Many of the previous posts have been edited with a disclaimer regarding recent events. This is unfortunate but I feel it is necessary given what has transpired.
Should circumstances change, those disclaimers have been added in a way to make it easy for all of them to disappear with minimal tedium, odium, and utterances of profanity by yours truly.
Thanks, and I appreciate the continued support.
I know it’s been awhile since the last post, but I have had a lot of things come up in my personal life. This is just a brief note about what’s been going on so far this month.
I did make it to Houston Arcade Expo the weekend of the 11th through 13th. I also have some scores to post from various bar/arcade visits before and after those dates. These will be split up into three posts: one before, one of Houston Arcade Expo, and then one after.
After that I will be making a series of pinball related posts to my other blog, Rant Roulette. They will be posted there as the subject matter is such that the series of posts in question will really be more about politics than pinball. I realize some of my fans may have some questions and I hope those posts will answer most of them. I will try to answer any others, but there are some questions I will not be answering in a public forum if at all.
With all that out of the way, I’m looking forward to ending 2022 on a high note and the exciting new promises that the new year, 2023, has in store.
Edit 2023-03-27: After careful consideration, I believe this series, as originally conceived and written, is no longer in my best interest to post. What does get posted will be a heavily edited subset of the first post in that series.
Not a whole lot going on this October, but a few notable games here and there.
Poison Girl, October 6:
Game had a sticky left flipper but no other obvious problems. This was a very brief visit as I had stopped by primarily for other reasons.
Little Dipper, October 7:
One of my better games on Creature.
Little Dipper, October 15:
Another brief visit, I played a total of two games.
Little Dipper, October 20:
Another monster score on Creature.
Little Dipper, October 28:
Monster scores all around. The score on Spider-Man wasn’t quite good enough for a replay (the replay score was a bit north of 92M).
Most notable this month:
In order: Little Dipper September 5, 12, and 26 (as usual, pictures representing the best scores from each day), and then Darkhorse Tavern September 27.
Not a lot going on this month. Two stops at Little Dipper (July 25 and August 1), a brief visit to Gypsy Joynt in Galveston (August 23), and a quick drop-in to Darkhorse Tavern (August 31). Commentary follows the gallery/image for each visit.
Little Dipper, July 25
Nothing special on Creature or Monster Bash, but today was the day I filled out the rest of the high score board on Funhouse. The final three pictures are to document the full high score board as of this visit.
Little Dipper, August 1
A little bump to the #4 score on Funhouse (classic), and a decent run on Funhouse 2.0.
Gypsy Joynt, August 23
Pinball Map listed these machines in questionable condition as of a year ago. I had hoped they had been fixed since then (I was in the area for work and dropped by; I would not make a trip all the way down to Galveston just to play two machines I had doubts about). Attack from Mars had an issue with the scoop, where it would not register on shots to the front (and would kick them straight down the middle more often than not, with an unpredictable tilt that either gave you no warnings for a hard nudge or two immediate warnings and a possible immediate tilt); it was also set up to play rather slow and floaty. Deadpool kept wanting to kick out two balls and had a sticky right flipper.
I don’t think either of these scores are that bad given the condition of the games, but I don’t consider them my best work either.
Star Pizza and Darkhorse Tavern, August 31
I dropped into Star Pizza (77 Harvard near Washington) for dinner. The pizza was good, but I couldn’t let myself walk by the Ms. Pac-Man cocktail videogame in front without giving it a try. The high score was somewhere in the 80-89K range, I want to say 87K but I didn’t think to take a before picture. It doesn’t matter, because I beat it easily.
I followed that up with a trip down the road to Darkhorse Tavern for Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man pinball. The score is a personal best, but unfortunately someone has manged to put up a slightly higher score for the high game to date (just over 1.8M). I believe I can eventually break through and reclaim it, though. This game is worth the occasional detour to come and play and I believe it is an overlooked classic.
Ordinarily I’d sit on these and wait to make another summary post when I felt like it. But this one was too good to just sit on. I’m posting individual pictures (well, with two grouped together) so I can make commentary on each.
This is a pretty typical game of Family Guy, a bit inflated because of the drop target issue (I got at least one unearned Fart Multiball if I remember right).
Finally, after having so many games where it seemed like just getting the replay score was a chore, I broke through with this gem on FunHouse (classic mode). The default high scores were (mostly) intact at the time I put this one up; I had previously scraped up a 9.78M+ good enough to eek out a high score #4 temporarily. I didn’t mind seeing that one fall off the bottom, though.
I remember getting at least two regular multiballs, one quick multiball, quite a few Rudy hits (enough to get the 1M sausage bonus), at least two extra balls, and an outlane special.
This is the best score I’ve been able to put up for the FunHouse 2.0: Rudy’s Nightmare ruleset. Someone left a couple of credits on this version, which I found when switching over as the game was set to the classic mode on my arrival. The new ruleset is potentially much higher scoring than FunHouse classic, as the default grand champion is 60M or so if I remember right. This 26.7M+ didn’t even make the high score board if I remember right (or if it did, it was one of the lower places and I didn’t get a picture).
Overall these were the highlights of a great evening at Little Dipper. I’m wondering how long it will take someone to beat my 21.9M+ on FunHouse classic. Only time will tell…