ARCADE ROAD TRIP: Cointaker Super Awesome Pinball Tailgate Party

Every Fall, my Arcade Road Trip partner in crime, Rob, and myself travel to a part of the country and hit up as many pinball locations in an extended weekend as humanly possible while sustaining ourselves on Combos and beer. The 2022 trip is coming up in a couple of weeks, but we have a special bonus trip to share with everyone first.

Last weekend, the major pinball distributor Cointaker and the fine folks from the Super Awesome Pinball Show podcast hosted their annual Super Awesome Pinball Tailgate party in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Man oh man, do Cointaker's owners, Chris and Melissa Marquette, know how to throw a party.

Admission to the event was completely free for people who contacted them beforehand and requested a ticket. And this event was unbelievable, from the fantastic food, free drinks, special guests, amazing prizes and pinball...oh was there pinball. All in one place I was able to play Haggis Pinball's new Fathom Revisited Mermaid Edition, Pinball Brothers Alien LV, Dutch Pinball's Big Lebowski, Pedretti Funhouse 2.0, Chicago Gaming Company Cactus Canyon Remake, every single recent Stern Pinball machine, every recent Jersey Jack pinball machine - including the newest Toy Story 4, and a TON of classic machines. All of the new Sterns were hooked up to Insider Conmected for achievement hunting.

Cointaker opened up its whole facilities for the party, the showroom, warehouse and it's amazing new event space. The event space was HUGE and it had a sweet bar serving White Russian and Apple Pie Moonshine slushies! After starting off at 11 AM with a few of those I realized that I had better downshift or I was going to have a tough time making it the rest of the day LOL. Thanks again to Rob for agreeing to be the designated driver because otherwise I would have been sleeping somewhere in the woods of rural Pennsylvania.

Of course, the best part of big events like this is getting to hang out with so many people who you talk to one the Internet all year or for years. I had a chance to chill with so many online friends who I speak with on my pages all the time. It's great to put a face with a name. There was so much pinball royalty there as well from JJP's Eric Munier and Steve Ritchie, to artist extraordinaire Christopher Franchi, Stern's John Borg, two of the Pinball Brothers, all of the folks from the Super Awesome Pinball Show - Chris, Christian Line (who always makes me feel good about my pinball skills by being is slightly worse than myself) Mrs. Pin, Cliff Albert (who I somehow managed to break even with on $5 games), Jared Guynes and on and on. So many cool people...and absolutely no drama whatsoever. So much fun.

Cointaker rents their event space out for parties, and Chris and Melissa are amazing hosts, so if you're reading this and are looking to throw an event you have to check it out. I hear that they're already planning next year's Tailgate Party :). Anyone who wants to contact Cointaker about renting out their space or a game can do so via their website: https://cointaker.com/

This trip also marks the maiden voyage for my new iPhone 14 Pro, in all its 48 Megapixel glory. Below are a bunch of pictures of the event and some super rare games. Enjoy!