Finally, to close out October I made a quick stop by Poison Girl for the first time in several months. The lineup has undergone some changes, with the addition of Pulp Fiction (which was very briefly at Little Dipper before being moved), Bad Cats, and Six Million Dollar Man, and the departure of Iron Maiden, Whirlwind, and Dolly Parton, and possibly other changes I have missed.

I put up some rather satisfying scores all around. My score on Six Million Dollar Man is perhaps the most satisfying of them all, though there is also a lot to be said for landing on the (possibly recently reset) high score list on Foo Fighters. Bad Cats was a favorite of mine back in the day, and it’s taking me a while to re-learn it; don’t be too surprised if I bust loose on it in the next few weeks.

The vast majority of those interested have probably already received notice, but for the few who have not: Signups for the Texas Pinball Festival Wizards tournament will open this Saturday, November 2, at noon (12 pm), for the tournament in 2025 March. This tournament is held alongside the Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco, TX (about 25-30 miles north of Dallas). The cost is $200 including the weekend pass for the festival (the tournament entry fee is $112 of that). There is also a women’s tournament which will be held on just the Sunday of the festival weekend for $25.

Full details are available at the Texas Pinball Festival website. (Follow the appropriate link at the top for women’s and kids’ tournament information.)

We fast forward now to the third Sunday in October. Among the highlights, I got to play the new game The Uncanny X-Men for the first time. I also got to post an early grand champion and a mode record for Smuggled Cargo. (The name entered is a reference to the Bayou City Pinball League which will become more active in early 2025.) Incidentally this grand champion score came on the very first game I played. I take this as a good omen for the 2025 tournament season.

The other highlights would include my scores on Stranger Things and Guardians of the Galaxy. Most of the rest was pretty run of the mill.

Another return to the Beaumont area was in the cards for October 16. After the primary reason for the trip was taken care of, it was time for me to make my way back to Colorado Canyon. Unfortunately this time my visit was not timed for the monthly pinball tournament, but I did get in a few rounds on John Wick, Godzilla, and TMNT.

Easily the standout of the three was my highest score of the evening on Godzilla of 270.3M+, including the Godzilla vs. Ebirah champion (which may or may not stick around a while).

While out of town on a non-pinball-related, non-work-related trip, I happened upon Hamby’s in Boerne. From the outside, it looks like a typical hamburger joint with primarily outdoor seating. The indoor portion, however, houses several classic arcade games and a row of early to late 1980s pinball games. At the time of the visit, these were: Black Hole, Gorgar, Lost World, The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot (TM:BOP henceforth), Pin-Bot, Solar Fire, and Space Station. I unfortunately only had time to play full games on three of these (Black Hole, Lost World, and TM:BOP), and two balls of a five-ball game someone had left behind on Space Station.

That said, I was able to put up a 15.9M+ on TM:BOP, and a nice solid 218.9k+ on Lost World. I had a good time playing Black Hole, though I wasn’t able to really put together a high-scoring game, though 134k+ is at least decent.

I wish I lived closer to Boerne so I could play here more often. I had a great time and the food was superb. I have included maps pointing out the location for those planning to visit the area.

We fast forward to late September, which for me, brought another trip to the Corpus Christi area and thus Quasars Arcade. Quick sidenote: there are other worthwhile pinball destinations in and around Corpus Christi, though Quasars seems to be the most extensive by quite a significant margin.

At this point I want to update some information from the previous post. On that date at least the pinballs were left on some kind of half price “happy hour” setting; the real price should have been double what I was charged on that visit (5.8 Q-bits or around $1.30).

The highlights of this trip include some pretty good runs on Twilight Zone (299.6M+), Aerosmith (144.4M+), and Foo Fighters (99.9M+, should have broken through to well over 100M+ but it was ended by a flaky tilt switch), and 108.7K+ on Ms. Pac-Man.

All in all I had a great time and look forward to returning when I am next in the area.