Playland arcade, circa 1940

History: http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/beach/fastcompany5jacksofHamptonBeach03.htm

The World’s Greatest Pinball Lover and main honcho of the San Francisco Pinball League has announced a tournament in San Francisco!  Basics down below and more details as they become available here: http://www.sfpins.org/7

• Sunday, June 16th @ 2 pm. The summer of George @ Free Gold Watch, 1767 Waller St, San Francisco. Also known as “Last man standing”, this tournament will put your focus on one thing: Not being a loser!
  

Players will be drawn into groups of 4 (or 3 when necessary) to play a machine. Whoever finishes last is out and the remaining 3 players will move on to the next round and so on until we have a winner. There will be one buy-in possibility for players to use if they want to re-enter the tournament after having tasted the sour grapes of defeat already.

Cost to enter: $10 plus coin drop. Cost to buy-in: $10.

Registration will be open from 12 pm until 1:45 pm sharp. Registration on-site only, no exceptions, so don’t be late.

A maximum of 52 players will be allowed to enter.

Prize money goes to 1st place (30%), 2nd place (25%), 3rd place (15%) 4th place (10%), and 5th-8th place (5% each). There will also be trophies for the top finishers.

WPPR’s? – Yes, but only half.

Questions?  Email Per.   Per@sfpins.org

A few of you may recall how former Republican Representative of Missouri, Todd Akin, got into some hot, hot water when he said that in cases of “legitimate rape”, a woman’s body had ways to “shut that whole thing down” (i.e. not get pregnant).  This further implied that in cases where women did get pregnant from rape, maybe it wasn’t, ya know, “rape rape” (i.e. partially or totally consensual).  Just kind of rape.  Or something.

I don’t normally get political on this site but regardless of where you stand on the issue, the guy’s comments were idiotic, and reflected his willful ignorance of the entire field of reproductive science and its advances in the last couple hundred years.  I mean, this was one of those “She won’t get pregnant if she’s on top, you know, cause of gravity” kind of stupid comments – not surprising when you hear that coming from a dumb teenager, but unacceptable and insulting when coming from an elected official.

French Artist Marie Busson, decided to turn the quote into a pinball game.

More at the artist’s web site: http://mariebusson.canalblog.com/albums/la_femme_flipper/index.html

Pinball got a brief mention on National Public Radio (NPR).

We’ve asked you to send us stories about the vintage sounds of technology you miss, and we’ve been listening to those stories on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Today, Scott Smith of Duncan, South Carolina, with the help of his own vintage sound collection, tells us about something he recalls first hearing when he was a small child.

SCOTT SMITH: I can remember I fell in love with the startup sound of an electromechanical pinball machine, oh, when I was 3 or 4 years old.

Listen and read rest here:

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/27/186813114/vintage-sounds-the-clacks-and-dings-of-pinball-machines

“Pin Ball” is a fire engine originally built in 1896.  But how did they name it “pinball” when the game we know is thought to have originated around 1931?

There are a few different uses for “Pin Ball” around that time but the most likely connection I could find was a schoolyard game that appears to have originated on the east coast.

– The Devil’s Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square

Hey folks, I’m helping run a fun tournament to benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation next Saturday.  It will be a “Player’s Choice” style event.  You pick your favorite game to play but you get last choice of player order for that game.

This is a casual event so if you have a WPPR rank of 500 or better, just come to hang out and play pinball.  We’ll do afters at Legionnaire and get some tommy dollars games going on Metallica.  Prizes provided by Playland not at the Beach.

From May 28 through July 1, the Pacific Pinball Museum will feature five electro-mechanical pinball machines at the Alameda City Hall. They’ll be available for free play from 12 – 1:30 PM Monday through Thursday.

If you work in Alameda, treat your coworkers to a free pinball lunch!

What a cool night.  I didn’t get around to playing Metallica at Pin a Go Go so I went down to Legionnaire Saloon to try it out.  Four other guys were already down there playing it so I had to wait in line.  Then three more people showed up.  About that time I had to leave to meet some friends to see Studio Ghibli’s latest film (which was great) so I only got three games in.

Initial impressions?  Overall it’s good, and with some rules refinement it definitely can be great.  It has that “fun to play right away” feeling.  Other games take awhile to warm up to but this one feels good from the start.

In terms of difficulty it feels a little more forgiving than ACDC and Ironman, and probably on par with TRON if you could take the GEM shot out.  Being brand new it was crazy fast.

The playfield design is very good and easy to get into.  I can’t say I love it as much as TRON but my first impressions put it above ACDC.  It features in-line drop targets which haven’t been seen on a pinball game in quite a long time.  The main electric chair shot reminds me of the castle shot on Medieval Madness.

The art is better than anything STERN has done in the last decade.  Again, I really love TRON and feel the “graphic design” style art is actually a good fit for that theme, but Metallica just drips with attitude.  You look cool playing it.

Gene X was down there with us and took some fantastic photos.  Check out more here.