We were told the two machines to practice this week were Whitewater and Pinbot. After taking Tuesday to rest, I returned on Wednesday night and ended up getting the #1 score on both machines. I did not get the Grand Champion of Whitewater, but my #1 Rafter score was 1.2 billion. I went back a few times, and by the end of the week I was very comfortable competing on those two machines.
This week's machines:
Jackbot
Tommy
Whitewater
Tales of the Arabian Nights
First things first. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you may recall that the machine responsible for my decent into total pinball madness was The Getaway. It has been a dream of mine to own one for close to 20 years now. Last weekend I found one about five hours from my house. I've been saving up for awhile, but I was still a little bit short on money. I couldn't stop thinking about it though. I decided to call the guy exactly one hour before the league met. Everything about the machine sounded perfect. I made plans right there and then to take the next day off of work to go check it out. I knew it was crazy, and I didn't know how I could come up with the remaining money, but I knew if I didn't at least try to do something that machine was going to become someone else's dream come true.
So with that in mind, I went to go compete. I've been trying to keep myself relaxed when I play, but honestly, that wasn't going to be happening tonight. I was tense. I figured the best I could hope for was being intense. The first machine up was Jackbot. Yeah, they switched machines on me again, but at this point I'm at least kind of used to last second changes. Plus, Jackbot isn't all that different from Pinbot. I stepped up for my first game. I have played very few games in my life as intensely as I played that first game of Jackbot. Everything worked in my favor, and I was pulling off tricks in a way that just seemed unreal. I ended with over 4 billion points. I could've played it 100 more times and not have done any better. This is the first time I was positive I was going to take first place on a machine.
My Score: 4,067,253,840 (1st overall)
(the #2 score was just over 1 billion)
Next up, Tommy. I have never played Tommy before because everything about it screamed that it was a terrible machine. After playing it, I can confirm it IS a terrible machine. If anyone reading this enjoys Tommy, I apologize, but it is definitely not a machine I will ever play again unless I'm asked to. There's an extra upper flipper, but it's on the left side? I sat and thought about this. I thought, perhaps this is a reference to driving on the left side of the road. If that was the thinking, then I'm glad they thought that deeply about it. This is Data East however, and I'm convinced it's because they weren't very good at making pinball machines. I didn't do very well. I should point out that the only people who seemed to do well are the same people who don't do well on other machines. What does this mean? I'm not really sure, but personally I don't feel like Tommy is a very good barometer of pinball skill. I'd feel the same way had I gotten first place.
First Place: 192,197,210
My Score: 93,566,650 (6th overall)
The next machine was Whitewater. I've played it a few times in real life, but I've been waiting for it to come out on PS4 because I didn't want to pay for it twice. Since it was one of the machines scheduled for this week, I downloaded it for PS3 on Tuesday night and mastered the rules. I went on Wednesday night to the arcade and broke a billion points. Whitewater has become one of my absolute favorite machines. I knew if I played my best, no one was going to beat me. That being said, I played well, but not at my best.
On my first game I hit the triple jackpots on Insanity Falls, but instantly lost all three balls afterward. The best strategy I could find was to hit the 5x multiplier and then start multiball. This is incredibly risky to set up however, so I decided to only go for it if the opportunity presented itself. It just so happened that in game two everything lined up. I triggered the 5x multiplier, but the one shot I needed to start multiball bricked and went straight down the middle. That was very disappointing. My best game was game one, and I wasn't very happy with it. I was a little upset with myself, but there was something on my mind that was way more important than how well I did that night.
My Score: 143,300,910 (1st overall)
Finally we played Tales of the Arabian Nights. If you haven't noticed, I love 90's Williams. There's just something about them. It really doesn't matter which machine we're talking about, there's a good chance I'll do okay on it. While TOTAN isn't my absolute favorite, I do like it a lot. I didn't expect to take first on this one, as it's been awhile since I played it. I knew someone in a group before me entered their initials, so unless I could do the same, I'd know right then and there I didn't get first.
I did pretty well. I won the first game, but in game two one of the members of our group beat my high score by about a million points. Sometime in the second game I lost a ball down the outlane. I took my left hand off the machine and at the last second pulled off a death save with only my right hand. It didn't even tilt. I was actually just kind of joking. I didn't expect it to work. It is the only time in my entire life I've ever done that on any machine. It didn't help me win, but man, that was a really great feeling.
First Place: 10,552,070
My Score: 7,985,970 (4th overall)
It wasn't until Friday that I got the email this time. When it arrived I found that for the second week in a row I had gotten 1st place. After a less than stellar week one, I am now ranked #2 overall. I'm happy, but I'm not about to rest or get comfortable. We're only about halfway through this league, and there's still a long way to go. I can't speak for everyone competing, but after talking to some of them, I know that I want it more. After spending a lot of time at the arcade this week, my girlfriend and I only saw one other person from the league practicing as well. He's ranked #1. I respect that guy and admire his dedication. I think the ultimate ending to this story would be meeting him in the finals. Win or lose, that's the kind of competition I was looking for.
Total Standings after Week 3:
ranked #2
We are taking the next week off because South by Southwest pretty much turns this town upside down. When we meet next the machines will be Black Knight 2000 and Grand Lizard.
OmegaDef
OMD
Oh, and on Tuesday I finally got that Getaway machine I've always dreamed of. It came from a private collection and is 99% flawless. All the lights were replaced with LEDs. It's absolutely the nicest one I've ever seen. If all that wasn't enough, the backglass is also autographed in gold ink by Steve Ritchie. I still can't believe it's sitting in my house right now. I knew someday I'd finally get my own machine, but I never thought it would be my favorite one, or that I'd find one in that condition. It was literally a dream come true.
This week's machines:
Jackbot
Tommy
Whitewater
Tales of the Arabian Nights
First things first. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you may recall that the machine responsible for my decent into total pinball madness was The Getaway. It has been a dream of mine to own one for close to 20 years now. Last weekend I found one about five hours from my house. I've been saving up for awhile, but I was still a little bit short on money. I couldn't stop thinking about it though. I decided to call the guy exactly one hour before the league met. Everything about the machine sounded perfect. I made plans right there and then to take the next day off of work to go check it out. I knew it was crazy, and I didn't know how I could come up with the remaining money, but I knew if I didn't at least try to do something that machine was going to become someone else's dream come true.
So with that in mind, I went to go compete. I've been trying to keep myself relaxed when I play, but honestly, that wasn't going to be happening tonight. I was tense. I figured the best I could hope for was being intense. The first machine up was Jackbot. Yeah, they switched machines on me again, but at this point I'm at least kind of used to last second changes. Plus, Jackbot isn't all that different from Pinbot. I stepped up for my first game. I have played very few games in my life as intensely as I played that first game of Jackbot. Everything worked in my favor, and I was pulling off tricks in a way that just seemed unreal. I ended with over 4 billion points. I could've played it 100 more times and not have done any better. This is the first time I was positive I was going to take first place on a machine.
My Score: 4,067,253,840 (1st overall)
(the #2 score was just over 1 billion)
Next up, Tommy. I have never played Tommy before because everything about it screamed that it was a terrible machine. After playing it, I can confirm it IS a terrible machine. If anyone reading this enjoys Tommy, I apologize, but it is definitely not a machine I will ever play again unless I'm asked to. There's an extra upper flipper, but it's on the left side? I sat and thought about this. I thought, perhaps this is a reference to driving on the left side of the road. If that was the thinking, then I'm glad they thought that deeply about it. This is Data East however, and I'm convinced it's because they weren't very good at making pinball machines. I didn't do very well. I should point out that the only people who seemed to do well are the same people who don't do well on other machines. What does this mean? I'm not really sure, but personally I don't feel like Tommy is a very good barometer of pinball skill. I'd feel the same way had I gotten first place.
First Place: 192,197,210
My Score: 93,566,650 (6th overall)
The next machine was Whitewater. I've played it a few times in real life, but I've been waiting for it to come out on PS4 because I didn't want to pay for it twice. Since it was one of the machines scheduled for this week, I downloaded it for PS3 on Tuesday night and mastered the rules. I went on Wednesday night to the arcade and broke a billion points. Whitewater has become one of my absolute favorite machines. I knew if I played my best, no one was going to beat me. That being said, I played well, but not at my best.
On my first game I hit the triple jackpots on Insanity Falls, but instantly lost all three balls afterward. The best strategy I could find was to hit the 5x multiplier and then start multiball. This is incredibly risky to set up however, so I decided to only go for it if the opportunity presented itself. It just so happened that in game two everything lined up. I triggered the 5x multiplier, but the one shot I needed to start multiball bricked and went straight down the middle. That was very disappointing. My best game was game one, and I wasn't very happy with it. I was a little upset with myself, but there was something on my mind that was way more important than how well I did that night.
My Score: 143,300,910 (1st overall)
Finally we played Tales of the Arabian Nights. If you haven't noticed, I love 90's Williams. There's just something about them. It really doesn't matter which machine we're talking about, there's a good chance I'll do okay on it. While TOTAN isn't my absolute favorite, I do like it a lot. I didn't expect to take first on this one, as it's been awhile since I played it. I knew someone in a group before me entered their initials, so unless I could do the same, I'd know right then and there I didn't get first.
I did pretty well. I won the first game, but in game two one of the members of our group beat my high score by about a million points. Sometime in the second game I lost a ball down the outlane. I took my left hand off the machine and at the last second pulled off a death save with only my right hand. It didn't even tilt. I was actually just kind of joking. I didn't expect it to work. It is the only time in my entire life I've ever done that on any machine. It didn't help me win, but man, that was a really great feeling.
First Place: 10,552,070
My Score: 7,985,970 (4th overall)
It wasn't until Friday that I got the email this time. When it arrived I found that for the second week in a row I had gotten 1st place. After a less than stellar week one, I am now ranked #2 overall. I'm happy, but I'm not about to rest or get comfortable. We're only about halfway through this league, and there's still a long way to go. I can't speak for everyone competing, but after talking to some of them, I know that I want it more. After spending a lot of time at the arcade this week, my girlfriend and I only saw one other person from the league practicing as well. He's ranked #1. I respect that guy and admire his dedication. I think the ultimate ending to this story would be meeting him in the finals. Win or lose, that's the kind of competition I was looking for.
Total Standings after Week 3:
ranked #2
We are taking the next week off because South by Southwest pretty much turns this town upside down. When we meet next the machines will be Black Knight 2000 and Grand Lizard.
OmegaDef
OMD
Oh, and on Tuesday I finally got that Getaway machine I've always dreamed of. It came from a private collection and is 99% flawless. All the lights were replaced with LEDs. It's absolutely the nicest one I've ever seen. If all that wasn't enough, the backglass is also autographed in gold ink by Steve Ritchie. I still can't believe it's sitting in my house right now. I knew someday I'd finally get my own machine, but I never thought it would be my favorite one, or that I'd find one in that condition. It was literally a dream come true.
