If you are in the Louisville area or looking for a great last-minute pinball trip, check out the Louisville Arcade Expo this weekend, March 8 – 10, 2013.

• 2012 PAPA North American Tournament Circuit Location
• Console, Arcade, and Pinball Tournaments for all ages
• Costume Contest
• Guest Speaker Roger Sharpe

http://www.arcaderx.com/

• Fri 2p-Midnight, Sat 10a-Midnight, Sun 10a-4p
• Triple Crown Pavilion @ the Ramada Plaza  1776 Plantside Drive Louisville, KY

Owners of the fantastic Data East Star Wars pinball machine were greeted with a great Christmas present this year: a game code update!  With dozens of new rules, features, and bug fixes, this update will bring joy to households and arcades across the country this year.

Check out details of the update and how to obtain it here from Chad Hendrickson’s site:

http://www.pinballcode.com/

Pin-a-Go-Go, Dixon CA- May 17-19, ton-o-pins, vendors, Fun Tourney, all proceeds go to local youth organizations.

www.pinagogo.org

Ben Kuchera hits the nail on the head:  ”Pinball is a sport in the same way that poker is a sport: It’s only based on luck if you’re terrible at it.”

Making Pinball into a spectator sport is going to be one of the key ingredients that propels the pinball revival well into the next decade.  If you organize or are otherwise involved with tournaments and/or leagues, strongly consider investing in a pinball vision system!

More details:

PAPA Pinball tournaments

Steve Kordek designed 100 pinball machines during his illustrious career. He passed away this morning at a phenomenal 100 years old. We’ll miss Steve and his enormous contribution to pinball.

• You can show your support on Steve Kordek’s Facebook Page.
• You can see a list of Steve’s games over at the Internet Pinball Database.
• National Public Radio’s tribute to Steve Kordek
• Chicago Tribune obituary
• Washington Post obituary

Pinball’s somewhat sketchy past is still haunting some present-day operators.

Despite a Toronto Life report that Toronto’s first Pinball Cafe had its business license revoked, owner Jason Hazzard confirms that no such recall ever took place. Not everything, however, is peachy keen at the cafe. While the retro hub remains up and running, Toronto’s war against fun, it would seem, has reared its head.

http://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2012/02/torontos_war_on_fun_rears_its_head_at_the_pinball_cafe/

Nice local piece on Orange County folks Paul Anderson, Ron Burkard, and the Orange County Pinball League.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pinball-340541-says-belsito.html

All we can say on this is that we can’t confirm Whether Branca is one of our customers. From the article:

Early on, Jackson called him and said, “John, we have  to talk about something very serious.” Branca grabbed a pen and pad to take notes. Jackson told him, “My pinball machine isn’t working.’ 

• Full Forbes Article