We were told the machines to practice for this week were Theatre of Magic and Black Knight. At the end of my last blog I talked about how the #1 ranked guy and I were killing ToM in practice. I ended up with the Grand Champion score. Black Knight was being very difficult and having left flipper spasms. I figured it was all part of playing on an old machine. Like Genie, I thought only a certain amount of practice was in order. Luck was going to be a big factor.
I got an email around 6 am on Saturday morning saying the DMD on Theatre of Magic was broken. Uggh. The replacement machine was Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I was actually okay with that. I decided to spend a few hours before they opened playing and remembering the rules on TPA. I went straight to practice when they opened at 10. By that afternoon I had gotten the #2 score.
Monday night I felt really good as I left for the league. Black Sabbath’s Iron Man came on the radio right before I got to the arcade. I turned it all the way up and sat in the parking lot until it finished. The second that last note hit, I turned off my car and went inside ready to play.
This week’s machines:
World Cup Soccer
Star Trek LE
Iron Man
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
First up, World Cup Soccer. I’ve never played this before. I had 10 minutes till start time, so I played one game. When it was over I had 559 million points, and I decided that this might just be my new favorite game. We were in the same groups again. My girlfriend, #1, our companion since the first week, and me. In case you’re wondering, I’ve been purposely avoiding using proper names. This might change should it become too confusing, but for now I’d like us all to remain reasonably anonymous out of respect for everyone involved. Plus, we’ve already established that I’m nobody special.
Once the competition started I wasn’t able to put up as many points. We helped each other out, and I didn’t do terribly, but I didn’t win either game. I finished second in both, with #1 taking game one and our other companion taking game two. I didn’t know how the other groups did, but it looked like I was sitting at the #3 score. It’s funny how sometimes you do better when you’ve never played a game before. I’ll have to keep this in mind.
First Place: 495,440,660 (our other companion's score)
My score: 405,947,540 (3rd overall)
Next up Black Knight? Well, no. We had mentioned the left flipper, and they tried to repair it in time. They weren’t able to. We were told it had changed to Fish Tales, a game I’ve never played. Great.
We skipped it and went to Star Trek LE. It’s one of my favorite machines there, and I’m always ready to play it. I saw two strategies going in. The first, just play for points. This was the easier and more logical strategy. The second, go for broke and try for Kobayashi Maru. This is incredibly risky. Even if you are capable of getting there, attempting to reach “the unwinnable scenario” on only two credits is asking for trouble. What’s the fun in playing it safe? I decided to go for it.
On game one I got less than 20 million points. #1 got 27 million. My girlfriend played an amazing game. She did everything right, and by the end she got 40 million and a replay. That was going to be tough to beat, but I decided to not deviate from my strategy.
On my first ball of the next game I started to do really well. I destroyed the first 3 missions and lit Super Ramps. The ball decided to go down the right outlane, but I pulled off a death save and kept going. I was saving my bombs for Battle the Vengeance. When I got it, I unloaded and easily destroyed it. I had one ball cradled while running victory laps with the other. This was getting really good. I was about to start my final mission “Klingon Battle” when I bricked. I had gotten an extra ball which I had to plunge. This started Klingon Battle, and it was frustrating just watching it drain. On ball two I finished my final mission, but it drained immediately afterward.
Ball three. One shot to the Vengeance would start Kobayashi Maru. It was a very tense few seconds. I launched with the right flipper pressed for a right side skill shot. I bypassed the skill shot on purpose and caught the ball with the lower right flipper. Direct hit. I actually did it. I started Kobayashi Maru without timing out any of the modes to get there. I’ve only beaten it once before. I didn’t complete the mode this time, but I came close, and I got the kind of points I was looking for. This was the best feeling I’ve ever had playing pinball.
My Score: 64,750,130 (1st overall)
Turns out Fish Tales had an issue as well, and it was switched to Iron Man. I’ve played it once or twice before making it a more comfortable choice than Fish Tales for me. It’s an okay game I guess, but tonight Iron Man was brutal. It just kept punishing us. We noticed the outlanes were opened up as wide as they could go. We asked the judge, and he said it was set up for tournament play. We were correct in thinking it was playing way tougher than usual.
My girlfriend beat us all on game one with just over 9 million. I wasn’t doing well until my final ball of game two. I got a tip stall on the left flipper. I’ve been trying to take a photo any time I get one. It was probably risky and stupid, but I pulled out my phone and took a picture. It didn’t mess me up, thankfully. I sent it back into play and ended up with close to 10 million points. I had just edged out my girlfriend’s previous score. She had one ball left to top me. She actually beat her first score, but she fell just short of beating mine. I was really proud of her for how well she played, but I could see she was disappointed. It made me feel kind of bad for winning.
My Score: 9,755,300 (1st overall)
My Girlfriend: 9,459,400 (2nd overall)
Finally we played Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I used to not really care for this game. It took me a long time, but I finally got a handle on the rules and I learned to love it. As you probably already know, it’s pretty complex. If you fully understand it, then you have the advantage on anyone who doesn’t. I’m always willing to help a competitor quickly learn a machine. It’s just not really possible to give someone a quick rundown of Ripley’s. The best you can do is tell them while they’re playing, and that can often hurt more than help. I did my best to explain what I could.
I won game one by a large margin, but it was with a disappointing score that was below average for me. On game two I didn’t do that great. My girlfriend and #1 did a lot better on the second game, but I walked away with what looked like it was probably the top score.
My Score: 13,559,070 (1st overall)
I ended up getting 1st place this week. I'm still a few points behind #1 for the whole thing. I'm really proud of him, my lady, and myself for all continuing to do so well.
Total Standings after week 5:
1st place: #1 with 162 points
2nd place: me with 158 points
3rd place: my girlfriend with 138 points
We were told next week’s machines were Monster Bash and Big Buck Hunter. I love Monster Bash and I’ve never played Big Buck Hunter. Normally I’d stick around till midnight practicing. I’ve been practicing so excessively lately that my feet have been throbbing, my back has started to seize up, and I almost broke my hand learning bang backs. I had done enough for the week, and it was time to rest. When I was drifting off to sleep I kept twitching and jumping like I was still playing pinball.
Yeah, it was time to rest.
OMD
I got an email around 6 am on Saturday morning saying the DMD on Theatre of Magic was broken. Uggh. The replacement machine was Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I was actually okay with that. I decided to spend a few hours before they opened playing and remembering the rules on TPA. I went straight to practice when they opened at 10. By that afternoon I had gotten the #2 score.
Monday night I felt really good as I left for the league. Black Sabbath’s Iron Man came on the radio right before I got to the arcade. I turned it all the way up and sat in the parking lot until it finished. The second that last note hit, I turned off my car and went inside ready to play.
This week’s machines:
World Cup Soccer
Star Trek LE
Iron Man
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
First up, World Cup Soccer. I’ve never played this before. I had 10 minutes till start time, so I played one game. When it was over I had 559 million points, and I decided that this might just be my new favorite game. We were in the same groups again. My girlfriend, #1, our companion since the first week, and me. In case you’re wondering, I’ve been purposely avoiding using proper names. This might change should it become too confusing, but for now I’d like us all to remain reasonably anonymous out of respect for everyone involved. Plus, we’ve already established that I’m nobody special.
Once the competition started I wasn’t able to put up as many points. We helped each other out, and I didn’t do terribly, but I didn’t win either game. I finished second in both, with #1 taking game one and our other companion taking game two. I didn’t know how the other groups did, but it looked like I was sitting at the #3 score. It’s funny how sometimes you do better when you’ve never played a game before. I’ll have to keep this in mind.
First Place: 495,440,660 (our other companion's score)
My score: 405,947,540 (3rd overall)
Next up Black Knight? Well, no. We had mentioned the left flipper, and they tried to repair it in time. They weren’t able to. We were told it had changed to Fish Tales, a game I’ve never played. Great.
We skipped it and went to Star Trek LE. It’s one of my favorite machines there, and I’m always ready to play it. I saw two strategies going in. The first, just play for points. This was the easier and more logical strategy. The second, go for broke and try for Kobayashi Maru. This is incredibly risky. Even if you are capable of getting there, attempting to reach “the unwinnable scenario” on only two credits is asking for trouble. What’s the fun in playing it safe? I decided to go for it.
On game one I got less than 20 million points. #1 got 27 million. My girlfriend played an amazing game. She did everything right, and by the end she got 40 million and a replay. That was going to be tough to beat, but I decided to not deviate from my strategy.
On my first ball of the next game I started to do really well. I destroyed the first 3 missions and lit Super Ramps. The ball decided to go down the right outlane, but I pulled off a death save and kept going. I was saving my bombs for Battle the Vengeance. When I got it, I unloaded and easily destroyed it. I had one ball cradled while running victory laps with the other. This was getting really good. I was about to start my final mission “Klingon Battle” when I bricked. I had gotten an extra ball which I had to plunge. This started Klingon Battle, and it was frustrating just watching it drain. On ball two I finished my final mission, but it drained immediately afterward.
Ball three. One shot to the Vengeance would start Kobayashi Maru. It was a very tense few seconds. I launched with the right flipper pressed for a right side skill shot. I bypassed the skill shot on purpose and caught the ball with the lower right flipper. Direct hit. I actually did it. I started Kobayashi Maru without timing out any of the modes to get there. I’ve only beaten it once before. I didn’t complete the mode this time, but I came close, and I got the kind of points I was looking for. This was the best feeling I’ve ever had playing pinball.
My Score: 64,750,130 (1st overall)
Turns out Fish Tales had an issue as well, and it was switched to Iron Man. I’ve played it once or twice before making it a more comfortable choice than Fish Tales for me. It’s an okay game I guess, but tonight Iron Man was brutal. It just kept punishing us. We noticed the outlanes were opened up as wide as they could go. We asked the judge, and he said it was set up for tournament play. We were correct in thinking it was playing way tougher than usual.
My girlfriend beat us all on game one with just over 9 million. I wasn’t doing well until my final ball of game two. I got a tip stall on the left flipper. I’ve been trying to take a photo any time I get one. It was probably risky and stupid, but I pulled out my phone and took a picture. It didn’t mess me up, thankfully. I sent it back into play and ended up with close to 10 million points. I had just edged out my girlfriend’s previous score. She had one ball left to top me. She actually beat her first score, but she fell just short of beating mine. I was really proud of her for how well she played, but I could see she was disappointed. It made me feel kind of bad for winning.
My Score: 9,755,300 (1st overall)
My Girlfriend: 9,459,400 (2nd overall)
Finally we played Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I used to not really care for this game. It took me a long time, but I finally got a handle on the rules and I learned to love it. As you probably already know, it’s pretty complex. If you fully understand it, then you have the advantage on anyone who doesn’t. I’m always willing to help a competitor quickly learn a machine. It’s just not really possible to give someone a quick rundown of Ripley’s. The best you can do is tell them while they’re playing, and that can often hurt more than help. I did my best to explain what I could.
I won game one by a large margin, but it was with a disappointing score that was below average for me. On game two I didn’t do that great. My girlfriend and #1 did a lot better on the second game, but I walked away with what looked like it was probably the top score.
My Score: 13,559,070 (1st overall)
I ended up getting 1st place this week. I'm still a few points behind #1 for the whole thing. I'm really proud of him, my lady, and myself for all continuing to do so well.
Total Standings after week 5:
1st place: #1 with 162 points
2nd place: me with 158 points
3rd place: my girlfriend with 138 points
We were told next week’s machines were Monster Bash and Big Buck Hunter. I love Monster Bash and I’ve never played Big Buck Hunter. Normally I’d stick around till midnight practicing. I’ve been practicing so excessively lately that my feet have been throbbing, my back has started to seize up, and I almost broke my hand learning bang backs. I had done enough for the week, and it was time to rest. When I was drifting off to sleep I kept twitching and jumping like I was still playing pinball.
Yeah, it was time to rest.
OMD
