In just a few hours it will be time for the fourth meeting of Season 4, the halfway point of the season. Last meeting saw an unprecedented number of players which led us to play five games instead of our usual four. Matt has lined up four games for us to play with a fifth contingent on there being more than 16 players. The games are:
The Walking Dead
World Cup Soccer
Getaway
Indiana Jones
Tales of the Arabian Nights (if more than 16 players)
Joseph asked which game I thought would break this time. After some consideration (World Cup was also a contender) I decided to throw my vote to Getaway. Joseph agreed. Mike S. has threatened to use his gremlin powers against Indiana Jones, which he is not a fan of, but since that one has been treating me a little bit better recently, I asked if he couldn’t target Getaway instead.
Matt has some serious studying to do tonight due to a midterm tomorrow, so he won’t be running the meeting tonight. In all seriousness, I admire his diligence as a student. As for my academic diligence… well, I stayed home from class today. Aaron will be serving as Matt’s stand-in, which will of course require him to do a lot more hugging than usual.
Last week’s League Night (the third of Season 4) found us at peak attendance. I remember well the days when we played three games every league night; now we usually have to play four to accommodate the number of players. This time, though, the crowd was 18 strong and we had to go up to five games! We had three new players: Craig, Matt W., and Mike B. I met Craig but somehow failed to get introduced to Matt and Mike, which is just as well as I might have tried to send them away for putting us over our quota for Matts and Mikes. Especially Mikes. We may as well rename this the Mikes’ League.
A member of the Mike Mob.
As noted in my preview, since I have been keeping this blog, we have had a perfect streak of never playing all the games we were scheduled to play. At least one has always broken down or caused some problem that removed it from consideration at the last minute. This time we did play all the games Matt P. had chosen (Austin Powers, World Cup Soccer, Junk Yard, and Medieval Madness). We also played one additional game to accommodate the high turnout, Theatre of Magic. This led to a disagreement afterward over whether the streak had been broken. I held that we did not play exactly the games listed in the preview because we played one extra game, so the streak continued. Matt P. and others insisted that all that was needed to break the streak is that all the games included in the preview actually get played.
One of the amusing incidents of the night concerned a theory I have recently arrived at regarding Chris’s pinball skill. The previous weekend, Mike S. had reported to me that he witnessed Chris play a 400 million point game of The Simpsons Pinball Party at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, and drained his last three balls because he got tired of playing. Given the brutality with which The Simpsons treats most of us in the Lansing League, I told Mike that Chris had clearly sold his soul at the crossroads for pinball prowess. Chris is now aware of my theory, and I note that he has neither confirmed nor denied it. So, then: at league night, I heard someone joke, “I call him Dr. Tabbak.” I replied, “I call him Dr. Faust,” which immediately got a rejoinder from Chris (“I heard that, Dr. Kendrick!”) despite the fact that he was quite some distance away playing Junk Yard.
“I didn’t think he could hear me!” I said.
“I hear everything,” came the reply.
“That really doesn’t help disprove my theory.”
This doesn’t help either. Good luck sleeping tonight.
We hadn’t gotten to play Medieval Madness in quite some time. Its return was received with mixed emotions. Some people (including me) love it. Some, not so much. Joseph informs me that sometime during Ball 2 of Medieval Madness, Chris cried out in anguish, “This game is so boring!” He then intentionally drained his ball in a fit of ennui. There were a lot of high scores on this one. In my group, I was quite pleased with my 25 million… until Russell did something around 69 million.
After league play wrapped up, a group went over to Theio’s for what is now becoming the traditional after-party. This was the largest Theio’s group yet, including Jake (the instigator), Sam, Matt P., Aaron, Mike S., Greg, Sarah, Alex, Joseph, and me. Things got pretty raucous, though Aaron said that they would probably be delighted if we were the worst group they ever got there. Jake continues to be intrigued by my other hobby, roller coasters, and I attempted to chat with Sarah a little bit about it too as she is also a roller coaster fan; unfortunately the fact that we were on the opposite ends of a really long table meant the conversation didn’t get very far.
Half the league converging at Theio’s and being a mild nuisance.
Our next league night, which will bring us to the midpoint of the season, will be February 24. The heat is on: the distance between first and second places (Chris and Alex, respectively) is far smaller than it was in previous seasons after this many meetings. The results are posted, so you can see for yourself. I also loaded a batch of photos from the night into the photo gallery. See you next week!
In honor of Valentine’s Day, allow me to share a letter I am sending to someone who has a very special place in my heart…
Cute and cuddly! …though the down side of cuddling him is getting the lipstick out of your clothes.
Dear Mr. Mechanical-Man,
May I call you Rudy? I hope this letter finds you feeling like a million. I have never written a fan letter before, except for the ones to Peter Falk, Stephen Colbert, and the lead singer of the Buggles, but I just had to write to you. I’m your biggest fan and I am always ready to defend you against the philistines in my pinball league who don’t appreciate your unique charm. Some of them say you can’t be real because they have seen Rudys at lots of other arcades, but I know those other Rudys are just your helpers.
I remember the first time I saw you. I was immediately intrigued by your ability to keep your eyebrows fixed in such a quirky position. I could tell you liked me, too, since your eyes followed me around the room, even when you were supposed to be asleep. It wasn’t long before you were calling me endearing pet names like “Bucko” and “Chuckie” and my heart was fluttering every time you said “Great shot!”
To other people, it sometimes looks like we get angry at each other, but you and I know it’s all meant affectionately. When you say “I’m not happy with you now,” you really mean “I am in awe of your skill.” And when I say “Damn you, Rudy, that was unacceptable! F–Aaaaaaaaaaaargh,” I really mean “Thank you for the challenge, my dear friend!”
I hope you will answer a question for me. What exactly is in the funhouse? You’re always saying “You don’t know what’s in there!”, and that’s the truth, since it seems like all I ever get to do is play on the steps outside.
I am enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope so that you can send back an autographed picture. Please inscribe it, “To Heather, I always save the biggest points for you! Fond regards, Rudy.”
Tonight is the third meeting of our fourth season. Some members of the league have barely recovered from the IFPA state championship in Grand Rapids on Saturday, but last meeting’s shakeups mean that no one can relax! Matt’s random number generator managed to choose the exact same games this time as last (one of our league mathematicians, Joseph, tells me the odds of this happening are 1 in 715); he threatened to make us all play 4 games of Simpsons instead, so we could go home early. I assume he must have changed his mind and rerolled, since this is the slate he has posted:
Austin Powers, which we were supposed to play last time but kept eating quarters.
World Cup Soccer, which we were also supposed to play last time but the right flipper was not working.
Junk Yard, which has no serious issues to the best of my knowledge.
Medieval Madness. Aw yeah, Medieval Madness! Shoot the castle! Shoot the castle! Shoot the castle!! Or be a rebel and go for multiball. It’s your funeral.
I will be mighty surprised if we actually play all those games. Remember, my streak of writing previews with games we did not actually play has been unbroken since I started this blog in the fall. But we shall see soon enough.
Last week’s league night – the second meeting of Season 4 – was a night of shakeups. Sarah ruled the night, leaving Alex and Chris in her dust in second place. Two of last season’s Battlers for Third, Joseph and Mike S., landed near the bottom of the pile. And Austin Powers found an entirely new way to break.
Greg gets ready to play TotAN while Danny plays a side game of Getaway.
Joseph had a lot to live up to, because of his recent spectacular game of The Walking Dead. Chris said to me, “I asked your husband what he did to get that score. He was less than helpful.” “What did he say?” I asked. “He said ‘keep the ball in play.’”
We had been scheduled to play The Walking Dead, Theatre of Magic, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and World Cup Soccer. As I predicted, WCS was still down. I was dismayed to learn that we would be playing Austin “Ugly and Talks Too Much” Powers instead. Before I could even ask Mike to break it for me, it turned out that Austin Powers was broken too. Greg had previously broken a piece off its plunger which had subsequently fallen into the ball return mechanism. Thanks, Greg!
Unfortunately, the substitute that we did eventually play was The Simpsons, renowned as the most brutal game at the Avenue. Mike’s bad showing this week was due in large part to an abysmal Simpsons game that saw him get his ball returned to him twice. If The Simpsons pities you enough to give you a second chance, you know it’s bad. Unfortunately his second chances didn’t score much better. He redeemed his pride by setting a high score with his league game on The Walking Dead.
Joseph glares at the camera with the look he usually reserves for a game that has offended him. OK, so I didn’t get any good pictures this week.
Joseph can blame his disappointing night, in part, on a catastrophic (289K) game of TotAN. Just as he predicted, he also utterly failed to live up to the legacy of his epic Walking Dead grand champion game. Instead, he seems to have passed his luck on to me: I earned about 53M, a personal best by a good margin, on my league game of TWD. I was feeling pretty darned good about this when, a little while later, I happened to look over and see Sarah taking the game apart. She was in the high 60 millions and counting. I didn’t see what score she finished with, but it was certainly a good one. I was not surprised to see her first place finish this week.
As on the previous league night, Jake suggested – no, insisted – that we go to Theio’s afterward. Joseph, Alex, Sarah, Aaron, Jake, Mike, Sam, and I headed over to Theio’s, where they pushed tables together for us. Greg ducked out on us at the last moment but promised to come next time. It was a bit earlier this time (Jake had promised Sam that they wouldn’t stay in Lansing until 1 a.m. again) so once things broke up Joseph and I actually headed back to the Avenue, where we played some games with Aaron before finally calling it a night sometime after midnight.
The standings after the second meeting have shifted considerably. Alex is now in second, just one point behind Chris, and Sarah has moved up to third. The season is still much too early to make predictions. It will be very interesting to see how things develop at our next meeting on February 10.
It’s time for another League Night, the second of Season 4. As usual, Matt has randomly chosen our games:
The Simpsons Pinball Party. Arrrrghhhhhhhh….
World Cup Soccer. This one seems likely to get switched with something else, since recently the left flipper has not been staying upright when held. That’s fine; I’d hate to break my perfect failure streak. My preview post has never once successfully listed all the games we ended up playing, and this time will probably not be the exception.
The Walking Dead. Joseph is not looking forward to this after playing a Grand Champion game of it during the off week. He says, “I am going to be completely humiliated every single time we play Walking Dead at league forevermore.”
Tales of the Arabian Nights. I’m looking forward to this one: the lamp has been spinning very well and now that there are some lights in the alcove, Lightning Lamp won’t be quite as terrifying. If I’m lucky, I’ll play it after SPP to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
See you all at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Avenue!
After a short break for the holidays, league play resumed with the first meeting of Season 4 on Tuesday. The usual suspects were joined by a couple of new members: Kristen, whom I previously met at the Arcade and Marvin’s Leagues, and Sam, a Grand Rapids League member coaxed over to Lansing by Jake. Russell, who was absent for nearly all of Season 3, and Eric, who abstained from Season 3 due to work obligations, made a return.
Kristen and Russell playing in the downstairs alcove. Note the overhead lights reflecting off the tables.
We were scheduled to play Austin Powers, Theatre of Magic, Monster Bash, and Junk Yard. Prior to the meeting I had asked Mike to please use his gremlin powers to break Austin Powers for me. While Matt was feeding Austin Powers, it stole several of his quarters, so he decided to strike it from the day’s schedule and substitute Attack from Mars. When I next ran into Mike, he greeted me with, “You’re welcome.” The streak continues unbroken: I have never yet written a League Night Preview that actually included all the games we ended up playing.
Speaking of Mike’s machine-wrecking tendencies, no one slam tilted Junk Yard tonight. To make up for this, Matt helpfully slam tilted Attack from Mars, thus sparing Chris from the burden of having to rule the universe. I was downstairs and didn’t witness this event, but Joseph did, and he reported to me that Matt just slid the table a few inches. In Joseph’s opinion, it deserved a tilt, but was not nearly aggressive enough to merit a slam tilt.
Russell explains to Matt why yoga is more important than pinball.
Joseph had a particularly good league game of Junk Yard, and got to put his initials in as the Junk Champion. He got to enjoy this for maybe as much as an hour before noticing that the Junk Champion had gone back to CST. According to Mike, this happened during Chris’s league game too.
As for my group, I ended up with James, Danny, and Alex. I edged out the narrowest victory over second place James in our group’s Theatre of Magic game, but came in a distant fourth in all other games, while my group-mates performed admirably, especially in a high-scoring game of Monster Bash. I believe this was James’s best-scoring night since he joined the league.
Since I hate league night being over for two weeks, I almost always linger until everyone else gives up and goes home. This time I was joined in the late night lingering by Jake, Sam, Joseph, Greg, and Mike. We hung around until about 11:30 – which might be the latest I have managed to drag the evening out – and then Jake said, “Let’s all go to Theio’s!” I thought this was a brilliant suggestion. We all piled into a booth at Theio’s, where we discussed, among less printable things, roller coasters. As I have been a roller coaster enthusiast since long before I discovered pinball, it does not take much to encourage me to talk about them at length and in excessive detail. The only thing better than amusement parks, in my book, is playing pinball at amusement parks, and the only thing better than pinball is amusement park themed pinball. My life may have peaked last summer when Joseph and I played Cyclone in the arcade at Rye Playland.
It was great to see everyone again, and I’m also quite happy to have Theatre of Magic added to our selection of games at the Avenue. It was my original favorite pinball machine, and though it has been surpassed in my affections as I’ve become acquainted with more games, it is still easily in my top 5. The Avenue has it turned up good and loud, too, which is a nice change from the barely-audible Addams Family it replaced. The Avenue has also turned the lights back on in the downstairs alcove and though no one would say it’s bright in there, it is certainly an improvement.
I have posted the complete results as well as added a few photos to the gallery, though I’m sorry to say most of my photos this time didn’t turn out well. See you January 27 at the next league night!
