Kings of Steel Tutorial
A lousy game but a nice tap-pass clinic by world champion Bowen Kerins.
The Life and Death of the American Arcade
This article on The Verge includes a section on pinball.
When Pinball Was Illegal
Bygone New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia thought otherwise. As he saw it, circa January 1942, “pinball machine pushers were ‘slimy crews of tinhorns, well dressed and living in luxury on penny thievery’ and the game was part of a broader ‘craze’ for gambling,” June writes. “He ordered the city’s police to make Prohibition-style pinball raids and seizures its ‘top priority,’ and was photographed with a sledgehammer, triumphantly smashing the seized machines.”
Click here for the full story.
New SF League kicks off with a bang!
Since I live in Oakland I figured it would be quite a trek to attend the SF Pinball Department’s first meeting, but Per Schwarzenber, the league main honcho, won novice at the Pacific Pinball Expo last year and he’s a good guy. I felt like I sort of owed him and the scene, so I got off my ass and hit the BART. Turns out it was the right move, because the pinball energy is definitely in San Francisco! A sense of obligation got me there, but the energy of the players made it tough to go home.
Super cool people, new faces, cases of PBR and lots of big scores. It all made for an awesome night of pinball.
Even if you didn’t catch this first meeting, you can join in next time. Check out http://sfpins.org for details!
Kimball’s 12/19 Results
Sorry for taking so long to post up these results but a) I didn’t win, b) my laptop power supply took a dump, and c) I was on vacation (so no spare power supplies immediately forthcoming from work land). Mostly it was due to a) though. Like 80% or thereabouts.
The format was a standard double-elimination bracket with a little holiday twist: once players got knocked into the loser’s bracket they got to pick a stocking from Santa. Santa delivered all kinds of presents to the tournament, including “nice” presents like passes to Chabot Space and Science Center and Playland not at the Beach, Pinball 101 and History of Pinball DVDs, a Watchmen Graphic Novel and so on. Santa also delivered not-so-good prizes, like a copy of Windows 98 and a tube of Baby Butt Aid diaper rash cream. And then there were good/bad prizes like an awful Bruce Lee rip-off movie from Kung Fu Theater titled “Bruce vs Bruce” and a bag of Sixlets – prizes that were good or bad depending entirely on who received them.
Players who were not…uh… happy with their prizes could challenge other players at a game of pinball in order to steal their prizes, and the player defending his/her prize had to DOUBLE the score of their opponent in order to defend. Some players really jumped at the opportunity to improve their prizes. Others just ate their prizes. Someone went into the comedy show next door and left their prize on the table, and about five of us ate it. Sorry (not really).
| 1 | Tj Beyer |
| 2 | James Squires |
| 3 | Darren Ensley |
| 4 | Devon Kelly |
| 5 | Matt Willmarth |
| 5 | Echa Schneider |
| 7 | Per Schwarzenberger |
| 7 | Damien Charletty |
| 9 | Chris Merrill |
| 9 | Bob Schwarzmann |
| 9 | Josh Warren |
| 9 | Eric Wagensonner |
| 13 | Jonny O |
| 13 | Erin Rey |
| 13 | Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen |
| 13 | Keith Parkins |
| 17 | Darrin Bebout |
| 17 | Darren Brown |
| 17 | Dottie Ledesma |
| 17 | Nick Price |
| 17 | Jessie Kearse |
| 17 | Jeannie Rodriguez |
| 17 | Jeff Fehervari |
| 17 | Nina G |
| 25 | Chris Lindboe |
Award-winning filmmaker Jeff Giordano hosts TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball this Thursday and Sunday at the Pacific Pinball Museum, 6 PM. Tilt is a documentary about the last days of Williams Pinball. The lecture is free. Stick around and play some pinball for $15/adults, $7.50 kids.
Pinball versus…?
New Year’s Eve at Pacific Pinball Museum
See all of you on New Year’s Eve!
San Francisco Pinball League NOW FORMING!
The San Francisco Pinball Department, under the kinetic direction of Per Schwarzenberger, will begin its inaugural league season on January 16th at Free Gold Watch!
For rules, schedules and other info, check out the new website and help spread the word.
I wish I was making this up
Swords of Fury is a pretty fun game, one of those ramp and shot-heavy pre-DMD games that don’t get enough love. Well, Swords of Fury really wants you to love it and it has a special message for those who can start its multiball.
Happy Holidays
Thanks to everyone who came out to Kimball’s tonight for the last tournament of the year. We had 25 players (on a Wednesday!)
It’s been an awesome year for Bay Area pinball. Jim, Nicole, Eric, Damien, Per, Jeannie, Stephen and others have all become active players. And the operators, including TJ, Playland, PPM, and Pinball Pirate are more engaged in social/competitive play than ever. These folks did a ton of hard work to make events happen and they are top notch in my book!
We now have three Bay Area Leagues: BAPA, EBPL, CCPL, and Per Schwarzenberger intends to start a league in SF.
For 2012, only Oregon/Portland rivaled us for total WPPR point opportunities.
BAPA has more PAPA World Champions than any other league. (Stetta, Kerins, Massenkoff)
Let’s keep the ball rolling in 2013. Happy Holidays, and Cheers to all of you!
Tournament tonight at Kimballs
Tonight’s tournament will have a little something extra. Everyone will get a present from Santa, but not all those presents are very good. However, you can be an evil bastard and steal a present, because that’s what the Christmas spirit is all about. Or something.
We start at 7pm. $5. See you there!
pinballbayarea.com 