Karl's Grandfather's Homemade Bagatelle Board

After I wrote about the antique mall bagatelle board I saw, my buddy Karl emailed me some photos of a homemade bagatelle board that his grandfather made.  Karl writes:

We used a rounded off wooden dowel (which has gone missing, but a drumstick works fine) to push the balls up the thing, and then gravity took them where they went. The finesse was all in how much oomph you put into your initial push.  Pretty simple! 

The hardest one was the 150 hole right below the second to bottom center ring area. The 125 ring at the bottom was almost as hard to get. Actually the scoring was pretty random as you can see haha.

I think this would be a super fun project to build one day.  It's amazing to think what has been created from such humble beginnings as these, eh?

Transformers!

In January, I went to visit my family in Seattle for a few days.  While in town, I swung by one of the great American pinhalls, Shorty's, with my dad.  To my delight, I found that they had a brand new Transformers set up in the back room. 

I must say, the game was a lot of fun.  I love the idea of splitting the playfield into two sections, and the ability to choose which way you want to play the game.  The first time I played, I set up a two player game and made player one an autobot and player two a decepticon, so I could compare and contrast.  The shots were super satisfying, the multiball was crazy and intense (BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM out of Megatron!) and I loved the series of lights in the top lanes, outlanes and other various places on the playfield.  It was pretty mind-bending, when I figured out that there were TWO series, one for each side.  It was a cool twist on a simple idea.

Anyway, my father and I only had an hour to kill before we had to move on to our next appointment, so I didn't get too deep into the game.  But my first impression of Transformers was very good (it helped that I got a replay on that first autobot game :)  I can't wait to play it again the next time I see one!

Cambridge Lanes and Games

Back in December, I went down to Boston for a few days to attend the 30th birthday party of my good friend Liz Prince.  When I got to town, Liz told me she knew a good place to go play pinball.  Did I want to go?  Yes, yes I did.  So we got into the car and drove over to Lanes and Games, in Cambridge.  Here's Claire and Liz in front of their billboard:

I gotta say, when I heard this place was a bowling alley, I didn't expect much.  We have a Lanes and Games in White River Junction, and the machines there work, but aren't that great.  I was pleasantly surprised therefore when I got into the arcade room and found that it had EIGHT machines, all of which were in PERFECT working order.

From left to right: Twilight Zone, Scared Stiff, Addams Family, Tron, Iron Man, Family Guy, Spider Man, Sopranos.  What a collection!  They were a little pricey, but worth every token.  I put in a little time on Tron and a LOT on Twilight Zone, which I finally started to get the hang of by the end.

Anyway, if you live in the Boston area, I HIGHLY recommend this place!  You can walk there from the Alewife stop on the red line, which is right around the corner.  Tell 'em Drop Target sent you!

Insider Photos

No I know that that title makes it seem like I've stumbled across secret photos that show Steve Ritchie and George Gomez literally using MAGIC to make pinball machine, but sadly, no, they're just a really tasteful collection of photos that were shared to us by comics prof, and all-around nice guy Isaac Cates (Isaac has been doing a really great series on mythical animals on his site HERE).  These photos show the inside of the Stern pinball factory in a way that I've never seen it before: 90% devoid of people.  Normally, when I've seen photos or videos from inside the factory, it is a blur of hustle and bustle.  That's not to say that the images make it look abandoned, it's just nice to focus more on the machines and tools used to make the pinball machines than the hard workers.  You can view the photos HERE

I also stumbled upon THIS the other day.  Please put rubber bands around your shoes before you watch this, because I will NOT field complaints about socks being blown off!

Pinball Map App

When Jon and I started this blog, we put a link in the sidebar, to a humble little operation called PortlandPinballMap.com  In the last year or so, this site has expanded and improved, and I now think it is one of, if not THE most important resources for people interested in playing pinball.

Not only did they expand their database to include the Bay Area, Boston, British Columbia, Chicago, Colorado, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle and Spokane, they also built an interactive app for iPhone and Android mobile devices.  Let me be perfectly clear: if you play pinball and you have a phone that can run this app, you NEED to get it.  It's $1.  Just do it.

On my recent travels to Boston, Seattle and Portland, I had friends or family members install this app, which then allowed me to find pinball ANYWHERE.  You can literally hit a button and it will pull up a map with all the pinball machines within a 3 mile radius.  You can also search the database by neighborhood, by machine, or by specific location.  So if you feel like playing a specific game, you can find all of the places it is available in your area and then pick the closest one.

Probably the best part about the app though, is that the database is completely updated by users.  So if you go to a location and a machine is all beaten up, you can leave a comment, like, "The left flipper is broken" and it will be uploaded to the system.  When the next user looks up that machine, they'll see your note.  Or better yet, an operator may see your comment and come fix the machine!  You can also update which machines are available at a location, so the more people use it, the more accurate it is.

If, like me, you don't have a smart phone, you can still access the database via the pinballmap.com website.  But I'll tell you, I'm sorely tempted to get a smart phone, just so that I could have this app running when I'm wandering around any of the above cities (many of which I visit every year!)  Either way, check it out and update some listings!

Yet Another Quechee Antique Mall pinball find

I've seen old backboxes and electronic mini-pinball machines at the Quechee Antique Mall before, which lead me to believe that there is an old pinball enthusiast, who owns one of the booths.  This suspicion was once again confirmed on my last visit, when I saw this beautiful old bagatelle-type board, from 1890 (!?!)

This summer, a small arcade opened up at one end of the Antique Mall's parking lot.  There were a few old arcade games and that 1991 Data East Star Trek machine.  But it was busted.  Perhaps the same person who is selling these cool pinball items is also trying to set up the arcade?  If they could get it working, I know two gentlemen who would definitely go use the machines!  ;)

White River Junction Pinball Update

Oof!  Has it really been two months since my last pinball post?!  I guess I have been crazy busy lately, but luckily good ol' Jon Chad has been serving up some good content while I've been dealing with other stuff.  Fear not though, dear readers, during my absence I have still been playing A LOT of pinball on both coasts. And as ever, I have been snapping some crappy low-res cell phone photos, just for you!

Before I get too far afield, I thought it would be good to update you all on the pinball scene here in White River Junction, Vermont (where Jon and I currently live).  As readers of Drop Target #1 no doubt remember, WRJ was the featured locale for our first "Pinhalls" article.  A lot has changed around here since that zine was printed, so here is an update.

The biggest change is that Jon and I now own our own machines, Jurassic Park and Medieval Madness, respectively.  Here you can see my parents playing a little pinball on a recent visit to "The Junc."  These machines are only available to the students, staff and faculty of The Center for Cartoon Studies, where Jon and I work.  We are still splitting proceeds with the school, and should be announcing the next round of April Fog Memorial Scholarship recipients in a few months.

The other big news is that Forrest B's Pool School has completely shut down, so we no longer have access to our beloved Star Wars: Episode I pin2k machine.  Up at "Lanes and Games" the Last Action Hero machine has been taken away, but the Scared Stiff machine is still going strong.

For months and months the T2 machine in the back room of C&S pizza was all busted up.  All of the G.I. lamps were out, one of the flippers was stuck up, none of the flashers were working - it was a mess.  We had pretty much given up on it ever working again, when one day I randomly went to check on it, only to find that it had been completely fixed up!  Not only was everything working, but all of the high scores had been reset.  This lead to some of the most fun I have ever had on a pinball machine.

Jon and I have gotten pretty good at this point.  We're not world-class players or anything, but we can get a replay after a few warm-up games on most machines.  With the scores reset, it was remarkably easy to crack a replay and get up on the high score board.  And each time you get a high score, the machine gives you a free credit.  The first time I went in to play, I put in one dollar and played for an hour and half.  Finally, my arms were getting sore, and I had stuff to do, so I left the machine with SIX credits on it (!?!)  I told Jon about it, and the next day he had a similar experience.  A few weeks later we went in together and did the same thing again.  One dollar of quarters, an hour plus of gameplay.  It was good times!

We thought we pretty much had the pinball scene in our area figured out, when all of a sudden, our boss Michelle gave us a hot tip: she had spotted "like five pinball machines" at the Pizza Chef in Quechee which is only five miles down the road.  Ecstatic, we immediately checked out the community car and headed up there to check it out.  The trip was a little heartbreaking...  1) because the pizza was the worst I have tasted since I was in 6th grade and had to eat in the cafeteria at "Islander Middle School"  2) There were only THREE machines... and two of them were out of commission.

Here you can see the lineup.  On the left, F-14 Tomcat.  Busted rubber on the left flipper, but otherwise looked to be in good condition.  Shut off.  On the right, Taxi, with an extremely worn-down playfield.  Shut off.  Luckily, the center machine, Black Knight 2000 was working great (except for the magna-save which didn't work, and the flippers were a little weak).  We played for about an hour and had a lot of fun.  The music on that machine is AMAZING!  My favorite part is when the Black Knight says "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY."  Classic.

I guess a few weeks later Jon found a No Good Gofers a few miles away in the other direction.  I have yet to check this out, but it seems like every time we lose a machine, another one is found.  I guess the pinball gods giveth and the pinball gods taketh, eh?

I've got a few more posts lined up from recent trips, so I'll try to post a little more regularly.  Also, don't forget, we're both still guest blogging over on the STERN website!