Here it comes.  This is the can’t miss one and only, cancel your plans, do it, event of the year.

Are you ready?

The new Vitus is located near 14th and Broadway, steps away from BART and a block away from Disco Volante.  I spoke with Damon, the owner, and he has some pretty ambitious pinball plans.  Construction is still ongoing and the venue isn’t open yet, but he’s doing scheduled events in the meantime.  Since Damon was such a big supporter of local pinball at the old venue, lets return the favor and support him at his new venue.  The date is tentatively October 23rd and this will be the final WPPR tourney of the year for Vitus, awarding one-third of the total available points.  See you there!

Above: Before the tournament got underway, the participants acted out several musical numbers from West Side Story. (pic by John Lautmann)

1st: Nudge Or Be Nudged (Andrei Massenkoff/Cathy Kleckner)
2nd: Pintensive Care (Kevin Riekki/Mitch Tunick)
3rd: Hal & Zoe (Jim Vierra/T.J. Beyer)
4th: Sibling Revelry (Chis DeLeon/Rick DeLeon
5th:Gnomosexuals (David Rockholt/Keith Parkins)
5th:The Foulmouths (Aaron Wong/Jay Sandy)
7th: Pin-decent Exposure (Chris Heilig/Justin Haber)
7th:Flippin’ Ballzy! (Devon Kelly/Hunter Roberts)
9th: The JL’s (Josh Lehan/John Lautmann)
9th: Team Canada (Jeannie Rodriguez/Nicole Ann Reik)
9th: Halcyon Daze (Jonny O/Per Shwarzenberger)
9th: The 2 Prettiest (Austin/Sean)
13th: Team Ball (Marcus Peterson/Jesse Peterson)
13th: Pin, Lose or Draw (Rich Machado/Matt Machado)
13th: Poison Fan Club (Jason Delano/Damien Charlety)
13th: Blood In Blood Out (Eddie Dobson/Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen)

Stephen Kleckner was tourney director and ultimate judge.

More here.

A couple years ago I happened across pinball games made in China, and a little more interweb detective work revealed they were mostly destined for Latin-American countries.  The majority of them are flipper-less bingo-style games and used for either redemption or gambling.  Many use plastic balls and a handful feature LCD displays.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see these games in American Casinos as some point.

Caption from the author’s blog: “Pinball arcades remain hugely popular in Valparaiso (Chile), they are crowded all day with a wide assortement of characters, men, women, business suits, students, kids. Sound heard: pinball noises and background latin music.”

Sound link: http://whatisbeau.com/blog/audio/flipper.mp3

A great featurette on the Pins and Needles arcade in So Cal.

The Free Lance-Star – May 23, 1970

Hey folks, the tournament for 9/11 at Kimballs is cancelled, as wells as future non-WPPR tournaments (at least, I won’t be running them).  The next WPPR tournament will be on 10/9.

I’ll see if I can locate another venue to continue running the non-WPPR tournaments.  If you have a venue in mind, let me know.  It must be open somewhat late (midnight), not require a cover charge and have at least four working games.