As of right now there are still some tickets left for Cidercade’s NYE event in Houston, but that will likely change by end of day on Monday. If you are hoping to attend, the time to buy a ticket is now and the place is this page on Eventbrite.

I dropped in at Poison Girl on the night of Monday, December 23. This visit went by fairly quickly as I mainly came to play Earthshaker which was turned off due to–of all things–a missing right flipper button.

I did, however, get in at least one quality run on Six Million Dollar Man, a decent score on Pulp Fiction, and then an 813k+ on the re-themed Mata Hari. That last score was good for high game to date and is a recent personal best.

Upon hearing the news that Earthshaker was fixed, I headed back to try it out. There were a couple of issues which have also since been fixed (the worst of them being a broken fault diverter, meaning the first lock can only be made by shooting the shelter directly and not the ramp), but overall the game played very well. I played a few other games in the collection while I was there, with the most notable score perhaps being a 286 .5M+ on James Bond.

After another event earlier in the day, I dropped in to Star Pizza for a good meal and, of course, some pinball.  Since my last visit, Guns ‘N Roses had been swapped out for Monster Bash. I did play a couple games of Monster Bash in addition to the obligatory games on Dolly Parton. My best run on the former game was 83.2M+, good enough for a replay with a knocker loud enough to make someone choke on their pizza. On the latter, I put up a recent personal best of 380k+. All in all, a satisfying trip from both a dietary and pinball standpoint.

Once again it was time for another trip over to Einstein’s. Most of the scores I was able to muster weren’t all that great, with a notable exception being a 295k+ on Stars, which I believe to be a personal best.

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.