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:

• Funhouse and Monster Bash are no longer at Little Dipper, Fireball and Spider-Man (latter not pictured here yet) are in. These two score pictures from Monster Bash in this set represent the last two sessions I had with this game at Little Dipper.
• I’m back on the high score board on Creature from the Black Lagoon. I think it’s just a matter of time before I finally get grand champion, as I’m really feeling like I’m getting to know this game well.

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…

I’m going to mainly post the pictures, though there will be minimal commentary where I feel I can add some after each gallery.

June 8, Darkhorse Tavern:

Still here, still about as playable as it has been. 771K is a pretty decent score but of course I’ve done a bit better.

June 25 Cidercade

A lot of the usual suspects here. The Cactus Canyon high score was with some player benefit malfunctions, though it’s definitely within the range of what I can attain during normal play especially with that many extra balls. I’m finding that I enjoy Pepper II a lot more than I ever would have back in the day. The Stranger Things high score is probably the highlight of my trip, I think that’s a personal best but I’d have to look again.

June 27, Little Dipper:

Decent scores, all things considered.

July 11, Little Dipper:

Didn’t play a whole lot of Creature so yeah, that score is going to be pretty low. Monster Bash, on the other hand, was one of my better runs in recent memory if not all time on a real machine.

The big story is Funhouse: Rudy’s Nightmare, which has LCD replacements for the main score display as well as the Wind Tunnel Mystery Mirror and allows one to play the original game mode as well as the upgraded/updated version. I never realistically expected to see one of these on location, much less at Little Dipper. To say the least, this was a welcome find.

It took me many tries to get to the score shown (7.98M+). I didn’t get to play this game a whole lot in first run but it’s easily one of my all-time favorites now.

Somewhere I have a screenshot of me running the original Funhouse up over 200M in Pinball Arcade on my tablet from a few years ago when it was the free game of the month. At the time, I had completely forgotten how much harder the real thing was. But, now I remember.

I’ve still been getting in the occasional round or three or ten of pinball when time permits. So here’s what I’ve been up to behind sets of flipper buttons.

May 22, Darkhorse Tavern

I know I’ve done far better, this was mainly to ensure the game was still there.

May 23, Little Dipper

Didn’t play a whole lot tonight. The game on Creature from the Black Lagoon was someone else’s unwanted replay.

May 27, Cidercade

There was a good chunk of this visit (about an hour or so, judging by the photo timestamps) where I was playing Killer Queen. Unfortunately KQ doesn’t lend itself to being documented in the same form as there are no real scores to speak of, just a winning team. I’ll have more commentary about KQ in an upcoming post.

June 6, Little Dipper

Note: The 172M+ on Creature from the Black Lagoon was without the aid of a multiball jackpot.