Not a lot going on this month. Two stops at Little Dipper (July 25 and August 1), a brief visit to Gypsy Joynt in Galveston (August 23), and a quick drop-in to Darkhorse Tavern (August 31). Commentary follows the gallery/image for each visit.

Little Dipper, July 25

Nothing special on Creature or Monster Bash, but today was the day I filled out the rest of the high score board on Funhouse. The final three pictures are to document the full high score board as of this visit.

Little Dipper, August 1

A little bump to the #4 score on Funhouse (classic), and a decent run on Funhouse 2.0.

Gypsy Joynt, August 23

Pinball Map listed these machines in questionable condition as of a year ago. I had hoped they had been fixed since then (I was in the area for work and dropped by; I would not make a trip all the way down to Galveston just to play two machines I had doubts about). Attack from Mars had an issue with the scoop, where it would not register on shots to the front (and would kick them straight down the middle more often than not, with an unpredictable tilt that either gave you no warnings for a hard nudge or two immediate warnings and a possible immediate tilt); it was also set up to play rather slow and floaty. Deadpool kept wanting to kick out two balls and had a sticky right flipper.

I don’t think either of these scores are that bad given the condition of the games, but I don’t consider them my best work either.

Star Pizza and Darkhorse Tavern, August 31

 

I dropped into Star Pizza (77 Harvard near Washington) for dinner. The pizza was good, but I couldn’t let myself walk by the Ms. Pac-Man cocktail videogame in front without giving it a try. The high score was somewhere in the 80-89K range, I want to say 87K but I didn’t think to take a before picture. It doesn’t matter, because I beat it easily.

I followed that up with a trip down the road to Darkhorse Tavern for Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man pinball. The score is a personal best, but unfortunately someone has manged to put up a slightly higher score for the high game to date (just over 1.8M). I believe I can eventually break through and reclaim it, though. This game is worth the occasional detour to come and play and I believe it is an overlooked classic.