The Best in Show Pins from the 2013 TPF

They were announcing the Best in Show winners at the Texas Pinball Festival at about 2:35 on Sunday just after they shut the machines down for open play. I actually did hear a few of the winners called (Hercules as best 70's SS? Really??) but I needed to hurry if I wanted to get in more pinball at Pinballz in Austin – the place was three hours away! So I was glad to see that the folks at Pinball News were good enough to recap them for me. And what a great list of winners (mostly) it is!

Best antique pinball machine - Rocket from Keith Holbrook
Best 1960s pinball machine - Flip-a-Card from Ken Head
Best 1970s E-M pinball machine - Strike Zone from Craig Manning
Best 1970s solid state machine - Hercules from Elevation Games
Best 1980s machine - Sorcerer by Scott Martin
Best 1990s pinball - Whitewater from Craig Cheatham
Best modern pinball - Big Bang Bar from Michael Flanagan
Best original pinball machine - Pistol Poker from Pinballz Arcade, Austin
Best restored machine - Space Station by Keith Holbrook
Best custom machine - Spider-Man from Brent Lane
Best classic Stern - Stingray from Brian Morrison
Best video game - Donkey Kong by Rusty/Shelley Nunalee
Best machine in Texas - Varkon from Elevation Games

So here are my thoughts on the winners:

Walking into a room with over 400 pinball machines in it is amazing. There are so many clusters of games all grouped in different ways, flashing and blinking and making a general racket, it's hard to even know where to start. So in my case on Saturday, I walked all the way thru the ballroom, taking in all the sights, until I got to an area in the far corner that had a very low density of machines, and in the very corner, there were three VERY nice Williams pins owned by collector Keith Holbrook: 1987's Space Station, 1959's Rocket, and 1966's Full House. But it was Rocket that caught my attention; this game was in truly mint shape, and it played like a dream. I gave it and its EM neighbor a few plays before deciding to play ONLY EM's until I had played every one in the room, but even then I knew Rocket would be the one to beat.

And there were dozens of other great EM's to choose from, so I can't say I knew that Gottlieb's 1970 Flip-a-Card would win best game from the 60's (!!) or that Williams' Strike Zone from that same year would win best 70's EM, although they both played great.

I honestly think they gave it to Hercules just for being cool enough to own the thing and drag it out for the folks. It gave me a nice game and was working great, but who's kidding who? Best solid state machine from the seventies? C'mon! But the game is a draw and a treat to try, so I guess giving the guy who brung it an extra hundred just to lug it home is sporting in its way...

Everyone loves Whitewater (and Dennis Nordman was in the room (Steve Ritchie and George Gomez: next time I guess!)) so it wasn't too hard to believe it would win best 90's machine. (Plus there were at least three of them in the room. That right there has to increase a game's chances!) Whether this was the actual machine that won I can't say, but they were all looking and playing great.

I'm crying foul on Big Bang Bar. Okay the game is a hoot and this Gene Cunningham remake was in great shape; nobody doesn't like Big Bang Bar! But this machine was MISSING THE TUBE DANCER!! What the HELL???!!! And it wasn't just missing the dancer, the whole TUBE was missing!! I have played Big Bang Bar two other places this year, once on an original Capcom machine and the other on a Cunningham, and they were BOTH in better condition than this one and they both had their dancers! I think it's outrageous this award didn't go to Wizard of Oz, but even if that was ineligible for some lame reason (such as Gary Stern might cry) they still shoulda picked a game that has its best toy in the lineup!

Pistol Poker remains a mystery to me. I played this game in New Jersey a few months ago and had no idea what was going on, and last weekend was no different. The DMD kept asking me to choose my suit, but I had no idea what I was choosing! And it's not like I can't find my way around a deck of cards either, I just couldn't buy a clue with that game. But it plays pretty lively! If you took a course maybe it would be kinda fun! But I still wish they had brung Al's Garage Band!

Space Station! I didn't get around to playing this one until Sunday afternoon, so captivated as I was by its neighbor Rocket. But as I was playing it three guys with clipboards came over (judges!) “Are you judges?” I asked them. “Yep” they said. “Well here's my opinion” I said, sticking out my up-turned thumb. And I'm pretty sure that was what put this baby over the top too! I got a discerning eye!

I didn't play Spidey (you can't play 'em all, can you?) but it looked nice enough, although I can't say how he modified it. (I played Spider-Man Black in February, and after that, Red Spidey just seems a let down anyway!)

The classic Stern games were ALL a kick, so I don't know how they settled on Stingray, but I won't argue with them either. I had a blast playing that whole row! (Yeah Orbitor 1!!) (There were some great tables from Game Plan too.)

Donkey Kong?? Blechh!! I NEVER play vids at these things, only this time I did; one game. It was Joust. The rest can bite me!

And Grand Champion? The best machine in Texas? I agree that Willams Varkon from 1982 was best in show! Despite looking gimmacky, it's a true pinball with as much game as Black Hole, and the presentation is a complete trip! Using joysticks to work flippers is a LITTLE odd, but the game is still a winner and it's a shame they didn't make more than 90 of them!

The rest of the report from Pinball News can be found at the link below. And I'll post more about the TPF and my trip to Pinballz in another thread (along with some pics.)

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/tpf2013/index.html

Williams' Rocket from 1959 restored to perfection by Keith Holbrook

Electro-Mechanical Winners Flip-A-Card and Strike Zone

Atari's Hercules from 1979

Sorcerer and Whitewater

Big Bang Bar - Gene Cunningham #153





And exhibit A: Tube Dancer M.I.A.

Pistol Poker, Spiderman, and Stingray

Willams' Space Station from 1987 , another table restored to show-winning condition by Keith Holbrook.

Williams' Varkon from 1982 wins the grand prize!

Hi Robert

Nice photos there. I haven't thought about "Rocket" for a long time. Did you get a chance to play a game?

Thanks for the memories!

Timelord ...

I played at least a dozen games of Rocket over the two days, and the table played as good as it looked. The ball moved around a flawless playfield with all hardware in perfect condition. It was by far the best restored EM I have ever seen.

And I forgot to mention how much fun I had playing the Williams Sorcerer, the Mark Ritchie table that won Best Machine from the 80's. My blurry playfield photo does not do it proper justice, but it was in super condition and playing really fast. I can't wait to see that game come to TPA!!

(And in case anyone is wondering why these pictures all suck so bad it's because I take them with my phone and I never have any idea if they're gonna be in focus or just how things are framed. It's a total crap shoot.)

Would love to have played a few games on that Strike Zone. And that Sorcerer too. Thanks for the pics and post.

Thanks for posting! I'm drooling over this pictures.

While I didn't go to TPF, in my experience with conventions the "best in show" awards are usually for condition/quality of a restoration rather than for the game itself. This explains why crimes against pinball, like Hercules, win these awards sometimes.

Sorry, but BBB without the Tube Dancer is unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE! Somebody b**ch to Bobby King about this!

You are so right Fungi! But you can be sure that if Big Bang Bar ever comes to The Pinball Arcade, they wouldn't leave out the Tube Dancer.

The BBB at the National Pinball Museum (formerly of Baltimore) is one of the original 14 made by Capcom. It was a buck a play but I wasn't griping:



And the Cunningham BBB at Flippers Variety & Arcade in North Carolina was also in better condition than the one that won in Texas. The dancer is a riot when she gets moving, too. Maybe not quite so funny as the green rubber martians, but she does liven things up!




"Didn't I see you in a line-up?"

Good read, man. I absolutely love the backglass on Flip-a-Card. Strike Zone as well. It's also nice to see Sorcerer get some of the love it deserves.