This entire week before the major winter holiday left me in dire need of a pinball break. And so, Saturday night, after a chaos-filled week of dealing with novelty toys, greeting cards, gift cards, and other miscellaneous merchandise and elements of retail, I finally had the time and energy to stick my head in at Del Mar Lanes for what will likely be the last time in 2023.

The first thing to notice was that there was a new grand champion who put up a score well over 500M. Many of my mode-specific high scores were still intact, and the romp that the new champion went on appears to have been limited to one game as the previous high scores had only been pushed down one place.

Not surprisingly, the score to get a replay had spiked dramatically, to 52.75M. Between me and whatever other wizards haunt this bowling alley, apparently the replay percentage finally went high enough.Despite this I was still able to win a couple of replays from my original three paid credits on this visit; in both games I scored double the replay score and then some. This was despite having a few balls end early due to some kind of issue with the machine (reported via Pinball Map).

Despite no stratospheric high scores, this was a pretty good visit.

The first week of December brought another trip out to Eighth Wonder Brewery (on December 1), as well as a brief stop by Del Mar Lanes to satisfy my Godzilla fix (on December 3).

(The original intent behind the December 1 trip was to get in a few quick games at Lightnin’s, but that would have to wait as there was a private event taking place that night.)

According to Pinball Map, there was a Deadpool (modern Stern) and The Simpsons (Data East). What was actually there was a Deadpool and a Twilight Zone. I mostly played the latter, as you do not often see a Twilight Zone out on location, much less set for coin play in an establishment not really aimed at hardcore pinball players. Indeed, the upper flipper’s performance left a lot to be desired, and I resorted to skillful and/or lucky rebounds to make the player piano shot. I consider 329.3M+ pretty good given this issue.

There was nothing obviously wrong with the Deadpool though it may have been a bit off-level.

On December 3, I decided to drop back in at Del Mar Lanes for a few quick games of Godzilla. I was able to put up a 199.3M+ (high score #4) and some mode champion high scores as well.

Finally, on December 10, I was able to make my way back over to Lightnin’s Good Times. This location has a Stern (old) Stars like Einstein’s, and a Stern (modern) Godzilla like many of the other locations around town. I did not play Godzilla, focusing entirely on Stars. Out of 18 total games, I won six replays: five by matching, and one by a playfield special. Hitting special, I might add, is quite difficult on this game. First, one must light all five colored stars, and then keep the ball in play long enough to hit the lit special target (which changes position with slingshot and rubber hits, as well as with each tick of the spinners). There is also another way by making the drop targets four times, though this is even more difficult (at least for me). I am posting photos of my two best scores this time, if nothing else to prove that the first wasn’t a fluke.

There was a bit more variety on this trip to Einstein’s. In addition to one of my better runs on Stars, I got in a few rounds on some of the other games in the pinball room.

You may notice Game of Thrones among the games I played. I found a credit left behind on this machine as I was getting ready to leave and decided to go ahead and give it a try. That one credit I started with wound up being about six games after winning replay after replay, either from matching or hitting the replay score. While 211.8M+ is far from a personal record, I still feel that was one of my bigger accomplishments on the night. The Powerputt score was also from credits left behind (probably from someone putting a $5 in and not realizing there were still credits remaining).

You may have noticed the weather widget has changed. The one that I used to have quit working properly upon trying to make a change required with newer versions of WordPress. I may change weather widgets yet again, or possibly get rid of the weather widget entirely if it becomes more trouble than it’s worth.

Once again I found  myself with some spare time and spare change in the Katy area, so it was time for another quick drop-in at Einstein’s. I only played two separate machines: Stars and Hoops.

I had some really good runs on Stars, lighting special in three different games but unable to cash in any of the three times. Even though the chance for winning a replay is next to nil (only by matching, since the game is set for novelty mode), Stars is still one of my top choices for an exciting game of pinball.

Incidentally, Hoops has since been taken back out of Einstein’s. I’ll miss it, but hopefully it’s for the better in the end.

Another year, another Houston Arcade Expo. This year I would be attending strictly as a guest, not as a vendor.

My arrival time was just prior to 6 pm (I took my first score picture at 5:56 pm). Since I was not vending this year, I took the opportunity to spend some time in the seminar room. At 9 pm I joined karaoke hosted by Robert Layne. For my song, I chose Never Ending Story as made famous by Limahl, singing what I hoped was a decent rendition. (Unfortunately the Echo Image version wasn’t in the catalog; I did look.) I have no pictures or video from this portion of the evening, perhaps for the better.

I would go back out on the floor after listening to a few more songs after mine. Late in the evening (as in close to midnight), I would finally get to play the new Labyrinth pinball. This is the debut release of a new pinball manufacturer called Barrels of Fun, which is headquartered right here in Houston. I had heard various things about this game,  Knowing literally nothing about strategy for the game, I calmly walk up and run up a score of 12.6M+. That wasn’t enough to make the high score list, though I did make the board for orbits champ. Rounding out the evening’s achievements would be 1.48M+ on Space Station, 1.79M+ on High Speed (which was playing rather brutally, I might add), 9.28M+ on Earthshaker, 1.33M+ on Dialed In, 1.63M+ on Flight 2000, and 4.82M+ on Bonebusters.

I hung out until close to 3 am, possibly against my better judgment. I had considered leaving around 1:15-1:30 am. However, the offer of free food at around 2 am for those still sticking around was too good to pass up.

Saturday’s action wouldn’t include quite as many standout scores. The first one that appears to be a really good score at first glance is the 3.2M+ on Big Guns. However, this was a machine which was not working properly. Specifically, the game would kick out locked balls instead of keeping them locked. This malfunction allowed for balls much longer and scores much higher than the game was designed for. Especially if you did what I did, and kept the new ball in the plunger lane until the original one drained.

I had at least one standout high score for Saturday: the 278,440 on Bank Shot. This is the reason for the intermediate score of 194,340 right before it. Bank Shot can only display scores up to 199,990. (It  does not indicate a second rollover of the five-digit counter.)

Besides that it was pretty ho-hum. I had many  respectable casual play scores, but not a whole lot that would be that good in a tournament. I didn’t make it down to the seminar room for anything on Saturday, as I arrived too late to see the Harp Twins concert (due to a conflict with work).

Sunday perhaps had the best scores of them all, despite my spending all of about an hour and change on the floor before the end of the show at 2 pm. First up was The Harp Twins, since I missed their shows during the previous two days.

After that, time for some more pinball. The biggest achievement by far would come from my stop over at Wormhole Pinball’s booth. They had two pinball games on display. One was Bally’s KISS which I didn’t play. The other was Cosmic Princess, a rare Stern title from 1979. This game was actually made by an Australian company called Leisure & Allied Industries under license from Stern. It uses the same game ROMs as another Stern game called Magic (but not the same playfield layout).

So, like I did on Saturday, I played a couple rounds trying to get into it. And then, a breakthrough: special was lit on the right inlane and the #3 lane on top, with the game set on novelty settings  (special scores 100,000 points). I would hit at least three specials, signing off with a grand total of 929,310. Almost immediately after that, I would put up a 15.0M+ on Funhouse. (To me, Rudy’s scream on hitting the million plus trap door is one of the most satisfying sounds in all of pinball, and I was glad I got to hear it at least once this weekend.)

After the conclusion of Houston Arcade Expo, I decided to make a brief stopover at a location I had been meaning to check out: Great Heights Brewing Company at 938 Wakefield Drive (between Golf Drive and Alba Road). This is a small brewery/icehouse with two machines, Rush and Elvira’s House of Horrors. I played one game on each, just to familiarize myself with any issues. The pricing is a bit steep at $1.50 for a single play, but there is  a discount for buying multiple games at a time with a credit or debit card.

(Note: Some pictures were edited to obscure/redact contact information and other impertinent data.)