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Chad Concelmo mentioned back in RetroforceGO! Episode 68 that he wished he had a warehouse full of pinball games. Here are videos showing what that might look like.
Before the event:
During the event:
At the Cupids and Canines Casino Night and Pinball Tournament on February 7, 2009, over 350 people played blackjack, poker, craps, roulette and pinball at the Professional Amateur Pinball Association's (PAPA) headquarters in Scott Township (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania. Tournament players and pinball enthusiasts could play over 400 pinball machines from all eras, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Batman (The Dark Knight), two of the newest offerings from STERN Pinball, Inc. In addition to the admission fees, all coin-drop from the pinball machines went to charity.
Every paid attendee at the event received $20,000 in 'play money' to use at the casino gaming tables. Each $5,000 in 'play money' earned you one ticket to use for the chance auction and raffle. You could also re-buy 'play money' if you were tapped out.
Among the charities that benefitted from this event were: Bob Wow Buddies (Camp Bow Wow) and the Pittsburgh-area Humane Societies with the goals of promoting canine cancer research and animal adoptions.
''Want some Candy"?
Among the games involved in the tournament were:
Batman (The Dark Knight)
Harlem Globetrotters
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Family Guy
The Simpsons
Flip Flop
Paragon
Jungle Queen
Medieval Madness
Judge Dredd
Joust - 2 Player Versus pinball game!
A $10 entry fee bought you a slot in a group of 8 players for a satellite tournament/preliminary round (though, your admission into Cupids and Canines came with one free entry into the tournament). Each group of 8 players was split in half. These two groups of 4 played a “best of three” series where first place in each game earned 4 points, second place earned 2 points, third place received 1 point, and fourth place got zero points. This was later changed to a “best of two” series because of the high amount of people who wanted to enter the tournament.
Finishing first or second overall in your group meant you advanced to the next round of four players with the winner of that group reaching the final round. A great feature about this system was that as soon as you lost a round, you could immediately reenter. A new preliminary round began as soon as eight more players were ready. A portion of the entry fees for the pinball tournament also went to charity. Trent Augenstein, ranked number 6 in the world as of this writing, won the tournament and took home an electromechanical pinball machine donated by PAPA.
It was a fantastic event, and I encourage all, who are looking for a slice of pinball heaven, to come out to the PAPA world headquarters when it reopens for the PAPA 12 World Pinball Championships this August.
I realize now that it is not a particularly good idea to record by walking around with the camcorder at belt-level. It seems to produce a bouncy, first-person shooter type of effect on the video. “The More You Know…” read more
You know how something can get into your head, and then that thing spawns an idea, which produces other ideas and then you have to put on the brakes before it becomes obsessive? Well that just happened to me. I was thinking about RetroforceGO! and then, all of a sudden, Tic-Tac-Dough (the game show) sprung into my head. The two ideas started stirring around and produced what you see below:
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"We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast to bring to you..."
Tic-Tac-Dough Theme Music
Let's shuffle the categories!
Here are the subjects for this game.
The game's getting intense now! Select a category.
..."You're right for Tic-Tac-Dough!"
Dammit... now I have to learn Flash so I can try to make this game happen... read more
The 2008 New Jersey Pinball Open at Eight on the Break at Dunellen, NJ. Competitors attempt to qualify to be one of the top six players that will advance to the double elimination playoffs. Also, One-Handed Mini-Tournament action on "Sharkey's Shootout".
Part Two
More qualifying action. Plus, "Tommy-Mode" (blinders) Mini-Tournament on Medieval Madness.
Part Three
Double elimination playoffs begin on "Terminator 3". Ted K. gets a "mode stack" going.
Part Four
Double elimination playoffs continue with "Whirlwind" and "Spider-Man".
Part Five
Double elimination playoffs continue with "Monster Bash", "The Shadow", and "Family Guy". Ted K. earns the Monster Bash Wizard Mode and becomes the new Bash Champion. Andrew D. and Michael F. have a good match on "The Shadow". Andrew also has a great "mode stack" on "Family Guy".
Part Six
Double elimination playoffs continue with "Terminator 3". Jory "mode stacks" Multiball and RED. Also, a flawless video mode. Winner is guaranteed at least a 2nd place finish.
Part Seven
Double elimination playoffs continue with Part 2 of the "Terminator 3" match. Assault mode is achieved. Winner is guaranteed at least a 2nd place finish.
Part Eight
Double elimination playoffs end with "Pinball Pool". The winner of the match takes the "Pinball Pool" machine home. Jory R. makes the best save of the tournament.
Eight on the Break in Dunellen, New Jersey will hold the New Jersey Pinball Open on August 9th, 2008.
The following is from Brian Smith of P3 Tournaments:
"Come join us for a full days worth of pinball tournament fun at Eight
on the Break. This is a great opportunity to practice before PAPA
the weekend after.
This format will be very similar to the tournaments we run in
Allentown and Rochester. There is a time period set aside for
qualifying and then a final double elimination round.
Eight on the Break is a fun arcade full of pinball machines, video
games, pool tables and includes a great snack bar. Admission is FREE
and tournament registration is only $5. All games will be on coin
drop. Price for each tournament entry is $10 per attempt.
Prizes? What I didn’t mention the prizes yet. We will be giving
away a Gottlieb Pinball Pool Pinball Machine or $500 cash to the top
winner! Total prize pool will be around $800. A great way to pay
for that trip to PAPA!
Registration is NOW OPEN and we recommend everyone pre-register
online. We have a limited number of registrations open and pre-
registering reserves your spot in the tournament. Plus it is very
important for planning reasons.
Last weekend's PIN-MAINE-IA event was one of the great pinball happenings of this year. Great fun was had by all. This event will continue to grow as long as it has the fantastic support of people like "BallyMan" John Reuter and the Boston Pinball Association. PIN-MAINE-IA, onward and upward!
Team "Wicked Shimmy" (Trent A., Todd M., Ed Z., and myself) won the Pine-Brawl event. I was able to get enough WPPR (World Pinball Player Ranking) points to raise my world ranking up to #16.
IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) President Josh Sharpe won the New England Championship to claim the #3 World ranking.
Next event: The FSPA (Free State Pinball Association) pre-PAPA Flip-Off on July 26, 2008 at John's Place in Fairfax, Virginia. BE THERE!!!
EDIT: YouTube video link changed to include the Eight on the Break Tourney info. read more
STERN, Inc. owner Gary Stern and Pinball historian Roger Sharpe are interviewed on NBC Nightly News on the game of pinball. They talk about the STERN factory, what goes into making a pinball machine and a little bit on pinball's past (and hopefully, future).
Sorry if there's an ad before the video... read more
This is John Reuter's pinball collection. John is the Tournament Director of PIN-MAINE-IA: The New England Pinball Championship that will happen this weekend. Many of these games will be at the tournament on FREE PLAY.
Then, just when you though it was over, you go downstairs and find THIS!
Also, the new Indiana Jones (IV) pinball machine will be at the tournament, also on FREE PLAY. read more
What if there was a good game show about video games. A GOOD one, not like "Video Power" (meh) or Nick Arcade (awful!). What I'm saying is, what if something like Starcade came back and they used retro video games and the first game played was Mega Man 1 for the ca$h and prizes.
I imagine the theme song might go a little something like this.
I also imagine that the cast of RetroforceGo might have to be banned from the show since they would probably own everyone's asses.
Or maybe they could host the show...Come to think of it "RetroforceGo" is a great name for a retro video game game show. (hmmm....) Oh well, time for more Orange Box.
Please don't mind me...I'm just a little random sometimes.
If any of you are in the Maine area and are looking for some tournament pinball action come to PIN-MAINE-IA - The New England Pinball Championship this Friday through Sunday, June 27-29th.
(Some of the following is quoted from John Reuter, PIN-MAINE-IA Tournament Director)
The location: 80 New County Road Saco, Maine 04072
Entry is $40.00 per person in advance for all events. $45.00 at the door. Entry includes a commemorative T -Shirt. See the PIN-MAINE-IA web site for details and how to sign up.
(If you don't want to enter the Tournament, $15 gets you FREE PLAY on all the machines all weekend!)
The dates: June 27th - 29th 2008.
Friday Evening: 4:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M. The Team Tournament
Saturday: 10:00 A.M. - 11:00 P.M. The Main Event. A non-elimination, individual multi-round tournament. The New England Championship.
Sunday: 10:00 A.M - 5:00 P.M. Open play, side events and The State/ Province Team Challenge.
The Sponsors: The Boston Pinball Association (aka The BPA) and New England Pinball.
This is the 2nd year of the tournament, and we have the use of a much larger facility, 2000 sf, with ample parking and easier access from the Maine Turnpike. Last year was a huge success, with a strong field of 40 entrants in the main event and over 75 people in attendance over the 3 days. We had players from all over the country, including the reigning New England Champ, Chris Wamsley from Ohio. This year promises to be even better.
Since my Galaga Remix was well received (Thanks a lot) it's time for a Triple-Trance-Retro Combo!
Our first contestant, fighting out of the red corner, weighing in at 3 minutes, 56 seconds @ 144 BPM, with a record of two "10's" at Newgrounds, hailing from Brooklyn, NY via the SNES,
-Back when Square and Nintendo were friends they released this gem of a game. When I turned it on and the game ran the intro showing the characters, that music in the background got stuck in my head. So much so that I remember watching the intro again just to hear the opening track. I was ready to play some freakin' Final Fantasy - Mario Edition (at least that's what I called it at first).
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Fighting out of the blue corner, weighing in at 4 minutes, 12 seconds @ 140 BPM, with a record of one "10" at Newgrounds, from Mobius via the Sega Genesis,
Put your hands together for "Sonic & Knuckles: Don't Stop" !
-One day, I was playing some Sonic 3 & Knuckles and one of ATB's tracks called "Don't Stop" started playing from my iTunes. A thought entered my head: The main hook for "Don't Stop" sounds like it would fit well with the title theme for Sonic 3 and Knuckles if I change the pitch just a little bit. What would happen if I remixed the two ideas; what kind of fun could I have? Here's the result.
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Finally, presenting our special guest competitor, weighing in at 3 minutes, 33 seconds @ 140 BPM, with a record of two "10's" and one "7" at NG, from the Mushroom Kingdom via the Nintendo 64,
-Uh oh... Mario has just got found a Wing Cap... with some Ecstasy inside...uh I mean an invincible star! It's all over now!
Inspired by: Super Mario 64 - Wing Cap Mario, and I added some Invincible Star flavor as well.
-- --
Let Tranz Batel BEGIN!
[Some of you may be thinking: Wait a minute, there were two Mario tracks and only one Sonic track, that's not fair. Well technically it's a Sonic AND Knuckles track so that kinda evens it out...sort of... in a weird sort of way...a way that I'm making up just now.]
(Please feel free to leave some reviews and comments so that I can improve myself.) read more
In the days of yore, and as the console wars raged on, I found myself in the middle of two fierce factions. I had friends who liked Sonic and thought that Sega and its Genesis could do no wrong, and I had friends who like Mario and thought that Nintendo and the SNES were equally infallible. Since I owned both systems, many times my friends would come over to my place to do battle, both verbally ("Sonic Sux!/Rox! No, Mario Sux!/Rox!" "I know you are but what am I" etc.) and on the electronic playgrounds of both consoles. One time, when I was kicking their collective asses in Super Mario Kart, I said something like this: "One day they'll make a game that has both Sonic and Mario in it together and it will be the greatest game ever!" Yes, in the console wars, I was Switzerland. After the laughter died down, someone said, "What would you call it, the sonicmario game? That'll never happen!" I said, "Yeah, sounds like a good game to me." For the rest of the day they called me sonicmario and I got my nickname. It seems that I eventually got my wish including good (SSB Brawl: WIN!) and iffy (Sonic vs Mario Olympics) examples.
As far as gaming goes, I play just about every genre except simulation sports games. But, I can get into the arcadey sports games that focus on fun instead of realism. Competitive puzzle games like Tetris Attack/Puzzle League are high on my list as well. I also like to dabble in the classic-type games in XBLA since they accommodate my retro tendencies. However, besides my bias toward platform games that star either a 2-Dimensional Sonic or Mario in them, I love to play shmups. Shmups are like no-limit poker; easy to play but difficult to master.
My real gaming love though is pinball. Not computer pinball, but real, tactile, arcade pinball. I'm sure that this one may be coming out of left field for some people, but I'll continue. I am a highly ranked player in the world of competitive pinball. Touring and playing in various tournaments is great fun, and I urge you, if you like pinball, to find a league in your area and compete.
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