I would like to share a few notes regarding the last few posts of 2023. Unlike the last couple of years, I will not be attending the New Year’s Eve event at Cidercade Houston. This should not be taken as a negative review of that event in past years; this is simply due to my personal circumstances and desires on how I wish to celebrate the arrival of the new year this time around. If you want to go to Cidercade for New Year’s Eve, go ahead and get your ticket(s) and don’t let my planned absence get in the way.

There is an important post scheduled for the 31st (New Year’s Eve). It is not a typical event or arcade visit summary, but it is nominally pinball-related. For a while I considered putting that post over on Rant Roulette instead, but what I needed to say is too closely intertwined with the storylines that have been told in this blog’s archives. With that in mind, making that post elsewhere doesn’t make any sense.

I may have one final arcade visit post to make this year, but there’s a chance I will not be able to finish it before the calendar flips over.

Happy new year to all, and I am looking forward to an exciting 2024!

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.