Speedy’s Monday and The Game Preserve Friday

Unfortunately due to events occurring after this post was made, Shawn is leading a boycott of The Game Preserve among other businesses associated with one of the owners. See this post for further details.

Another trip back to Speedy’s on Monday 12/14 (yes, I’m running way behind on posting these). Most of the Speedy’s trip was pretty unremarkable, save for the 20-way combo on The Munsters, the 172M+ on Jurassic Park, and one of my better times on Quick & Crash of 6.220 seconds.

My first trip out to The Game Preserve (Woodlands) in ages, on Friday 12/18, was a bit more eventful. Highlights include:

  • 5.44M+ on The Simpsons (pinball)
  • 72.3M+ on Star Trek (Stern pinball)
  • 18,495 on Q*Bert
  • 579M+ on Game of Thrones (pro version, no upper playfield)
  • 3,209 on Flying Carpet
  • 148,700 on Paragon

The score on Butterfly is actually 2,223,700 (score counter rolled over twice) but this is with significant player benefit malfunctions (double bonus and extra ball stuck on among others).

Of particular note, even though my score is not what I’d really call highlight material, I got to play the Spy Hunter pinball as well as get in a quick game of Klax on an actual arcade machine, both for the first time in decades. The last game of Spy Hunter pinball I remember was at the Sharpstown Mall Time-Out downstairs next to JCPenney. The mall is now called PlazAmericas, both the arcade (which became a de facto Namco Cyberstation before its demise) and JCPenney have long since left the building. The last game of Klax I played on a real arcade machine was at Memorial City Mall, either Jungle Jim’s or Kids’ Kingdom, not sure which but definitely before the Exhilarama takeover. That space was eventually redeveloped into Sultan Pepper, Chipotle, and Berryhill in the food court, with most of the space Exhilarama used for rides, laser tag, the nickel game pit, etc going to what at the time was Lord & Taylor and later (oddly enough) a JCPenney.

Anyway, back to the present day. The main purpose behind this visit was to get an idea of what games would be in play for the tournament the following night (see next post), as well as pick up my T-shirt and activate my membership purchased online. I also needed the change of pace from what’s become the usual fare at Speedy’s more than I realized at the time.