It’s fun.  It’s easy.  It’s Pin Golf!

Where: Playland not at the Beach in El Cerrito

When: Saturday November 5th.  Registration and warmup starts at 10 AM, play begins no later than 11 AM. Registration closes at 1PM.

Entry Fee: Entry is free with Playland Admission.   Nachos and Pizza will be provided around 1:30pm.

Format: Pin Golf

Prizes: Mostly glory, but gift certificates, Pinball DVDs and whatever other goodies I can arrange.

Tournament Rules – The Short version:

Kids: The Kids tournament will not be run on the Pingolf format.  Each player plays three designated games two times each.  Their highest score on each game is recorded.  Players are awarded points depending on their rank.  The player with the most points wins!

Novice/Open: 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.

Tournament Rules -The Long version:

Kids Division:

1.    Eligibility: Entrants may be up to 13 years old.

2.    Each entrant plays 3 designated machines twice and the highest score determines the player’s rank for a particular machine.

3.    Points are awarded to the player based on their score rank for each machine and correspond to the number of players in the tournament.
a.    For example, if 15 players enter the tournament and Player A has the highest score of all players, s/he shall receive 15 points for that game (plus Bonus points – see next).  If Player A had come in fifth place, s/he would receive 11 points.  If player A comes in 15th place, s/he would receive 1 point.
4.    The winner of the tournament is decided by whoever has the highest cumulative point total across the four machines.  For example, if Player A scores 10 points on Game 1, 5 points on Game 2, 8 points on Game 3, and 15 points on Game 4, his/her point total would be 38.  If this is the highest total score of all players, Player A would be declared the winner of the Tournament.

Novice Division:

1.    Eligibility

(If the following requirements look at all odd or unfamiliar, you can probably compete in Novice.  These somewhat extensive rules are to prevent/discourage highly skilled players from entering a division below their ability)

a.    Entrants may be any age.  Players playing in Kids may also play in Novice.
b.    Entrants may not have, or have ever had, a World Pinball Ranking of 500 or better,
c.    And/or have ever competed in a major tournament playoff to the final bracket (typically for positions 1 – 4)
d.    And/or “placed” (finished 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) in a league finals such as at EBPL, BAPA or any other major tournament or established league.
e.    And/or “placed” in a final in a division other than Novice (PAPA C division, for example)
f.    Where the player’s credentials are “borderline”, the tournament judge will consider the player’s credentials and render a decision as to whether or not the player may compete in the Novice Division.

Open Division:

Eligibility:

1.    Anyone can enter.

Qualifier Format:

1.    Players will be organized into groups of 4 or 2 as needed to play each game.
2.    Each player attempts to complete the goal for a particular game in the minimum number of balls.  Goals will be announced the day of the tournament.
3.    Each game will have one or two goals.  On games with two goals, meeting either goal will complete the round for the player.
4.    The maximum number of balls (strokes) is 10.
5.    The top 8 Open competitors will advance to the Final.
6.    The next top 4 novice competitors will qualify for a Bonus Final.  Novices that happen to qualify at the Open level (i.e top 8 overall) will compete in the Open final.  This means novices have 12 spots to qualify!

Finals Seeding and play order:

OPEN:

Group 1: 8-5-4-1

Group2: 7-6-3-2

NOVICE: 4-3-2-1

Finals Format:

OPEN

1.    Finals will begin at 3PM or as soon as possible following qualifying.
2.    Open Finals will be played in two groups of four players.  Pin Golf Games and objectives will be announced at Finals.
3.    Finals will consist of two pin golf holes (two machines) per Round (Quarter-Semi-Championship)
4.    The top two scorers in each quarter-final group will advance (4 players).  The top 4 will play another round of 2 games (semi-final).  From this, the top two scorers will play head to head for positions 1 and 2.  The bottom 2 positions will play head to head for positions 3 and 4.
5.    The bottom four will be ranked based on scores, of can choose to play off for position if all are agreed.

NOVICE

6.    Bonus Tournament for Novices: Finals will begin at 3PM or as soon as possible following qualifying.
7.    Novice Finals will be played in a group of four players.  Pin Golf Games and objectives will be announced at Finals.

8.    The top two players will go on to play a final round of pinball golf to determine the winner.  The loser of this round will be 2nd place.
9.    Third and fourth place will be determined by playoff score.

For both divisions, ties will be decided in a head-to-head or 3-way tie breaker as needed.  Likewise, ties in 5th – 8th place (in the case of Open) and 3rd and 4th place (in the case of Novice) will be determined the same way.

10.    If a player does not show for finals, the next highest entry will be allowed to play, and so on, until the brackets are filled.

Prizes:

Open Division will award a cash prize with all money paid back to players:  40% for first, 30% for second, 20% for third and 10% for fourth.

Novice and Kids Divisions will be awarded with passes to Playland, ticket prizes, and other special prizes to be announced!

Etiquette:

1. No foul language.  Playland Not at the Beach is a family environment with many young children present.  First incident of foul language voids remainder of game, or, if the incident occurs at, or near the conclusion of a game, voids the next game.  Second violation results in disqualification.  Depending on the severity of an incident, the tournament judges may, at their discretion, disqualify a player on a first violation.

2. Cheating. The decision as to what constitutes cheating is ultimately determined by the tournament judges, but may include restarting a game when no one is looking, resetting a game to give the appearance of software/hardware malfunction, exploiting a known software bug in the game, or utilizing a bang back or death save technique. Depending on the severity of the cheat, the penalty may be the voiding of the next ball in play, void of game or disqualification from the tournament.

3. Abuse of machines or facility.  Bang backs, death saves and similar techniques are not allowed.  Bumping, nudging and sliding the games are allowed, however, if any of these activities is severe enough to present a risk or damage to the game, other players or the facilities, penalty (loss of game) or disqualification (repeated abuses) may occur.  For example, sliding a machine violently enough to cause it to crash into an adjacent game or wall, or sliding a machine violently enough to disrupt play on an adjacent machine.  Or violently enough to disrupt play for the next player.

4. Players are expected to generally behave with good sportsmanship.  Any player who excessively complains about tournament conditions, harasses or distracts judges or other players, etc. may be disqualified and asked to leave.

Machine Malfunctions and Failures:

The DEFINITIONS (but not necessarily the outcomes/rulings) of machine malfunctions/failures shall mirror those defined in the most recent PAPA (Professional Amateur Pinball Association) rules (see Section VII at http://www.papa.org/papa12/rules.php).  Please note that the specific outcomes in Section VII, Point 8 will not apply.  All decisions are ultimately decided by the tournament director.

In the event of a Major or Catastrophic failure:

1.    In the event of a machine failure during the Kids, Novice and Open Qualifier which cannot be repaired in a timely manner, the remainder of the tournament shall proceed on the working machines and the player’s point average for the other machines shall be substituted for the non-working machine, rounded to the nearest whole point.  Example: Player A scores 10 points on game 1, 5 points on Game 2 and 6 points on Game 3, 5 points on Game 4 and 10 points on Game 5.  Then it is discovered that Game 6 has failed.  The player’s average score rounded to the nearest whole point (10 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 10 = 31, 31/5 = 6.2) of 6 is used for Game 4, giving the player a Final Score of 37.

2.    In the event of a machine failure during the Open Division single-elimination portion of the tournament the round shall be replayed on a different machine.  However, if the failure occurs near the end of a game and one player has an extremely decisive lead over another, the judge may, at his discretion call the game in favor of the leading player.

Beneficial Malfunctions, Player Errors and Stuck Balls:

1.    Beneficial Malfunctions, Player Errors and Stuck Balls shall be defined and addressed in accordance with the most recent PAPA rules (Section VII, points 6, 7 and 9 at http://www.papa.org/papa12/rules.php)

credit: Eastbay Express

Bi-Monthly Wednesday Tournaments at Vitus starting November 8th.

The second one will be on November 23rd.

These tournaments will be laid back, have a beer and play some pinball with other local enthusiasts, kind of thing.  Sure, you want to win, but the emphasis is on friendly competition with some good-natured smack talk sprinkled in.

If you aren’t that good, don’t worry!  We will teach you how to play.  We’ll show you all the fancy moves and whip you into a pinball wizard.

Price: Five bucks, plus coin drop. All the $5 entries are paid back to winners.

Where: Vitus.  201 Broadway Street (2nd and Broadway).  From SF take BART to 12th street.  It’s about a ten or 15 minute walk from 12th street to 2nd street.  You can also take the following buses: 72, 72R, 72M.

When: November 8th, 7pm start time.  (So get there earlier so you can sign in and warm up!)  The second one will be on November 23rd and I will try to do these every couple weeks.  Check my website to confirm there will be a tournament, though.

Format: The first event will be a straightforward Single Game Double Elimination.  You will pick your opponent out of a hat in the first round.  Coin-flip will decide who gets to choose which game to play (of available games), or position (1st player or 2nd player).

A Couple Rules: No bang-backs or death saves.  If you get an extra ball, you get to plunge the ball and flip one time.  You don’t get another flip if the ball saver puts it back in.  If by your flip you get a video mode or mini playfield mode (Battle the Power on Twilight Zone, or Stewie Pinball on Family Guy, for example) you can play those modes.

For the most part, games are played as-is.  Sorry if the flipper is a little weak or you don’t like the kick-out or you’re sure you hit that target but didn’t get the points for it.

How long?: Well, if you go out in two games you will probably be done by 9pm.  If you go the distance, figure on around 11pm.  If possible (maybe the 2nd round) I will restrict the tournament to two games so that people who got knocked out have a game to play.  I’ll also bring a couple board games.

Food: Vitus has some tasty eats.  Happy hour is currently 5pm to Midnight with $5 appetizers.  Burgers, Salads and other stuff also.

ATM: There is an ATM at Vitus and also a Bank of America ATM one block away.

Payouts: First place gets $20 bucks.  After that, $10 to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. till the money runs out.

WPPRs (World Pinball Player Ranking Points): WPPRs will be awarded.  See your rank here: http://www.pinballrankings.com/

But I suck: Show up early and we will teach you how to play.  I will be there around 6pm.

TJ Beyer, one of the guys behind California Extreme, hosted another of his awesome pinball parties.

The theme  was Nachos, and nachos were had in abundance.

Then we played some pinball, some ultra rare Kingpin and Varkon, courtesy of TJ’s collection.  A few more A-listers like Arabian Knights, but you get the idea.

Then we all hit TJ’s latest location: Vitus at 2nd and Broadway.  NBA Fastbreak, Scared Stiff, and Lord of the Rings.

And we played till it closed.  Somebody cracked 40M to take my high score on Scared Stiff.  Grrr!!  That won’t last long!

Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110813/ISSUE07/308139991/cartoon-stock-market-pinball

Another Pacific Pinball Exposition has come and gone.  Phew!  It kicked my ass!  There were 44 competitors in the Open event, 59 in the Classics, 41 in Novice, and 13 in Kids, for a grand total of 157 entrants.  That’s more than double anything I’ve ever run before.  It hit me like a cannon ball and I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

Multi-world champion Keith Elwin also ran a Pin Tac Toe tournament on Friday which had over 30 players.  Keith, it should be mentioned, also ran the tournament the last couple years.  His skills are legendary.

Here’s a look at the tournament area.  Dave Baach, my co-organizer, quickly realized the overhead track lighting could add some awesome to the tournament.  The position of the lights didn’t create glare on the games and made for an excellent atmosphere.  We ran with it.

Here’s Dave Baach and I, the tournament organizers.  Dave is an exceptional tech, cool guy, great organizer and lent me his hotel room to shower when the water was shut off in my neighborhood on Saturday.

Special Guests: The Special Force Girls.  Jamie George, Molly Atkinson, and Molly Reismann.  Molly Reismann won the masks in Friday’s raffle and was probably the only one to put in tickets!

Nick Fitzpatrick was our first champion of the show, taking 1st in Kids Division!  Way to go, Nick!  Nick is getting good, folks.  Look for him in future tournaments and prepare to get beat by a kid.

Local BAPA league member Walter Hurwitz destroying Centaur.  He destroyed it pretty good, too.

This is a face of determination.  Nate from Portland stepped up to run most of the novice finals when I had to leave to go run my “How to Play Pinball like the Pros” seminar.  He ran it like a CHAMP!  When I came back he just said, “No worries, we’ve got it.”  And gat dayam he did.  Top tier, this man, and I think he might have got bit by the tourney bug and Portlanders may be seeing some more tourney leadership from this guy.

1st in Novice: Per Schwarzenberger

Still looking for the score sheet for the rest!  Sorry guys.  Send me your names!

Handing out plaques for the Novice Winners.

Julie Gray defends the American Way on Special Force.  Josh Lehan informed me the Special Force backglass was so unpopular in Europe that they created an alternate Euro backglass: “Special Force Girls“.

Stephan Colleredo showed solid EM skills and was an unknown.  He was 2nd overall qualifier and showed you can show up from out of nowhere and do some damage.

Johnny Modica took 3rd in Classics with solid play, and he’s a fun guy to boot!

Bob Matthews showed great focus and an old school play style using a minimum of fancy flipper moves but magic prediction and reaction skills.  Bob is all class.  Super respect.

Andrei Massenkoff, the Bay Area phenom who recently won the PAPA World Championship, took first in Classics.  Always a good guy, super-competitive, just too cool.  Congrats Andrei!

In Open, Karl DeAngelo took 4th, but that was partly because he had to leave after game 1 to catch a flight.  Very solid player.  You don’t want to be on the opposite end of this guy in a game of pinball.

Cayle George, the IFPA Champion, took 3rd with solid, technical play.  Super methodical, technical player that sees all the lights and opportunities.  Nothing gets by this guy.

No surprise to see Keith Elwin in the Final Four.  Keith took 2nd.  Keith also ran Pin Tac Toe.  Just a natural at pinball.  No nonsense play, clinical, seemingly detached.  Yet, an understated guy who often leaves a clutch game with sweat on his brow – you know he’s giving it 100 percent.

The big surprise at this tournament was a man named Kevin Martin.  Kevin is the guy who produces the PAPA World Championships, Cupid and Canines, and most recently, the Pinburgh Match Play for All event.  As producer, he chooses not to play in his events.

Before I say further, Kevin made a GIANT contribution to the prize pot and also provided the PAPA software for the tournament.

Kevin came into the Finals as the 12th seed (of 16), meaning he had to claw all the way through the ranks.  In the Quarter and Semi Finals he was usually in bad position for choice of Game or Order in all his matches.  Didn’t matter, he found a place for himself in the Final four by just killing fools left and right!

In the Final at game 3, with Karl out of the mix and fatigue setting in, Kevin found himself a trailing distant third. Only a three-way tie could keep him in the running on the last game.  It was starting to look like his skills and karma had worn out their welcome.

But BANG Kevin started Multi and racked a Jackpot on the open to differentiate himself from his assails and the two others could not produce in convincing fashion.  A little luck and his competitors finishing one-two to make the whole event tied on points pushed the matter to sudden death.

The bullet hit the bone.

And now one game to decide everything.

With scores tied, a coin was flipped.  Came up Capcom Airborne.  Kevin was the highest scorer in qualifiers on this game and was now, for the first (and only) time in his Finals run, in a dominant position.  He didn’t squander it.  He stepped up and capitalized, ruled the skies, took home top honors!

Kevin Martin has long been known to have the SHOW.  But on Sunday, September 25th, he also proved without question, he also has the GO.

KEVIN MARTIN HAS WON THE OPEN DIVISION OF THE PACIFIC PINBALL OPEN!!  GRAND CHAMPION!!  HUGE CONGRATS TO KEVIN MARTIN!!

Novice Qualifying Results

1   Per Schwarzenberger  160
2   Benjamin Liggett     156
3   Izzy Schwartz        144
4   Garrett Albright     136
5   Michael Spears       133
6   Damien Charlety      130
7   Stephan Colloredo    127
8   Jim Anderson         115
9   Jeremy Williams      109
Craig Rockwood       109
11  Chris De Leon        105
12  Robert Rog           104

FINALS QUALIFYING CUTOFF

—————————-
13  Shon Dolcini         102
14  Brian King           99
15  Mickey Shiro         97
Mark Altvater        97
17  Natalie Short        92
18  Selena Shook         90
19  Tom Terlecy          88
Erica Riekki         88
21  Jeff Ridenour        85
Tim Juchcinski       85
23  Allen Short          82
24  Joshua George        80
25  Eben Rosenberger     79
26  Johnny Igaz          76
27  Molly Reisman        71
28  Richard Nevins       69
29  Donna Rockwood       68
Matt Sarnoff         68
31  Mark Fitzpatrick     67
32  Erin Ray             65
33  Sean Reynolds        63
Teresa Altvater      63
Brian Beggs          63
36  Bryan Lester         59
37  Ric Craig            55
Jennifer Forman      55
39  Tim Harrison         53
40  Andrew Hoff          40
41  Jeanette Rog         29

Kids Tournament
1   Nick Fitzpatrick     85
2  Bella Gershlein      85
3   Brayden Gardener     83
4   Tyler Enright        83
5   Dashel Miner         78
6   Joaquin Bansuelo     74
6   Juan Flores          74
8   Jack Gioffre         72
9   Adison Brager        68
10  Connor Kennedy       67
11  Nico Colloredo       65
12  Anthony Theis        64
13  Alexander Colloredo  62

Pin Tac Toe winners:

1st: Josh Lehan, Josh Warren & Jeannie Rodriguez (won $140)

2nd: Bob Matthews, Todd Seaver & Warren ? (don’t seem to have
his name)

3rd Place was Cayle, Andrei & Tim Hansen (Tim had to leave
so they just plunged his turns).

Andrei, Cayle and Tim were the favored, however, since Tim had to bow out, his teammates had to plunge his balls and pray.  Word at the tournament was that Jeannie Rodriguez was the franchise player of the winning team, and the main reason they went on to victory.

Guy uses an Arduino controller to turn his Wizard into an alarm clock.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the toughest games to come out of the 90s.  It uses lightning flippers which are 1/8″ inch shorter than usual, creating a 1/4″ wider center drain.  This might seem like not much but it makes a huge difference.  In addition, when you launch the ball it feeds into the pop bumpers so you can expect to get at least one house ball each game.

But it gets worse.  The Castle ramp, a key ramp in the game, will return weak shots out-of control at best, or fling them right down the middle at worst.  The Coffin Ramp, once open, feeds into the pop bumpers for more out-of-control fun, and shooting the Castle lock targets in anything other than multi-ball is asking to be punished.  The game is brutal.

Why play it?  Because it is also one of the most satisfying games if you can tame it.  The goal is to stack all three multiballs, an incredibly difficult task but the points can be face-melting if you do.  This is one of those games where if you really get rolling, people will stop what they’re doing and start watching.

The fine folks at PAPA have provided yet another excellent tutorial showing what it takes to deal with the hordes of the undead that will otherwise send you back to the token machine like a dazed zombie.  “Quuuaaaarrrrterss….”

Some more Pacific Pinball Exposition set up pics.  Last night, after a brief stop at the warehouse and some work on the tournament plaques, I went into the museum.  The crowd was nice for a Friday night.  Lots of woodrail and EM play last night, and the modern room was packed as usual.

A vintage coin-op in the warehouse.  This one was especially popular with Federal Law Enforcement.  Should they leave the sticker or take it off?

Back at the Museum.  Don’t be a flipper chimp!

Some Silver Sails goodness for you Bingo fans.  PPM has two Bingos on display.  “For Amusement Only”, of course.   Chris Nash almost got the four corners.  Later he racked up 192 credits.

One of the bingos currently on display at PPM was seized by the Alameda Police Department in the old days of pinball’s sketchy past.

Some early history greets visitors when they first walk in to the Museum.

In addition to these “firsts” games, which are on display only, there’s a playable Humpty Dumpty in the woodrail row.

Ballyhoo!

PPM also pays a lot of tribute to classic coin-op.  So much more character to these early games.  The puck bowler is great fun but breaks down a lot.

AARRRRGGHH.  This game is fun to play and you get clown nightmares to boot!

Current PAPA World Champion Andrei Massenkoff entertained spectators on Tron last night.  I was testing a fix, and handed the game over to him on ball 3 with only a million points.  He ran it up to 113M on the last ball as the museum was closing.  On just one ball!  I guess that’s why he’s the world champ.

Here is my latest Ironman modification.  For some reason this was not embraced and I was told to remove it.

Ed and Dan, two PPM artists, talk strategy on how the murals will be set up for the show.

Mike Schiess is a big lover of juke boxes.  The one on the right is the one typically playing on fix-it nights.  A few of the records are “productivity music” – music to encourage productivity!   (Oddly enough it does, and gets you a working mood.)  It also plays newer records, but at a reduced speed.  Everything sounds like Pink Floyd.

Eric Koss has been helping with the mural prep and recently finished an eye-popping Out of Site which will be on display at the Exposition.

Chris Nash deals with some flipper issues on Special Force.  A lot of shortcut hacks have made this one particularly explicative-inducing.

From the Crazy Flipper Fingers message board:

Been meaning to share this for a bit. This summer I did a multimedia journalism workshop at U.C. Berkeley. We were assigned stories to go out and practice the skills we were learning. Anyhow, during a previous workshop a team had been assigned to profile the Pacific Pinball Museum. Here’s the final product, with some good videos, slideshows and an attempt at a flash “Anatomy of a pinball machine” diagram (it’s rough, but keep in mind it was likely made by someone designing in flash for the first time ever).

-Pinbill

http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/shells/pacific-pinball-museum
Features my Danish pinball pal, Mads Kristensen.

No crowds, no lines, no waits, no problem.  $45

http://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-pacific-pinball-exposition-gala?utm_campaign=UserReferral

Play TRON at the Pacific Pinball Museum.