....have been hectic. I did have fun spending time with family over the last two weekends, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying some pinball in the meantime. Here we go!
First up is the trip to Pittsburgh -- the location I visited is Kickback Pinball Cafe, since my last visit from 2014.
Black Knight: Sword of Rage: First games were getting in the hang of the shots. Best score at the time was about 48 million points. Also played with other people in the cafe.
Fish Tales: No dice.
Indianapolis 500: Since I played this and didn't record a score back from ReplayFX, I thought I'd give this another go. 227,636,020 was the best I could do that day. Rough game, but I managed to get a Loop Turbo combo for the first time. Incredibly...
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It's been a while since the unfortunate implications about Pinburgh. I've long since been better about this situation, and recently I've been able to travel a whole lot more, especially to places that I've never even visited. Since December, I've now been in all 4 corners of the nation since my life began. Without further ado:
Thanksgiving: Went up to Columbus to visit with family and have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. During Black Friday, we toured around the Columbus downtown area, and man, what a spectacle that is. After that, we went to Level One Arcade and Pins Mechanical (Dublin) to finish the night.
Fish Tales: Brutal. The ball bounced off the left post upon plunge, making Fast Casts basically impossible. ~24.6 million.
Medieval...
It's been nearly four years. It's time the Power comes back for another round.
More tales of victory, vengeance, and woe from league play (once league starts up again on 9/12); more machine photography; and more real pinball in general. Less musings on moderation (I don't do much of that anymore) and software development (ditto).
For those of the auditory persuasion, I should be showing up more on BlahCade, too. Although with the advent of the PAPA.tv Live and their extensive collection of tutorial videos, there's not really a need for the table-in-depth segments anymore, so those won't be coming back.
Right when the tickets became available in February, I got in the waitlist as soon as it became available. Started in the mid-high 50's, and climbed through as time passed. Midway through July, I finally managed to purchase my ticket for Pinburgh 2018, and officially make it into the player list. I didn't have to get my event tickets until it gets closer to the event, so I waited until about a week's time before the tournament started to get them.
We were pretty much all set, excitement through the roof and all, since this was going to be my first tournament. Was. Sunday night (the week of Pinburgh) came around and I struggled to sleep, as if something wasn't right. The next night, I learned a terrible truth -- my father passed away. I...
Before summer came along in 2008, I was still the same person you'd meet today. The same person, JPF, who enjoys video games, bowling, and pinball from time to time. At that point, I was still into some of the more casual games found commonly from places like MSN Games, as well as games played on consoles, like the Wii I still have today. I still remember bowling my very first 200 game back in February that year, but that's a whole different story.
Little did I know that one advertisement on the internet would change all that. I don't exactly remember the website, but I do recall at that moment, that advertisement was for a pinball game I haven't heard about. I decided to take a look, and it was a collection of real pinball tables...
Let's get right to it. Pictures: http://pinballarcadefans.com/showthread.php/12722-Replay-FX?p=261316&viewfull=1#post261316
Dialed In: The first game I aimed for, and it's such a blast to play! I sucked at it, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it! Scored 130,370 after getting one multiball out of it. "CRAZY!" is a quote I can't get out of my head.
Black Knight 2000: Harder settings, but it didn't stop me from activating King's RANSOM. 6,372,590 is the score; great for a first time on PAPA settings.
Apollo 13: Decent first game, only to realize that you can only get 13-ball by spelling BLASTOFF during normal play. I just had to collect the last two letters, and by the last game I played, I got the 13-Ball Multiball. It was...
Other than visit Farsight, of course. I'm still a ways down the waitlist (low 100s), and it's looking very unlikely I'll get in this year. I'll be quicker next time.
Odds are, this is still a work in progress. Game list subject to change.
Priority/Top 10 Games
Addams Family
Cirqus Voltaire
Creature From The Black Lagoon
Dialed In
Diner
Fathom
Firepower
Iron Man
Jungle Queen
Medieval Madness
Other Games
AC/DC
Al's Garage Band
Big Buck Hunter Pro (there's one near me, but neglected condition. Shame.)
Big Hurt
Congo
Demolition Man
Doctor Who
Dragon
Fish Tales
Getaway: High Speed II
Last Action Hero
Mustang
Paragon
Revenge From Mars
Ripley's
Skateball
Sorcerer
Space Shuttle
Star Trek TNG
Theatre of Magic
Tron
TX Sector
Wheel of...
I know but actually being outside and with other human beings should belong to nature and give us a much needed break away from screens. Granted we already do this with phones but now we drag out our consoles?
What bothered me about the commercial was that people were having fun without staring at screens (hoops, garden party). Then someone brings a tablet with controllers? That's not going to fly.
I grew up with Nintendo and want them to succeed. I'd like them to spend more resources on hardware and 3rd party support. This is not going to be another wii moment.
Twice as big as last year, but very organized for all of Saturday. Let's hop right in.
Some pinball machines just killed me outright, no matter how hard I tried. Some of the games were in tournament mode, so that's probably why they seemed so brutal. Here's the following, all scattered throughout the day:
Bride of Pin*Bot 1.0
Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (Plungerless)
Taxi (Broken plunger?)
Twilight Zone (wonky left flipper)
Star Trek TNG
Phantom of the Opera
Indy 500
Attack From Mars (different machine; ColorDMD)
FunHouse
High Speed
Eight Ball Deluxe
NBA (but screw that game anyway)
Judge Dredd (maybe that was good...)
Paragon (Justified.)
Terminator 2
Black Hole
Phantom and Indy 500 in particular: HOLY CRAP, they were FAST. Some...
Addams Family: 9,025,546,720
Attack from Mars: 258,618,098,520
Big Shot: 525,830
Black Hole: 17,000,820
Black Knight 2000: 60,096,470
Black Knight: 11,638,510
Black Rose: 5,696,234,410
Bram Stoker's Dracula: 32,639,756,320
Bride of PinBot: 12,690,259,260
Cactus Canyon: 2,500,533,890
Centaur: 70,404,320
Central Park: 9,991
Champion Pub: 1,770,719,920
Circus Voltaire: 3,762,988,100
Class of 1812: 247,639,530
Creature from the Black Lagoon: 78,811,249,900
Cue Ball Wizard: 10,130,845,230
Diner: 163,479,430
Dr. Dude: 429,381,070
Earthshaker: 124,149,350
El Dorado City of Gold: 3,092,680
Elvira and the Party Monsters: 586,263,640
Firepower: 3,462,980
Fish Tales: 9,975,864,010
Flight 2000: 11,089,340
Funhouse: 112,881,620
Genie: 6,487,640...
Visit Farsight's booth (obviously) and try to see Mark from Classic Game Room, if he arrives.
Games to Play: (Subject to change if/when necessary)
AC/DC
Addams Family
Attack From Mars
Banzai Run
Black Knight
Black Knight 2000
Cactus Canyon
Corvette
Diner
Dragon
Eight Ball Deluxe
Firepower
Fish Tales
Flight 2000
FunHouse
Game of Thrones
Ghostbusters
High Roller Casino (First time in 12 years)
High Speed II
Hot Tip
Indy 500
Judge Dredd
Jurassic Park
Medieval Madness
Metallica
Monster Bash (Lyman's Lament!)
No Good Gofers
Paragon
Pirates of the Caribbean (First time in about 10 years)
Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
RoadShow
Space Station
Star Trek Stern
Star Trek: Next Generation
Taxi
Tommy
TRON Legacy
Twilight Zone
TX Sector
Whirlwind...
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
X
X
(8)1
8/
X
X
X
X
X
X X X
28
47
56
76
106
136
166
196
226
256
3rd frame: Left a 4-9 split.
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Thanks.
I just noticed something that I haven't overheard or seen anyone talk about before and it really just impressed the crap out of me when it caught my attention. After rebuilding the right flipper leaf switches in whirlwind I noticed that I can press down the right flipper button with a ever so slight amount of pressure and it will only set off the bottom flipper and then in multiball I can cradle a ball with the right flipper while still shooting the million shot with the top right flipper just by ever so slightly adding more pressure, its kind of a tricky shot but it has proven to be effective in controlling the multiballs on WW. Anyway out of curiosity I opened up WW on TPA (thanks) and I then started messing with the right trigger...
I got whirlwind and Harley in my garage and the fact I can go play them whenever I want hasn't made me enjoy PBA any less, if anything being able to grind on both games in the real world and on PBA just makes me further appreciate the physics that PBA has going, kudos and I'm really excited to see the new flipper physics that we have seen in the last few releases to be implemented into the previously released seasons~!
Kickback Pinball Cafe was great, but ReplayFX is obviously the next best thing when it comes to playing on location. The arcade was HUGE. Pinball machines and video games are EVERYWHERE. There were many people there, but the place wasn't crowded when I attended on Saturday, August 1st. Right away, I hopped in and played pinball.
Twilight Zone: At the very least, it didn't punish me as badly as the one at Kickback. Still a very challenging game, but managed a score of 476,670,870. Next time, I'll get Lost in the Zone.
No Fear: I remember seeing this one at a now-closed down skating rink; it had that Jump ramp design that I noted when I was younger. Played a few challenges and reached Multiball. Even got a Super Jackpot from the Jump...
Purchased my ticket for Saturday and ready to play some of the games I missed out on when I was younger! Here is a list of games I would like to play while at the event:
AC/DC
Addams Family
Attack From Mars
Banzai Run
Black Knight
Cactus Canyon
Corvette
Demolition Man
Dragon (BAO)
Eight Ball Deluxe
F-14 Tomcat
Firepower
FunHouse
High Speed
High Speed II
Jack*Bot
Jungle Queen
Medieval Madness
Metallica
Monster Bash
No Good Gofers
Party Zone
Pin*Bot
Revenge From Mars
Ripley's
RoadShow
Safe Cracker
Space Shuttle
Space Station
Star Trek TNG
Star Trek Vengeance
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Taxi
Terminator 2
TRON: Legacy
Twilight Zone
Whirlwind
World Cup 94
There are probably more, but these are just several of what I would enjoy. I'll...
Scores moved over here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vXF-KIkEEeWykWVZ87wgLqZ0ORfLi92VVcte3GD6WVA
Pro Pinball
The Web
45,839,650,980; 14 Combos; 19 Loops
Timeshock!
4,120,055,440; 9 Ramps; Master of Time: 80.04; 1,470,798,560 (Tourney)
Big Race USA
1,284,932,730; Speedway King: 168,000,000; Video: 39 Kills; Big Race King: 298,000,000; Loops: 4; Combos: 4-Way
Fantastic Journey
8,341,191,410
Pinball FX 2
Episode V
1,339,665,335
Clone Wars
712,953,680
Boba Fett
318,071,320
Avengers
1,129,257,794
Fear Itself
457,680,501
Infinity Gauntlet
1,206,215,889
World War Hulk
688,897,000
Thor
318,754,000
Moon Knight
367,081,816
Ghost Rider
300,120,600
X-Men
1,075,262,363
Blade
531,346,800
Iron Man...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* As much as I enjoy playing pinball, I have never played in a pinball league or in a sanctioned tournament. I say "sanctioned", because I've played probably thousands of impromptu tourneys. Not for money prizes or trophies, but bragging rights of a particular machine.
* These matches would be for the title of "who's best at this particular moment", usually between friends. And there's always the "top score", which back in the day was a note taped on the head of the machine with the name, score and date. This was done on the honor system, but did require an impartial viewer to verify the deed. (With the modern way of entering one's initials as the machine itself verifies the score, it's...
Ever since RoadShow was revealed to be coming to Pinball Arcade, I couldn't help but notice how many of these machines, TPA included or not, I've actually missed out on ages ago. Circumstances include being too young to play, being outright scared of some of them, or just not for me. Below is a list of games I missed out on in the past:
Bram Stoker's Dracula (at a Pizza Hut now closed; too young/creepy)
Unnamed Pinball 2000 game (same bowling alley where WoZ now resides)
Sharkey's Shootout (a few locations)
Freddy: Nightmare on Elm Street (too young/scary game)
Red and Ted's RoadShow (skating rink where Metallica now resides; 6-7 years ago and would've enjoyed if the tilt wasn't broken)
NBA Fastbreak (another bowling alley; I was so...
