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I still haven't managed to find myself a Dolly Parton pinball machine in readiness for the kit from Classic Playfield Reproductions to make Lost Vegas! I was so close as I found someone who had a DP with a missing backglass, but then the same guy that refused to sell me his own machine also sold this next guy his spare backglass. It's starting to feel like a conspiracy - trying to save Dolly Partons!

Anyhoo, CPR are publishing a comic in the build up to the release of the kit and there's 2 parts today (I'm clearly a bit behind).

WARNING: Comics contain very adult language, extreme violent images and other stuff not suitable for kids/work/wives/pets etc.
You can click the pictures to make them bigger or click here to be taken to the page on CPR.

Part one of the comic HERE, part two HERE and for my original blog post about Lost Vegas (with video link) HERE.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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As IFPA6 the World Pinball Championship approaches we're taking a look at some of the players heading to the UK to battle it out with the best of the best.

Player Name:

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You know those days you get sent a promo code for a free copy of a game and the makers probably hope you'll return the favour with a nice fluffy review...?

This isn't one of those days!

I asked on Rec.Games.Pinball for a volunteer to review Monster Pinball and received several offers (so used the cunning selection process of accepting the first one). Up step Greg, or Rare Hero as you may know him on RGP and here's what he had to say...

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Let me start this review for Monster Pinball by saying I'm amazed by the positive reviews on the iTunes store...but then again, the general public doesn't know what separates a great pin from a crap one. Hell, that was ME 3 years ago before I got into this scene! So, this is a review BY a pinhead FOR pinheads.

While nothing compares to the real deal, I love a good video pinball. You can tell when video game designers GET pinball, and a high bar has been set with such titles as Metroid Prime Pinball (DS), Flipnic (PS2), and Devil's Crush (Sega/NEC 16-bit). The iPhone/iTouch is a perfect format for pinball due to the screen shape and simplicity of controlling flippers by tapping the screen.

I bought Zen's Rollercoaster Pinball, and while it is a good attempt at creating a DMD style pinball, it's almost too complex, especially on a small screen. Monster Pinball takes a more simplistic design approach, but to the point of extreme minimalism. There is almost nothing populating the playfields. Yes, playfields. While this seems like a good value, one of the problems with this game's design is that all six playfields are interlinked. You can only drain and lose a ball in one of the playfields, as the other drains just send you to a different playfield. Because of this, it's almost impossible to lose! I like deep games that take a while (TSPP, LOTR) ....but this game isn't deep. There are no modes, no multiballs, no real goals. Six playfields w/almost nothing to do. The first time I played Monster Pinball, I was going for a good 20 minutes before even losing one ball!

One of the first things you notice in a video pinball game are the physics....and unfortunately, Monster Pinball's are awful. Much has been made of the 60 fps engine...sure, it's smooth - but it handles like a pachinko machine. Vertical gravity. It doesn't feel like a pinball incline at all.

The design within each playfield barely makes sense. For instance, some have bizzare upper flippers that flip from up to down in a way that is completely non functional. I suppose the idea is that you hold the button and let go to flip...but there's nothing worthwhile to aim for from these flippers anyway! There are things that I think are supposed to be ramps...but they're so narrow they're almost impossible to hit, and when you do hit them...they don't take the ball anywhere worthwhile. No feeds back to the flippers...they're just there to be there. There are also little dots that are kind of a combination of rollovers and inserts. They light up or turn off as the ball rolls over them...but again - there's no point to it. It doesn't accomplish anything.

The sound is minimal as well. Some sci-fi beeps and bloops, and a voice that announces the playfields name...that's about it. No music, but you can play iPod tunes.

The only positive I can come up with is the art direction. It has a retro-modern look to it, and it's clean and sharp. The various monsters (actually they're more like aliens) on a few of the playfields have nice animation when you activate them w/ the proper hit.

It may seem like I'm being harsh considering this is a $3.99 game. If you liked those little plastic handheld pinball toys when you were a kid, this is like an iPhone version of that. It's interesting for a few minutes....but it's not a REAL pinball design that real pinball players would want. I'd recommend Wild West Pinball (Free) or Pinball Dreamin' ($4.99) over Monster Pinball. While those games aren't perfect either, they at least FEEL like pinball.

-Greg Colton


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Many thanks to Greg for submitting his review. When I chased him for his review a while back he asked for more time to improve on his "eh, it kinda sucks" thoughts - I guess the game designers might be hoping that we'd stuck with that! As Greg pointed out, we're PINBALL players not Pocket Gamers or whatever the mobile gaming folk are called. His review is his own opinion and may not reflect views of The Pinball Blog (although to be fair, it's not far off :)

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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I blogged a while back about the Wild West Pinball for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Come to think of it, I never heard back from the guy who offered to review it - nor in fact from the guy who offered to review Monster Pinball - and to think I turned down John Popadiuk who also offered - d'oh! Next time I'll do the damn reviews myself!

Anyway, I don't really play Wild West Pinball anymore, I'm far too busy trying to wrestle my iPod off my 3 year old son who plays Pocket God just about whenever he can.

BUT... if you haven't played Wild West Pinball, why not try it now as it's FREE (for a limited time) from the App Store!

(It's a slow news/gossip day)

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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Nice piece about the Lyons Classic Pinball on The Longmont Times with editorial and a video.
Click the pic to take you the page.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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Apparently a gentleman from Australia rang Williams trying to block the sale of Illinois Pinball's parts and bits to Pinball Inc and the nice guys from down under.

Wonder who that could have been?

He was told to sling his hook (does that phrase translate around the world? - either way, it's not a good response!).

All should be told later this week and of course we'll be first with hearsay, rumour and unsubstantiated gossip :)

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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Sorry I've not been blogging for a few days. I can't even blame rolling a friend's 4x4 anymore, this was all down to visiting a part of the UK apparently unfazed by recent technological advances like internet access!

Back at HQ2 now and Stern Pinball have announced you can stick plastic figurines on your Space Jam (or indeed NBA) pinball machine.

In The Pinball Blog's recent NBA in-depth review we highlighted 'shoot the hoop' as a shot worthy of your flipping prowess and now you can stick an NBA character on the same shot to highlight it's worthiness.
There are 25 figures available from this link - no doubt all household names like Tracy McGrady (sounds like a girl), and if you need help removing a screw there's a special needs PDF produced to help you along.

Please remember, this blog is intended for amusement only! After a recent random post I was asked to retract a comment (of course I didn't) and I'm slightly concerned people are taking it all a little too seriously :)

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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Maybe not a name some of you are familiar with, but if you like your pinball books, then you must know the work of today's Pinball Hero. Pictured to the left with pinball designer Mark Ritchie, Michael Shalhoub's series of books cover several eras of pinball and are called The Pinball Compendiums.

The Pinball Blog: So you're Michael Shalhoub, you've released a book every year for the last 5 or 6 years which must make you the most published pinball enthusiast in history. It must be a huge commitment but also very satisfying, do you have a particular highlight from the books?

Michael Shalhoub: It has been an amazing journey I have been on these past few years, I fell in love with pinballs at the age of six. It was the Parker artwork that drew me in, the first game I ever played was a 1960 Kewpie Doll, I can still remember this game, I used a Coke box to stand on as I could not reach the flippers. I also remember playing a 1972 Gottlieb Flying Carpet, I loved this game as it was truly challenging, when I went home I built my own version using pegs as flippers. A thought that went through my head was the person who designed this game must be a genius, only God knew that many years later I would meet and become good friends with one of the Greatest Pinball Designers in the history of the game, a man who has designed more games than anyone else, Ed Krynski.

The greatest highlights for me doing the books was meeting the great designers and artists whom I have had the pleasure in getting to know over the years as they are the reason the books were written. Only a few people have tried interviewing them, I made it my venture to interview everyone. The biggest highlight for me was back in 2003 when I inducted Ed Krynski into the Pinball Hall of Fame. This man once told me 'There is life after Pinball', Ed left the industry in 1984 on a very sour note, and here he was with his family around him tears in his eyes, a moment I will never forget.

TPB: You're the owner of a desk once used by Alvin Gottlieb. How did you get it, do you use it today and is there a 'vibe' that comes from it, or is it just the same as any other desk?

MS: The desk I have was David Gottliebs desk, it was given to me by Ed Krynski who used it when he worked at D Gottlieb & Co, it is currently in storage, it will be displayed in the Pinball Museum when it is opened in the section dedicated to Dave Gottlieb. We will have different sections dedicated to the Pioneers in the industry. When I first saw the desk I got Goosebumps as I envisioned Dave himself sitting next to it with a cigar in his mouth.

TPB: Are you and Alan Tate still collecting trees to build a pinball museum in Australia and any idea when you'll have enough to get the project underway?

MS: The museum is a huge project we have over 2000 games between us the majority belonging to Alan, the project is underway, there are at least 250 games that have been shopped/restored and are ready to be displayed. Now the work has begun on the building, Alan has purchased the perfect site for the building and work hopefully will begin on the huge building that will house all these games.

TPB: I hear you've bought machines from America and had them shipped over. Ever had any interesting experiences to share from buying machines?

MS: Back in 2004 Alan Tate and I were in Ashland Missouri were we were going to load a 40 foot container. When the driver delivered the container and unhooked the trailer, Alan commented it didn't look right as it was leaning to one side. I told him not to panic as I could see no problems with it. Anyway it took us two days to load it, the last thing we loaded were the backglasses. We started loading on the Friday and had finished on the Saturday going out to dinner after a huge job had been done.

The next day Alan and I were going to fly out going to Wayne Neyens house. At 7.00am a friend of ours B.J Cunningham rang me telling me there was a accident last night and one of the legs on the trailer had given way and the container had rolled. Even talking about this brings back terrible memories as the was a lot of money invested in the games, we ended up hiring a crane, getting the container back on its feet. As we opened the doors to see what damage was done about twenty backglasses dropped out smashing on the ground. This was a terrible experience, thank God the pinball's were packed tight and there was no damage to them.

TPB: With such a large area of land the pinball community in Australia must be spead pretty thin. Is there still a close-knit community of pinball enthusiasts despite the distances between you?

MS: Recently we had the first Pinball Expo in Australia, it was held in Sydney with over 1500 people coming through the doors on the first day. There were many people attending from all the States for this event. There are different pinball's clubs around Australia, and two forums bringing collectors together. The books I have written are also helping generate a interest here is Australia, with many readers wanting to re-live their childhoods playing the wonderful game of pinball. Australia was a huge market for imports of pinball's back in the 1960's and 1970's with games being seen everywhere. Pinball's were at nearly every corner shop, there were many arcades, pool rooms spread throughout the major cities

TPB: I believe you think Ed Krynski is often overlooked as a pinball designer. Is there something about his work (other than the fact he designed 200+ games) that you particularly like and why is he under-rated in your opinion?

MS: The one thing I loved about a game Ed Krynski designed, was he always knew how to challenge a player. This was the case for me on many games I played growing up. He has never been recognized for designing pinball, gun and arcade games for Keeney in the period 1960-1963. He brought so many innovations to the game: the vari-target first seen on Airport (1969); the laneways to the flipper first seen on Bank-a-Ball (1965); carousel target first seen on Dancing Lady (1966); multiple drop targets first seen on 2001 (1971). He has captivated players with his extraordinary designs that had Gottlieb dominating the industry from the day he took over from Wayne Neyens till the end of the 1970's.

He knew what players wanted and the majority of the games he designed challenged players, and were a huge success for D Gottlieb & Co. I made it a personal venture to make sure recognition is brought to the man who has designed more games that anyone else in the history of the game. Sadly Ed is not with us today, personally, I am flooded with memories of his games and of the man that I have grown to love. I will miss having pepperoni pizza with him. Ed Krynski’s has designed more games than anyone, some he has yet to be credited for. He will be with me for the rest of my life, in the many games I have that he has designed, every-time I see one I start to cherish the many memories I have of him. When Ed left the industry back in 1984 he left on a sour note, wanting nothing to do with pinball's or anyone associated with them, thank God I helped change this. When I first tried contacting him back in 2000 he kept hanging up on me, until I one day talked with his wife Gilda who talked him into being interviewed by me. I feel him not wanting to take part in the early Pinball Expo's and not being there for people to interview him is the reason he was under-rated by many.

TPB: Is there a holy-grail of collecting pinball machines that you still haven't found?

MS: The one game we don't have for the Museum is the 1951 Gottlieb Mermaid, one came up just over a year ago on EBay in the US and it went for over $17,000.00. Other than that we have hundreds of games from the 1930's, 1940's, 50's 60's all the way up to the modern game days. Including many gun and arcade games from the 1930's- today.

TPB: You've bought containers of slot machines. Do you collect other coin-op machines or sell these to fund your pinball addiction?

MS: The only slot machines i have bought are ones from the 1930's and 1940's these are to go into the Museum, I do collect other arcade games mainly gun games and Fortune tellers. Alan in his collection has over 200 arcade games that will also be displayed in the Museum.

TPB: Vegemite Nick & Nuggy from down under produced the Coconut Island pinball machine from scratch. Have you played the machine and what are the chances of us seeing any other machines made in Australia?

MS: At the Pinball Expo in Sydney I got a chance to see Coconut Island, an amazing accomplishment by Nick and Nuggy. These two are extremely talented and I hope to see another game from them. I had a game on it and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There is talk of another company here manufacturing games but is all talk at the moment and I haven't seen anything. I will leave this here as people have given deposits and to date have seen nothing.

TPB: Who would YOU like to see interviewed for Pinball Heroes and why?

MS: The one person I would like to see featured is the Legend Wayne Neyens whose employment in the coin machine industry started back in 1936 when he started work at Western Equipment & Supply. It has been such an honor and privilege for me getting to know Wayne over these past years. He started working at D Gottlieb & Co in 1939, his first job there was testing play boards. He designed many classic games from the 'Golden Era of Pinball' he was there when Harry Mabs invented the flipper back in 1947 and was the second person the flip a ball on a pinball machine using the flipper. Wayne has many stories to tell, he worked with Lynn Durant, Jimmy Johnson amongst others. He is a True Pinball Hero

TPB: Finally, we always ask our guests to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence!

MS: It has been a privilege and Honor meeting all my Legends, the greats who have brought us these games. Always follow your dreams, if you have a passion for something go for it. I have been on an Amazing Journey meeting many wonderful people from around the world. My books were written to pay tribute to all the designers and artists who brought us these games. I am also pleased to see the many people reading these books getting to know these greats, and enjoying a game I fell in love with many years ago called The Pinball Machine.

Many thanks to Michael Shalhoub for taking the time to answer our questions and more Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog


Photos & Pictures
Michael Shalhoub
Gary Flower
illawarra_steelers from Aussie Pinball

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So of course I'm gonna tell you how great the Monster Meet was and most of the UK Pinball community will say the same (they better!). The guys over at Pinball News also offered a nice report. But how about an opinion from another part of the world? Anni & Janne flew over from Finland and they kindly translated their review into English and here it is...

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We decided to make a little different trip to England. We didn't go to London, but we went to a English countryside to play pinball.

Saturday 23rd May 2009 - First day.
We flew by EasyJet from Helsinki to Gatwick. We had reserved a car, but unexpectedly all cars were running out. Fortunately we got a car (big black Skoda) after half an hour. The car was bigger than we had reserved, so it was more difficult to drive. We left and tried to adjust driving on the wrong side of the road… In England there are millions of roundabouts which was difficult at first. The last few miles were really hard to drive, because the road was very narrow.

We arrived there at 6 pm. We left our car behind the gate and started to walk. We saw people sitting outside and grilling. We searched and found Nick who is the owner. We paid for the whole weekend. It was just 20 pound for two. And finally, we started to play pinball! The machines were in renovated barn. First we noticed that there was really powerful noise. Sounds of the machines were adjusted very loud and it was very different from what we were used to in Finland. After couple hours of playing it felt like we had been in a rock concert! The English people had just ended their final of the UK Pinball League, but there nice amount of people still playing.. We shortly forgot our travel fatigue.

(Ed: list of machines snipped - it's on Pinball News)

Most of the machines were in good or excellent condition. A couple of the machines broke down. It was interesting that the angle was quite steep in many machines and tilt was not sensitive at all. Steep angle made playing more difficult, but lack of tilts attempted players to nudge more. Some pinball machines were treated quite roughly.

One of the most interesting pinball machines was of course new 24. It was lent from an operator. Playing cost £2/3 games, but the £10 we spent was worth it. 24 was much more attractive than in pictures and it was not too easy to play through. Multiball was quite easy to get and jackpots were blasted during it. But jackpot was just 100 000 points, so even triple jackbot (3x) was not that much considering that GC was over 200 millions. Splendid new Stern!

Other interesting pinball machines were Star Gazer, Triple action, Star Battle, Medusa and Centaur. These older machines are usually hard to find.
On the first day we played about three hours and got a bit of a feel for the machines. We left to our hotel (Kings Lodge) about 9pm and planned to go for a dinner. Unexpectedly, we could not find any place to eat after 9pm. We had to go to bed hungry.

Sunday 24th May 2009 - Second day
On Sunday we woke up early and went searching for breakfast. We ended up to a city called Hemel Hempstead which was about 20 kms away. There was the famous big roundabout with several little roundabouts around it! We managed some how to drive through and decided never to try it again! Luckily it was Sunday morning and there were very few cars. Nevertheless, it was horrible. Breakfast was also quite unusual for us. We took warm toast and for some reason we had to try it with beans… It was not delicious, but it kept away hunger for several hours.

At 10 am we started playing pinball and planned to stay the whole day. At 2 pm the UK Pinball Cup started. Qualifying round was played with 16 machines in groups of four or five players. Two best players qualified to the next round. We both got through. Janne played Star Gazer and Anni Medieval Madness. Second round was played with groups of two players and the game was over for us. Anni played STTNG and Janne Centaur. The second best player in England (Nick Marshall) played against Janne with Centaur. He played for over an hour and rolled over scores. He won overwhelmingly. He quit during the last ball, because he got tired on playing it so long. I just admired his style to play. He was able to keep the ball in play forever. Just amazing! After this my own skills feel quite basic.

After all, a young guy won the competition. He got to cut a fabulous pinball cake. There were nice prizes to winners. Also other participants got to choose something from the prize table. The atmosphere was very good in prize giving.

Monday 25th May 2009 – Third day
We checked out our hotel at 9 am and left early to play. On the last day there was more relaxed program and playful games. It was surprisingly difficult to play with only one hand or hands crossed! We had no time to stay and listen to results, because we had to go towards Gatwick and return our car. However, we succeeded to play for about 5 hours. The rest of the trip went smoothly. After good night sleep we flew back to Finland at Tuesday morning.

Trip was successful. English people were very polite and friendly. It was easy for us Finnish people to get along. We could possibly go there again next year. It was not expensive either. The whole trip costed about 400 euros for the two of us. That included everything: flights, 3 nights in hotel, rented car for 2 days, fuel, food and tickets to Monster Meet.

Thank you Nick and Pinballers Anonymous for the great weekend with pinball!

Anni and Janne from Finland

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Thanks to you guys for making the trip, giving the event an international feel and of course for writing a great report in a 2nd language! It was a pleasure to meet you both. Janne came 3rd in the one-handed pinball on Dracula so come and find me for a prize next time you're over!

These guys also previously translated a trip to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame which is worth a read.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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Great news for all you iPod Touch and iPhone users.

TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball is now available on iTunes!Click the pic (you'll need iTunes account) and please note it said I had to load the US iTunes store as the item wasn't available through the UK store.

Of course you can also still buy the DVD format from the TILT Shop!No excuse now, to not see the movie and a great watch

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

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