Coin-op expo hailed a massive success

ABOUT 1,000 retro arcade game enthusiasts from across the area turned out for the annual South Coast Slam.
W16664H14  The South Coast Slam at the Charmandean CentreW16664H14  The South Coast Slam at the Charmandean Centre
W16664H14 The South Coast Slam at the Charmandean Centre

The event, Europe’s largest coin-operated arcade expo, saw both casual and tournament players try their hand at around 100 different pinball machines and various other arcade games from the 1980s and 1990s.

Event organiser Will Barber said: “It was insane, we smashed it. We were up on numbers from previous years, it was a massive success.”

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Held at the Charmandean Centre, Worthing, last weekend, the event raised around £6,000 for children’s heart charity ECHO.

“One of the people who is involved in the pinball scene has a son who had heart difficulties when he was born and the charity looked after him. He’s a pinball wizard in the making,” said Will.

The top raffle prize at the event, an Indiana Jones pinball machine worth around £3,000, was won by Andy Kemp, while the second place prize, an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade machine, was won by Dan Wallace. A Back to the Future-themed tournament saw players battle it out for the chance to have a ride in a replica DeLorean time machine from the famous sci-fi trilogy.

The event’s main tournament saw 110 professional players from across Europe competing for world ranking points to enable them to compete at the highest levels in America.

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Next year, the biggest event in the pinball calendar – the world pinball championship – will be held in Worthing.

The event attracts participants from across the globe who battle out for big prize-money.

Will said: “There’s massive amounts of skill involved. It’s not just keeping the ball in play, it’s quite technical.”

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