So another month began and with it another monthly tournament at Colorado Canyon. We had a total of fourteen (14) players for this month’s installment. The game lineup was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, John Wick, Godzilla, and The Uncanny X-Men. Originally, Total Nuclear Annihilation was going to be in the lineup as well, but as luck would have it, as I started to play my last warmup games on it, it suffered a catastrophic failure (the next ball in play would not be served up, and the lower flippers also quit functioning). So, it would be just the four late-model Stern games, which would be enough.

I’m a bit light on details, so this may be a bit brief. (I kept notes, but mainly the intermediate scores after each ball.)

My round one would begin with Leon, Brian Fults, and Craig Robinson, and we would be playing on The Uncanny X-Men. The game would get off to a somewhat slow start, but I would take an early lead of 7.7M+ to Craig’s 6.7M+. However Craig would take over during ball 2, putting up just shy of 55M before signing off with 60.1M+. I would have to settle for second place with 23.9M+, which is still a rather good start all things considered.

I would move on to John Wick for round 2 with Ernie Boling, Casey Sudela, and Preston Moncla. The first two balls would be relatively quiescent, though I’d hang on to a nominal lead with 5.6M+ to Ernie’s 2.6M+ and Preston’s 1.5M+. All the action happened during the third ball, I would sign off with 76.7M+ but Preston would not be outdone, putting up a 79.3M+ to push me down to second again. There was still plenty of hope left at this stage in the tournament.

The third round would see me playing Godzilla with Kelly Moncla and Ben McCormick. I took an early lead of 18.7M+ to Ben’s 11.9M+ which would only grow by the time the last ball drained. My final score of 55.2M+ was easily enough to take first place, though Kelly would make a bit of a run at it. A first and two seconds puts me in a pretty good spot.

Round four would bring up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I would be grouped with Leon Moncla and Casey Sudela. This game was pretty brutal all around. After ball 2, all three scores were well under 2M, with both Leon’s and Casey’s well under 1M. However Leon would manage to put up a 4.4M+ good for first, and I would have to settle for a second with 2.4M+.

The final round of qualifying would take place on Godzilla and I would be grouped with Preston, Chris McCormick, and Dennis. At this point I am tied for the last qualifying spot with Dennis, so it’s in effect a heads-up game (though Kelly was still in the running). Chris took an early lead after ball 1 with a towering 37.1M+, but Preston would eek ahead after ball 2 with 58.0M+ to Chris’s 43.3M+ and both Dennis and I well under 20M. However, I would come through on ball 3 with a couple of well-played, white-hot multiball modes and wind up taking first place with 139.5M+, towering over even Preston’s 72.9M+. This would be good enough to put me in the finals for the second time.

If only the finals went as qualifying did.

The finals would consist of (in seeding order): Preston, Allen Robertson, yours truly, and Ernie.

We would start off on John Wick. The playing order would be me, Preston, Ernie, and then Allen. Not a lot would happen in this game, except on Preston’s turn. I would wind up with a disappointing last place with 3.8M+ behind Ernie’s 4.2M+. Preston would take first easily with 71.8M+.

On we went to The Uncanny X-Men (my selection) with the same player order as before. I would actually take an early lead of 8.8M+ with all other scores under 3M. Unfortunately that lead wouldn’t last as once again Preston would take the lead back on ball 2, though it would be only 27.8M+ to my 21.6M+.  I would have a total dud for ball 3 though, but my final score of 22.9M+ would hold up for second place. I still have a chance at a decent finish.

We would wrap up the finals on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (not sure who picked this, might have been Ernie). The player order would switch around, with Preston playing third and Ernie playing second. Preston would jump out to an early lead and I would wind up hanging on to a distant second of 7.8M+ to Preston’s 17.6M+. Again, the third ball would be a dud for me. Allen would take first with 24.4M+ over Preston 21.0M+. I would have to settle for third with 9.1M+. Overall I would finish in third place and win back my tournament entry fee of $10.

I’ll take an improvement over the September tournament any day, though it would have been nice to have been able to put together enough high scores for at least a second place finish.

For the first time in a good while I got to make it down to Cidercade the evening of Black Friday. Notable scores include the 87.5M+ on John Wick (Pro), 24,490 on Scramble, 2.2M+ on Beatles, 16,600 on Frogger (3 lives, extra life at 10k), and 95,210 on Pepper II. Yes, it seems like it was a better night for video game scores for whatever reason.

This trip to Einstein’s Katy brought the first time I got to play the James Bond 007 60th Anniversary pinball. This game has scoring reels as a retro throwback, though the score is in fact kept electronically. (In a multiplayer game the score reels will switch to the next player’s score; all scores can be compared on the playfield LCD.) I feel my high score of 12,347 is at least decent though it was not enough to make the high score list. The same goes for my score of 533.9M+ on The Shadow. The other scores are pretty run of the mill. I do feel like it was a pretty good evening, though.

Continuing on to Saturday the 16th, I got to check out the new pinball additions to Star Pizza. The two machines on offer there are Dolly Parton (presumably the exact same machine that used to be at Poison Girl) and Guns ‘N Roses (which was moved in from Little Dipper).

Before the end of the night, I was able to put up a pretty good 271K+ on Dolly Parton, though my performance on Guns ‘N Roses left a bit to be desired. Nevertheless, I look forward to coming back here every so often. The only thing better than great pizza, is great pizza paired with great pinball.

Another drop-in at Go Kart Raceway was on the schedule on the 14th. This location only has two pinball machines: Kiss (Stern) and The Simpsons Pinball Party. Of the two, the latter is more playable, though still rather dirty and the ball save is turned off; 21.5M+ is the best I’ve done in a long while.

I actually tried to play Kiss, though. I’m not particularly proud of this score, so it’s just as well that the photo is not the best quality either. Taking into account the machine condition, though, maybe it’s not so bad. The left flipper was inconsistent, and even at its best still barely made the ramp. The demon lock/Gene’s mouth shot simply would not register and accept a ball no matter how carefully aimed. I’m not sure if this was to “fix” a broken kicker or end complaints about balls being shot straight down the middle (usually the ball save is turned on after this shot during single ball play but it’s possible the operators turned it off).

In the middle of all this, we (the group I was with) played laser tag. The system is called Helios and it’s a product of Zone Laser Tag (the company behind Ultrazone, known previously as Zone Empire). Helios actually plays a lot like Laser Quest did. Perhaps not that surprisingly, I came in first place out of nine players (there were four others besides our group of five). The code names/call signs are pre-assigned and tied to the vest in use, for better or worse; I did not voluntarily choose “Astro” but it is what it is.

Finally, rounding out the night was a game of Donkey Kong.

Another week, another visit to Poison Girl. Tonight I would put up an all-time personal best on Six Million Dollar Man, and a rather good run on Bad Cats, among others.

It’s surprising just how addictive a simple game like Six Million Dollar Man can be. Now that I understand the ruleset and have an accessible example that’s in relatively good condition, it’s one of the more satisfying offerings in the Houston area. (I think last time I played this title, there were significant burned out bulbs and I didn’t understand the flow.)