DPO EXPO 2017

[Rock-ola]

11-21-2017 01:58 PM
After taking a year off to prepare for the 25th anniversary of the NFV (Dutch Pinball Association) this was always going to be an extra-special show, and the setting of the Evoluon in the city of Eindhoven looked like the perfect venue for the DPO (Dutch Pinball Open) Expo.

Evoluon in Eindhoven The distinctive 1960s spaceship-style building was once home to a science museum, but since 1998 Evoluon (pronounced ‘a-voo-lon’) has been a conference and concert venue.  The interior consists of a ground floor with three circular floors above plus a partial fourth floor and a basement conference room.  Utilising all this floor space would be something of a challenge, but one the NFV organisers and their supporters managed with aplomb.

Entry to the show cost €15 per day ($17.50/£13.36) with entry to the main Dutch Pinball Open tournament another €20.

Guests pay for entry or collect their pre-paid entry packages The DPO Expo can be split into four main activities – vendors, free play machines, tournaments and seminars.

Ground Floor

The ground floor was where almost all the vendors could be found, whether they were selling machines, parts, mods, publications, posters, clothing, or videos.

At the entry desk, the NFV had posters, branded clothing, books, magazines, plastics, mugs and all their usual range of merchandise.  There was also free coat storage here and a large cafeteria nearby.

The NFV desk Pinball posters at the NFV desk DPO Expo 2017 T-shirts As you walked past the entry desk there was a mechanical ball rolling sculpture on the left which both fascinated and delighted visitors.

The rolling ball sculpture Just beyond that were message boards for guests to make their mark, with the first of the vendor stands on the right.

Into the DPO Expo Jonathan Joosten at the Pinball Magazine stand – this was originally in the entrance lobby but later moved to the main corridor Pascal Janin’s Flippp.fr stand with details of his replacement boards Mirco Playfields had new playfields for sale but also lots of parts PinSound had their speakers and sound boards available They also had three games fitted with their sound board Pinball Universe were promoting their machine and parts sales The last few Same Player Shoots Again DVDs were on sale – you can buy them at www.pinball-dvd.com as well for just €5 LED4Pin had a nice display of LEDs and illuminated pinball products Pinballshop.nl had plenty of mods for your games Illuminated buttons, speakers and other pinball mods from Pinballshop.nl Miniature pinballs Posters, flyers, manuals and more Pinball backglasses for sale by Carl Jacobs The first sets of free play machines were also here, with some of the newest and most sought-after titles set up for visitors to play.

Free play machines on the ground floor Fortunately, nobody shot the snack bar Popular licensed games I’m not putting you off, am I? Large character models accompanied several machines Star Wars and Tron Another row of quality pinballs A trio of toppers More of the latest games including Dialed In! Two The Big Lebowski games – one was from Dutch Pinball’s new contract manufacturer Xytech More new games such as Aerosmith and Star Wars Here are all the machines set up on the ground floor as recorded at the busiest point of the show on Saturday afternoon:

Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Avatar
Avengers, The
Banzai Run
Batman 66
Big Lebowski, The
Big Lebowski, The
Black Rose
Bride of Pinbot, The Machine*
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dialed In!
Dirty Harry
Doctor Who
Domino’s
Dr. Dude
Elvis
F-14 Tomcat
Fire!
Firepower
Fish Tales
Fish Tales
Flintstones, The Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s
Game Show, The Bally
Grand Prix
Hook
Incredible Hulk, The
Iron Man
Iron Man
Junkyard
Laser War
Lord of the Rings, The
Medieval Madness
Metallica
Metallica
Metallica
Mousin’ Around
Party Zone, The
Pharaoh
Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern)
Playboy (Stern)
Pool Sharks
Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends
Shrek
Shrek Sopranos, The
Sopranos, The
Sorcerer
Space Shuttle
Spider-Man Vault Edition
Spider-Man Vault Edition
Spooky
Star Trek (Data East)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Wars (Stern)
Star Wars (Stern)
Star Wars (Stern)
Star Wars (Stern)
Star Wars (Stern)
Takes of the Arabian Nights
Taxi
Terminator 3
Transformers
Tron
Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone
Walking Dead, The
Wheel of Fortune * indicates machine was not working or available to play A short climb up the staircase or a ride in the lift brings you to Ring 1, the first of the three circular floors which run around the edge of the ‘saucer’ and allow you to look down on the floors below.

Looking up at the ceiling However we wanted to go straight to the top, so we took the lift to Ring 4 which is more like a platform than a ring but that’s what it’s called.

Going up! The multiple floors of pinball machines Ring 4

Ring 4 – the top floor It was on this partial ring that the home-brew pinballs were to be found sitting alongside more free-play machines.  There was also a cafe/bar and seating area for those all pinballed-out by the sheer number of machines to play.  As you exit the lift you walk out onto a shiny floor which mirrors the ceiling and gives a disorientated feeling as though you are about to step into thin air.

Ring 4’s floor Top floor pinballs Homebrew machines Wil Angenent’s two custom games Wil’s new Star Wars: Death Star One Star Wars: Death Star One went on to win the Best Game in Show award as chosen by special guest Kevin O’Connor.

Best Machine in Show award 
(picture: Wil Angenent) Medieval Castle and Captain Nemo Dives Again No DPO Expo would be complete without The Matrix This Mr & Mrs Pac-Man had a robotic lifter which raised the ball to the top of the backbox and dropped it into a clear tube back to the playfield The arm holding the ball There were two custom games from Pinball Amigos Pinball Amigos had this in-development Crazy Mansion game to show Minions Pinball 
(picture: Kirk Sadler) Hercules was joined by a work-in-progress customised Fish Tales There was also a seating area on Ring 4 Also a nice cafe bar with some tasty-looking cakes Here’s a list of all Ring 4’s machines:

24
Black Rose
Captain Nemo Dives Again
Centaur
Centaur II
Crazy Mansion
Doctor Who
Dr. Dude
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s*
Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition
Fish Tales Frontier
Grand Prix (Stern)
Grand Prix (Williams)
Guns ‘N Roses
Haunted House*
Hercules
Jokerz!*
Lady Luck*
Last Action Hero
Lost in Space
Matrix, The Medieval Castle
Minions
Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man
NBA
Party Zone, The
Party Zone, The
Pinbot
Robocop
Star Wars: Death Star One
Terminator 2
Having covered Ring 4, let’s drop down to Ring 3 and see what was on that floor Ring 3

Ring 3 was home to the tournament areas.

There were three zones in the tournament area; one for the main Dutch Pinball Open (DPO) machines, one for the Classics Tournament machines, and the third with machines for the side competitions such as the Ladies’, Youth and Swiss-Style tournaments.  The tournament desk where DPO players signed-in and reported results was also here.

The main DPO tournament area The main DPO tournament area The Classics Tournament The second tournament area’s machines Trophies for the tournament winners Although the tournaments took up much of Ring 3, there was still room for some free play machines to be slotted-in.

Free play games on Ring 3 Ring 3’s free-play machines:

4 Aces
Andromeda*
Batman
Batman Forever
Big Guns
Black Hole
Black Knight
Black Knight 2000
Bow and Arrow
Bride of Pinbot, The Machine
Capt. Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Car Hop
Catacomb
Centaur
Charlie’s Angels
Corvette
Deadly Weapon
Dealers Choice
Demolition Man
Dirty Harry*
Dolly Parton*
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s
Eight Ball
Eight Ball Champ Embryon
Fathom
Fish Tales
Flash Gordon
Flintstones, The
Four Million B.C.
Funhouse
Harlem Globetrotters
Hoops
Indianapolis 500
Jackpot
Johnny Mnemonic
Junkyard
Jurassic Park
Lady Luck
Lights, Camera, Action
Lord of the Rings, The
Mata Hari
Monday Night Football
NBA Fastbreak
Operation Thunder
Paragon*
Pinball Magic
Rescue 911 Revenge from Mars
Roadshow
Rocky
Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends
Rollergames
Safari*
Scorpion
Shadow, The
Soccer Kings
Sopranos, The*
Star Trek (Data East)
Stargate
Surf ‘n Safari
Takes from the Crypt
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Terminator 2
Title Fight
Tommy, The Who’s
Twister
Vegas
Whitewater
Wizard!
World Cup Soccer The DPO tournament machines Ring 3’s DPO Machines:

Aerosmith
Batman: Dark Knight
Big Buck Hunter Pro
Cirqus Voltaire
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dirty Harry
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s
Earthshaker! Evel Knievel
Fish Tales
Indianapolis 500
Jackbot
Judge Dredd
Kiss (Stern)
Power Play, Bobby Orr
Rollercoaster Tycoon Scared Stiff
Space Station
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Tommy, The Who’s
Whirlwind
Whitewater
World Cup Soccer
WWE Wrestlemania The Classics Tournament machines Ring 3’s Classics Tournament Machines:

Comet
Dolly Parton
Fathom
Gorgar
High Speed Mata Hari
Medusa
Nitro Groundshaker
Secret Service
Space Shuttle Star Trek (Bally)*
Time Machine (Data East)
Viking Ring 3’s Other Tournament Machines:

Addams Family, The
Attack from Mars
Avatar
Congo
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Doctor Who
Elvira & the Party Monsters Getaway, The: High Speed 2
Gilligan’s Island
Goldeneye
Indiana Jones (Stern)
Indiana Jones (Williams)
Jackbot
Medieval Madness Monopoly
Monster Bash
No Fear
Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern)
Spider-Man
Theatre of Magic
Transformers Ring 2

Ring 2 was the most full-on as far as free play machines went.  They were split into several blocks of back-to-back machines with enough room for guests to pass on their way to more machines or to the staircases.

Ring 2’s machines with Ring 3 above Ring 2’s machines with Ring 3 above Ring 2 Ring 2’s machines

Addams Family, The
Addams Family, The
Air Aces
Amigo
Aztec
Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Bad Girls
Batman
Baywatch
Big Buck Hunter Pro
Big Hurt, Frank Thomas’
Big Hurt, Frank Thomas’
Black Knight 2000
Black Pyramid
Bone Busters
Bow and Arrow
Buck Rogers
Capt. Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Casanova
Checkpoint
Checkpoint
Comet
Corvette
Corvette
Cosmic Gunfight
Cosmos
Counterforce
Crack the Bank
Cue Ball Wizard
Cue Ball Wizard*
Cyclone
Dogies
Dr. Dude
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s
Earthshaker!
Elvis
Even Knievel
Excalibur
Expo*
F14 Tomcat
Far Out
Fire!
Fire!
Firepower
Fish Tales
Flash
Flash Gordon*
Four Million B.C.
Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freedom
Freedom (EM)
Freedom (solid-state)
Fun-Fest*
Galahad
Getaway, The: High Speed 2 Ghostbusters
Gladiators
Godzilla
Gold Rush (Williams)
Goldeneye*
Gorgar
Grand Lizard
Grand Lizard
Harlem Globetrotters
High Roller Casino
High Speed
Hook
Hot Doggin’
Hot Shots
Independence Day
Independence Day
Indiana Jones (Williams)
Jive Time
Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park: The Lost World
Kings of Steel
Kiss (Bally)
Laser War
Lethal Weapon 3
Lethal Weapon 3
Magnotron
Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti
Mars: God of War
Mata Hari
Mata Hari*
Mustang
Night Rider (EM)
Night Rider (solid state)
No Good Gofers
Nugent
Old Chicago
Operation Thunder
Party Animal
Party Zone, The
Phantom of the Opera*
Phoenix
Pinball
Pinball Magic
Pinbot
Pinbot
Playboy (Bally)
Playboy (Stern)
Police Force
Pool Sharks
Power Play, Bobby Orr*
Punk
Radical!
Ready Aim Fire Rescue 911
Rescue 911
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Riverboat Gambler
Robocop
Robo-War
Scared Stiff
Seawitch
Secret Service
Shadow, The*
Shaq Attaq
Silverball Mania
Simpsons, The
Sky Divers
Sopranos, The
Space Shuttle
Spider-Man
Spirit of 76
Spirit of 76
Spring Break
Star Gazer
Star God
Star Race
Star Trek (Data East)
Star Wars (Data East)
Stargate
Stellar Wars
Stop Go
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
Strikes and Spares
Strikes and Spares
Sun Valley
Super Mario Bros.
Superman
Surf ‘n Safari
Tales of the Arabian Nights*
Target Alpha
Taxi
Terminator 2
Terminator 3
Time Fantasy
Time Warp
Title Fight
Tommy, The Who’s
Tommy, The Who’s
Torpedo Alley
Transformers
TX-Sector
Vampire
Waterworld
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Wipe Out
World Cup Soccer
World Fair Ring 1

Ring 1 played host to the companies Ministry of Pinball and iPinball.nl, both of which had nice selections of games on free play.

Ring 1, with Rings 2 & 3 behind Ring 1’s machines Ring 1’s machines Ring 1’s machines Ring 1’s machines Ring 1’s machines iPinball.nl’s stand Dialed In! gets a lot of attention on the Ministry of Pinball stand Ring 1’s machines

Addams Family, The
Airborne
Alien
Alien
Attack from Mars
Batman: Dark Knight
Bride of Pinbot: The Machine
Bride of Pinbot: The Machine
Casbah
Champion Pub, The
Cirqus Voltaire
Cirqus Voltaire
Congo
Congo
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dialed In!
Doctor Who
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s
Elektra
Elvis
Fish Tales
Flintstones, The
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s Full Throttle
Full Throttle
Funhouse
Game of Thrones
Ghostbusters
Hobbit, The
Indiana Jones (Williams)
Indiana Jones (Williams)
Indianapolis 500
Iron Man
Iron Man
Johnny Mnemonic
Johnny Mnemonic
Junkyard
Kiss (Bally)*
Last Action Hero
Lord of the Rings, The
Medieval Madness Remake
Monster Bash
Nitro Groundshaker*
No Good Gofers
Pinbot
Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern) Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern)
Pistol Poker
Playboy (Stern)
Revenge from Mars
Road Kings
Rolling Stones, The
Scared Stiff
Scared Stiff
Shadow, The
Shaq Attaq
Silverball Mania
Spider-Man
Star Wars (Stern)
Star Wars Trilogy
Stargate
Starship Troopers
Theatre of Magic
Theatre of Magic
Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone
Viper Night Drivin’
Whirlwind
Wizard of Oz, The* In total we counted 468 pinballs over the five levels, including tournament games. Additional machines may have arrived later while others may have been removed, but 468 was the number we counted when the greatest number of visitors were in the Evoluon.

Seminars

Along with the machines, tournaments and vendors there was also a full schedule of seminars run by Jonathan Joosten, starting at midday on Saturday with Nicolas from PinSound talking about the various replacement soundtracks available for games using the PinSound board.

Nicolas Manaud from PinSound Most of the seminars were recorded by Peter Homan and we have added them all below.

Peter recording Nicolas’s seminar

At 1pm Wil Angenent spoke about his latest custom game creation, Star Wars: Death Star One, which he built from an original Star Wars game by Data East, but modified the playfield to add extra shots, new ways to start the features and added an LCD display.

Wil Angenent talks about Star Wars: Death Star One

Following Wil was Kevin O’Connor who recounted his early years in the pinball business creating art for many famous Bally games.

Kevin O’Connor with some of his artwork

At 3:30pm there was a special presentation marking the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Pinball Association (NFV).  Former heads of the association joined current board members to talk about how the NFV was founded, the notable events in its history and to unveil the new NFV logo.

Remembering the NFV’s history This was probably the best attended seminar with a packed room NFV’s Spinner magazine’s editorial team Note that this seminar was presented in Dutch.



At 5pm it was time for Barry Oursler to talk about his time designing games such as Gorgar, Pinbot, Comet, Cyclone, Doctor Who, Dirty Harry and many more while working at Williams.

Barry Oursler talks game design

Following Barry, Pinball News Editor Martin Ayub and Pinball Magazine Editor Jonathan Joosten held their popular So You Think You Know Pinball? quiz where the audience go to win great prizes from Jersey Jack Pinball, Stern Pinball, Dutch Pinball, Pinball Magazine, Pinball News and many others in return for answering pinball questions correctly.

Kevin O’Connor continued his seminar on Sunday at noon, looking at his artwork on more recent titles for Data East, Sega and Stern Pinball.



Then at 1pm, Dennis van de Pas spoke about the creation of his most recent custom game, Kill Bill, based on the Quentin Tarantino movie.

Dennis van de Pas

2pm was the time for Dutch Pinball’s Jaap Nauta and Barry Driessen to update the audience on their progress towards resumption of production of their company’s The Big Lebowski game.

Jaap Nauta and Barry Driessen from Dutch Pinball

Jean-Paul de Win was the next speaker.  He talked about his work on Jersey Jack Pinball’s Dialed In! game, creating the Quantum City model and all the in-game display animations.

Jean-Paul de Win In the final seminar, Barry Oursler concluded his talk from Saturday to look at his most recent work and his current job designing pinballs for Heighway Pinball.

With so many machines, stands and seminars spread out around the building, seeing the whole show takes some time.  So, here’s our exclusive Thirty-One Minute Tour video showing you all around DPO Expo 2017.



Tournaments

The name of the event was the DPO Expo, so the main Dutch Pinball Open tournament was a major part of the weekend.

244 players took part in the DPO, with play split between a set of qualifying rounds on Saturday and the play-offs on Sunday.

Qualifying in the DPO Qualifying was held in five two-hour sessions spread across Saturday.  In qualifying each player could choose six of the twenty-four available machines to play and record a score.  Scores on each machine were ranked and points awarded.  The total of all six games’ ranking points gave the player their total points and determined their qualifying position.

Recording DPO qualifying scores To select a game, players put their badge under the game name on one of two peg boards (one board for machines 1-12 and another for machines 13-24).  When their name moved up to the top position, it was their turn to play next.

The queuing system With players waiting for their machine to become available, the entry/exit area became crowded In addition to their six games, each player had one joker which allowed them to replay one of their chosen machines.  This was a ‘hard’ joker, in that the score would be replaced even if it was lower than their original score.  The joker game could be played during the regular qualifying period, or in a separate joker round right at the end of qualifying.  It could also not be played at all if a player was happy with all six of their scores or didn’t want to gamble on improving one of them.

The top 48 players qualified for Sunday’s play-offs, with the top 16 getting a bye through the first round.

The main tournament’s scores and standings The play-offs on Sunday were a standard double-elimination format, with the winners bracket being the best-of-three games on machines chosen at random while the loser bracket was only a single game. Progress was shown on a spreadsheet.

The play-offs on Sunday The DPO play-offs Meanwhile, over in the Classics Tournament area qualifying began on Saturday morning and continued until lunchtime on Sunday.

Trophies and cash awards for the Classics Tournament The format allowed unlimited entries at a cost of €3 each.  Each entry consisted of a single game on three of the Classics Tournament machines.  As with the DPO, scores were ranked on each machine and the total ranking points from the three scores were used to rank that entry.  Only a player’s best entry could qualify, but all entries counted in determining ranking points.

Qualifying in the Classics Tournament Scoring for the Classics Tournament was done on paper and manually entered in to the computer system.

Entering scores for the Classics Tournament When all qualifying was over on Sunday lunchtime, the top 16 from the 151 entrants made it through to the play-offs.

They were (in alphabetical order): Albert Nomden, Benjamin Gräbeldinger, Cayle George, Craig Pullen, David Mainwaring, Evert Brochez, Greg Mott,John van der Wulp, Kirsten Adam,Mark van der Gugten, Michel Rorive, Peter Andersen, Ralph Beckers, Rich Mallett, Roy Wils & Stefan Herold.

The Classics Tournament play-offs were a simple best-of-three single-elimination format played as eight pairs in the first round, four pairs in the quarter finals, two pairs in the semis and then the final pairing of Ralph Beckers and Roy Wils.

Ralph begins the best-of-three final on Mata Hari After the first ball on Mata Hari it was close, with Roy ahead on 149,300 to Ralph’s 103,600.  Ball two wasn’t so good for Ralph and he only added 20k to his score compared to Roy who more than tripled his score to 383,980.  Ralph’s third ball was even worse, ending on 127,760 to give Roy the first game without needing to play his third ball.

The second game was Nitro Groundshaker.

Nitro Groundshaker was the second game of the final Again, Roy was in charge scoring more than 500,000 on his first ball compared to Ralph’s 19,890.  Balls two and three were no better for Ralph and he finished his game on 40,410.  That gave Roy a 2-0 win in the final and first place in the tournament.  In the play-off for third place, Albert Nomden beat Stefan Herold.

First place in the Classics Tournament, Roy Wils Second place, Ralph Beckers Classics Tournament  Pos Name 1
2
3
4
6
6
6
6
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
17
18
19
20
21
22
24
24
24
26
27
28
29
31
31
31
33
34
34
36
37
38
40
40
40
42
43
43
45
46
47
48
48
50
50
52
53
53
55
56
57
57
59
61
61
61
64
64
64
67
67
67
69
69
71
71
73
74
75
76
76
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
92
92
92
94
95
96
96
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
105
107
107
109
109
111
111
113
115
115
115
117
119
119
119
121
122
123
123
125
126
126
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
136
136
136
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
148
148
148
148
151 Roy Wils
Ralph Beckers
Albert Nomden
Stefan Herold
Cayle George
Craig Pullen
Benjamin Gräbeldinger
Kirsten Adam
Greg Mott
Evert Brochez
Rich Mallett
Peter Andersen
John van der Wulp
Michel Rorive
David Mainwaring
Mark van der Gugten
Nils De Kleine
Erwin Deutschländer
Lutz Hammer
Stefan Hänsch
Bas van Doorn
Albert Medaillon
Dirk Elzholz
Tom Fletcher UK
Jochen Ludwig
Bart Volman
Raphael Duez
Thomas Doepelheuer
Jürgen Schmitz
Dina Fukson
John Gimera
Taco Wouters
Philipp Unger
Eric Houtteman
Peter Blakemore
Torsten Jacob
Martin Ayub
Lieven Engelbeen
Mario Kertels
Norman Heikamp
Kjell Erik Husom
Willem van der Meij
David Deturck
Kevin Roelants
Eko Elens
Fabian Kretschmer
Bert Penning
Ralf De Kleine
Bernd Gottwald
Paul Englert
Thomas van Clapdorp
Patrick Gelbarth
Stefan Judmann
Edwin Rooijens
Alex Reihle
Julie Gray
Mike Parkins
Rob Sagasser
Roman Kunovic
Søren Worre
Glenn Verhoosele
Joël Wozniak
Christian Hammer
Ivan Geentjens
Norbert Broman
Steven Demets
Erol saydam
Anthony Rorive
Coen Dunnink
Theo de Reuver
Gerard Vos
Torsten Eid
Jeroen Wieringa
Jim Lindsay UK
Barry Hoeben
Vincent Chardome
Jeroen Boiten
Fred van den Bosch
Frank van Vleuten
Stefan Schichtl
Marc Steinmeier
Nick Baxter-Sibley
Dominique De Cock
Lefman kan
Frank Menzler
Helen de Haan-Verbeek
Bob Thissen
Ronald Klappe
Jeremy Dorling
Jasmijn de Jong
Louis Hänsch
Rob Fransen
Arjan Neet
Steven de Maer
Marcel van der Zouwen
Simone Fontana
Didier Dujardin
Mark Heneka
Carl Bierkens
Francois De Wrangel
Florian Thomas
Ralf Wasser
Evelyne Desot
Claudia Chelius
Sebastian Zehe
Ben Zaad
Sascha Maria Lyck
Heinz Berges
Joeri Stroobants
Jörn Runge
Dennis Verleyen
Pascal Claessens
Tom Geneyn
David Carlier
Babs Negelen
Patrick Struwer
Kevin Sultana
Mirko Carton
Denis Cuypers
Tiny de Bie
Willy Sachet
Marijke Kool
Dirk Engler
Jonas Doepelheuer
Esther Carton
Don Kraper
Nicky de Milde
Marnix Goethals
Gerard Paapen
Bjorn Brand
Hans Harte
Tina Reil
Stephan Luhn
Steven Smith
Rob Elens
Kelly Lembrechts
Robin Koning
Peter Roos
Stefan Nussbaum
Joris van Neijenhof
Mary van der Putten
Richard Garbutt
Roel Franck
Daniela Oymann
Joris de Wilde
Nadine Felgentreu
Noralie Carton
Mathias Leurs
Amie Carton
Sam van Vleuten
Martin Blok The main DPO reach its final after the Classics Tournament had concluded.  Roy Wils was playing in both so they needed to be held consecutively.

Roy was joined by Peter Andersen and Taco Wouters to play the best-of-three final.  Each chose a machine to play and took the player one position on their choice.  Roy chose Rollercoaster Tycoon, Peter chose Aerosmith and Taco chose Whitewater.  Points would be awarded for position in each game using a 5-2-0 system.

Roy, Peter and Taco before the final Roy began first on Rollercoaster Tycoon.

The final begins Roy’s 692,910 on ball one was a disappointing start, but Taco only managed 305,890 on his ball.

Taco starts his game Meanwhile, Peter’s first ball didn’t go so well either.

Oops! Taco started multiball on his second ball to take the lead.

Taco gets multiball His 5,229,380 was more than double Peter’s 2,448,650, while Roy was third on 1,178,290.

Roy wasn’t able to get a grip on the game on his third ball either, ending his game on 1,352,900 for third place.  Taco likewise had a bad third ball and only raised his score to 5,505,780.  Only Peter could prevent Taco winning game one, and to do that he really needed to start multiball.

That should do nicely Peter’s score soon passed Taco’s and he stopped playing with 5,783,420 racked-up.  So Peter had 5 points, Taco 2 points and Roy 0 points going into game two – Whitewater.



Taco starts game two of the three-game final As with Rollercoaster Tycoon, the player picking the game didn’t get off to a great start.  In fact, Taco’s first ball only netted him 3,030,440 points.  Peter meanwhile scored 20,580,770 to take the lead with Roy having another bad ball, scoring only 1, 650,000.

All three did rather better on their second balls thanks to starting multiball.  Taco raised his score to 55, 701,120 and Roy to 41,721,100, but again it was Peter who did best of all which his 189,078,870 second ball total.

The pressure was on Taco and Roy to stop Peter taking another 5 points and wrapping up the win.

Taco couldn’t beat Peter’s score, ending his game on 74,961,230.  Peter used his third ball to extend his lead further and ended with 257,089,420.

Only Roy could stop him, and he did thanks to some great multiball jackpots.

Roy wins on Whitewater Roy stopped with a score of 266, 231,560 to make the overall points total Peter: 7, Roy: 5, Taco: 2.

For Taco only a win would do to keep his championship hopes alive, and then it would require Roy to be second and Peter third to get a three-way play-off.  If either Peter or Roy won the third game then they would win overall.

It was Peter’s choice of Aerosmith and the curse of player one continued.

Peter played first on Aerosmith His first ball score of 513,960 was third, behind Taco in first with 2,108,600 and Roy on 1,518,890.

All three did better on their second balls but Peter was still third with his 3, 098,000.  Roy overtook Taco by 6,773,180 to 4,045,010, but going into the third ball it was still anybody’s game.

Peter did much better on his third ball thanks to a nice multiball.  He ended his game with 19,252,370.

Roy looked set to catch him when…

Danger… Danger… Tilt! Roy’s score of 11,084,090 meant Peter had gained at least 2 points and so had safely won the final regardless of how Taco did on his last ball.

As it transpired, Taco only had a quick ball and ended with 5,291,390 points, putting him in third place in the game and third overall.  With the DPO running behind schedule, presentation of the trophies and cash prizes followed immediately the result was known.

Bas shows DPO winner Peter his custom trophy Winner of the DPO 2017, Peter Andersen, with his trophy and €500 prize Second place, Roy Wils Third place, Taco Wouters The top three in the DPO 2017 Main DPO Tournament Pos Name 1
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7
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28
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36
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44
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81
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244 Peter Andersen
Roy Wils
Taco Wouters
Axel Bouet
Stefan Herold
Mark van der Gugten
Martijn van Aken
Dirk Klaver
Jochen Ludwig
Joël Wozniak
Albert Nomden
Benjamin Gräbeldinger
Joachim Reniers
John Gimera
Cayle George
David Deturck
Michel van den Elzen
Mart Oenema
Mario Kertels
Albert Medaillon
Sebastian Mutz
Pieter van Leijen
Martin Ayub
Steven van der Staaij
Peter Blakemore
Mike Parkins
Norman Heikamp
Marcel van der Zouwen
Thomas van Clapdorp
Dennis Slagboom
Lieven Engelbeen
Eric Houtteman
Lutz Hammer
David Mainwaring
Erwin Deutschländer
John van der Wulp
Dirk Elzholz
Bart Volman
Helen de Haan-Verbeek
Michel Rorive
Roman Kunovic
Simone Fontana
Christian Hammer
Wilbert der Kinderen
Rich Mallett
Gerard Vos
Fabian Kretschmer
Rob Overdijk
Nils de Kleine
Martijn Ewalds
Claudia Chelius
Joris de Wilde
Mathias Leurs
Ollivier Francq
Machteld Decloedt
Jean Paul de Win
Hans Bijsterveld
Kirsten Adam
Eko Elens
Philipp Unger
Ralph Beckers
Stefan Hänsch
Torsten Jacob
Rahiel Karamali
Greg Mott
Marc Steinmeier
Torsten Eid
Jaap Valent
Jules Reivers
Joris van Neijenhof
Glenn Verhoosele
Florian Thomas
Craig Pullen
Vincent Chardome
Dennis Verleyen
Stefan Poland
Sylvain Carre
Evert Brochez
Raphaël Duez
Jasmijn de Jong
Olivier Calimet
Sebastian Zehe
Bjorn Brand
Stefan Nussbaum
Louis Hänsch
Steven de Maer
Peter Muis
Norbert Broman
Didier Dujardin
Thomas Doepelheuer
Leo Stelloo
Kevin Sultana
Stefan Schichtl
Francois de Wrangel
Derrick Bergman
Dennis Cuypers
Tim Peeters
Frederik Bioly
Martijn van Amsterdam
Kirk Sadler
Carl Bierkens
Laurens Leemans van der Donk
Koen Heltzel
Joris Stulemeijer
Arthur Vissers
Dina Fukson
Tom van den Panhuyzen
Carlo Vijn
Peter Popp
Ronald Klappe
Ivan Geentjens
Sylvain Grévin
Jim Lindsay
Ralf Behr
Enrico Douwens
Alex Reihle
Frank Menzler
Bart Bartholomeus
Fred van den Bosch
Leandro Goethals
Coen Dunnink
Timo Hendriks
Kelly Lembrechts
Jos Deboosere
Bart Evers
Anthony Rorive
Pascal Leroy
Jim Jansen
Koen Simoens
Paul Englert
Fabio Villanueva
Mark Heine
Tom Vis
Dominique de Cock
Theo de Reuver
Stefan van Duyn
Evelyne Desot
Jeremy Dorling
Robin Koning
Tom Geneyn
Jasper van Eeden
Peter van Vliet
Roel Franck
Jos van Rixel
Don Kraper
Jeroen Boiten
Jens Buck
Daniel Luijnenburg
Bernd Gottwald
Tom Fiers
Mario Vandermeulen
Bert Penning
Jürgen Schmitz
Jilles Eijking
Willy Sachet
Rob Sagasser
Kjell Erik Husom
Frank List
Stefan Vesterling
Kevin Roelants
Peter Roos
Joeri Stroobants
Stefan Toonders
Bram Smeets
Lene Andersen
Søren Worre
Ralf de Kleine
Hendrik Morskate
Rob Elens
Koenraad de Nolf
Steven Smith
Wim Nolmans
Rob Fransen
Edwin Nijs
Sascha Maria Lyck
Ralf Wasser
Helen van de Wulp
Stefan Judmann
Heinz Berges
Lefman Kan
Stephane Swaenepoel
Christian Vijn
Roy Smith
Tiny de Bie
Jörn Runge
Patrick Karl Gelbarth
Ritchie Cicilia
Arjan Neet
Lola Vissers
Erol Saydam
Tina Reil
Arjan Bakker
Nick Baxter-Sibley
David Carlier
Mark Heneka
Axel Werner-Schulz
Babs Negelen
Steven Demets
Jan Poland
Kyoo Barbaix
Julie Gray
Thomas Motzet
Ben Zaad
Ben de Jongh
Malte von Stein
Daniel Harzenmoser
Stefan Riedler
Yuri Verhoeks
Maarten Berkers
Tom Fletcher
Kai Veerman
Marcel Diks
Barry Hoeben
Dereck Breuning
Nicky de Milde
Teun Jonas
Bas van Doorn
Marnix Goethals
Pelle Gerritsen
Hauke Hirsinger
Peter Schotvanger
Martin Blok
Bertie Oude Bennink
Jeroen Wieringa
Jan Hop
Daniela Oymann
Gerard Paapen
Mary van der Putten
Roel van Bueren
Nadine Felgentreu
Dolf Hollestelle
Felix Schon
Vincent Hendrikx
Richard Garbutt
Jerome de Win
Ronald Vonk
Bob Thissen
Felix Hüsken
Julien Catena
Paul Cobben
Stijn Teurlings
Daan Kloosterboer
Ferrie van Wortel
Willem van der Meij In the Ladies Tournament held in the second tournament area it was a win for Evelyne Desot.

The Ladies Tournament The Ladies Tournament Evelyne beat Jasmijn de Jong who was second, with Julie Gray in third.

Winner of the Ladies Tournament, Evelyne Desot Jasmijn had already left by the time of the trophy presentation.

Third place, Julie Gray Ladies Tournament Pos Name  1
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17 Evelyne Desot
Jasmijn de Jong
Julie Gray
Peggy Thijs
Dina Fukson
Helen de Haan-Verbeek
Daniela Oymann
Tina Reil
Lene Andersen
Tiny de Bie
Kelly Lembrechts
Linda Alpstad
Machteld Decloedt
Ingrid
Babs Negelen
Marianne Winkel
Alicia Juniet In addition there was a Youth Tournament held in the same second tournament area on Sunday.

The Youth Tournament in progress We will bring you the results of this just as soon as we get them.

The tournament results bring our report from the DPO Expo 2017 to a close.

This was certainly a landmark event and almost certainly the largest European pinball show to date in terms of number of machines and the floor space available.  The venue was as impressive as the organisation, and given how much work must have gone into setting everything up it was a shame the event was only two days long; we could have spent a week there and still not played every machine.

Eindhoven was a great host city too – lots of nearby hotels, good train and air connections, and plenty of late-night entertainment for a post-Expo wind-down.  The show coincided with the Glow festival of light and colour which added an extra element to the weekend’s fun.

Catharina Church in Eindhoven during the Glow festival So, congratulations to the organisers and everyone who brought games, staffed the desks and tournament areas, helped with the seminars, repaired machines, set up and ran the scoring systems, assisted guests and generally made sure everyone had a great time.  How they will top this show in the future is anyone’s guess.

Some of the current and former NFV board members

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