TPA titles in the wild

[Robert Hunt]

I hadn't played a real pin in maybe twenty years when I first downloaded The Pinball Arcade to my phone last summer. I immediately remembered Black Hole, Black Knight, and Gorgar as games I used to see and play while I was in high school (class of '82) and likewise Genie and Firepower are familiar to me from those days. But I was no pinhead, and most of my time in arcades was spent “shooting vids.” It wasn't until I was living in Manhattan in the late eighties and hanging out in a dart bar (a MAJOR LEAGUE dart bar) called Muffin's Pub that I first fell in love with a pin, and that was Taxi. I was bumming when they swapped it out a few months later, until I got to playing its replacement. “It's sunny drive time!” and “Head for the shelters!” So Earthshaker and Taxi were my two REAL introductions to pinball, but after that they put in some hockey/fooseball thing, and my pinball career faded to black. I missed Funhouse and The Addams Family and everything that followed.

Fast forward to last August when I happened across TPA while browsing the android market, and suddenly I'm looking at these pinball machines I hadn't seen since high school. And when the first update came, and it included Taxi (!!) I was hooked. I couldn't believe how faithful it was to the original (except the table I played sure as **** was a “Marilyn” I can tell you!) I had no way of knowing back then that the two games I happened to get to know a bit were truly cream-of-the crop pins, but there you have it. Taxi especially; no pinball ever sounded better. (Diner on the other hand leaves me a little cold. Why tell the same joke twice?) So I laugh to myself when Taxi gets knocked around here; I know what's great.

So after that there was no question of whether I would buy any new table packs from Farsight. The question became “where the hell are they? (And what will they be?)” And I haven't been disappointed yet! I truly love every table! I got the Nexus 7 for no reason OTHER than pinball, and I talked my father into his Nexus 10 partly because I had to see how TPA plays on it, with the result that I'm jealous of both him and my sister who has the new iPad.

By the first of the year I was ready for more. I knew I had to play some of these tables in person. Then I wondered how hard it would be to play ALL of these tables in person. Would I be able to play every table in The Pinball Arcade if I DROVE from South Florida up to Connecticut and back, instead of flying like any normal person would do? I decided to find out. So on the second or third day of January, I left Cape Coral and set off on my pinball odyssey.

Using the pinside map as a reference, I blocked out eight or nine possible stops. I thought I might track down individual machines at small unplanned places on my way back south, but as it turned out, the few times I tried it I struck out. One bar I drove an hour out of my way for had just a lone No Good Gofers that was out of service, and a small pool hall that was supposed to have an Elvira and the Party Monsters was actually closed for Martin Luther King Day!

But after stops at the National Pinball Museum and Crabtowne in Maryland, a day at the Silverball Museum in New Jersey, and another at Flippers Variety & Arcade in North Carolina (and the addition of two more games to TPA, both of which I had played during my trip) I found I had managed to play 15 out of the 22 titles that were then part of the collection. I had only missed Big Shot (would obviously count Hot Shot), Bride of Pinbot, Harley-Davidson, No Good Gofers, Taxi, EatPM, and RBIoN.

I was only home a few weeks when I got the bug again, and my brother and I decided to meet in Las Vegas for a one-day trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame. The next day I was at the airport at five am with my ticket in my hand, and no driver's license in my wallet! I had used it to secure a pool table, and afterwards my father had put it in HIS wallet! So I booted my first attempt at the Pinball HoF, but if it doesn't happen in April then it will for sure in May.

After the Vegas debacle I was delighted to learn that the Florida Arcade and Pinball Exhibition was being held about three hours away in Fort Lauderdale the following weekend, and a quick check of the game list revealed a chance to knock off Taxi, Elvira, and Bride of Pinbot, so it was an opportunity I couldn't miss. And the APE was indeed a revealation! That single show was actually a far more impressive collection of machines overall than even the Silverball Museum! It had simply never occurred to me that so many games in such great shape would ever be assembled just for one weekend. And there were so many great games to BUY, and mostly at prices I thought were quite reasonable. Sure there was a guy asking 12 grand for his Attack from Mars, but there were dozens of games in fine working condition for under a thousand bucks, and many more trading for just a few times that amount. Anyone with a pickup truck is in an excellent position at one of these things when Sunday rolls around.

The Texas Pinball Festival was only a LITTLE harder to justify. Again I chose to drive so I could see some of the sights (and also hit Pinballz in Austin on my way home.) But the incredible game list that included some three hundred and forty different titles including about fifteen games that are part of TPA, only offered me ONE that I hadn't played – Ripley's Believe It or Not! Could I really drive eighteen hours each way just to add that machine to my list? By way of answer, the RBIoN soundtrack was the single most compelling part of a game I played on Lost World, which was back to back with the Ripley machine. Cries of “Keep goin' mon!” and other quips and effects from Ripley's really did liven things up on that old Bally!

So with the two games they added to TPA during the weekend (both of which I had played this year) bringing the total to twenty-six, I have now played twenty-three of them. I still need to find Big shot, Harley-Davidson, and a No Good Gofers in working order. I don't expect to find any of them at the Pinball Hall of Fame or Flipperspiel Wunderland in Vegas, but that doesn't mean I ain't going.

Pictures of the TPA pins I've seen and played “in the wild” this year to follow...

 

[Fungi]

Wow! Forget Indiana Jones. THIS is a true Pinball Adventure. I like this goal of yours. Although it is kind of arbitrarily being dictated by the whims of FarSight. It's a good thing FS is keeping away from the osbcure and esoteric. But, if they ever do put out Strikes 'n Spares, the LVPHOF has it.


Oh. Crossing my fingers you find Cactus Canyon.

 

[Robert Hunt]

I won a free game on this TotAN at Flippers on my first crack. It plays so much like the TPA version it's uncanny (which I can't say is quite so true of EVERY pin in the collection.) But I felt like I knew where I was on this table, and it was the same on the three other TotAN's I've seen (at the APE, the TPF, and Pinballz, below.)

 

[Robert Hunt]

I must have seen and played over FIFTY different “modern” Sterns in the past few months, but I could not find a Ripley's Believe It or Not! or a Harley-Davidson ANY Edition anywhere! NO I could not believe it! But I finally got my hands on RBIoN at the TPF, and it was WELL WORTH THE WAIT! The game was playing super and also very true to the TPA version! My game was not epic, but I know I got at least five continents and was in and out of every ramp and toy. And the game was LOUD, which on a fun game like this is a treat. (The Avengers on the other hand, was BLASTING out of concert speakers at the Stern booth, and it just made me want to be somewhere else.)

And I had another great game on this RBIoN that was down the road at Pinballz. Some Stern games are easy to knock, but this game ain't one of them, and TPA has done a fantastic job putting it out there!

 

[Robert Hunt]

There was a Black Hole in PRISTINE condition at the National Pinball Museum in Baltimore, at least until last month (which was a good thing for me, because it hasn't been among the thousand or so pins I've seen since. To put that in perspective, I've seen two Haunted Houses that weren't working and three that were during that same period.)

But Black Hole is a FAR BETTER game than Haunted House is even when both pins are working beautifully, as this one was. I had the entire third floor of the museum to myself for much of that afternoon, and I played at least a dozen games of Black Hole. The play was fast, the hardware was strong, and the SOUND was simply out of this world! And the sound this machine makes when the game is OVER is so intense it's worth draining balls just to hear it! The TPA version does not quite do these sounds justice, but I have no complaints about how Black Hole actually PLAYS on TPA. I love Black Hole!

 

[Robert Hunt]

The Theatre of Magic at the National Pinball Museum was a different matter entirely. This was a badly worn and tired machine, and the sound was dead, which is a bit deflating. Still it gave me a few good games, but I need those people telling me how great I am and which ramps to shoot if I'm gonna get anywhere in that game!

Fortunately I later found far better examples of this game at the Silverball Museum, Flippers, the TPF, and at Pinballz. All four of these tables were in fine shape and playing great. (And in the last image a bonus – FarSight employee and community relations manager Rob Mann pleading with George Gomez to give somebody else a try!)

 

[Robert Hunt]

The Machine: Bride of Pin·Bot was another pin that took me a while to find, and when I finally caught up to her at the APE, she was acting tempermental. I was lucky enough to get in two games shortly after I got there, but later she was down for the count. Fortunately for me, she had brought a friend from some whisky ad, so I had someone to talk to.

I had better luck with TM:BoP at the TPF, where I was able to give her the old "human influx" a bunch of times to get her wailing; I just wasn't able to convert to an opportunity to take the billion point shot.

Again I think TPA did a fantastic job with this table, although it may surprise you just how cramped the playfield feels. "Swinging away" on this table gets you a ball in your snoot more times than not.

 

[Kolchak357]

A guy from Pinside is planning on bringing a Cactus Canyon to Pinfest in Allentown PA on May 3rd and 4th. He says he will have it there for both Friday and Saturday. It's a long drive but you could cross it off your list there. And on your way home hit the Pinball Parlour in Earlington PA and play No Good Gofers.

 

[Robert Hunt]

I can't leave Bride of Pinbot without sharing a few more images; the table is just a true masterpiece! I actually think it represents a pinnacle achievement in pinball!

 

[Robert Hunt]

I've seen four copies of Medieval Madness, and they varied in condition from "plenty good enough" to "excellent." The first one I played was at Silverball, where like most of the DMD machines, it was set to five ball play. Now I know that makes purist types howl, but I think that's a GREAT IDEA in a museum setting where games are set on free-play. When people are playing games with deep rulesets they can hardly expect to know, it's nice to allow them the chance to get a little deeper into a game and at least engage a bit with most of the features.

That being said, on my first game on that machine at Silverball, which I judged to be in that "good enough" category of table that shows wear but plays fine, I destroyed three castles. I think it took me three MONTHS to destroy three castles in TPA. The table was clearly tuned toward the easy side, but that's not always such a bad thing. What's more, while I didn't have any three castle games in the six or eight games I played on the other three MM's I saw (all three of which being in better condition than the one at Silverball) I still found the game to be a bit easier in real life than on TPA.

The first picture is of an excellent example at Flippers and the second was a color DMD pin in SUPER condition on display at the TPF. The last one at Pinballz had a “buy it now” price of 12 grand on it (so I passed) but it gave me some good games!

 

[Robert Hunt]

Ah Cirqus Voltaire! I know it's a mess on TPA but you can't deny the game has some style. That music! It always makes me wanna go fight the French Revolution or something! I first found it at Flippers in North Carolina, and the game was in truly excellent condition. Now I can't say I managed to join the cirqus, but Ringmasters were going down and I was racking up the marvels pretty good! Maybe it IS over the top! Pinball is over the top!

The copy at Pinballz was in equally good condition to the one in Carolina, but again, I passed on the chance to own it for ten thousand bucks.

 

[Robert Hunt]

Funhouse is everywhere. (Okay TWILIGHT ZONE and THE ADDAMS FAMILY are everywhere.) But Funhouse is not a hard pin to find, so I'm glad I started at the National Pinball Museum in Baltimore, where I got to see it in a virtual SHRINE to designer Pat Lawlor. They had Banzai Run around the corner (close enough I say) but in the “temple” they had, lined up side by side, Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Funhouse, The Addams Family, and Twilight Zone. And in the “L” was the widebody “superpin” Red & Ted's Road Show next to a spectacular example of Safecracker.

My first crack at Funhouse was a scream! Rudy went down for his nap on my second ball, and the next thing I knew he was spitting the ball out of his mouth and it was multiball! I only recently got a clue about how to play this pin, so it was hardly an epic game, but it truly was epic entertainment! Lawlor's innovation with that character was his greatest achievement in a career flush with great achievements.

 

[Robert Hunt]

As I mentioned, I've run into Rudy again and again since we met in Baltimore. He was watching me in Asbury, New Jersey:

We tilted again (so to speak) in North Carolina:

There was a fine example at the TPF:

And I managed to catch him napping again in Austin:

 

[Robert Hunt]

“You hurt Gorgar.” You better believe it, buddy! I have battled that demon before, and a little rust would never stop me from beating that devil beast back to Hades whenever he might dare show me his wicked face!

And the Gorgar at the NPM certainly did not disappoint! I whipped that game into a heated frenzy! I was kicking Gorgar's ass! (Although I began to doubt the wisdom of so many years since my last confession!) But in the end I suppose we battled to a draw; the demon was still glaring at me as I turned to challenge Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man to some pinball. Gorgar will wait...

Sure enough, he was there at the APE, but this time he was in a dark ROOM. Advantage: Gorgar.

But I managed to walk away again mostly uninjured after two or three more violent skirmishes with this tireless beast, knowing he would haunt my future until one of us prevails.

 

[Robert Hunt]

At the TPF Gorgar was a bit better behaved. There were people around; he couldn't just feed at will. But the game was playing fast and loud here too. It's a great game and I think TPA did a great job with it (although I should admit my HoF score on Gorgar is higher than on any other table in the collection. Fighting the devil is just in some people's blood.)

I noticed Gorgar leering at me as I left the ballroom in Dallas. Would this motherless devil have the nerve to meet me in Austin? You know the answer.

 

[Robert Hunt]

The NPM was also where I was reunited with the Black Knight, although this time the machine was in dire need of attention. The lower flippers simply weren't up to the task of spanking the ball up those ramps. I've heard Steve Ritchie say in interviews that Williams wouldn't let him beef up the flippers like he knew they would need, but these flippers were weaker still, and all I really got from the experience was a taste of the sound package and a thirst for a fairer fight.

I got my chance at the Silverball Museum a few days later, where the Black Knight gave me three or four very fine games. It wasn't too hard to get two-ball and three-ball multiball going, and it was a joy to play! Now I'll admit to enjoying the game on TPA as well, but I also welcome the news that they'll soon be doing a true emulation of the ROM and redoing the inadequate view of the upper playfield.

And then again at the Florida APE I got to do battle with the Black Knight in a nice fair fight. Great machine!

 

[Robert Hunt]

Creature from the Black Lagoon is another pin I saw first at the National Pinball Museum, and then again at four other spots. And each time I saw this game it delivered; I didn't see one that wasn't firing on all cylinders. I wrung it out at the NPM too, sending in a fighter jet to take care of that SOB who wouldn't move his car.

Later I showed my six year old nephew these pictures because I thought he would dig the creature. He did. He was fascinated by the creature with the gigantic jugs! (I'm telling you kids DO understand pinball.)

Flippers provided an even BETTER picture of that impressive creature. 3-D indeed!

APE gets turn with Creature:

 

[Robert Hunt]

That beautiful creature was there in Dallas too, this time insisting that she wasn't for sale, but I don't know who would be buying if you have to wrestle her away from that squid first! Some women think they're all that!

But as usual, I managed to find one in Austin who WAS willing to come to terms. Sometimes you just gotta be willing to drive...

So here's what I think after all those choice encounters with these beautiful creatures: I think this game is another homerun for TPA (not to mention John Trudeau.) The game plays on my tablet pretty much the same way it played everywhere I saw it. Super!

 

[Matt McIrvin]

So here's what I think after all those choice encounters with these beautiful creatures: I think this game is another homerun for TPA (not to mention John Trudeau.) The game plays on my tablet pretty much the same way it played everywhere I saw it. Super!

Except, of course, that the real thing is always harder (and I'm not much of a player). I was just trying my hand today at the one at Pinball Wizard in NH, and got the sequential F-I-L-M award but drained my last ball before I could make either of the shots to start multiball...

Great photos!

 

[Robert Hunt]

Taxi! The one that brung me! I've already confessed my secret crush on this game, but I'll just say again I think that everyone involved in this game outdid themselves with it, and if there are bugs in TPA that ruin things for some people, I can only tell you I'm not one of them. Again I think this table is a smash for FarSight.

But the Taxi proved elusive on my journey. I didn't see a hint of one on my entire trip up and down the east coast. I didn't hear that timeless Chris Granner main theme from Taxi (according to his own testimony the single best thing he ever wrote) until I got to the APE. And it was truly a joy to see it (if not to play it.) Sadly this pin was in sore need of attention. Worn art I can forgive on this game (even worn LOLA art, as in this instance.) But weak flippers and other mechanical deficiencies meant finding this game was a hollow victory.

The good news is there was a Taxi CUE in Dallas, and both examples were in pretty good shape. The nicer of the two (a Marilyn) gave me a bunch of great games and I had no trouble getting everyone in the cab, while the other one was a Lola that was in a bit rougher shape but was still getting the job done. And there was a sticker on it asking $1200 (from some guy named chris. Ping me if you're interested and I'll shoot you his numba!)