Stroke of luck!

[Thnikkaman]

I was eating at a local pizza joint today, and they have three pinball tables -- two Sterns (Grand Prix, The Sopranos) and one Data East (Last Action Hero), but it's been out of order for ages. When I finished eating, I went over to play some pinball, and noticed that someone had left a credit in Grand Prix. Who am I to pass up real pinball for free, even if the table isn't one of the best?

So I'm playing the game, and it's not exactly easy -- hitting the ball into the garage hole pretty much guarantees an SDTM drain when it kicks out. You better hope the ball saver is still on when it happens. Nudging didn't work either, because I'm not used to nudging a real table and man are they heavy! What is this stroke of luck I mentioned in the topic title, though?

Well, besides getting a free credit to begin with, I hit the game's random bonus feature and it lit the outlanes. Left outlane is a special! And what happened? I drained down the left not long after and earned it! THWACK! (Man that knocker was loud! Haven't heard a real one in years.) But wait, that's not all!

After I lost my last ball, I actually won the match! THWACK! again!

Bottom line, I got three free games of pinball due to a free credit, a special, and a match! I'm not too good at real pinball, much less that particular table, but it was quite an experience to get all that.

 

[Kolchak357]

Nothin nicer than hearing that freebie thwack. Bet the pizza tasted better after that. Did you play Sopranos?

 

[Carl Spiby]

+1 for the pinball reference in the topic title

 

[Thnikkaman]

Didn't have time to play the Sopranos, cause I had to head back to work. Usually, when I go there to eat, that's what I play. It's got a few issues though -- for one, one of the RIP rollovers doesn't function and thus you can't get the skill shot from it, and you can't even fully light RIP without using the lane change. I'm much better at it than I am at Grand Prix -- I managed to earn a replay on it once via points. It's a pretty cool table.

Believe me, though, when I say that if there was a Pinball expo anywhere near Memphis and I had the time to travel, I'd visit it. I really want to some old-school tables in person, particularly Black Hole and Haunted House, but also F-14 Tomcat and Taxi, both of which I played as a kid at the bowling alley.

Edit: Had no idea "Stroke of Luck" was a pinball reference! Just found out it came from Revenge from Mars. That's really spiffy! (Never seen or played one -- it's one of the Pinball2K tables, right?)