Texas Pinball Festival 2014

[Shaneus]

Shaneus, Nate mentions you in Episode 62..

I know

Also, Im thinking of heading to the festival also.

Do it! No-one can say "it's too far", so no excuses!

 

[StarDust4Ever]

Literally nothing in my town except the occasional broken/poorly maintained pinball in some bar, laundermat, or truck stop. I live in Northwest Louisiana (Shreveport) and Dallas is only a 5 hour drive into Texas Heartland, so I'm down for it. Actually less than that since they raised the speed limit. I'll only be attending Friday's event with my fiance; I have to drive back home due to other prior engagements saturday. Boooo...

Pinballz in Austin sounds awesome unfortunately that's the opposite direction from where I live.

You guys travelling from Austrailia/Europe are just crazy. I get so upset sometimes because all the good events take place on the East/West coast mostly.

 

[Shaneus]

So, here having breakfast in Austin, prepping for a sizeable session at Pinballz. Expo is tomorrow!!

Any new names from this forum heading to it?

 

[Kolchak357]

You all better come back with some pics or at least some good stories or don't come back at all.

I always like hearing about your biggest surprise pin love and also the most disappointing pin. Will there be a Stern Mustang pin there? If so, I want a full report.

Have fun!

 

[Shaneus]

Steve Ritchie totally just walked past me while I was queuing up for that world record thing. I think he was having a smoke. Cool enough?

 

[Kolchak357]

Steve Ritchie totally just walked past me while I was queuing up for that world record thing. I think he was having a smoke. Cool enough?

Very nice. Are you stalking Steve Ritchie again?

 

[Bowflex]

Steve Ritchie totally just walked past me while I was queuing up for that world record thing. I think he was having a smoke. Cool enough?

It would be cool if he was dressed up as the black knight!

Any news to report?

 

[DanBradford]

It would be cool if he was dressed up as the black knight!

Did you see what he wrote on the pinball news website review of Star Trek? The guy is a dudemeister supreme

 

[Shaneus]

Have finally uploaded all my photos! Not as many as I thought I had... perhaps I spent more time playing than I did snapping!

TPF - 29/03/14
TPF - 30/03/14
TPF - 31/03/14

Probably my favourite photos of the bunch... see if you can guess why (hint: not because of *my* dorky face):

Yup, the one-and-only Steve Ritchie. And yes, that's John Borg in the background!

Impressions of all the games I played to come. I played a stack of titles at Pinballz in Austin as well, so I'm going to try and cover every machine I played across both locations with details on why I did/didn't like each (as best I can remember).

One of the biggest surprises I had during my visit, is that I realised I'm a much better player than I thought I was. With only TPA experience, I got the second-highest score on a ToM for the entire weekend... first time I've played the physical machine (and I was only killing time until the Dirty Harry next to it became free!) (that's the photo of the ToM in the gallery). In a 2v2 tournament (one player one ball, one player another, both players one flipper each) on Spiderman I managed to get a 20m ball the second time I'd ever physically played the machine (and didn't know any of the rules). And prior to TPF I went to Pinballz and played several games against OmegaDef (here on PAF) at Pinballz and despite him being an insanely good player, managed to hold my own on a number of tables I'd never played before. So coming from this holiday/trip, I have a somewhat increased level of relaxed confidence Next local tourney should be interesting!

 

[Bowflex]

Have finally uploaded all my photos! Not as many as I thought I had... perhaps I spent more time playing than I did snapping!

TPF - 29/03/14
TPF - 30/03/14
TPF - 31/03/14

Probably my favourite photos of the bunch... see if you can guess why (hint: not because of *my* dorky face):

Yup, the one-and-only Steve Ritchie. And yes, that's John Borg in the background!

Impressions of all the games I played to come. I played a stack of titles at Pinballz in Austin as well, so I'm going to try and cover every machine I played across both locations with details on why I did/didn't like each (as best I can remember).

One of the biggest surprises I had during my visit, is that I realised I'm a much better player than I thought I was. With only TPA experience, I got the second-highest score on a ToM for the entire weekend... first time I've played the physical machine (and I was only killing time until the Dirty Harry next to it became free!) (that's the photo of the ToM in the gallery). In a 2v2 tournament (one player one ball, one player another, both players one flipper each) on Spiderman I managed to get a 20m ball the second time I'd ever physically played the machine (and didn't know any of the rules). And prior to TPF I went to Pinballz and played several games against OmegaDef (here on PAF) at Pinballz and despite him being an insanely good player, managed to hold my own on a number of tables I'd never played before. So coming from this holiday/trip, I have a somewhat increased level of relaxed confidence Next local tourney should be interesting!

That is awesome. Congrats on the great scores and especially for getting some photos with pinball legends!

 

[Kolchak357]

Thanks for sharing Shaneus. Looks like you had a super time. Did you get to play Mustang or Predator? Curious to hear what you thought of them in person. And was that Future Spa as great as it looked in your pics?

 

[jaredmorgs]

Steve Ritchie totally just walked past me while I was queuing up for that world record thing. I think he was having a smoke. Cool enough?

It was cool hearing you on Coast2Coast Podcast, Shane. Representing for Aussie!

I'm planning on doing a rich media project on Pacific Pinball Museum, and the trip in general. I'm not sure how it will go, but I'll see what footage I get and piece it all together at the end.