Found an Arcade, with the saddest Ultrapin ever

[Worf]

So I live on the west coast of Canada, and we have a ferry system. It turns out that the main ferries that runs between the mainland and vancouver Island all have a dedicated video arcade. It's not a huge one (under 10 machines per ferry), but some of those also have pinball machines. (I suppose the ferry corporation is one of the larger arcade site owners by location... if there's one per ferry...).

So this one I'm on (Spirit of British Columbia) actually has an Ultrapin machine in one of the two arcades they have. Alas, it was horribly misadjusted - firstly, the backglass display was running into the DMD display, and even worse, the table itself was stretched below the bottom of the machine, so you couldn't even see the flippers... I don't know what they were thinking, but it was not playable at all. (It wasn't just an offset screen - it was probably using the wrong table for the displays - the backglass bled halfway onto the DMD area, and the top of the table reached the top of the screen, but the bottom of the table exteded far below the bottom edge of the screen...

And I really wanted to try it, too.

 

[netizen]

heh, the most ironic statement on the planet has to be ...

"Thank You for Choosing BC Ferries." LOL

The games always get beat to hell on the boats. Especially the "Queen of ..." the bigger runs aren't too bad. but during the summer they are never in any state of repair.

I am surprised they have an Ultrapin however, and that no one has tried to disassemble it for parts during the trip.

 

[TomL]

Wait wait, a pin table onboard a ferry? The in-game changes in gravity vector as the ferry moves must be awesome.

 

[Sumez]

I think this is a purely electronic thing..

 

[netizen]

It goes from the coast to Vancouver Island. You're on it for 90 minutes. There's rarely any rough water because of being in the straight.

This is the Boat if you're into nautical geekery
http://www.westcoastferries.ca/ferries/bcferries/spiritofbritishcolumbia.html

There are actual pins too, or were last time i was on the blasted ferries

 

[Worf]

Last time I rode them I think in the late 90s or so, they had real pins, as well.

And while the waters aren't necessarily rough, they don't necessarily have stabilizers on them either, so there can be a bit of a sway.

I'm just surprised it's possible for an ultrapin to be so mis-configured that the tables don't even display properly on the "backglass/DMD" or even the playfield.

But hell, it's got one hell of an entry fee...

I suppose we should call up the operator and ask them to fix the freaking machines. I wonder if the Pinball Map app has entries for well, ferries?

 

[Worf]

heh, the most ironic statement on the planet has to be ...

"Thank You for Choosing BC Ferries." LOL

You don't have to use the ferry to get to the island . I've known people to use the plane.

Heck, I've flown to Victoria myself (it's a remarkably short trip by air - and until I actually did it, I didn't know it was closer to fly from Boundary Bay to Victoria International than CZBB to Chilliwack (a very popular destination for pilots in the valley).

And it only took about half an hour tops to do the trip, as well. Hardest part of the trip? Climbing above Vancouver International airspace.