California Extreme

They work hard to bring it all together, but this year may very well be my last.I consider there to be three major Pinball Tournaments in Northern California. They are held at California Extreme in Santa Clara, Golden Gate Pinball Festival in Lodi and Pin-a-Go-Go in Dixon. California Extreme is not exclusive with Pinball Machines. There are also tons of arcade games for those who enjoy them. We have enjoyed attending these events whenever we're able to. In the past, our work schedules often got in the way. Now that we're retired, our vacation schedules often cause conflicts. The people who run this event have always done a tremendous job of getting others to bring their beloved machines, set on free play, for the masses to play. In return, they get free admission. A substantial number of volunteers are also needed to load-in, load-out, wipe down, perform minor repairs, scorekeepers, registration, check-in, etc., etc. We attend to see Pinball Machines that we've never seen before, to play with machines that are hard to find, to play new machines, but mostly to play in the tournament. Yes, there are cash purses and trophies or plaques to be one. Bragging rights galore! But for players at my level, it's mostly about WPPR Points that affect your International Flipper Pinball Association Ranking. As I write this review, I am 8640 out of 103,576 players in the world. Does it mean anything? Only to my ego. At one time, I was sub-3000. I simply don't play in enough tournaments to keep my ranking. This year's tournament entry fee was $2 per game. That is not particularly expensive BUT there was no limit to the number of entries that one could purchase. This changes that tournament of skill and luck to one of skill, luck and DEEP POCKETS. In my opinion, there should be a single buy-in. Everyone plays the same number of games on the games that are available. Yes, this will reduce the prize money but so what? Whatever happens, happens. If you have a great day, congratulations. If you have a lousy day, better luck next year. But under the unlimited buy-in, you just keep putting out money until you have a few good games to tie together for your final score. What? The tournaments almost over but you're in 11th place and only the first 10 places are in the money. Well, play some more and hope to improve your score and win!Anyway, without the tournament to play in, I will either only attend California Extreme one day only or skip it all together moving forward. Additionally, this year, for the first time, the Hyatt is now charging $40 to park overnight. This was either not disclosed at the time of booking or I somehow missed it. When I complained, it was discounted $20 because I was staying there for California Extreme and another $10 because I'm a Hyatt member. I was told that, "all the other area hotels are charging more for parking and the Hyatt is just trying to catch up."There was a 49ers exhibition game on Saturday, August 19th, and parking was expected to be at a premium and traffic would be a zoo. To counter that, we arrived way early to get a space. We arrived at 8:30 for a 10:00 opening. Because we left the house so early, we didn't have time to eat breakfast, but we had plenty of down time in the hotel (check-in was at 3:00pm), so we opted for breakfast in the hotel (see our review for Evolution). Breakfast Buffet at $28 per person vs Continental Breakfast at $22 per person. So, while California Extreme is still lots of fun, between the costs and the crowds and a Deep Pocket Tournament, it may be time for us to move on.

Awesome event to experience a plethora of pinball and arcade games. Fantastic experience all around. My kids loved it.

I've been going to California Extreme on and off for the last couple of years, and was able to make it this past weekend.It's still great to see all of the machines in action - they've got classic games, rhythm games, gimmicky games, games from America, games from Japan, and anything else you can think of.It's great that those who pre-register can get in an hour before, but this place can get really crowded once everything opens up. A number of the staff is made up of volunteers, and though some are passionate, it's not the smoothest process to do something as simple as picking up a badge. Also, it's not the fault of those putting on the event, but there's some bitter people here. Some people just can't take a loss in a game, and will get mad over something that's supposed to be fun. Hygiene is a bit rough at times too...

Love California Extreme. We used to go a lot more, but it had been a long time since the last time when we went this year. The event is fun and the game selection is always awesome - you will find rarities for sure. The organizers are AWESOME. For me the best part, though is seeing old friends and watching great panels. Love the location although its feeling over-crowded, so expanding would be cool. There was a second room of games this year, but we didn't even discover it until the end of the event.As long as you don't mind the crowds, I just REALLY recommend this event. You pay a flat rate and can game to your hearts content and there are multiple tournaments and panels on multiple gaming topics. Its just a good time overall.

The only place to get my annual Video Game fix! The best games, and the rarest games (Hard Drivin' 3 [flying car simulator] and Penny Pitch)! And they have pins too.

Have been coming to this event for a few years now and always have a great time. I'd recommend getting the weekend pass which usually includes a couple of T-shirts which makes it even more fun. The weekend pass also allows you into the venue an hour earlier than the general public. Usually plenty of parking at the convention center unless the Jehovah witness symposium is going on at the same time.

I attended in 2023. The show as great but their venue choice was not.The show was a fantastic deal. 2 days of arcade, pinball, and even some console games. It was so huge they had games set up in three different event rooms. They had a speaking room on top of that and several tournament rooms. I got to play rare games I'd never even heard of before, let alone seen. Everyone was having fun, people were polite and didn't hog games, and most of the games were in great operating condition. Some games did have issues but most were fixed in pretty quickly.They had a huge selection of pinball machines. The most I had ever seen in one place. Tons of old mechanical machines and early solid state machines up to modern machines. Stern Pinball was there and they had a bunch of their recent games on display. Foo fighters, Rush, 007, Godzilla, and tons of the new Venom pinballs. There were also 2 copies of Capcom's extremely rare Kingpin and even a Big Bang Bar. Tons of vintage Bally, Gottlieb, and Williams machines of course. Even many newer titles, mostly from Stern.As for arcades, you name it they had it just about. They had tons of Blast City cabinets filled with Japanese games and tons of one-on-one fighters. They had many releases laid out in rows. There were several Nintendo games, Williams games, rows of vector games, and even a fighting game row with most editions of Street Fight 2 and rare titles like Primal Rage II.The also had a room of console games with a stage where people played Rock Band. They had all of your standard older consoles like the Playstations, SNES, Genesis, Master System, NES, N64, etc. but also rarer machines like the Vectrex and the Atari 7800. There were also several dealers selling arcade and console stuff.Now, for the reason its not 5-stars: The Santa Clara Convention Center was in run down condition. The parking lot's surface was falling apart, a huge section of the parking lots lights didn't work, there weren't enough bathrooms, many of the drinking fountains didn't have enough water pressure to work, and it was very hot in the main event rooms. Convention Center staff (not CA Extreme staff) were unhelpful and gave wrong information, and the nearby game at Levi Stadium completely shut down the the area for hours. Other than that sour note, I can't recommend it enough. A change of venue and I'll probably be back next year.

Having never been there before, I was excited to bring my family there this year (2023). Unfortunately, the expo coincided with a 49ers pre-season game at Levi stadium next door, and parking was an absolute disaster. Website said we could get parking at the hotel for $25, but couldn't even get there due to police blockades. No one answering the phone at the hotel either. Ended up parking at off-site stadium parking for $60, which set us up for a terrible mood walking in.The expo itself had a great selection of games, many of which I hadn't seen in decades, but it was uncomfortably crowded with a line virtually for every machine. Very little to see besides the games. I heard there were speakers somewhere, but no idea where that was. Left very disappointed after 90 min. No interest in returning.

If you love pinball or arcade games you will not be disappointed. We enjoyed the variety of games and seeing the dad and his sons win the grand prize pinball game.

I loved going to this event today. It was a thrill playing the most recent computerized pinball machines such as Godzilla one and some vintage rare video games like Pac Man and his pet dog one. I spent most of the day there with my sweetie. I especially had a great time challenging a staff person ( I forgot her name) to a Rush (the classic rock band) pinball game. The reason why I gave the event 4 out of 5 is because the admission cost seems quite high for even a full day of playing games. Some vendors can be pricey here- there was one that was selling supposedly rare 1980s Pacman shoelaces for $10 each. He appeared to sell them all by the end of the day however I checked online and someone on Etsy was selling the same shoelaces for half that with discounted shipping and still was a better price then he was charging. I saw Pinball advertisements printed (not authentic as if I recall, only Hanes was on the inside brand tag) T-shirts for $22 as well. I would think $15 would have been more reasonable. However some vendors had amazing deals as well. I actually did get a great deal on a shirt from a vendor for less then $10 that was a Disney shirt with a Pinball theme and was also brand new! I think it originally came from Walmart but was still authentic as it had the Disney company printed in the collar of the shirt!Question: do they ever sell the shirts that promote the event for that year at the event or only online? By the way, if you love this event let me suggest the Pinball-a-go-go event held at Dillon every year. Also check out the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda.