Earlier today, I managed to play two $1 games (this I pretty much understand because Twilight Zone-like game) of Wizard of Oz at a bowling alley further down at town. For the first time playing, I think I performed moderately, with scores in the 20,000 range and a Replay of 37,000. The machine was in great shape, but would've appreciated a few adjustments (playfield glass needed a bit cleaned, low game volume, and the game as angled a bit towards the left).
The highest score was left untouched (KEF's default 400,000; closest was 286,000 by another), but I hope to begin practicing even more. My game on real machines seems to have dissipated; the last time I played was on a Metallica a couple of months ago before it broke down...
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Posting the full list is getting too long so here are just the highlights from 2015..
Link: My High Score Pics on Pinside
Table Name
Balls
Score
AC/DC (Premium) 3 486 M
Metallica (Premium) 3 382 M
Elvis 3 419 M
Mustang (Pro) 3 375 M
Star Trek (LE) 3 280 M
Monster Bash 3 479 M
Big Bang Bar 3 226 M
The Sopranos 3 176 M
The Getaway: High Speed II 3 767 M
Black Knight 2000 3 19 M
No Fear 3 7183 M
The Walking Dead (Pro) 3 144 M
Iron Man 3 87 M
Family Guy 3 60 M
Avengers (LE) 3 49 M
Batman Dark Knight 3 168 M
I visited the local movie theater up at the mall on Saturday, and found that the pinball machine there was working! It was a Big Buck Hunter Pro, a Stern machine made in 2010(-ish?). Wanted to play it the other time I visited, but the ball trough's coil was not working at that time. Reported it to Cinemark and they got it fixed by the time I returned!
The machine worked perfectly except for one major flaw: The moving buck wasn't registering shots. (It did move, though.) I'll try and get a hold of them later on to fix that piece. Everything else was working just fine, and I managed to get a few multiball modes going. I even managed to trap all 4 balls at the same time during a stack of Elk and Bird! With a 5,000,000 Replay value, I...
I just came back from the local skating rink playing the Metallica pinball machine. Turned out that I had a blast, and some air balls. Games were 50 cents per play, and man, this one was good. Got a replay on some games, and even got a few decent scores; the highest I achieved was ~54,000,000. The minimum high score was 55,000,000 (d'oh!), but yeah.
There was one major gripe that I really didn't like: The freaking GAME CODE WASN'T UPDATED. In fact, I believe the version went all the way back to initial release (1.0)! This basically made my score invalid because the tournaments play on updated code all the time. Thus, I missed out on all the other animations and extra scoring opportunities (Frustratingly enough, the picks during...
Three years ago, near the end of my 7th grade year of school, I had a field trip to the bowling alley. I found out that they had gotten a TSPP for me (and others) to enjoy. Although I sucked at it due to inexperience, I eventually got better at the game. Over these past few years, I practiced each week I bowled, and put up some decent high scores.
Fast forward to a few days earlier, and this machine is gone, replaced by newer video and redemption games. With all due respect, I seem to have grown to love this particular game because of what it has to offer: stackability of modes and multiballs. I hate to say this, but farewell. We've had a blast together, and I hope I continue practicing on a completely new and unfamiliar game in this...
For the record, I'm not dead, nor did I abandon the forum. But I did need to take a short break to focus on family and business matters. I'm back now, and look forward to resuming regular posting soon.
Bug service for the Master Issues Lists should also resume soon; I put BSD's up today.
The Pinball Arcade was released for Steam on 11-04-13. Today Steam registers that I have played 249 hours of TPA since its release. That’s 10 - 24 hour days of playing pinball. I figure the other nine hours was spent doing something else. I usually log off TPA if it’s going to be more than 5 minutes. I want the time Steam says I’ve played TPA as close to reality as possible.
I am so thankful to have The Pinball Arcade on the PC through Steam. All I have to do is a few mouse clicks and I have a great pinball arcade at my fingertips. I feel so fortunate and thankful.
It is also astounding that I can sit down in front a thing that looks like a blank picture frame and with a couple of button pushes and a few clicks, I find myself...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *My Pinball History
* I have been playing pinball since the Sixties. Seen a lot of change, thanks to transistors, motherboards and computer chips (or aliens). Every pinball machine I saw drew me towards it like a moth to a flame. My allowance disappeared into coin slots, literally, around the world.
* I cheated and lied to play. I told my mom I was headed to a friends house when in fact we were headed to a snack bar to play pinball. I learned how to pick up and drop a machine to play games without paying (Drop A Card, I apologize). I told the cashier a machine ate my quarter to get one to play the game.
* Karma (see earlier post "The Karma of Pinball") paid me back. I can't...
You may have seen my post on heading back home this past weekend, but I went to visit my family in VA instead, near Leesburg. Only machine I found was a NASCAR, made by Stern in 2005, Pat Lawlor Design. It was located in Kingpinz, which I had the opportunity to visit in Leesburg on July 9th. I can confirm that it did have NASCAR pinball. Dirty playfield with dirty flippers, but it played well nonetheless. It was also $1.00 per game, but since the Replay was 8M (and added that amount each Replay afterward), I only put in a few dollars in. Man, this game was fun. I don't see why people hate it; NASCAR's a pretty fun game, especially from Stern.
Unfortunately the opto wasn't working to detect Left Ramp shots (I'll contact them about it...
While I've still got a little ways to go to recover from my injury before I can rejoin my league, I've been informed by credible sources (i.e., the machine's owner) that there is a very rare prototype Banzai Run available for public play at the Third Rail Bar & Grill in Pacific, Missouri. He believes that while there are a handful of Banzai Runs on location, this is the only prototype Banzai Run on location anywhere in the U.S. If you're in the area, you should check it out.
And if that's not enough for you, there's an X-Men Wolverine LE (!), Avengers Hulk LE (!!), an AC/DC Let There Be Rock LE (!!!), and Tron Legacy LE (!!!!) also available to take your quarters there, along with 10 other machines, all meticulously maintained.
Very few good scores this time around at my second visit, but I still had a blast! I got to see Dirty Harry (even touched a flipper while there was a repairman working on it! It's amazing what these guys can do!), Elvira and the Party Monsters, Mustang, and others. Didn't see Wizard of Oz, though, and Tommy and Tales from the Crypt were down. Still enjoyed my stay; I even met a few people doing local tournaments (PinGolf)!
Banzai Run: Well, I finally got a Super Stunt Cycle (Skill Shot); but then after leaving the Hill, it hopped off the ramp and onto the playfield. Had no control of the flippers and it drained on me when it didn't hit anything! (The Dev Team Thinks of Everything) Thankfully, I got a Super Jump and got my ball back as...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The 4th of July
* Usually, I blog about about things that have to do with pinball. After all, this is a forum about the silver ball. But I thought I would spend a moment to say what the 4th of July means to me.
* For a great many people, The 4th is a time to hang out at the pool, go on a picnic with family, maybe take in a parade. And of course, there is every child's (and most adults) favorite, fireworks.
* If you've studied history, it will tell you how the colonists fought the oppression of King George. There was resentment towards the Crown, trying to govern from across the Atlantic. So, when petition to represent themselves failed, the colonists were left no choice but to fight for their right to...
2014 High Score List
Link: My High Score Pics on Pinside
Table Name
Balls
Score
Mars 3 349 K
Maverick 3 745.8 M
Medieval Madness 3 124.9 M
Medusa 5 782 K
Metallica (Pro) 3 135.6 M
Metallica (Pro) 5 264.2 M
Metallica (Premium) 3 315.3 M
Meteor 3 294 K
Minizag 5 849 P
Monopoly 3 35.2 M
Monster Bash 3 334.5 M
Mustang (Pro) 3 64.0 M
Nascar 3 29.2 M
NBA (Stern) 3 17.4 M
Night Rider 5 56 K
Nine Ball 3 494 K
Nitro Ground Shaker 3 300...
This weekend, I had the opportunity to spend some time at the Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo. It was the result of a successful Kickstarter project that I participated in.
While billed as a gaming convention, and there were a few machines other than pinball at the convention, my reasons for attending were to see some of the new machines out, buy a table for my own use and play pinball until I could no longer raise my arms.
This was a chance to play some of the games we play in TPA. "Attack From Mars" was there, "High Speed", "Circus Voltare", "Bride of Pin-Bot" was there too. "Cue Ball Wizard", "Black Rose", "Scared Stiff", "Medevial Madness", "Gorgar" and "T2" and more.
It had been a long time since I've played on an actual pinball...
* * * * * * * * * **My Very Own Pinball Machine
* Ever since I started playing pinball, I've dreamed of owning my own table. I would play it every day! It would be in my bedroom so I could go right in there anytime I wanted, instead of being in my parents living room.
* One day, on the school bus, I sat next to The New Kid. When one of your parents is in the military, you move around a lot, and you're either The New Kid, or you're meeting him. Anyway, after the obligatory small talk (what base are you from, how old are you, whose class are you in, etc), he casually mentioned he had a pinball machine. Suddenly, I became his new best friend (I was nine, and shallow). So, on the way home, he asked me to come over to his house. I quickly...
I’ve been making a lot of friends lately, and I’ve been lucky enough to find the best players I could find in my location. They have been very welcoming, and I am very grateful that my opinions are considered relevant when having conversations with those who are on a similar or higher level than me.
It isn’t up to me to determine, but I feel like I earned my current spot. I stumbled around learning things on my own for roughly 20 years. I worked my way up the ladder instead of jumping in with the pros. I now know I could have started at the top. Claiming I deserve something isn’t my style though. Proving I deserve something and then letting the world vet the proof is.
I’ve been struggling with a lot of anxiety lately. There’s a lot of...
After last season I got a few weeks to take a break. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll play pinball all day everyday happily, but I needed to rest up. I spent my time playing Fez. Solving it all on my own consumed me. It ate up pinball time, but it was nice to switch gears to a different kind of problem. I’m proud to say I figured it all out without the internet’s help. With that accomplished it was time to get back to pinball.
Last weekend was the first IFPA tournament I entered. Long story short, I came in 8th out of around 20. We played Addams Family, Iron Man, Freddy, and Gorgar. My lady was having car trouble, so I couldn’t be there all day, and even if I was, I’m not a big fan of buying more entries. I take nothing away from anyone who...
Summer is here, and this means many things before school starts again in August (will be a junior in high school):
I start bowling again this Monday throughout summer,
More Pinball Arcade and video game enjoyment,
Trip to Pittsburgh (hopefully) in July!
I heard that Kickback Cafe has more games added, so I can get to play more new games! I can't wait to try out Twilight Zone, Wizard of Oz (if it's there), and Dirty Harry, as well as some that I missed out on (NBA Fastbreak especially; I remember seeing it at a bowling alley I visited once). Also, I hope not to arrive at the last operating hour and squeeze everything in!
I will write about the trip if I get the chance to visit again! (Maybe I'll become King of the Hill on Banzai Run ;) )
I don't post anywhere near as much as I used to, that's because I'm in the fortunate position to have most of my time taken up with real machines, but up until around a week ago, I had 3 machines, 1 of which is on loan from a friend. I was in a little bit of a lull, yes its great having real machines in your own home but you start taking them for granted and playing them less and less.
To try and reinvigorate things, I offered to shop machines for free to a few friends, it didn't take long to have 2 replies so, 300 miles later now I have 2 additional machines to shop! One is currently stripped to the playfield, with plastics, guides and everything else nice and clean, now that alone occupies a lot of time but I really enjoy doing it...
* There's an ongoing debate among many sport fans whether NASCAR should be considered a sport. Each side, of course, feels it has the facts that proves their case beyond a shadow of a doubt. One point says that a sport requires conditioning, like lifting weights or running or any type of physical workout, and that NASCAR drivers simply make 3-4 left turns (road courses being different). The opposing side says it requires conditioning to control two ton missiles that are sometimes 2-3 inches from each other traveling at 200MPH for three hours or more. Some insist there to be an example of eye-hand coordination, such as passing & catching in football or throwing & hitting in baseball. The response is, braking & accelerating thru gaps not...
