And for the next-to-last pinball/arcade outing of the year, I made my way over to Little Dipper after a short Sunday workday. The lineup has changed a bit. Paragon, Jaws, Guns N’ Roses, and Monster Bash are out. Quicksilver (Stern, 1980), Big Game (Stern, 1980), Foo Fighters (Stern, 2023), Batman 66 (Stern, 2019), and James Bond 007 60th Anniversary (Stern, 2022) are in.

I spent most of my time playing Quicksilver and Stars, with a few rounds of Big Game and a quick game on Star Trek in the interim. I eventually managed a relatively good run of 1.05M+ on Quicksilver, and a close-to-the-high-score-but-not-quite 594k+ on Big Game.

There was quite a bit going on for this visit to Cidercade. Though a lot of the scores were pretty ho-hum, I was able to put up a 129.9M+ on John Wick (Pro) good enough for high score #2. Also of note was a 44.9M+ on Wheel of Fortune and last, but certainly not least, 207,700 on Pepper II which is an all-time personal best (3 lives, bonus lives at 70k/140k).

This last one is notable because I don’t really consider myself an expert on this game. This may well be the game I pick for a Twin Galaxies certified record attempt, though I am realistically not expecting a record or even to beat the lowest verified score (5th place of the five scores: 720,200 by Desiree McCrorey, set back in 1983).

As of right now there are still some tickets left for Cidercade’s NYE event in Houston, but that will likely change by end of day on Monday. If you are hoping to attend, the time to buy a ticket is now and the place is this page on Eventbrite.

I dropped in at Poison Girl on the night of Monday, December 23. This visit went by fairly quickly as I mainly came to play Earthshaker which was turned off due to–of all things–a missing right flipper button.

I did, however, get in at least one quality run on Six Million Dollar Man, a decent score on Pulp Fiction, and then an 813k+ on the re-themed Mata Hari. That last score was good for high game to date and is a recent personal best.

Upon hearing the news that Earthshaker was fixed, I headed back to try it out. There were a couple of issues which have also since been fixed (the worst of them being a broken fault diverter, meaning the first lock can only be made by shooting the shelter directly and not the ramp), but overall the game played very well. I played a few other games in the collection while I was there, with the most notable score perhaps being a 286 .5M+ on James Bond.

After another event earlier in the day, I dropped in to Star Pizza for a good meal and, of course, some pinball.  Since my last visit, Guns ‘N Roses had been swapped out for Monster Bash. I did play a couple games of Monster Bash in addition to the obligatory games on Dolly Parton. My best run on the former game was 83.2M+, good enough for a replay with a knocker loud enough to make someone choke on their pizza. On the latter, I put up a recent personal best of 380k+. All in all, a satisfying trip from both a dietary and pinball standpoint.

Once again it was time for another trip over to Einstein’s. Most of the scores I was able to muster weren’t all that great, with a notable exception being a 295k+ on Stars, which I believe to be a personal best.