Category: Recaps

For the sixth meeting of Season 4, we were slated to play Austin Powers, Getaway, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings, with Attack from Mars as the contingency game for a turnout over 16.  I knew this was almost certainly not going to happen because Austin Powers had still been unplayable when I visited the Avenue the night before.  For weeks now, a ball has been stuck in the bonus lanes due to a bit of debris lodged there.  All it would take to fix would be for someone to open the glass and clear the lane, so I can’t understand why it hadn’t been fixed yet (and still hasn’t, as of Friday night).  Meanwhile, Addams Family was back, but could not be played either due to intermittently failing to load balls even after a ball search.  Since exactly 16 people showed up (a close enough call that people kept re-counting), we only needed to play four games, so Attack from Mars ended up replacing Austin Powers.  No one wept.

I got put into a group with Joseph, Matt P., and Greg, which brought back memories of Season 1, when we were all regulars in a smaller league.  I hadn’t been grouped with Joseph in quite some time.  The highlight of our group’s play for the night was Matt destroying the Ring, which managed to overshadow my own game of Lord of the Rings which, while not up to wizard standards, was very good by my own lights.  I need to learn not to talk while I play, though.  I almost always lose concentration, followed by my ball.  At one point I had a Gollum multiball going and was tearing things up, then decided it would be funny to reply to one of Gollum’s utterances with “Shut up, Gollum, I’m trying to concentrate!”  I was well aware of the irony when my blathering distracted me just enough to cause a double drain.

Our group’s night ended with an unfortunate incident on Getaway wherein we had to replay the game due to a slam tilt.  This one was decreed to be no one’s fault; the ball got stuck in the lock during Greg’s game, and the slam tilt happened when Matt tried to dislodge it for him.  We replayed without incident, but a little while later, another bit of bad luck happened as Indiana Jones decided to break at the end of Chris’s game.  The idol rotor lock decided it wanted to keep all the balls for itself and could not be coaxed to spit any out.  The game has, unfortunately, been broken ever since, which has stopped James from being able to do a makeup for his missed league game.

Earlier in the night, Jake had told me that he would have to bow out of Theio’s this time, as he and Sam had tickets for a punk show at Mac’s Bar.  Eventually he talked Mike S. into going too.  By the time my league games were over, the two of them were already long gone.  Joseph and I stuck around playing games with Greg until I got a call from Mike.  The show was over and he and Jake were at Theio’s; did we want to meet them there?  We finished up a game of Theatre of Magic, Greg bowed out, and Joseph and I headed to Theio’s.  When we arrived, we found the trio looking rather worse for wear.  Jake informed me that he could barely hear anything I was saying over the ringing in his ears.  Mike’s face was bright red and he was acting a bit addled.  Sam was mostly quiet and seemed worn out, though seemed the best off of the bunch, perhaps indicating he went a bit less crazy at the show.  Evidently it was rather exciting.  According to Jake, Mike had managed to get up front and stay there through the entire show, hanging onto a lighting rig or something to keep himself from being swept back by the crowd.  Mike showed off some spectacular bruises from the adventure, in between eagerly shoveling Eggs Louie (which he kept calling an “omelet” even as Jake insisted that it was certainly not an omelet) into his face.

Eventually, after quite a bit of lingering over midnight brunch, we all went our separate ways, and that was the end of another fun-filled league night.  Although Matt P. had an impressive first place finish two weeks in a row, Chris did well enough to regain his top spot in the season rankings and knock Alex down to second.  As always, you can see the complete results here (pending James’s makeup game on Indiana Jones) and I have a few more photos up in the gallery too.  Though I usually end by saying “see you next time,” I’m very sorry to say I can’t do that this time.  Joseph and I will be missing Tuesday’s meeting to go see Walk the Moon in Detroit – my first absence since joining the league.  So I’ll end with this instead.  Hey Walk the Moon: you had better play a damn good show, because I am missing pinball for you.  I expect to hear “Anna Sun” at least three times.

March 10th was the fifth meeting of Season 4, and it seemed as though a lot of people were feeling a bit off their games and disappointed with their own performance.  The absence once again of our beloved leader Matt P. (on a trip to visit family during Spring Break) as well as other regulars including the everpresent Mike S. (gone early to PAPA) may have contributed to an atmosphere that was rather subdued.  Perhaps PAPA nerves were shadowing others; Alex and Chris were in attendance but getting ready to leave for PAPA in a few days.  We did have a couple of new players (Corey and Tim) to help fill in the gaps and bring some energy to things.

The show must go on, however, and Aaron reprised his duties as Matt’s second, getting things organized and underway.  Instead of the famous Sorting Hat or the newer computerized method of drawing groups for the night, Aaron hit on the clever idea of having everyone draw playing cards, and afterward announcing which cards went with which machine.  Aaron once again sent people to move counterclockwise through the games, but this was quickly sent awry by at least one group thinking we were to move clockwise; for the rest of the night people ended up jumping on whatever table was free at the moment.

We had been scheduled to play Monster Bash, Junk Yard, The Simpsons Pinball Party, and Tales of the Arabian Nights.  Prior to the start of play, I decided to practice starting Mosh Pit Multiball on Monster Bash and see how often I was successful.  This was prompted by having it as a goal at a pingolf tourney, and realizing that it wasn’t as hard as I’d thought, especially if I focused all my efforts on it.  It turned out that in several practice games at the Avenue prior to league play, I only failed to start it once, so I resolved to try that as a new strategy.  Later I saw Chris trying out Monster Bash too and I told him, “I have a new strategy for this one: shoot up the middle.”  He said, “Thanks, Heather, I can always rely on you.”  If his voice had been any more laden with sarcasm, the words would have fallen and crashed through the glass.

During his practice game, Chris determined that the scoop was shooting down the middle all too often.  He convinced Aaron that Monster Bash should be removed from the rotation.  I was none too pleased by this and began, well, wailing might overstate it.  I’d spent all my warmup time practicing that Mosh Pit Multiball!  Alas, but Aaron’s word was law for the night and so the switch was made, Monster Bash for Attack from Mars.

I ended up in a group with Sam and Chris, starting out with Tales of the Arabian Nights.  Chris urged us to hurry so we could get our game started while there was still light in the pinball alcove.  This was definitely sage advice, since TotAN is the worst game to play when the room is dark.  It makes you want to get out the glow sticks, as Matt P. once said.  I had a really good ball one in which I got quite a lot of lamp spinning going and had a multiball with two jackpots, to the tune of eight-odd million.  Sadly my next two balls only totaled about one million points between them and that was almost all my held bonus.  Still, I started out the night with a bit of confidence, which was quickly dampened by a mediocre-to-bad Attack from Mars.

While we were playing Attack from Mars, a new player, Tim, arrived.  He had come late to the league meeting but had been added to my group.  While Chris and Sam played, I tried to show Tim the basics of pinball with a credit someone had left on The Walking Dead.  Tim had just about never touched a pinball machine before and didn’t know the first things to do.  Situations like that really trigger my teacher reflexes and I probably start over-helping sometimes.  I just love giving people the guidance Joseph gave me when I was new, that helped me gradually understand the basic structure of pinball.  Tim joined us when we got to The Simpsons Painful Party and didn’t do much worse than anyone else.

My group’s last game of the night was Junk Yard.  I hadn’t played my first ball yet when suddenly I looked back from a conversation I was having with Joseph and saw that the game appeared to have reset.  I asked what happened and was told Chris slam tilted it.  The league rule for slam tilting is that the culprit takes 0 and everyone else replays the round.  Chris walked off, and the remaining players along with a few bystanders discussed the unfairness of it.

I didn’t see it happen but I was told that he had certainly earned a tilt but it really should not have been a slam tilt.  Jake suggested we should just pretend it didn’t happen and I said I would be fine with that, but Chris reappeared with quarters he had presumably acquired from Aaron, dropped them into my hand, and said, “Have fun.”   (UPDATE: Chris tells me that they were actually his own quarters, acquired from the change machine.)  He then went upstairs to practice The Walking Dead (which he would be playing at PAPA that weekend).   Presumably Chris will have to stop teasing Mike for slam tilting Junk Yard on a past league night (resulting in a new nickname for Mike, “King Kong”).  Chris later said that although Junk Yard’s slam tilt is too sensitive, he also knows better and had earned his penalty.  Now that is what my father would call “the sportsman’s way.”¹

After league play was over, I dithered about whether I would go to the “after party” (the newly traditional visit to Theio’s) as I still wanted to play.  It was relatively early, so Jake suggested we could go eat and still come back to play more.  He had me at “play more pinball.”  It was only a small group that assembled at Theio’s, perhaps our smallest yet.  Jake, Sam, Mike, Greg, Joseph, and I made for a relatively sedate crowd this time.  Afterward we returned to the Avenue and played a bit more before things broke up for the night.

That didn’t actually end League Night, though.  Matt P. and Mike S. elected to play makeup games, and so they came back to the Avenue the following Tuesday.  So did Aaron, Greg, Joseph, and I, though our own games were just for fun, as much as I would have liked to substitute my even better game of TotAN (11 million and a replay!).  Joseph and I played with Mike, and Aaron and Greg played with Matt.  Mike had some good games, but apparently Matt did even better.  We were on different floors from him for most of it so I didn’t see what he did, but whatever it was, it earned him the top score for this league meeting.  As Matt is frequently plagued by below-average games during league play, perhaps he’s hit on a new method: play his games when no one is looking.

Before he headed back home, Mike suggested we should play The Lord of the Rings, since the high score table had apparently been reset.  During our game, I finished ball two somewhere in the 30 millions, and Mike remarked that I must be getting close to the high score table.  Then I started to sweat.  I started Return of the King multiball at the start of ball three, but hit only two jackpots.  Then Destroy the Ring was lit.  I have only gotten to the Destroy the Ring mode once (and didn’t last long in it).  I knew that if I started it, I would be on track to get on the high score table.  I shot at the ring… and I missed.  Game over.  The bonus counted up and I had fallen 1.5 million short of the 40 million needed for the #4 high score, and about half a million short of hitting a personal best.  I was crushed… but it was getting late and glory would have to wait for another night.  We said farewell to Mike (who was leaving) and the others (who were still playing) and headed home, concluding Bonus League Night.

That’s it for my epic League Night Update, just in time for a new league night in two days.  I would be remiss to conclude, however, without commenting on an unprecedented event in league history.  To the best of my knowledge and recollection, this is the first time in the history of the Lansing Pinball League that Chris has not been at the #1 position in the current rankings.  Thanks in large part to his “slam tap,” Chris has relinquished his place to Alex, at least for now.

As always, I have some more photos to share, as well as the current results and standings.  See you soon.

¹Like most of the sayings my father used all the time when I was a kid, this one comes from a movie: The Wanderers.

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.

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.

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!

Season 3 is in the final stretch, as Tuesday was meeting 7 of 8.  Due to snow out west, the GR crowd did not make it out and will be doing a makeup session in the coming week.  Russell also did not return (no word on whether it was due to yoga this time) and everyone is starting to wonder whatever happened to Amanda, too.  As a result of the low attendance, some of the groups ended up as pairs or trios this time.  We were scheduled to play Junk Yard, World Cup Soccer, Lord of the Rings, and The Simpsons.  As usual, events made a mockery of my League Night Preview.  I don’t think we have once managed to play all of the games that were actually on the list.

Joseph and I arrived fairly close to the start time, but most people had yet to arrive, so we decided to play a practice game.  My personal rule is that I will not warm up on a game we are going to play for league.  This is because I have had too many experiences of playing a fantastic warmup game and then an awful league game.  Somehow an awful league game, though terrible enough, is made so much worse by following a great warmup game.

We chose to warm up on Tales of the Arabian Nights, and I finished with a score in the 8 millions somewhere, which I was very happy with.  Joseph got to battle the genie, his first time doing so on a physical machine, though I was over getting a beer when it happened.  Chris tried to summon me to watch but by the time I got back Joseph had unfortunately lost.

During practice, I heard some commotion in the vicinity of Junk Yard and looked over to see that someone had slam tilted it again.  My immediate reaction was to scold Mike, but he proclaimed innocence and pointed the finger at Chris.  “If I’m King Kong Stewart,” Mike said, “then he’s Tyrannosaurus Tabaka!”  Matt came by and sternly informed everyone that we were going to play Junk Yard this time regardless, so we would all just have to be gentle with it.

Then Matt held out the Sorting Hat for us to draw our starting machines.  I drew a little slip that read… “TotAN”?!  What?  Well, it turned out that as World Cup Soccer was down, Arabian Nights was to be its replacement, and worse, I was going to start my night on it.  Greg also drew TotAN, making us league buddies for the night.

I tried not to let my superstition psych me out, but it was to no avail.  I finished with something like 750K.  Greg had a miserable game too and we both went upstairs in defeat to play Addams Family.  At this point, Danny and Shila arrived and Shila joined me and Greg.  This is also the point when I learned, from listening to Shila spell her name for Greg (as he was the keeper of the scores notebook), that we have been spelling her name in the league results all along.  I mentioned this and apologized, and she replied that she and Danny figure that “Shyla” is her secret pinball identity.

Greg and I both had much better Addams Family than TotAN games.  I had a particularly thrilling game as the 62 million I earned was a personal best, and by a significant margin.  This was the second time I have set a personal best during a league game – two different leagues, but the same game!  My previous personal best on Addams Family was set during the last Marvin’s League meeting.  I was so excited by my finish that I began dancing around until I noticed that the group on Lord of the Rings were all chuckling at my antics.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, it was clear my group would not be playing it anytime soon, as the group currently stationed there was loaded with top players.  We headed downstairs to play Junk Yard.  I’m glad to have that back in league rotation, finally; it’s not a perfect game but it’s fun.  At some point Joseph came up to me and told me Chris was destroying the Ring, so I ran back upstairs to join a crowd of people watching.  It was a success!  I was told that he was still on Ball 1 and my jaw dropped.  When he did finally lose his ball, he had to throw away the next one (I presume he had already used his one allowed extra ball) and managed to make some hay of that: he successfully shot the Tower skill shot and thereby set up Return of the King.

That spectacle brought back memories for me.  This league night was roughly the anniversary of my first ever league night back in November 2013, which is also when I started getting seriously interested in pinball.  At that first league night, I remember seeing a crowd form around a guy I now know as Chris, and hearing that he was “destroying the Ring.”  Through Joseph, I was somewhat familiar with the idea that pinball games had something like a final boss battle that amounted to “beating the game,” but I had never actually seen it happen.  It did not hurt my rapidly developing interest in competitive pinball that I saw someone achieve such an exciting feat on my first league night!

After a very long time (during which I went ahead and had a side game of Medieval Madness) the word came down that LotR was finally free, and Greg, Shila and I finished up our last game for the night.  Greg, Joseph, and I played several just-for-fun games afterward.

Chris stopped by on his way out to give me a good deal of grief about my decision to skip the Arcade League this month in order to go to Silver Bells, Lansing’s annual holiday event that includes an illuminated parade and the lighting of the state tree.  Among other arguments against going to Silver Bells, he offered that he had seen the state tree already and it was a “scrawny-ass tree.”  I did end up going to Silver Bells, and when I got home, Mike had posted a photo from the Arcade of an empty space where FunHouse used to be, captioned “Heather, have bad news for you.”  I wailed and gnashed my teeth on Facebook all evening about this until finally, sometime after 2 a.m., Mike confessed that he and Chris had moved FunHouse to take the picture and it was still there.  Never mind King Kong and Tyrannosaurus: their true identities have been revealed as the Left Troll and the Right Troll.  I will bide my time until an opportunity for revenge presents itself….

This week’s league play still isn’t over, as the Grand Rapids crew needs to come out and play their games.  This means that there aren’t any results to report yet.  A little bird told me they will probably be coming Tuesday or Wednesday.  I plan to show up for some more league fun when they do and I hope others will too.  As usual, you can find more pictures of the night in the Gallery.

To be continued…