January 4th, 7pm start time (register by 6:50 to play)

$5 entry. No wpprs for this one.

Format will be single game, double-elimination. I’ll also have some $5 drink/appetizer coupons that will be raffled off courtesy of Vitus, and maybe some other stuff.

Location is Vitus in Oakland, at 2nd and Broadway.

More info/past results: https://pinballbayarea.wordpress.com/pinball-tournament/

Reader Søren Worre sent in this video of what appears to be a Danish call-in television game show where contestants say “flip” to activate the flippers.

Features scary Danish hairdo.

New Years Eve. Some years I’ve spent it in front of the
television, other years at the pinball museum. This
year, I was in a skateboard shop in the East Village.

My foggy head still recalls a few things about the
evening. A stunning amount of drink was consumed and we
played a lot of pinball. Like a whole lot. I did a
double take when I looked at my phone and it was 4 in
the morning.

The crowd was awesome – that small but passionate cross
section of pinball and skating enthusiasts. I’d never
before seen so many physically fit pinball players in
one place.

Of course, while revelry was in abundance, good pinball
play can be hard to come by at 4 am. I burned through
two 10-dollar rolls of quarters managing scores that
would have only been impressive on EMs. When you’re
aiming for the slot machine on Twilight Zone and somehow
end up backhanding the left orbit, you know you’re in
trouble. Good times.

Big thanks to Jon and Jill at Reciprocal for a super rad
New Years Eve.  Happy New Year, everyone.  Have a great 2012.

Found my first pinball in New York City while at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Odditorium in Times Square.

When my brother and I found the game it was off  so I powered it up.  It had 23 credits on it, but when we tried to start a game, it wouldn’t eject a ball into the shooter lane.

However, amazingly, the Grand Champ score was owned by NES.  Believe it… or Not!

EBPL’s Jim Vierra had a holiday get together last night so we got to try our his new Transformers LE.

Mark and Josh playing TF LE. Josh got the best scores of the night, around 41M.

My initial impressions?  It’s a lot of fun.  By the end of the night I was just starting to figure out the rules and put together a game plan.  The best I managed was 21M.

There’s three skill shots that we found: the typical rollover lane, a precision plunge Super Skill Shot, and a second super skill shot if you hold the left flipper to plunge the orbit and then shoot into the Ironside shot.  The ironside shot is tough to hit on the fly but it’s worth 750k, spots Ironside letters and gets you one shot closer to starting a mode.  On the other hand, the rollover lanes can either 2x your bonus or light shot-doublers.  So right from the plunge you have some strategic decisions to make.

This game is FAST.  I’m mean really, really fast.  My first two games I think I had one ball that lasted more than 30 seconds as I was trying to learn the shots, and hitting a standup target at the wrong time seems as if there’s a kickback mechanism because it returns the ball so fast.

It’s also notorious for air balls going over the flippers. When Jim first un-boxed it he said it was throwing so many airballs over the flippers he had TJ Beyer install some plexi barriers in strategic locations.  It will probably settle down some after a few hundred plays.

Jim, Josh and Chris

Decepticake!

With an extra week’s vacation, I figured, why the hell not?

Pinburgh is the largest match play tournament in the world with three full days of action.  Click here for info: http://www.papa.org/pinburgh2012/index.php

I’m very excited to see the PAPA facility (with 400 games) and compete along side the best of the best.  It’s also such a treat to just PLAY in a tournament and not have a hand in putting it on.

Several other Bay Area Pinball players will be making the journey east, including current PAPA World Champion Andrei Massenkoff.  We’ll do our best to bring back some trophies to the Bay.

If you want to celebrate the new year the pinball way, head on down to the Pacific Pinball Museum for their annual party.  7pm – 1 am.  Appetizers and party favors provided.  $30 at the door or $25 in advance online.

To pay in advance online, go here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2554041206

I made it the last couple years but this year I’ll be in New York City visiting my brother and watching the apple drop.  Have a great holiday everyone!

Mr. Pinball Fan sent this one in: “Bullets or Ballots” (1936), a gangster film starring Humprey Bogart.

Embedding is disabled so click below to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gMCidGwc0

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) –

The Salvation Army in Clark County received a large donation thanks to pinball collectors in Las Vegas.

The organization said the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club made a $400,000 donation to the Salvation Army.

The gift was presented at the Hall of Fame’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner Thursday.

“I support The Salvation Army because they are very careful with the money we donate to them,” said Pinball Hall of Fame founder Tim Arnold.

“We are so appreciative of the relationship we have developed with LVPCC over the years and the generosity they have shown,” said Major Robert Lloyd, Clark County Commander for the Salvation Army. “I do know we will be leveraging this money by investing in upgrades that will bring us the most return, ‘greening’ our buildings to save on utilities and other improvements that will result in cost savings.”

The Pinball Collectors Club is a nonprofit group that also operates the Pinball of Hall of Fame.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/16344715/400k-donation-made-to-salvation-army-of-clark-county

A company in Spain called Marsaplay produced a pinball game based on Canasta 86, but completely updated from top to bottom with a build approach that’s radically different from other manufacturers.  Most notably, the game features a large LCD screen in the back box and not the typical dot matrix display.  Pinball News has the full review.