Pintastic New England Game Room Expo - A Photographic Essay
- Jason
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Pintastic New England is the Northeastern United States' premier pinball and arcade show. This year's event took place during the second week in April. While I was at the event, I shared dozens of real-time photos and videos of the show, garnering literally millions of views. Even so, I promised the fine folks who run the event that I would write a recap article, so a recap article is what they are going to get (even if it is a couple of months later lol). They say a picture is worth a thousand words...well I took well over a thousand pictures at Pintastic 2025 so this must be invaluable, right :) ?
My good friend Brady and I took off on Friday April 11th and left bright and early on the three hour or so drive from Northern New Jersey to the new Pintastic venue in Marlborough, Massachusetts. I believe that this is the second or third show that Pintastic has held at its new location - The Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel, and it is a significant improvement over the older hotel that served as its previous home.
As you can see in the map below, the show has a number of areas for attendees to play a massive number of pinball machines set to Free Play. The main Games Hall and Vendor area was filled with games brought by volunteers and attendees as well as machines brought by the distributor Automated Services and the reseller Butch's Game Garage.
Right past the Main Hall was a room that was probably the highlight of the event for me, a room filled with the latest games out there courtesy of the Pinball Tycoon Arcade. It was in that room that I got to play Spooky Pinball's new Evil Dead pinball machine, Multimorphic's new Portal game, Pinball Brothers' ABBA and Turner Pinball's Ninja Eclipse all for the first time. There was tons of games in that area beyond that. Down the hall from these areas was a large Homebrew section where all of the latest cool custom-made pinball machines like Pinball Circus, Borderlands, Warhammer, Frozen, Sinbad and more were available for people to check out.
Another major highlight of the show is its "Extra Ball Lounge." Attendees who purchase a higher level ticket have the ability to access a corridor that contains four large rooms filled with games that had virtually no lines. It's a great place to head back to to relax and take a breather from the much more crowded main area.
The aforementioned corridor also contains rooms of games that were brought by the Western Massachusetts Pinball Club, Southern New Hampshire Pinball and Vermont Pinball, a large area for the "SilverBall Rumble Tournament," a Belles & Chimes room, a dedicated "Designer Showcase" that was filled with games by the legendary pinball designer Steve Ritchie and more.
In addition to all of the games on the floor, the show featured two cover band performances, great seminars, an autograph session with well-known pinball designers and personalities and tons of other activities.
The date for next year's Pintastic show is already set - April 9th through the 12th, 2026, so mark your calendars now!
Below are two hundred or so of the much larger number of pictures that I took at this year's show. Let's see how the servers on my current website handle this lol. Enjoy!
If you've made it through all these pictures, I'm extremely impressed! lol. Whew, that was a lot of work taking, editing and uploading that many pics.
It’s always refreshing to see passionate communities come together to celebrate something they love, and the Pintastic New England Game Room Expo is a prime example. With colorful displays of pinball machines, vibrant arcade setups, and that nostalgic charm, this photo essay captures the soul of retro gaming culture. If you're someone who appreciates immersive gaming environments and the thrill of customization, rsps-server.com might also spark your interest—it’s a space dedicated to private servers that bring new life to classic experiences. Much like the unique setups at the expo, RSPS offer tailored gaming adventures that let players shape the world as they see fit. For those who crave originality in their gameplay, private servers can be just as exciting as…
Thanks for sharing. Nice pics of games!! So cool!!
Unrelated, but I've really noticed how much faster the website loads lately. Your boy doing good work.
Great to see the pictures, but no mention and none of the Belles & Chimes room. Be sure to visit that room too next year!
I made it through all the pictures but didn't make it into any of the pictures. However, I see many of the shots I took made it and that's equally great.
Super recap from a super weekend.
PS: how'd you do playing Evil Dead and Portal? 🙃