Pacific Pinball Expedition
Pinballog Entry: It’s been, like, a fortnight since I left the paradise of Portland and embarked on my journey to the congested badlands of San Francisco. Before boarding the aeroplane at pdx aeroport, I left my trusty portland pinball map in the hands of my cat, Solomon (pictured). It would be worthless there: San Fran is unmapped territory. The whatabouts of the local pin sitch is all word of mouth. And as Fox Mulder once told me after he’d recently come back from time traveling to 1860s San “Gold Rush” Francisco, “Hey stud, trust me on this: trust no one in that town.”
But, whatever, I didn’t need a map. This expedition was to an exposition. And at the expo some dude on the internet promised me I’d find hundreds, nay three hundreds, of pinball machines. Including Future Spa. So with my shoes on my feet and my pants around my legs, I ventured headlong into the realm. So long Solomon and friends, I said to myself – don’t forget to maintain the map in my absence.
Once inside the expo, I found this:
Pretty rad blow-ups of backglass. I soaked it in. Then I freaked out and ran around in circles until I found some familiar faces – my Bros from the northlands, plus Jeri. I don’t even know what happened after that. Basically I played a ton of pinball for two days straight. And I ate a bunch of In ‘N Out and trail mix.
I competed a little in this section:
Oh, I was devastated to find that Future Spa was NOT there. Those fucks on the internet lied to me.
Some games I liked a bunch: Fireball, Pharaoh, Roller Disco, Corvette, Alien Star, and many more. There was a nice array of games. Some rad Sys11 Gottliebs. Not enough ’80s/’90s machines, I’d say. But I played a bunch of games that were new to me. And I played many exciting matches against my friends.
And here’s another picture.
So that’s about it for this entry. I doubt you found it informative. That’s because it wasn’t really.
Voodoo Too Classic Donut Cup
It was once guesstimated that not as many people would show up to a weekly tournament if it took place somewhere other than a bar. Too many of the regular contenders are hopeless alcoholics, was the reasoning. But you all proved that unnamed guesstimater wrong. Good show everyone.
19 fine folks entered tonight’s tournament. And that is good. And thus, from henceforth this tournament that ended like an hour ago will now be dubbed The First Annual Voodoo Too Classic Donuts Cup. So shall it be known!
As an 8x bonus, right before the battle commenced, our tastebuds (and not to mention our monstrous egos) were delighted to discover that Voodoo Doughnuts had made us a special doughnut platter, with a huge Super CFF Doughnut in the middle:
Pretty amazing, huh? Thanks, Voodoo!
Also, thanks Ricochet for putting four sweet pins in the place.
All in all, I didn’t eat dinner, and instead just ate three doughnuts. Now, after my shocking loss, I’m trying to set things straight again by eating a lot of chips. But I don’t know. Sometimes losses are forever.
Congrats to Dropshot for being victorious. And congrats to Trish for getting 2nd place. I hope you’re both happy.
Posted: September 8th, 2009
at 10:48pm by ROM
Categories: CFF,CFF Friends,Pinball
Comments: No comments
Showdown Finale
After three days of pinball mayhem, the showdown is complete. Victory! For Portland’s Noah Davis. Congratulations, Noah. Noah took home a Lethal Weapon 3 pinball machine (the machine plays a song by C+C Music Factory, in case you didn’t know that), and $180 cash.
We’d like to extend our thanks to a number of folks for helping to make this a great weekend. First off, thanks to Brinda Coleman and Sam Soule at Slabtown, for hosting the event and advertising it and making it rad. Slabtown has 12 machines right now, and from what I’ve heard they’re going to stay there. Thanks to Jakob Chandler and Mike Mahaffey at Quality Entertainment. They dialed in the machines, and Jake stayed around (and competed) the whole weekend and made sure they all played well. Thanks also to Trish and Jeri from Ricochet. They operate the six non-tournament machines (Demo Man and Dr. Dude were used in mini-tourneys). Those machines are great, and thanks for putting them on free play all weekend.
Special thanks to Aaron, Eric, and Fred for organizing and running the tournament! And super thanks to Jake for putting a lot of work into the shopping out the prize machine.
Also, thanks to everyone who came from out of town. Maka, Cayle, Nycole, Julie, Deathsave – they all came down from Seattle. And we’re glad you did!
Here is the 16, with their payouts:
- 1. Noah Davis (Lethal Weapon 3 – $180)
- 2. Cayle George (tie breaker against Jay for 2nd place – $300; top qualifier – $50; Dr. Dude – $35)
- 3. Jason America ($216)
- 4. Fred Franken ($120)
- 5. Maka Honig ($48 – tied 5th)
- 5. Jeff Gagnon ($48 – tied 5th)
- 7. Aaron Nelson ($48)
- 8. Jake McGhee ($48)
- 9. Louie Hamlett ($24)
- 10. Dennis Brenhaug ($24)
- 11. David Dimoff ($24)
- 12. Nycole Hyatt ($24 – and top female qualifier – $50)
- 13. Chris Rhodes ($24)
- 13. Eric Hill ($24)
- 15. Danny Backglass ($24)
- 16. Paul Kalk ($24)
And Justin Lentz won on a vicious battle against Jakob Chandler on Demolition Man to earn the PBR snowboard.
Uh, I took this casual shot of the top four, but it kinda came out as the most depressing winners shot ever. The next picture I took, with them smiling, came out totally out of focus. So this is what you get.
Okay, here are some pictures, starting from last night.
The Saturday night scramble!
There was some serious scrambling for position during the final hour on Saturday night. The most common word I heard floating around the room was, no doubt, “Fuck!” And during that hour this man right here, Chris Rhodes, kept things under control. Sometimes wielding two clipboards at once, he bounded back and forth behind the play area, marking scores, barking orders, grabbing quarters, and encouraging players to hit jackpots. It’s no surprise that on Sunday he traded in his Session hat for about 10 Session beers. If you ever happen to see Rhodes puttering around town on his scooter, make sure to rush out in the street and give him a high five.
Eric during a lull on the final day.
Jason “Kickback” America, 3rd place finisher, takes a breather during the second round of the final. I wonder what he’s thinking about? Maybe pinball?
The first game of the final round was – surprise! – played on the prize machine. The machine was set on the stage in the main room. Here, Noah plays his first ball while everyone watches.
Kickback has a go.
Solitary warrior – Cayle George.
Blurry shot of the line-up. This is during the final game of the final round.
Viewers and competitors during the final game. The energy in the room definitely became more tense during the final matches.
Today’s final rounds were a lot of fun (for me, fun to watch and keep track of scores). It was exciting through and through – lots of close matches, big come-backs, valiant efforts, and epic battles. We hope everyone had a good time.
Slabtown Top 16
Coming into the finals, here is the top 16. These folks will be squaring off against each other, starting at 1pm. Good luck.
- Overall Leaders
- Congo
- High Speed II: The Getaway
- Monster Bash
- Medieval Madness
- The Addams Family
- Twilight Zone
If you didn’t make it into the finals, thanks still for entering! There was strong competition, and it was a lot of fun (speaking as someone who didn’t make it). The mini-tourneys and bands and free play really helped to turn it into an even cooler event.
And cAyle George won the Dr. Dudical Radtastic Coinbash. Congrats! He got 24million or so.
Come check out the final action tomorrow. It should be fierce!
Showdown at Slabtown (Updated again! 7:30pm Sat.)
The scores/rankings have been updated as of 7:30pm Saturday. We still have until midnight!
Edit again: these spreadsheets are now the final ones.
Click the links to see the spreadsheets!
- Overall Leaders
- Congo
- High Speed II: The Getaway
- Monster Bash
- Medieval Madness
- The Addams Family
- Twilight Zone
Original post:
Aloha showdowners! The first day of the qualifying round is complete. So far 33 people have entered (as far as I know). We thought we’d show you where every one stands. These stats will show you the overall rankings, plus how each individual has ranked on each machine; and it will also show you the individual machines, and what scores people have been putting up on them.
(To remind: You get points based on how well your scores on each machine match up to other people’s scores. The best strategy for this type of qualifying round is to play all six machines, and get a decent score on each one. A worse strategy is to play one machine over and over, with the goal of having the number 1 ranked score on that machine. Spread it out! Play them all.)
So, Saturday will be the big qualifying day. We expect a lot more people to enter, and the scores to go up and up! But for now, those are the scores to beat. Think you have what it takes to qualify for the finals (top 16)? I think you do, because you are special. Now go prove me right!
Here’s the line-up:
The qualifying round ends at midnight Saturday. But that’s not the only thing that ends at midnight on Saturday! The Dr. Dude Super Excellent Cashbox Shaka Brah Mini-Tournament also ends then! Whomever has the highest score (the Grand Champ) at that time will win the contents of the cashbox (aka lots of quarters). The game is 25 cents to play, and so far it’s seen a lot of action. And guess what? I currently have the Grand Champ! Yay. Right guys? YAY! The score I put up is around 14,775,000. So that’s the score to beat. Think you can beat it? I don’t think you can. Because when I was growing up I was a surf rat, and basically lived the life of Dr. Dude. I really connect with that machine. So, I dunno, maybe you should give up now?
Other things to remember: There are five machines in the other room, for super fun casual play. There are rad bands playing tomorrow night (in a separate room).
Also, Portland’s KGW did a story on the tournament for their nightly news. I missed it, but it sounded cool. If anyone finds the video online, please send it our way.
Hope to see you tomorrow!
New Seattle Pinball Destination?
Apparently Add-A-Ball is some new place that has pinball in Seattle.
What’s the story?
I must say if this is their website it pretty much rocks.
http://www.addaball.com/
The site features this graphic.
Sure, I'll take my kids here for thier birthday. What's that magazine you're reading?
Portland Pinball Map launched, currently in orbit
SSW and I launched the new Portland Pinball Map website last night. The site rules, and everyone should please start using it. The old map is toast, and you won’t be cool anymore if you continue to use it.
This new site has many fantastic search functions! And you can add comments on machines. And you can add and remove machines from locations. And you can put your scores next to machines, so we can track bounties and stuff. And you can do so much more!
I started a thread on it on the message board, so please write stuff on the subject in there or here. I hope you all find the website to be useful, and I hope you all use it a lot.
In also news, last night we inducted three new members: Scoop (long time coming!), Bumpers, and Mystery! That brings our member total to 34. And since Scoop and Bumpers are females, that brings our total in that category to five? I don’t know, but I think so. Progress is progress.It was a fun induction ceremony – beer was swilled and spilled, tiaras were worn, penis-shaped balloons were hoisted to the heavens, and some really weird belts were worn.
Hopefully I’ll get photos of all our most recent adds (dropshot, revtest, videomode, and the three most new, and everyone else still missing) so that I can put their faces onto the profile page.
If anyone has photos from last night, please gimme one or more, and I’ll add them to this post.
Short Shorty’s Recap, Plus Things are Good in Portland
Another Shorty’s come and gone! The underwater clown-themed hot dog bar hosted their 11th annual tournament this past weekend. We took the mega-van up to Seattle, with others taking cars and trains… all for one day of practice on their machines, and one day of competition. I think we had 14 or so from CFF? Plus friends from Portland. The machines played nice, 117 people entered, including three folks from IFPA‘s top ten, plus a bunch of other rippers. Not to be too negative, but the tournament itself is mostly excruciating and run like lousy (cramped space, then empty machines for hours as we all sit around waiting for the organizers to figure out our next rounds, single game rounds, etc.). 
Next time we’ll be bringing dominoes to help fill out the hours. That said, it’s no doubt a fun time. It’s great to connect with others in the pinball world, and especially, to see how the rippers play. Since the trip, our message board has been filled with lively strategy discussion.
As usual, we managed to piss off a few wankers. One dude apparently burned one of our stickers, and so was dowsed with water. Holy crap! In the tournament the next day he experienced total karmic payback, with Gorgar, the unofficial God of Pinball, delivering a shocking slam tilt on Addam’s right when the dude was preparing to take a victory lap. Take that!
I ranked highest in CFF in the tournament – around 16th or so, I believe – which was a bit disappointing for us all. We’ve shown better in the past. But it is what it is – most of all, it’s fun to compete. Our next trip up to Seattle will be for the 2nd Annual NW Pinball Expo (June, most likely). Eden from the Vancouver Regional Pinball Association told me about his grand plans for that show’s tournament, and it sounds like it’s going to be killer. It was run well last year (well, this year, still), and from the sound of it, 2009’s will be even better (extra prizes, a supplementary Electro-Mechanical tourney, etc.). The expo is supposed be larger, too (meaning, more machines to play, plus more speakers).
Eric (EKH) did best of our Portland crew (9th or so). He even took out Keith Elwin (ranked #1 in the world) – on a barfbag Revenge from Mars. Eric’s organizing the upcoming Slabtown tournament in NW Portland. November 20th.
This tournament’s going to be awesome. Make sure to get there on time, lazies!
Speaking of tournaments! To make up for the lack of Taxi Tuesday’s lately, DropShot threw together a tournament at Ship Ahoy last night. $5 entry. For a last minute tourney, we had a fine field – ten entered. Danny Backglass, sporting a slick new H-cut, took home the pot. We’re hoping to do something like this on a weekly basis. Not everyone can make the bi-weekly meetings (including DannyB, most unfortunately), and so we’re making more efforts to fill in the time with some more events. Plus, we need more experience with competition! I’ll try to keep the calendar up to date.
In conclusion, check out the pumpkin I carved!!
Pinball Wizards on Current TV
Yo! Current TV just put up a great short doc about CFF!
They came to a lot of meetings to put this together, and came up with some fun footage and quotes (coherent quotes!). The bottom line is that pinball is fun, and should never die. We’re doing what we can, in our own crazy way, to keep it going. Viva Portland.
Tilting at articles about pinball machines
In keeping tabs on “retro gaming,” the NY Times yesterday printed an article about the Stern manufacturing plant. The article, for some reason originally titled, “Tilting at Pinball Machines,” but then changed to, “For a Pinball Survivor, the Game isn’t Over,” (no joke; they changed it between then and now) gives readers a brief tour of the plant, and touches upon, with little detail, the fact that real human people spend many hours constructing and testing these machines before sending them out to distributors. Little is said about innovation and ideas, nothing about upcoming titles, nothing about some of the reasons why Stern is the last manufacturer (except I guess they hint that the main reason is user demand, and that just ain’t true), nothing about pinball hotspots such as Portland.
Basically, I’m just not very into skimpy articles like this that only serve to perpetuate the angle that the supersport of pinball is on its deathbed. Sure, it’s interesting to get a glimpse into the plant, but a more in-depth piece about the state of pinball is needed. The common perception is that pinball is too simple an idea in this day of complex, interactive, jacked-in games. But, as our hero Brian Eno advices, turn off the options, turn up the intimacy (I was actually looking for another article from Wired about how consumers are in fact turned off by systems that are too complex… and so on). Pinball is where it’s at, man; but there’s a problem in communication, i.e. advertising, distribution, and so on.
On another note, a friend of mine just got back from Thailand, and he arrived bearing a “Wii” game called “Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection.” It has ten games on it, including Taxi, Funhouse, Gorgar, and Jive Time. And maybe I shouldn’t put quotes around Wii, since this actually looks sort of like a legit title. At any rate, here is your next article, NY Times!
