German Pinball Open 2013

[Jeff Strong]

Anyone go?

Pics and recap:

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/gpo2013/index.html

 

[Robert Hunt]

I liked the crazy transformers in the background, but I would swear they said something about most of the pinballs being up five flights of stairs in a building with no bathrooms! There were porta-potty trucks in the parking lot!! I think it's amazing that Germans apparently have to work until age 70 in buildings with no bathrooms just so Greeks can retire at 55! World gone mad!!

 

[night]

I think it's amazing that Germans apparently have to work until age 70 in buildings with no bathrooms just so Greeks can retire at 55! World gone mad!!

I think that if there is 1 country at the moment that has to work until age 70 to stay out of financial trouble it must be Greece. Germany is doing very well at the moment. My country (The Netherlands) had to give truckloads of money to Greece as well, but not to let the folks over there retire at 55, but to save the financial system and funds that many countries have in Greece. It is a very complex situation, and you certainly don't want to be a Greek at the moment. Although they are nice folks with great culture and good food. Hopa!

 

[Mayuh]

I liked the crazy transformers in the background, but I would swear they said something about most of the pinballs being up five flights of stairs in a building with no bathrooms! There were porta-potty trucks in the parking lot!! I think it's amazing that Germans apparently have to work until age 70 in buildings with no bathrooms just so Greeks can retire at 55! World gone mad!!

I don't get it if that was meant sarcastic or not

Though not being German, but Austrian, it is not really bad over here... All medical treatment, hospitals etc. is free of charge (well you pay via taxes for it) and all patients are treated the same. I'm not saying there are no poor people and everything is fine, but in general we in Central Europe are really blessed. And we should be thankful for that.

According to Wikipedia, Germans retire at 61.7 years (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentenalter)

Sorry for the off topic,
Mario.

 

[goforthewall]

I was there on Friday (took a day off!) and yesterday! Since I didn't qualify for the finals, I'm skipping the final day... It was a little bit of a shame that the tournament pins were off limits for "open play" since they had quite a few exclusives (i.e. they were not in the open play area). The building was an old power plant, which gave a great atmosphere. There were around 50 tournament pins and another 50 "open play" machines set up. By the second day a lot of the "open play" machines were going out of order - I guess it's just the reality of pinball... Anyway, for the first event EVER in Berlin it was a great success! Oh, and I showed of TPA to quite a few people, who had never heard of it??!!! The guy selling Virtual Pinball machines (which had Visual and Future Pinball installed) was super excited to get his hands on the PC version of TPA. His builds were extremely professional, if you can spend the 5.500 EUR he was charging for the full "working out of the box" experience...

 

[Robert Hunt]

I don't get it if that was meant sarcastic or not

Well I come from the "there's plenty of truth in sarcasm" school, so...

You've heard of the Tea Party? I joined it at age 16, about thirty years before it was invented. I just don't believe that socialism is ever a good idea, and that people who vilify capitalism are simply retarded. For instance which system produces better pinball machines? It isn't even close.

This week Europe lost its greatest post war leader, and the socialists in her country think the best way to mark the occasion is to sing a song from the Wizard of Oz about how glad they are that she's dead. Psst: they're the ones who are dead.

 

[Mayuh]

Well I come from the "there's plenty of truth in sarcasm" school, so...

Oh, so true...

 

[Jeff Strong]

Let's not go in to politics, fellas. Let's keep the topic on pinball, eh?

 

[Mayuh]

Let's not go in to politics, fellas. Let's keep the topic on pinball, eh?

Yes, Sir!

 

[Robert Hunt]

I agree we shouldn't bicker over politics that are entirely unrelated to pinball, but before I leave the subject for good (and I will) I would like to point out that pinball has always been about getting people to take coins out of their pockets and put them in machines that do no more than amuse them. Building such machines, putting them out, and maintaining them was ALWAYS about capitalism. A socialist system could NEVER create The Addams Family pinball (or TPA for that matter.)

Bottom line: If you want to know where pinball machines come from, you will have to ask Adam Smith.