinball’s highs and lows since it was first created, looking at its origins, the way it developed over the decades and how societal changes impacted pinball manufacturing and operating.
| 10:30pm | LTG
Speaker: Lloyd Olson |
Lloyd Olson
SS Billiards’ owner and operator, Lloyd Olson (known as LTG) held his regular late-night Q&A session at this year’s Pinball Expo.
Taking questions from the audience about his lifetime in the coin-op business, from helping his father with his machine route through the eventually buying the SS Billiards arcade outright, Lloyd recalls the most popular and profitable games he has operated, as well as some of the worst.
There’s plenty more from Pinball Expo 2025 coming up right here, including our full report from the show hall.
However, you can see everything the hall right now, as well as the tournaments and seminars rooms, in our walkthrough video.
We’ll be back later with many more seminars from Saturday, plus the tournament results and a tour of the Autograph Session.
So, check back here at Pinball News for all the latest updates.
Continue reading...
