Pinball Bay Area

Once again it is time for the ultimate holiday pinball tournament, The Nutcracker Duel. It will be run the same way as last year, if some of you remember it. There will be about 20 pins here and once again a big ass Christmas tree!

Tournament date will be – December 7^th 2013 (Saturday)

Warm up starts at – 10AM

Tournament Starts at – 12PM (Noon)

Location: Jim Vierra’s  – 5160 Independence Dr. Pleasanton, CA 94566

Format – Three Strikes

Cost – $25 to play ($20 to the pot and $5 to the house for food and facility)

RSVP- email me at (bagger2003@yahoo.com) just need a head count and your place will be held

Max Occupancy – 64 people in the tournament (only because of space limitations)

Side tournament – haven’t decided format (might be high score) $1 a play

Basically be here or be left out of one of the most awesome tournaments around. There will be food out, most likely a sandwich bar or taco bar (send your vote in the email with your RSVP). I have a soda machine in the garage, everything in it is 50 cents, I don’t have many quarters on hand so please bring some if you want stuff from the machine. Also, pinball machines are all on free play and people always ask what games I have at home, and really I have no clue what will be in my line up that weekend. (pins rotate often here) I will also being paying out more then the top three places, unlike last year.

Now the rule stuff…

Overview and Rules

 First off, you must remember this is a home, NOT a bar! If you are not respectful of the house or cannot control yourself in a decent manner you will be asked to leave the tournament with no refund!

This Format will be used for the 2013 “Nutcracker Duel” Tournament. Slight changes may occur, and adjustments may be needed to ensure that we can finish at a somewhat decent time.

Players will be drawn randomly and compete one-on-one. The loser of the match will receive a ‘strike’ against them. Each match will play their drawn game for a best 2 of 3. Please note we may adjust to single game matches at any point after each full round is complete.

Once a player has received a total of 3 strikes (has lost 3 matches) they are eliminated from the Tournament. The last person with strikes remaining is the winner!!

Tournament Staff: Jim Vierra – Head Official

Tj Beyer, Kevin Riekki, and Nicole Anne Reik  -Officials for this event.

Tournament Start Time: Doors open at 10am for warm up / sign-up will start at 10:30 and close at noon ($25 to play) The tournament will start at noon / Prize money and trophies will be awarded at end of tournament

Drawing Players / Playing a Match:

All players will be assigned a block and will have their name on it. All player’s blocks will be placed into the ‘Players Bag’. The first player that was drawn is player one, the next time playing that game it is switched, then if needed, the third time the loser of the first game plays first. Ex: Game 1 (player 1, player2) Game 2 (Player2, Player 1)Game 3(loser of game 1, winner of game 1) The players will report to the Tournament Desk and a machine will be drawn randomly from the ‘Game Bag’. This will continue until all available machines are being played competitively. The 2 players will play one match and report the result to the Tournament Desk. Both players SHOULD report to the desk together, but at very least the WINNER should report the result. The loser of the game will receive one strike against them. These players will not have to play another match until every other remaining name has been drawn out of the ‘Players Bag’. It is important to report results immediately to keep the event moving. Players that do not report back promptly may receive a warning. Each subsequent warning will be a strike against them in the Tournament. As each Tournament machine becomes available for play, 2 players will be drawn from the ‘Players Bag’ and their match will begin. This will ensure that machines are always occupied, and that the Tournament is moving along as quickly as possible. All matches are logged. If there is Odd number of people to play in a round, the last person (who would have no one to play against) has a bye for that round. A player may not have more then one bye during the tournament, unless all other players have also had a bye. The person with a bye is automatically player 1 of the first match drawn next round. As the tournament goes on games will be dropped from the tournament list and then can be used for casual play.

 When there are only 2 Players Left: The final match will be on a game chosen from the Game Bag. The player with the MOST STRIKES against them will start as player 2. If both players have an equal number of strikes against them, a coin flip will determine who is player 1 and who is player 2.

Machine Malfunctions: In case of a malfunction during game play, please get someone to alert one of the Tournament Staff and someone will come to assist you as soon as possible. Remember, staff MAY be involved in a match of their own at that moment, so please be patient when waiting for assistance. Also note, any malfunction that occurs while playing a match against a Staff member will require an alternate staff member to make a ruling (when necessary).

Rulings on how to deal with malfunctions will be taken care of as fairly as possible, and all rulings are final. Severe malfunctions may include a game re-start OR moving the players to an alternate machine when necessary.

Should you have any questions about this document or you are in need of clarification of a rule, feel free to ask me directly any time (except when I’m in the middle of a Tournament game!!!)

Other obvious stuff: NO death saves, NO bangbacks, have fun!

California Extreme is an annual pinball and video game show held at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.  Next year’s show is July 12-13.  This is one show you don’t want to miss!  The hotel discount rate for the show is $90 per night and the discount rooms sell out months before the show.  If you plan to volunteer for the setup or bring games, I recommend booking both Friday and Saturday.

Go here for more info: http://www.caextreme.org/hotel_info

Join the California Extreme Fans Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/36189345338/

PAPA World Champion Bowen Kerins and PAPATV just did a live tutorial of STERN’s latest effort.  STAR TREK is the newest design by the legendary Steve Ritchie.  Steve produced instant classics like Black Knight, Getaway, Flash, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.  But despite successes spanning decades, it’s clear he has more in store for us!

I’ve put about five hours on the new Trek and it’s a fun player.  My best score so far is 58M.  You can play it at Hi-Life Pizza at 14th and Franklin, and expect to see additional locations soon.

Even if you were lame and missed the live broadcast (like me), here ya go:

photo:danfontes.com

This Saturday November 9, Pinsider PracticalSteve will be hosting a meetup for Pinsiders and bay area collectors to meet, play, talk tech and of course, collecting.  Come put a face to the name of some other local enthusiasts.

The official hours of the meetup are from 12 PM – 4 PM and the event is free (just pay regular museum admission).  Check out this thread on pinside for more information.  See you there!

Huge thanks to Gene X Hwang for these excellent pics of last night’s tournament.

Check out more of Gene’s great pinball photography at:

http://store.orangephotography.com/sfpins

(My site automatically scales down images, click the link above for better versions)

We had an exciting tie-breaker for first place between Joey Springer and Andreas Pedersen.  Joey was up first on Earthshaker, and had to get either 12 miles or 1 million points.  He did this on ball 2, so in order to force a second tie-breaker, Andreas also had to get it on ball 2.  After Earthshaker totaled his bonus…. 990k!

Congrats to Joey Springer for his win!

“Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a sh** about the rules?”

L-R: Eric, Andreas and Jeff

PUNCH IT

Darren shakin’ it on Earthshaker

Jessica picking up some cash

Local comedian Nina G stopped by to play pinball and remind you not to invade her personal space.

Come down and have some pizza and beer with us, and play the new Star Trek pinball!

When: Tuesday 10/29  7 PM start time.  For this tournament, you can show up as late as 7:30 and still play.

Entry: $5 to enter the tournament, and then quarters for your games.

Where: Hi-Life Pizza in downtown Oakland, 400 15th Street.  It’s at the corner of 15th and Franklin Streets.  The sign says “Rico’s Diner”. DO NOT BE FOOLED.  Games are upstairs.

For BART, take 12th street exit and it’s a five minute walk.

Parking: Meters run until 6.  Street parking is usually not bad in this area.

Who can play: This is open to all players, ages and skill levels.  For example, Ralph Macchio.

What Games: Current line-up is Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Dracula, Indiana Jones, Radical, Batman, Attack from Mars and Star Trek (brand new!)

Format:  10/29 Pin Golf.   This will be a straight 7-hole pingolf with no finals and place determined by final scores.  A tie-breaker will be held as necessary at the end.

Wpprs: This tournament will award world pinball player ranking points (wppr) at 1/4 value.

Payouts: 1st: 40%, 2nd: 30%, 3rd: 20%, 4th: 10%.  If more than 16 players enter, then 5th – 8th also get $5

Obvious: Please don’t bring in outside food or drinks. Thanks.

BOP 2.0 is an update to the original game which adds a dot-matrix display and mode-based play to the classic game.  In addition, they’ve programmed the original BOP rules so you don’t have to choose one or the other, you can have both. It really looks like they put a lot of time into this conversion.  The dot matrix animations are top notch.

The downside?  The price is pretty steep at around $1800, and you still need to find a donor game to boot.  Still, if you’ve already got a BOP and want to be the only guy on the on the block with a unique game, this certainly fits the bill and doesn’t cost Cactus Canyon money.

Not since the Theater of Magic Promo video have I seen something this absurd.  And baby, I’ve seen a LOT of pinball videos.

It kicks off with a stiff introduction.  Not great but no big deal for an amateur production.  Around 1:30 is when the fun starts.  Maybe she ate some bad tacos or lost a bunch of money on her Medieval Madness, I don’t know, but she spontaneously freaks out and goes Exorcist on us.  Just not in a good way.  And by that I mean not in a bad way.  I mean, well, if you thought Exorcist 2 was high art, you’re probably going to love this!

I’ll give her credit, this girl goes all-in with her performance.  But unfortunately we don’t get Linda Blair, here.  It’s more like tripping on LSD while watching an Ultimate Warrior interview.

Highlights include:

– “TNT is DEAD!” (TNT Amusements is a rival game company)

– Zombie girl telling the audience they “suck balls”.

– “TNT Subscribers are bitches!”

Local pinball operator Andy Kuntz carved this awesome Haunted House jack-o-lantern using nothing but Novus 3 and a can of freeze spray.

Or something like that.  Nice work!

The great guys over at the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association just posted their latest tutorial video featuring reigning PAPA World Champion Bowen Kerins.  Check it out!

Pinballpix.com is a gallery of backglass photos from a bay area pinball fan .  Check it out, particularly if you like the art on older EMs and Solid State games.

http://pinballpix.com