Photos by Henry Huang and poorly edited/enhanced by me.

We did a pin golf.  We got about a half dozen new players including a first-timer named Becca, who tied Mitch and me for the last qualifying spot to go to semi-finals, and then she tied me again with a hole-in-one on Medieval Madness in the tie-breaker game!  Way to go for your first tournament!

Vitus really came through.  Damon, one of the owners of Vitus and a big supporter of local pinball, hooked us up with seven coupons good for a drink or appetizer.  I gave all the new players a coupon and then raffled off the rest.  Playland not at the Beach also provided discount entry coupons.

If you’re not familiar with Pin Golf, the basic idea is that there’s one or more goals on each machine.  Like on The Addams Family: Get two train wrecks, or score 50 Million.  You try to do either one with the fewest number of balls.  So a lower score is better.

When the qualifying round ended the top 8 of the 19 players advanced.  I posted new and much tougher goals for the next round.

Above: Mitch on Medieval

The stroke limit was 6, meaning if you didn’t complete the goal by your 5th ball, you got a score of 6 (bad) for that game.  It also means the best score is 3 (three holes-in-one – completing the goals on your first ball on all three games in the round).

It quickly sunk in for the players that these new goals were not gonna be a cakewalk. You really had to throw your whole game in the ring if you wanted to survive the Semis.  More than tough, they were frustrating!  I like to look for the shots, modes and goals that you wouldn’t go for in a normal game if score is all that counts.  That forces the players out of their comfort zones.  They have to play games they know (and some know them quite well) in ways they normally would not.  Make them shoot the dangerous stuff.

But when you force people out of their comfort zones, look out!  Things get emotional real quick.  And this night proved no exception!

Me: “Hey, I need to write down your golf score on Twilight Zone.  What did you get?”

Player: “You’re an a**hole, Jonny…”

Me: “I’ll take that as a 6.”

Above: Vitus also has Skee Ball.

GETAWAY’s goal really frustrated a lot of people.  The goal was to advance Speed Millions to 4 Million.  This is done by shooting the upper/inner loop four times.  If you miss you have about 6 seconds to get the ball back up there or it starts over at 1M.  I got a hole-in-one right out of the gate, not helping my popularity.  I came back 15 minutes later and the other players were still at it, with that “you have got to be kidding me” look on their faces.  And a few mean looks.

Making the goal even more mean, the longer you play the more likely it is that you’ll light locks.  So you have to get those pesky locks out of the way to pursue Speed Millions.

Above: This rare pic shows 2nd place finisher TJ Beyer’s unconventional playing style.

The other goal that proved to be a fun-filled profanity factory was to collect two Dead Ends on TWILIGHT ZONE.  This is by lighting Dead End via the right inlane and then shooting a tough shot through the bumpers.  Oh, and if you light it, but drain, it doesn’t stay lit for the next ball.  Even I went the stroke limit of six balls on that one, and Jim Vierra got the best score of the 8 players, doing it in 3.

Above: Erin collects a Jackpot on Medieval.

While the Semis/Finals goals were damn hard they elicited some pretty epic play and all-out efforts.  Me, included, we were trying hard.  There were lots of high-5s and elation when a player finally put a run together, not to mention a fair number of “F*ck you, Jonny, I got it, you suck” expressions of love for yours truly.   It’s all good, I take it for the team.

It was great night of pinball with people really pushing themselves.  Several people stayed after it was over to play casuals to try some of the goals again.  Hal was obviously dialed, putting up a huge Grand Champion score of 700+ million on Getaway before he left.

Some of you new or novice players might be afraid of giving it a go, but if you come out, we show you all our tricks and fancy moves, and I guarantee we will make you a better player.  We all started in your shoes.  Plus, we’re a fun bunch!

Onto the results:

Qualifying Scores:

(*denotes advanced to Semis)

(**denotes tied for last Semis spot)

Jim Vierra 8*

Henry Huang 13

Alex Kirsonis 13

Eric Wagensonner 11

Steve Frisvold 13

Zoe Vrabel 6*

Natasha Prats 18

Katie Howard 15

Erin Ray 8*

Mitch Tunick 10**

TJ Beyer 6*

Hal Erickson 7*

Chris Lindboe 13

Darren Ensley 6*

Becca 10**

Amy 15

Kenny 12

Jonny O 10**

Nina G 9*

Tie Breaker for 8th spot: Jonny O, Mitch, Becca on Medieval Madness

Jonny O: 1

Mitch: ?

Becca 1

Both Becca and I defeated two castles on our first ball.  I had the lower game score, so by the rules I advanced.  But being the gentlemen-like sensitive bastard I am, I offered my spot to Becca, though she declined.

Semis Group 1: Jonny O, Jim, Hal, Darren

(*advanced to Final)

Dracula: 2, 6, 2, 6

Twilight Zone: 6, 3, 5, 6

Getaway: 1, 3, 4, 5

Totals:  Jonny O – 9*, Jim V – 12*, Hal E – 11*, Darren 17

Semis Group 2: Nina G, Erin, TJ, Zoe

Dracula: 3, 4, 3, 6

Twilight Zone: 6, 6, 5, 6

Getaway: 6, 6, 4, 6

Totals: Nina G – 15, Erin – 16, TJ – 11*, Zoe 18

Final Group: Jim V, Hal E, TJ Beyer, Jonny O

Getaway: 3, 1, 5, 6

Medieval Madness: 5, 1, 1, 3

Scared Stiff: 4, 3, 2, 1

Totals: Jim V – 12, Hal E – 5, TJ – 8, Jonny O – 10

I went into the Final as top qualifier.  Hal had a shaky semi-final but then got back-to-back hole-in-ones on Medieval Madness and Getaway.  Going into the final game, Jim Vierra and I were out of contention and only TJ could challenge going into game 3, but he needed a great game coupled with Hal having a poor game, and it was not to be.  Congrats to Hal Erickson for some top notch play for the win!

Thanks to everyone for coming out and giving Pin Golf a try.  See you in two weeks on the 15th!

Top 8 Order:

1st Place: Hal Erickson – $50

2nd Place: TJ Beyer – $30

3rd Place: Jonny O – $15

4th Place: Jim Vierra – $5

5th Place: Nina G

6th Place: Erin Ray

7th Place: Darren Ensley

8th Place: Zoe Vrabel

My friend Jem is making a pinball pinup calendar.

Jem is one of the guys who runs the Pacific Pinball Museum and PPE, so this is photography from an actual pinball player, tech, and arcade operator.  All pics are of games in the PPM, including classic wedgeheads and woodrails!

He is doing a kickstarter project. $25 for a calendar. Limited to 100.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1440218811/pinball-pinup-calendar

Check out some of Jem’s previous photos here:

http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/744313/viewall

If this looks cool to you, you ain’t got it.

When flippers were first introduced to pinball, the early games had lots of them and they were placed all around the playfield.   For example, six on Humpty Dumpty, the first flipper game.

Steve Kordek was the designer who reduced the number to two and put them down at the bottom of the game, where they still are today.   He also invented the drop target and other pinball inventions.

Get ready for nine and half minutes of undiluted awesome, courtesy of the Donny and Marie show.

At 3:15 there’s a kid who looks a bit like Rudy from Fun House.

Bonus:

At 5:50 Donny belts a pretty darn good Pinball Wizard.

First I thought, “wow, I’ve really improved.”

But then I saw this:

and Hal E had already put up 9.7 Billion for GC.

Nice work, Hal.  And more work for me, I guess.

February 1st at VITUS in Oakland.  $5 Format is Mini-Golf.  Pick three out of the five games to play.  Maximum of 32 Players.  6 stroke limit.

In Pin Golf, objectives are set on each machine.  For example, score 3 Million points on Scared Stiff, or complete the FILM letters on Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The player attempts to accomplish each objective with the fewest number of balls (like strokes in golf) as possible, and your score is the total across the three games (lower is better).

If you are in the top 8, you advance to the semi-finals.  Games will be assigned.  The top four players will play a final round of golf to determine the winners.

February 4th at PHOENIX GAMES in Concord.  3-player team tournament.  Grab two friends and represent.  Pre-registration required.  Go here for details.

February 15th at VITUS in Oakland.  Just say no to Valentines day!  $5.

 

Hey everyone, meet Zoe, aka “Legs”.  Zoe is an admin on the pinball map and just ran her first bay area tournament – with 40 players in attendance!  Wow!  She is also one of those Twitter people so she’s taking over the Twitter feed.  See how in the picture below she’s playing all by herself?  Don’t let Zoe be lonely.  Head over to Twitter land and sign up now.

https://twitter.com/#!/pinballbayarea

Photo credit: Tim Harrison

Click here to watch:  http://vimeo.com/21178807

What a monster turnout last night. Cash and prizes totaled $300. Thanks to Vitus for the appetizer prizes, and to Playland not at the Beach for the Free Entries.

The big winner was Damien Charlety of Sacramento, who walked out with $100. Several people told me later he immediately went into the adult movie theater next door while laughing maniacally (I kid).

Super duper thanks to Zoe Vrabel for running the show, and to Chris Heilig for computer help. Also, thanks to TJ Beyer and Jim Viera for installing overhead lights to make the games easier to see and more fun than ever. Thanks for coming out, everyone, and see you next time!

1 Damien Charlety

2 Maurice Tierney

3 Hal Erickson

4 Jim Vierra

5 Steve Frisvold

5 Darren Ensley

7 Ryan Murphy

7 Matt Willmarth

9 Wendy Phillips (Forfeited)

9 Chris Heilig

9 Zoe Vrabel

9 Daniel Kirpen

13 Alex Kirsonis

13 Jeannie Rodriguez

13 TJ Beyer

13 Kenny Smith

17 Jason Delano

17 Jon Olkowski

17 Lulu Richter

17 Mitch Tumick

17 Eric Wagensonner

17 Tim Harrison

17 Darrin Bebot

17 Elena Diaz

25 Henry Huang

25 Dottie Tice

25 Molly Reisman

25 Erin Ray

25 Nicole Anne Reik

25 Marcus Petersen

25 Francisco Grajales

25 Jesse Petersen

33 Keith Parkins

33 Leo Haertling

33 Per Schwarzenberger

33 Charlie Wood

33 Jacob Mirbegian

33 Beth Davies (Forfeited)

33 Elias Zamaria

33 Sam Hashemi