It’s tournament time again.  Pacific Pinball Museum will soon receive an ACDC Premium Edition pinball game, and to celebrate we are going to hold an all-STERN pinball tournament.

• CSI
• Ironman
• TRON
• Transformers
• ACDC LE
• Plus a couple classic STERNs to be determined!

Where: Pacific Pinball Museum

From SF, take BART to 12th Street.  Take the 58A bus to Alameda.  If you see Citibank on the left, it’s the next block. If you see Nations on the left, you just passed it.

When: Saturday May 12, 2012.  Play begins at noon.  Qualifying ends at 5:30PM. Finals begin at 6 PM.  No entry after 1:30 PM

How: Magic

Entry: Entry is free with PPM Admission ($15).  There is an optional $10 side pot for those who want to play for cash.

Can kids play?: Yes.

Format: Wildcard Format: Play each STERN game one time each.  After all games have been played you can replay one game of your choice to try and improve your score*.  Top 16 players advance to Open Finals.  The next 8 novice players will play in the Novice Finals.

*Wildcard game must be played no later than one hour prior to the end of qualifying, i.e. 4:30 pm and not until all other regular qualifying games have been played.  Players are responsible for arriving early enough and completing their games on time.

Free Stuff: PAPA tokens, STERN Keyfobs, maybe raffle prizes

Prizes: STERN has sponsored the event with 10 translites ($100 – 150 value each).  Plaques and translites awarded to top 4 in each division.

Food: I’m bringing Mac and Cheese and beverages.  Bring a homemade dish to share.  The best dish, voted by the players, wins a translite.

Volunteers: Help with score-keeping or score entry for an hour, and/or game tech, and you’re entered into a drawing for a translite.

World Pinball Player Ranking Points (aka WPPRs): Points will be awarded.  Win or lose, by the end of the night you will be a world-ranked pinball player.

Questions: jonnynacho@gmail.com

photo by Nicole Anne Reik

Check it out, boys and girls.  The Metreon (101 4th Street) now has six STERN pinball machines to play.  Games are maintained by TJ Beyer so if anything isn’t working, email funpinball@gmail.com and he will fix ’em up .

(Note: you failing and not getting a replay is not something TJ can repair. kthx)

• Pirates of the Carribean
• Indiana Jones 4
• Sopranos
• Spiderman
• Lord of the Rings
• The Simpsons Pinball Party

Format was single-elim head-to-head time attack with 3-minute rounds.  In addition to cash prizes, players won complimentary drink coupons, PAPA tokens and chiclets bubble gum.  1st place won the soundtrack to the 1995 hit motion picture Hackers.

Hackers: “Their only crime was curiosity.”

1 hal
2 zoe
3 Jim Vierra
4 Bryan
5 Chris H.
5 Garrett
5 Per
5 kenny
9 Erin G
9 Darren
9 Tim H.
9 TJ
9 steve F
9 Mike S.
9 taylor
9 Henry
17 jonny o
17 Scott K
17 Erin R.
17 aaron S
17 nicole
17 christian h

Hot buttery tournament action at Vitus this Wednesday.  7pm start time.  $5 entry.

When: Tomorrow (Friday 4/6), 6 – 9PM.

Where: Pacific Pinball Museum

Entry: $15 for Adults.  Ask about the Club Card for discount entry on future events.

 “Physics, mechanics, art and history exhibits:

an art and tech show about the internal workings of the

machines, and their art and design as they change over

time.”

• FREE FINGER FOOD
• 90 Pinball and other old-fashioned arcade games (shooting, pitch ‘n bat, crane, etc) all on free play.
• Art Gallery Permanent Exhibit with Doug Watson (Barracora, Quicksilver)

More Info: http://www.pacificpinball.org/events/current-events

Left to Right: Stephen (4th), Aaron (2nd in tournament and Season Champion), Zoe (1st) and Rich (3rd).

The EBPL held their league finals at Phoenix Games.  The EBPL’s season finale is sort of like a “final exam”, where a percentage of your overall season points are determined in the single-elim best-of-three tournament.  Zoe won the tournament but Aaron still finished high enough to win the Season overall.  Congrats to all!

I got to meet Mark of Classic Game Room at Pinburgh and he let me do a quick shout out (around 3:35).  I should have put on my BAPA headband.  BUT I was wearing my Oakland Pinball Mafia/Radio Pinball Union shirt.

Click photo to biggie-size

From Friday March 30 till Sunday April 1 the largest Match Play tournament in the world was held just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.  The Bay Area contingent consisted of Walter, Nicole, Alex, Josh, Damien, Chris,  Andrei, Marcus, Eugene, and of course, myself.

We booked flights, hotels, and used up vacation days to do it. And several spent time away from families.

Was it worth it?

Above: The Pinburgh Poster

Passing over the Rockies on the flight out.

About a month ago, I considered the sanity of this endeavor: Am I really flying across the country to do this?  It takes about a kilobuck, all told. It makes no practical or economic sense.  But I love playing pinball and I love competing, love the community and camaraderie.  If I’ve found one truth in life, it’s that we have to follow our passions.  Wherever they may lead us.

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” – Charles Bukowski

Here I am, on the scene and ready for action.

Nicole had custom BAPA headbands and wristbands made for the league.

Above left to right: Josh, Eugene, Nicole, Jonny O, Andrei Massenkoff (2011 World Champion)

Banners hang from the rafters to recognize past PAPA World Champions.  

Three of the 14 winners are (or were) Bay Area players, and all three from the Bay Area Pinball Association: Rick Stetta (PAPA 2), Bowen Kerins (PAPA 4) and Andrei Massenkoff (PAPA 14).

Dave Baach, who co-ran the PPE tourney with me. hooked me up with some cool stickers.

Dave Baach (right), a key contributor to PAPA’s evolution, and co-ran the PPE Tournament with me.

Damien got 3rd highest score on a very tough Demoman with the claw disabled.

Results for Bay Area Players:

A Division

Andrei: Qualified for playoffs, advanced to Semi Final

Eugene: Qualified in A, finished 83

Alex: Qualified in A, finished 48

Damien: Qualified in A, finished 37

Josh: Qualified in A, finished 80

B Division

Walter: Qualified for playoffs, advanced to Semi Final

Chris: Qualified for playoffs, advanced to Semi Final

Jon: Qualified in B, finished 55

Marcus: Qualified in B, finished 74

C Division:

Nicole: Finished 36th

I think we did a great job overall and had a real team spirit going.  We traded info on games we had played and that made a big difference in some of my matches.

I qualified in B Division (the intermediate Division), but at the very bottom.  I really needed some monster rounds to have a shot at the playoffs.  My opening round I got a 9-3 (Nine wins and 3 losses – a Round of 7-5 or better is good ). This put me at 32nd place, so I was pumped.  But then I had two mediocre rounds, going 5-7, and then 4-8.

I got my act somewhat back together in round 9 with 6-6, but not enough to make up for the previous two craptastic displays of non-performance.  I really needed an 8-4 or better.  So going into the final round, to have any shot of qualifying I needed 11-1 or 12-0, and I only managed another 6-6.  Thus, in the end I managed to climb about half way up the standings to finish at 55th out of 91 players in B Division.  Out of all players I finished 147th out of 273.

Now that I was out of the tournament, it was time to have fun.  I played pinball.  I hit the local bars.

I went to get my swerve on at the local watering hole, and dragged Chris along.  It was Nicole’s birthday, and since she got knocked out of C Playoffs contention, our initial intention was to buy her a glass of her drink of choice, which is Champagne.  Thing is, they only sell alcohol at the State liquor stores or in bars in Pennsylvania.  We went to the nearby bar, on the off-chance, and learned they only sold beer to-go.  Then we decided to stay.

I asked this girl at the bar if she was playing in the pinball tournament, then got her reaction shot (above).  Her name was Teresia and she’s a private investigator, catching workmen’s comp abusers.  We had a good time and Chris and I convinced her to do a Kamikaze shot with us.

I went back in to find Damien.  I found a split flipper money game with some top guys, including Keith Elwin, got in.  “You’re the new guys, you go first.”  We did.  “Spinner, Damien, all day”.  And we did.  Got the win.  Took the 8 bucks off the game like champs.

Not a bad end to this adventure.

Above: Nicole stayed out all night long.  Sleeping in her boat.

It was time to go home. Back to life.  Back to work.  Back to Reality.  Back to what we do, when it’s not pinball.

Was it worth it?

You’re goddamn right it was. 

Contact is commonly credited as the first electro-mechanical pinball game.  It’s battery-powered.  This one at PPM is the “Junior” model, at around 40 x 20 inches.  The full size Senior edition is 60 inches long.

A ball shot into the lightning bolt holes, followed by a subsequent shot to the Contact hole, will cause a kicker to fire and launch the first ball into the lower, higher-scoring hole.  It would also ring a bell (very high tech).

This could be done more times with other subsequent balls to keep increasing the values.  This game was designed by Harry Williams, who also designed the stool pigeon tilt, seen at lower left and called “anti tilt”.

Above is the Operator’s license to operate the game, including the $3 annual fee.

Contact was first introduced in 1934.  A nickel in 1934 is worth about 85 cents today.  The $3 license fee is roughly equivalent to $50 in today’s money.