Reply to thread

Well the first Sunday of the month happened, which can only mean one thing...

Another night of league play!

So I was dreading this one, because most of the collection was really old machines. Lots of EM's, '70s, and not a DMD in sight. The guy who was hosting, his house was literally crammed wall to wall with machines. there was a small living room with a couch and TV, but otherwise every square inch of the place was filled. The bummer was, so many either weren't plugged in or weren't functioning at all. I think he had 5 pitch and bats, a bunch of old slot machines, and out in his garage he had a mini 18' long bowling lane that must have taken up way too much precious real estate in some arcade!

The most modern machine on site was High Speed (not working). There was an 8 Ball Deluxe and Black Knight, but neither of them was working either. Fireball was working temporarily and was going to be a tournament game, but then it crapped out too. I got to play some Centaur, but barely so. The right flipper had a short in it that would cause it to vibrate in the up position sometimes, and no matter how hard you smacked the queen's chamber ball, it would only get about halfway up. There was a Pinball Wizard, Captain Fantastic, and Pick A Card, as well as a few others I didn't take the time to write down as they weren't functioning.

During the first 2 hours of practice play, about every 5 minutes a new problem would crop up with some machine. The poor host, it was his first time doing this and you could tell it was stressing him out. You invite a whole bunch of people over and then find out all your toys are breaking! Sometimes it was a thing where problems occurred only when 2 or more players joined, something he wouldn't have normally discovered. Other times it was people hitting a particular bonus and seeing the scoring go wrong. You put that many pinheads in a room, it's like a massive bug hunt. We have some top, top players in our league who know the ins and outs of every machine you can throw at them, but in the end they are also very good at solving problems with machines, so while things were malfunctioning at first, they were also getting fixed if possible.

So anyway, old tables. Not a ramp in sight. Not a single one of the tables in tournament are available in TPA. Yikes. Best I could do was cross my fingers and hope to get lucky.

Round 1 - Bally Playboy

In practice round, this thing was killing me. Just cheap drain after cheap drain. Somehow, I was the top ranking player of my group of 3, so I got to go last. The first 2 they scored around 24,000 first ball. I managed 45,000. It was a 5 ball machine, and on my 3rd ball I managed to max out the bonus, which cranked up my score big time, earning a match AND an extra ball (which we just plunge and let bounce). 4th ball I earned a special, and discovered the bonus multiplier carries over. I finished with north of 600,000 points, where the other two never broke 100. So I start the tourney with the full 10 points for 1st. Nice!

Round 2 - Nip It

If you've ever seen Happy Days, this is the pin at Arnold's. It's got little 2" flippers that move in and close the gap when you hit a particular target, just like Fireball does. Are these what they call zipper flippers? This time I was in a group of 4, my player ranking had me playing 2nd, which is where I'm used to playing normally. We also had an 'A' player, who if you beat, you get an extra point. First ball, all four of us didn't get a single flip in. The ball just bounced right out the outlane. None of us had much of a clue what to do, even though one of the players was the host himself! On my 3rd ball, I managed to rack up a hefty amount of points while leaving a ball locked for multiball that anyone can steel. Nobody stole it until ball 5, when the 'A' player made a run on me. Too bad it wasn't enough! Just like that, another 1st place but this time I get 11 points for beating the top seed!

Round 3 - Harlem Globetrotters

Oh did this table hate me. The shocker for everybody was that it was only set up for 3 balls, where everything else we played was 5. I think I legitimately got to flip the ball 5 times over those 3 balls. My score was dreadful! Fortunately, it was that way for the other 3 guys. Somehow I came in 3rd, AND the 'A' player managed to come in last. So instead of 6 points, I earned 7. We all sucked so bad, we started up another round quickly just to redeem ourselves, even though it wouldn't count. I fared no better that time either. The Washington Generals are showed more respect than what these Globetrotters showed me.

Round 4 - Space Invaders

Can I just say how wide this particular wide body felt? The outlanes on this table never felt like they were even a factor. All my drains came thanks to the center, and they all happened in slow motion! There was one that I could tell the ball was going to drain down the center even as it was 3/4 of the way up the playfield. Nudging this beast did nothing except risk a tilt. So I just watched as the ball slowly descended right between my flippers! And yet in the end, I came out on top again. Seriously, this is one of the best nights I've had in placing.

Round 5 - Bally Star Trek

The best thing about this table is the back glass. Bones and Spock are ripped! The 'A' player I defeated on Nip It? He's in this round again with me. And through ball 4, he can't get anything going on. Me and the player 1, we're tearing it up somehow. This machine like being abused, so we're both just bumping the crap out of it. Player 3, he's having the same problem I had on Globetrotters where he never gets to even flip the ball. Come ball 5, I'm sitting pretty in 1st with a 45,000 point cushion. But then the 'A' player showed why he's ranked how he is. He winds up putting on a clinic and breezes right past me. Knowing he wasn't giving up that extra point, he then let the ball drain. Still, I'll take my 2nd with chin held high.

Round 6 - Final Round - 300

Oh Gottlieb, how I loathe you. I heard multiple comments through the night of how this table lived at every bowling alley in existence during the 70's. My first ball, it treated me very unkindly. The 2nd player started and the scoring went completely wonky. It was decided that only one player could play at a time, so the machine got reset. Lucky break for me, as I quadrupled my ball 1 score on the do over. My score was nothing special, as I looked at the other 5 previous rounds to see it was fairly anemic. Good thing 2 of the other players in my group had worse games! I got beat by a different 'A' player, so another 2nd place for me.

So despite my dread at what I thought for sure was going to be a series of last place finishes, I did really well. Hoping my overall score takes a big jump up in the rankings. I'm currently sitting at #32 in our league, and that's having missed the first 2 tourneys of the season. There are only 3 more to the season, so my goal is to see if I can crack the teens. My average score is usually in the mid 40's, but this time I scored 54 points and there were quite a few absences from other players, many who have already used their absentee score (which is a one time use of your average score). So I'm confident I'll be in the 20 somethings after this month. Once our scores are officially posted, I'll update with how I did overall. Who knows, maybe next month I'll get to be player 3 a bunch of times.