The Jersey Pinball Association is beginning a new season of competitive pinball play this Wednesday, March 10. Among the games available are: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Whitewater, Demolition Man, Monster Bash, Fish Tales, FunHouse, The Addams Family, Star Wars: Episode One, and Attack from Mars. Along with traditional league play, there will be another side tournament in the style of “Pinball Golf” where you have up to ten balls to reach a target score. Each entry builds up a cash jackpot which I will award at the end of the season. PinGolf replaces the Gauntlet from last year. I hope that many players, from inside and outside of the JPA League, will try to qualify for the PinGolf Final so that there will be a huge jackpot prize pool.
Presenting… the official Jersey Pinball Association Gauntlet Tournament T-shirt. The tournament sponsors will each receive one of these shirts at the beginning of the Spring 2010 league season. I would like to take time to congratulate the winners of the JPA Gauntlet tournaments: Andrew Drabik – winner of the Spring 2009 tournament, and Jim Fordham – winner of the Fall 2009 tournament. I also would like to thank those players who sponsored the tournament: Koi Morris, Jim Fordham and Ed Zeltmann. Next season there will most likely be a PinGolf style tournament in addition to traditional league play. I’m looking forward to next season’s competition. For those of you who are interested, the Jersey Pinball Association meets on Wednesdays for 10 weeks in the Spring and in the Fall. The next season will begin in early March, and new players are always welcome.
The International Flipper Pinball Association, in cooperation with STERN Pinball and the AMOA Show, held a Par 3 PinGolf Challenge event at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Competitors had to achieve a target score on two pinball games, NBA and CSI, while using the least number of balls as they could.
Players tried each game once, and then selected which of the two games would serve as their third game. The player with the lowest combined score won the tournament.
The Amusement & Music Operators Association and the American Amusement Manufacturers Association Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Even though I don’t come CLOSE to owning an arcade, redemption games still give me an awful taste in my mouth.
The JPA Gauntlet jackpot increases again, and we have a new game replacing Fish Tales: Whitewater. The goal for this game is 20 Million + Make a “Multi Millions” ramp shot for 4 Million. Inside Akihabara
Time-lapse of The Totally Rad Show’s 24 Hour Gaming Marathon, benefiting the Texas Children’s Hospital, fighting pediatric cancer. Video Game Dioramas
“Video game geeks are a creative bunch — especially those capable of creating artwork depicting characters and places most people over the age of 40 would never recognize. How do you take your game to the next level (pun intended)? Build fantastic dioramas of scenes from the best games ever made.” (Bitmob)
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"?
Though the event officially opened at 8:00 PM, PAPA President, Kevin Martin opened the facility at 11:00 AM for the pinball tournament competitors. Multiple time World Pinball Champion Bowen Kerins organized the event.
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…”
Arcade Hunters
Star Fox in Iraq
Inside Akihabara
Once Upon a Pixel
Pacific Pinball Expo 2009
Totally Rad Show
