The Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (better known as PAPA) is holding their annual World Championship tournament this weekend in Pittsburgh, PA.  Actually, it’s a bunch of tournaments.  From their page:

The World Pinball Championships includes three major divisions for competitors of varying skill levels, three classics tournaments featuring older machines, and a juniors and seniors division for our younger and older participants.

The first three days of the tournament consist of qualifying for the three main divisions, followed by a fourth day of final rounds where final placement for the top-sixteen qualifiers is determined.

Two local players are in attendance this year:  Andrei Massenkoff of San Francisco won the A Division in 2011 to be crowned World Pinball Champion.  Damien Charlety of Sacramento took 2nd earlier this year at Pinburgh (the other major tournament PAPA hosts each year, and the largest tournament in the world).

A fan-made poster of local legend Neil Shatz (NES) has been spotted at PAPA.

The format of PAPA is considered a brutal undertaking.  Like many large, regional events, there is an open qualifying period (in this case, three days, from Thurs to Sat) during which players can purchase entries and attempt to qualify as many times as they want.  PAPA adds an additional twist, though: each entry consists of five games and your score is based on how well you do on all of them.  It’s not enough to get one lucky game. You need to put together a solid run to advance.

Three really, really good ones plus two, really, really bad ones = bad entry.

I used this format when I ran the tournament at the Pacific Pinball Exposition in 2011 and saw the endurance and mental toughness it takes.  It’s very common for a player to be in the following scenario: their first few games go well and they just need an average or better game to close out a solid entry that will get them into the finals.  Then they play their last game and tank it, and realize they have to start all over again.  Woe to the scorekeeper and anyone else nearby at the conclusion of that game.

During the three days of qualifying for the main tournaments, PAPA also runs Classics tournaments each day.  Players have to budget their time (and money) between qualifying for Classics and the main tournament (and sleep is occasionally nice).  Oh, and if you manage to qualify and make the finals, you have to play at your best for a fourth day to try and win!

It’s a meat grinder but when the best of the best make it through on Sunday, no one will utter the phrase “so-and-so just got lucky”.

The finals will be live-streamed with overhead cameras and live commentary on Sunday but I was unable to find the schedule details.  They generally go live early on Sunday and with the time zone difference, it’s likely they’ll be on air by 9 AM PST and finish around 2 PM PST.

Live-stream (Sunday) here  Previous Tournament Coverage here

PAPA Web Site here

Live Standings here

Local News Video here

As a few of you know, Gestalt bar in San Francisco has six pinball machines.  Eric W, who took over the Pinball Map for me, contacted the operator with the idea of starting up some pinball tournaments.  The operator obliged and now Gestalt has six pinball machines in great shape, including A-listers like Medieval Madness and Metallica.

Shortly afterward the place got raided by the San Francisco Police Department and shut down.  I don’t know all the details, but basically they’re in violation of local law under permit grounds.

The fallout is they need to go before the City Council and plead their case.  That’s where you come in.

Email cammy.blackstone@sfgov.org and let her know you support Gestalt.  Be respectful.  Be truthful.  Be tactful.  I know you all love pinball, but this isn’t the time when you should fire off that angry email saying ‘get with the times!“.  Pinball is about the positive, and that’s what will convince them.

My email to Cammy Blackstone, the Deputy Director of the Entertainment Division of San Francisco, is below.  You don’t need to elaborate on your thoughts as I did if you don’t want to.  A short, simple note in support of Gestalt also makes a difference.

So take a few moments and spend a few keystrokes to make sure this pinball thing we all love doesn’t get bamboozled for all the wrong reasons.  Once the setback is in, it’s twice as hard to undo.  The deadline is August 14, so don’t wait, do it now!

Oh, and get the word out.

—-

Jon Olkowski

A TOPS tournament has just been kicked off at Hi-Life Pizza in Oakland.  There haven’t been many recent TOPS tournaments in the Bay Area so let me explain how they work.

TOPS is the factory tournament software on many STERN pinball games.  You insert the tournament fee into the game ($2 in this case) and then play your entry.  If you make the top 4, you’re prompted to enter your info.  You can enter as many times as you like during the qualifying period and your goal is to put up a score that will stand until the end of the tournament.  If it stands, you win money!

You can enter as many times as you like to try and get a high tournament score.  Note, also, scores for the TOPS tourney are not related to the regular high score table.

If you don’t want to enter the tournament, or you want to do some warm-up games, you just hit the ‘Start’ button as usual.  Non-tournament games cost the same as always (I think currently $1/game or $2/3 games).

Here’s more details:

– Cash pinball tournament. Starts today 8/5 and ends 9/7/14 at 11:59pm

– Top 4 places will be paid cash prizes.  (Percentage of prize pool paid to each place will be posted as soon as I get the info)

– Each entry costs $2/game. You may enter as many times as you like to attempt to get into the top 4.  Note that as the contest nears conclusion, you might get bumped out of the top 4!

Here’s the good part!

– Prize pool starts at $100 and grows by $1 each tournament play (100% of “premium” for tournament play goes straight into the prize pool!)   This could potentially be a VERY nice payout!

To enter the tournament, insert $2 into AC/DC and push the YELLOW “tournament start” button, not the regular Start button!

Looks something like this

Hi Life is located in Downtown Oakland at 15th and Franklin.  Good luck!

Unfortunately, due to reasons outside of Eric’s control relating to the hosting location’s situation, he must cancel the tournament at Gestalt.

Hopefully the situation will be cleared up soon and we’ll see more tournament action from Eric.

The IFPA National Championships is a tournament featuring the winners of the IFPA State Championships series.  This year it was held at Lyon’s Classic Pinball in Lyons, Colorado.

Keith Elwin and Bowen Kerins battle it out in the a best-of-7 series.

For more information on the IFPA State Championship series:

http://www.ifpapinball.com/scs

Another year, another CAX.  And another awesome weekend like no other.

I checked into my room and then went down to the showroom for my volunteer window.  Even by 3 PM the showroom looked very filled, so it was clear that Ken, Jim, TJ and Mark had things ready to go.

I got the worst job in the world: alphabetizing all the pre-register laminated name tags.  My spell checker just had to correct me on ‘alphabetizing’, so yeah.

But the next day the show began.  Michelle Morris did her usual awesome job coordinating the front end.

STERNS Mustang pinball

I put a few games on STERN’s Mustang Pinball, and while the game seemed to get a lukewarm reception on release, it’s a solid player.

The ultra-rare Kingpin and Big Bang Bar (BBB’s back-lights were out)

Of course, no CAX is complete without these two ultra-rare games.

I got a video of an incredibly good Dance Game player working both foot pads.

On Sunday, I ran two fun pinball tournaments right next to the Pacific Pinball Museum booth in the main showroom using the Surf Champ clear pinball built by Michael Schiess.  The cabinet and playfield are made of plexi-glass so you can see what the mechanics are doing while the game plays.

The first was a split-flipper tournament where two players work as a team, one on each flipper. The winners were the final team to play: Jem Gruber and Jeff Fehervari.  Jem and Jeff each took home a Star Trek translite and t-shirts provided by STERN pinball.  Congrats guys!

Francisco and Elias on split-flipper

Jeff Fervari and Jem Gruber with their loot.

The second tournament was single-player, one-handed affair, which is inevitably hilarious since lots of players will instinctively want to use their non-playing hand when things get tense.

Former NBA Basketball player Todd MacCulloch pulled off an amazing game.  I’ve talked to Todd on many occasions and he’s such a mellow guy, and sort of a…well “gentle giant”.  But once he started his game he visibly transformed.  He was crazy fast and his hands and reactions were very quick.  Logically it makes sense: that’s what it takes to get to the NBA, but still, seeing it in person is another thing.

On ball one he earned an extra ball, something no one else managed to do.  Then,  on ball two, only 2000 points short of the leader’s score, he tilted!  And the tilt carried through to the next ball, costing him two balls!  Had he not earned the extra ball on ball one his game would have been over!  With his last ball he went on to put another 10k on top for the solid win.  Congrats to Todd!

The STERN T-shirt was way to small for Todd so he gave it to the runner-up, Dale.  Todd is great guy!

In the main tournament, (full bracket HERE) Bay Area local Brian O’Neill of SFPD won the Casual Division.  Bay Area players have won the Casual Division the last four out of five years.

The Bay Area also did a great job in the Classics Division.  Alex Samonte of BAPA took 2nd, Andrei Massenkoff of BAPA/SFPD took 3rd and Josh Warren of BAPA/EBPL took 4th.

In the Modern Division, Tim Hansen of BAPA took 4th.  Bowen Kerins, the co-director of the tournament (with Greg Dunlap), took 1st.  Bowen started with the original BAPA league so I’ll count that as a Bay Area win as well. :-)

So.  After all the dust has settled, obviously this only scratches the surface of this awesome show.  I wanted to hit some seminars – I didn’t.  I wanted to play in Stephen Kleckner’s Street Fighter Tournament – I didn’t.  I wanted to not have something break at work on Saturday – it did.  But, I still had an awesome time and I have a reason to go back next year. :-)  Not that I needed one.

Huge thanks to the team that put on CAX:  Jim, TJ, Mark, Michelle, Ken, and all the volunteers do an incredible, stressful job for you.  Be sure to thank them when you see them.  And play more pinball!

Photo by Gene X / Orange Photography

California Extreme is an annual arcade and pinball show and it’s MASSIVE.  You do not want to miss this one!  Vendors, speakers, tournaments and hundreds of pinball and video games all converge on the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara for two days of non-stop arcade awesomeness.  This will be my 5th year attending and I can’t wait!

In addition to several video game tournaments, CA Extreme hosts a world-class pinball tournament that is also a PAPA Circuit Event.  Even if you can’t make the show, you can follow the tournament action live via PAPA TV.

Multi-World Champion Bowen Kerins getting enthusiastic on ACDC. Photo: Gene X / Orange Photography

Join the CA Extreme Facebook Group and get all the latest updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/36189345338/

On a budget?  If you work two volunteer hours, you get admission free for the rest of the day.  More info here.

See more of Gene X’s photos of last year’s show here.

The PAPA TV crew made the trip to Atlanta for their annual show.  Check out the Semis and Finals tournament action here.

Way back in 2010, I learned there are still laws on the books in Oakland pertaining to pinball.  The laws in question are:

A.

It is unlawful for any person to keep or use in any public place any pinball machine equipped with any device which cancels and records the cancellation of free games won without the actual playing of said free games by the player.

B.

It is unlawful for any person to keep or use in any public place any pinball machine game which permits the insertion of more than one coin per game.

These laws deal with pinball at a time when it was still a gambling game.  Pinball made so much money in that format that even the mob got involved.  Today, the laws are basically ignored: they’re antiquated and everyone knows it.  A few times I thought it might be fun to mount a campaign to “legalize” pinball in Oakland and get these old laws struck from the books.  The reality is they’ve never hindered the growth of modern pinball in Oakland.  And anyway, it’s kind of cool to be an “outlaw” playing pinball, right?

(A) was related to a thing called a knockdown switch.  If you earned some credits on a pinball machine, you told the bartender or soda jerk and he paid you out in anything from cash to cigarettes to prizes, after which he’d hit the “knockdown switch” to clear your credits so the next player could play.  Modern pinballs still retain the credit count, even after a reset, which might be a holdover from these days.

(B) seems particularly targeted at a special kind of pin game known as Bingo that was popular from around the 1950s through the 1970s.  Flippers were added to Pinball games in 1947, but a lot of people still liked to gamble, and Bally, in particular, knew it.  So while they made “games of skill” with flippers, which were “For Amusement Only”, they also made Bingos, which were for gambling.  Bingos became very popular, and like slot machines, they allowed players to insert many coins (over 100 was not uncommon) to better your odds or returns.

Musician Lonnie Irving made a great song about Bingos.

Well, it now appears the City of Oakland is going to finally, officially, get rid of these laws:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jackpot-Oakland-decriminalizing-pinball-machines-5565613.php

But note: I have it on fairly reliable word that some Bingos still operate around the Bay Area.  Could the striking of such laws usher in some of the Chinese Bingos?  Not likely, but who knows.

Check out PPM’s Membership levels.  The basic membership pays for itself after only seven visits and the Duo membership pays for itself in just five visits.  Makes a great gift, too.

PPM MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM Help support the Pacific Pinball Museum by becoming a member. Annual memberships come with benefits! Drop by the museum or write to info@pacificpinball.org to get your membership today!
BASIC MEMBERSHIP   Individual: $100 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult for one year. Includes 10% store discount, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events.

Duo: $150 – Unlimited regular admission for two adults for one year. Includes 10% store discount, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events.

Family: $200 – Unlimited regular admission for two adults and two children 16 & under for one year. Includes 10% store discount, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events.

Contributing: $250 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and one guest. Includes 10% store discount, 10% off party room rentals, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events.

Sustaining: $500 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and two guests. Includes 10% store discount, 10% off party room rentals, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events.

Premier: $1,000 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and up to four guests. Includes 10% store discount, 10% off party room rentals, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events. Your name added to the donor wall at the museum and online. Behind the scenes personal guided tour.

Benefactor: $2,500 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and up to five guests. Includes 10% store discount, one free party room rental, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events. Your name added to the donor wall at the museum and online. Behind the scenes personal guided tour.

Patron: $5,000 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and up to six guests. Includes 10% store discount, one free party room rental, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events. Your name added to the donor wall at the museum and online. Behind the scenes personal guided tour.

Angel: $10,000 – Unlimited regular admission for one adult and up to eight guests.  Includes 10% store discount, one free party room rental, PPM newsletter and Invitations to Members-Only events. Your name added to the donor wall at the museum and online. Behind the scenes personal guided tour.

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP Starting: $50,000 – Pacific Pinball Museum is looking to engage with other companies in the community to benefit your mission statement as well as ours. Our facility can be used to hold a team building event, a meeting place with education and entertainment built in, or for a corporate outing or party.  Let us customize a unique sponsorship package to fit your needs. Please contact us at info@pacificpinball.org and let’s discuss available options. .

Contact info@pacificpinball.org or call 510-205-6959 for more information.