Pinball

[Zombie Aladdin]

Okay. There is very much for me to say about this topic, as I am a pinball fan, but I'm pretty sure I am the only one posting here who is. If there is someoe else though, I'll be very happy, as pinball fans are rare, and pinball fans who also play modern video games are even rarer. But if you guys have any questions about it, I'll be glad to answer.

By the way, I'm referring to the actual physical machines you'd find at arcades, bars, bowling alleys, pizza restaurants, movie theaters, ice rinks, laundromats, and the like. As recently as the 90's, they were everywhere. You could even find them in supermarkets. But they could not compete for attention with video games at arcades, so they slowly shrunk fro the public eye. With arcades themselves struggling to find audiences, and mobile gaming becoming more cost-effective alternatives to passing the time, pinball has become kind of a niche, though things are improving steadily over the past few years: Small start-ups have popped up, some with licensed themes aiming to win back public interests with the likes of Aliens: 35th Anniversary and Rob Zombie.

But I just decided to put up this topic because earlier today, I got the #3 score for The Walking Dead (based on the TV show on AMC) at Neon Retro Arcade in Pasadena, CA, at 223,793,900. I took some very rushed pictures with my 3DS, as I hadn't achieved a high score in a while and didn't expect to get one today. They're rushed because I had to take them before the display changed to something else.

For the record, I do play in PAPA and IFPA tournaments when I am able to and when they're close enough to me that I can visit. I am a mid-B-division player.

(Note that "CHR" is not my actual initials. Rather, I go by "Cheerilee" for high scores, but when they only allow 3 letters, I shorten it to "CHR." I also occasionally use "JFK" for kicks; there are probably a few of those scores still at the Lake Forest Ice Palace.)

(Also, at 29 Walkers killed, I was 2 Walkers away from being Walker Champion. I was also about 2 million points away from Well Walker Multiball Champion and about 8 million points from High Score #2.)

 

[16bitdave]

I'm a huge pinball fan! Some of my favorite machines are both of the elvira machines, addams family, medeval madness, and the simple yet fun south park machine. Also love the AC/DC machine as well!

 

[AidanC97]

Pinball i love! I only play the PC version (the one that comes with the PC), i used to get high scores on that game it was ridiculous!

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

I'm a huge pinball fan! Some of my favorite machines are both of the elvira machines, addams family, medeval madness, and the simple yet fun south park machine. Also love the AC/DC machine as well!

Interesting that you find South Park to be one of your favorites. Do you mean the 1999 machine from SEGA? I like it, but it is one of the most divisive pinball machines ever made, and it shows the gap in perspective between the non-players and the experienced.

My favorites, by the way, are Junk Yard, Star Trek (2013), Medieval Madness, World Cup Soccer (1994), The Wizard of Oz, and Jack-in-the-Box. The one machine I hope I get a chance to play is America's Most Haunted.

Pinball i love! I only play the PC version (the one that comes with the PC), i used to get high scores on that game it was ridiculous!

Have you ever had a chance to play any real-life pinball machines? They're quite different from virtual pinball, and it's worth trying at least once.

 

[16bitdave]

I never said I was a pro pinball player. I just love south park and it's a fun easy machine. I also love the Super Mario pinball machine, not because it's amazing but because I love Super Mario

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Nope, but for some reason, the major fans (the ones with home collections and seek out low-production machines like Monster Bash or NBA Fastbreak) seem to really dislike South Park. There is nothing against you or anyone else, just that I find it weird and it's something I'm trying to look into.

I'd have more to say about Gottlieb's Super Mario Bros. machine, but every one I've tried has had something broken about it. (I've played more fully-working Mushroom World machines. There's one in Santa Monica, CA, in perfect condition.) I hope The Pinball Arcade comes to Nintendo systems though. this machine would make for a great exclusive table.

 

[16bitdave]

Theres a place called Free Gold Watch here in San Francisco and they have a good working cab. I love that place, they take good care of the machines and fix them all the time

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Free Gold Watch is indeed awesome. It's always really nice to have a place you can freely walk into with a large, well-maintained collection.

I don't know how the situation is in San Francisco, but in Los Angeles, most of the machines are in bad conditions. (A huge amount of them are also The Simpsons Pinball Party because it gets a lot of money from non-players due to the theme.) Here is what players had to say about the machines at Family Amusement Corporation (a rather large arcade downtown) on Pinball Map, to get you an idea of what I often have to put up with when finding these out in public:

Batman: The Dark Knight - Drop target blocking joker lock permanently down so super easy. Ball often falls off ramp when ejected vertically from scarecrow scoop. Ball save insert out [Not mentioned here is that the Batmobile ramp hasn't been working for years.]

Monopoly - October 26th, 2013: Artwork has been worn down, but this doesn't affect play. Top-left pop bumper only registers hits from below, and dot-matrix display is dodgy towards the top during some cutscenes. 5/19/14: upper right flipper gets stuck in the flipped position. pop bumpers register only half the time. super loose, almost not there tilt

Pirates of the Caribbean - Ball launch for ball save and multi ball isn't strong enough to actually launch. Can mess up your multi ball.

Playboy (Stern) - 5/19/14: lower bumpers loose and barely work, instant jackpot randomly holds ball until machine searches for missing ball.

The Simpsons Pinball Party - Upper level flippers stick/weak/non-responsive. This seems to cause major problems with shots that require the middle right flipper and any living room related shots. The middle flipper also usually sticks outward and can get in the way of right orbit shots.

The Sopranos - Pop bumpers are dodgy and only propel the ball some of the time, with the bottom one working the most. To my knowledge, they still score points and add to Shakedowns as normal. usually have to nudge machine to alert machine to ball presence for reward in area behind safe. flippers are misaligned. flippers are weak. right flipper SUPER weak. shots to left ramp will almost never make it around, so mode and envelope progress very difficult

Spider-Man (Stern) - some burned out lights in playfield make it challenging to know what needs to be collected. top flipper bent upward about 20 degrees. in addition to the upper flipper being misaligned, the plunger is faulty, with all three balls in the plunger. mode start not working, ramps do not register(aside from venom ramp). more than half the lights are out on the playfield. piece of clear plastic on left orbit blocking ball from making full orbit, if not bumped drains to right outline everytime. game is so screwed up it's a waste of time to keep listing the ways EDIT: LOL! Who is writing these awesome reviews?!

World Poker Tour - Ace in the hole doesn't work, notified managemnet. 8 24 2013 Still doesn't work 7/23/14.

For a location that currently has 14 machines (and all of these machines are still there), they're in pretty bad shape, as you can see. I later found out that the place does not have a dedicated pinball repairman. Rather, there's a general maintenance man/janitor who tries to fix these to the best of his ability, but his knowledge of pinball is low and his interest in playing nonexistent. For obvious things like busted flippers or broken chunks on the playfield, he can fix them (but not that well), whereas stuff like Ace in the Hole in World Poker Tour has never been fixed because he doesn't understand pinball well enough to know what that is. He is a sweet old man, but he has been given a crummy job because pinball repair is not part of his skill set.

That being said, there are a bunch of places with well-maintained machines in good quantity: The Ice Palaces (skating rinks in Lake Forest and Aliso Viejo), 82, Pins and Needles, Neon Retro Arcade, Lake Alice Trading Company, Casa de Carlos, Round 1 Arcades (in general), Wagon Wheel Bowl, Comic Hero University (this is a test location for ColorDMDs), Chaparral Lanes, Chaparral 300, and Buena Lanes. Disneyland also always has at least one, usually two or three (oddly, they don't have Pirates of the Caribbean) in 80% to 90% good shape; it's pretty clear they, too, don't have a pinball repair person, but rather, the Imagineers attempt to fix the machines. (Imagineers are full-time engineers at Disney theme parks who design the rides and other technology.)

But for each of those places, there are ten bars, pizza places, or movie theaters with one or two barely-working or turned-off machines. It's impossible to notify these operators because they don't leave contact information, and when I tried a Post-It Notes system (where if something's wrong, I write it onto a Post-It Note and stick it on the machine, either the apron or the backglass), while they would sometimes be fixed (glad to see it happen with the Avatar at Granada Hills Bowl), they would just as often be removed without any problems being fixed (like The Simpsons Pinball Party at Valencia Lanes) or the machine is removed without a replacement (like the Terminator 2: Judgment Day at Original Ray's Pizza).