Quick update from Frisco

Hello everybody from Frisco, Texas. When I return to the computer later today, I will have one post to make about events that happened before Texas Pinball Festival.

Once that is done, I will have a virtual mountain of photos and notes to go through. There will be a lot to recap, so this year’s series of posts could stretch out to as many as eight. I will try not to make them too long but at the same time I want to get in as many details as I can as this was quite a memorable trip and I am eager to share the full account of it with all of you.

Texas Pinball Festival 2024: On with the show!

Once again, this weekend (upcoming, March 15-17) is the Texas Pinball Festival including the Wizards tournament. And, once again, I am confirmed for the Wizards tournament and a hotel room in the area.

New to TPF this year will be three tournaments held by NTX Pinball, of which I will be playing in two on Friday. The first will be a group matchplay tournament Friday morning, while the second will be a strikeout tournament Friday evening.

This year is quite different from the past two years. I’m not going to go into detail right now, but the challenges I have faced both as a pinball player and in life away from the game have changed. I’ve also made some new friends outside the pinball/classic arcade community, which has helped.

This will be the third time I’ve made the trip to Frisco both for the festival and the pinball tournament. My current plan is to attend TPF, including the Wizards tournament, every year through at least 2027. This is of course subject to many variables: health, finances, and of course lack of extraordinary circumstances (such as another pandemic along the lines of COVID-19).

In the immortal words of Queen:

I’ll take it with a grin
I’m never giving in
On with the show!

And finally, the (updated) links for those looking to follow along:

Of particular note, I will probably not be live blogging here over the weekend, but will start re-capping the events on Monday after I return.

Poison Girl February 25: And the winds just keep on whirling

After the previous night’s runs on Godzilla, I was inspired to head over to Poison Girl for the first time in a long while (since September 8 when I set the 59.0M+ grand champion on Whirlwind, if you want to get technical). So long, in fact, that the lower high scores had been automatically reset. My 59.0M+ grand champion, however, was still there.

I started off with a quick game of Dolly Parton, scoring a new personal best of 263,170. Then, I moseyed on down to Whirlwind and put my first quarter in, to be greeted by “CREDITS 4 1/2”. I went ahead and coined up the other half credit making it “CREDITS 5” and started the first game.

I’d start off with a real stinker of 1.35M+ and would wind up winning enough replays to turn that five credits I started with into a whopping sixteen games actually played, lasting easily an hour and a half. (I’d have to dig up the photo timestamps to compare the sessions during which I put up other high scores, but they are probably about the same or slightly longer.) By the time I was done, the score to get a replay had skyrocketed to 10.2M (it started at 4.2M) and I had put up three of the four lower high scores: 23.1M+, 18.4M+, and 10.5M+. That left only PBK’s 13.9M+ of the high scores that were up on my arrival.

I would wrap things up with a quick game on Guns N Roses (Jersey Jack) scoring a rather unremarkable 775K+ (replay was at 2M). I’d call it a night after another unremarkable game of Dolly Parton and a game on the re-themed Mata Hari.

February 22 and 24: Einstein’s and Del Mar

My usual reason for traveling out to Katy is a weekly RPG (role-playing game) meeting on Thursday nights. We have missed about a months worth of meetings for various reasons. I had some car issues; others had work or family conflicts. It was definitely an evening to look forward to for me.

Then, I found out the meeting was canceled, but not until after driving the distance. Never one to miss an opportunity, I salvaged the trip by getting in some pinball at Einstein’s since I wasn’t too far away. This turned out to be a great decision. I got to play some old favorites like Stars, Hoops, and Black Knight: Sword of Rage, but I also got to check out Stern’s latest game, Jaws. (Unfortunately Attack from Mars was turned off/out of order.)

Now, Jaws is not without its share of controversy. Perhaps the biggest complaint, or at least the one that was most prominent from my observation, was that the shark toy didn’t eat the ball. After I played a few games, I can say that there’s no reason for the shark to eat the ball. Trying to work that into the game would, in fact, completely destroy the flow. I don’t have a picture, but the shark is above a captive ball mechanism, not any type of scoop or eject. These are two completely different types of objects with regard to the flow of play.

My very first game on Jaws happened to be the highest scoring game on that machine (144.2M+) for the night. The other truly notable score was a 303K+ on Stars, including the first time I’ve scored special on a game in novelty mode (twice in one ball).

Then on Saturday night, I decided to drop in for “a quick game or two of Godzilla”. Which, of course, meant I played eleven (!) games counting all the replays I won. Only two of those replays were from matching.

Perhaps the even bigger punch line: there was ¼ credit on the game when I arrived, so the whole session cost me only 75 cents. In summary: Top score for the night of 248.1M+. New scores for destruction jackpot champion (in the 248.1M+ game) and Godzilla multiball champion (later game).

Cidercade Houston Valentine’s Day 2024

So, this past Wednesday, I returned once again to Cidercade for this year’s installment of the annual Valentine’s Day Stoplight Party. Overall it was a pretty good evening. I put up quite a few good scores and got to play a few games I don’t get to play that often.

While I didn’t score quite as highly on the other reason I attended this event, there did seem to be more women, and specifically more women I found at least somewhat attractive, wearing green wristbands. I did make some small talk and did my best to be at least amicable.

Yes, I do plan to attend next year. I feel like this was time well spent, even if some of the results weren’t what I had hoped.

Little Dipper January 29

Another trivia night at Little Dipper, another post-trivia pinball session. Actually a couple of these were from before trivia started.

Of note, Stranger Things replaces Spiderman in the lineup. My score on Stranger Things would be the highlight of the evening; the other best scores range from “pretty good” (T2) to “bleh” (Creature).