now thats not TRUE!

Thanks Freddy!

Any results from the Pincrossing tournament? How many people played in the tournament?

Showed up after the tourney. Only a couple guys were left hanging out when I got there.

Jeremy Hakes won.

Not sure how many people competed.

The results will be posted to the ifpa website. Usually takes a couple days for them to post.

They're already up. Not a very big turnout.

https://www.ifpapinball.com/tournaments/view.php?t=12895

Believe me, I have tried. I know Paul (the owner) personally. The Diner in there used to be mine.

I have not given up yet though.

Chris

Had another great lunch today with the GOT pro at UNIVERSITY pinball!

Hah! Yeah, I saw that on Sunday... Unfortunately the machines were hungrier than usual and between my wife and I we lost at least six bucks in coin drops that didn't register just on MET, MB and AMH. :/

Do you think she'll ever get back into the hobby or is this just a slow fade?

maybe Tuna can trade some nice outfits for games.

Hard to say really, but unfortunately, I doubt it. From the beginning, the Pinball Parlour was designed not for the collector, but the birthday party crowd. It is my contention that if you keep things operational, then the collector crowd would be a bonus.

Many things have happened over the years. Personal things with the owner which I will not discuss. I wish him the best for sure, but I don't think anything will change. It is unfortunate, yes. This is not his real job, and sometimes he misses openings because he is working his other job.

I don't pretend to know everything for sure, and there are other things I am sure which are at play. All I can do is support him as a friend, give my opinions, and help where I can.

Chris

Did you use Canadian Quarters?

J/K....I'm sure if you mention something to Jay the next time you see him there, he will hook you up with some credits.

Even though I was frustrated that I showed up to locked doors and haven't heard great things about PP, I still plan to check it out ASAP. The guy is still contributing to the hobby and for that I owe him a visit to at least support what he is trying to do. There is certainly a shortage of pinball in the area and I'd hate to see it lose another.

I am curious to hear how you think the Pinball Parlour and its ownership are contributing? Maybe I am missing something.

As for your second statement about wanting to keep pinball in the area, I completely agree. Personally, I spend my $ at the places where the owners offer well kept, playable machines so that way they keep offering them.

First off, I completely agree with you and I definitely do my part by contributing lots of money to places like PinCrossing, Pinball Gallery, and the few machines on location near my house.

As far as my statement about Pinball Parlour contributing. I think there are different levels of contribution. For example, Jay at PinCrossing does a tremendous job by putting his collection out on location, keeping them well maintained, offering leagues and tournaments, etc. That's all great for the hobby and is much appreciated (Thanks Jay!). Pinball Parlour is still exposing pinball to the public by offering games at an affordable entry price. (I realize the priorities, time, and care may not be on the same level as other operators and locations)

I think for the hobby to grow, new people need to be exposed. So if his intention is the birthday crowd, as Chris stated, I'm sure there are new people being exposed to the hobby. Hopefully they fall in love and seek out more pinball. Which will hopefully lead them to places like PinCrossing and Pinball Gallery where the games are better maintained and it will blow their minds.

Had another great Lunch at university pinball GOT again!

I guess I do not see the type of "exposure" Pinball Parlour offers as positive.

Anyway, yeah, places with working machines available for the public to play are awesome!

Absolutely, we can agree on that!

In my opinion Pinball Parlor is BAD for pinball. I wouldnt want my young sons to see or be exposed to what pinball parlor has going on outside of pinball. Id hate to have to explain to a 6 yr old what i witnessed at Allentown pinfest or what my friends have seen when they knocked on the door of owners house. I remember when the place was nice and the games all worked great. Then slowly over years turned to shit and things got WEIRD...

A guy can't ask for much more from his friends than that and I apologize if I came off rudely. I don't know the first thing about what all happened there but it absolutely kills me for those wonderful machines to languish in pinball purgatory. I can say I've had multiple conversations with other local pinheads and the consensus has always been that if he'd let a couple of us take a crack at getting that show back on the road, we'd be tickled to go do some troubleshooting, make a shopping list and take a couple layers of grime off just in the interest of the hobby. But if he's just in it for the birthday cake, well...

at first glance i thought you said he is now jumping out of birthday cakes! LOL

You did not come off as rude and I fully understand (and also echo) your position. I get that it makes people sad. It makes me sad too, but I have tried to help and tell myself that's all I can do. It is his stuff and he can do with it what he wants. Kind of like seeing classic cars rusting away in barns. I know how everyone loves a cargument

I also fully understand that it is impossible to keep 80 games running perfectly, especially when your business model is to have kids pounding on them at parties. Yes, I get that, but like others said, basic maintenance and some Novus (you don't want to know what I have heard him use) goes a long way.

Chris

Sometimes offering to help is all you can do. And good on you for reaching out and offering to help. We (players/collectors) appreciate you trying to step up and improve things.

New bowling place in Philly, Revolutions

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/things_to_do/First-look-Revolutions-bowling-alley.html?photo_2
http://penntreaty.revolutionsbowl.com/

Maybe the potential for a couple more pins. None in the pictures. I'll be down that way next month and can check it out if no one gets there first.

If it is like the one by me in Center Valley, there will be no pins at all That one is like a poor Dave & Busters with a bowling alley

Chris

Who all from Pinside is 100% going to Pincrossing's monthly tournament this weekend?

Thanks for doing that Corey!

djreddog - Unfortunately, I'm 50/50 on making it this weekend. If I miss it, hope to see you at another tournament at Pincrossing soon.

OK I have 3 confirmed coming Saturday and possibly a 4th. So hopefully there is a decent turn out for Saturday's event at Pincrossing.

Couple University Pinball updates:

1. Trading in tickets for tokens isn't a thing anymore. Guess they caught on that they were getting housed.

2. GoT is down. The dragon and diverter are busted. They have a call into someone to come and fix them. Wasn't given any timeframe. I mentioned that there is new code that should be put on there, and the owner there seemed receptive to doing it. If it doesn't happen during the other repairs, I'll just show up with a thumb drive and see if he'll let me do it. aka, Sorry Ken, I don't want to try and beat that fake score.

3. TWD is playing decently enough still. No real issues. Drops seem to fall on their own very occasionally, other than that didn't notice anything else. Tilt is fairly tight, which is also not so much fun. My only real motivation to play this pin now is to take down RED's score, but being that it still doesn't award score based free games, I think I'm done with it.

4. GB is still playing great, and it still basically has no tilt. I've seen most of the game at this point. Stay Puft mode is cool, got to it for the first couple times today. Got the 'We Came We Saw' mb going a couple of times today as well which is also fun. I'm over Mass Hysteria. I feel like reversed flippers for single ball might be fun, but for mb it's just super annoying. Managed to wipe off RED's one high score. I now have them all! Come at me bros.

5. Overheard one of the workers talking about the virtual pin. Sounds like once they sell it they are going to put an actual pin in it's place. The quote I heard was, 'No one wants to play that, they want the real thing'. Agreed.

the dragon was not working last week made for a disappointing game! still find it a shame the ticket machines are on the WD and ST. hope they don't do it to GOT and GB.

Hey guys, scratch us off for Pincrossing today. Got a sick one in the bunch so we are cancelling the trip today. We will now shoot for Novembers tournament!

Agreed.

And while it hasn't seen any action in a while, there is a Pincrossing thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-pincrossing-players-association-thread

In regards to Philly:

I was at North Bowl this weekend. They've got 9 pins now. Not sure if that's the new norm, or if it's just for the Pabst tourney thats coming up. In any case, it's a cool setup. The pins were pulled off the wall, and now form a little pin island. I'm curious as to what is currently at the South bowl, because I'm pretty sure the Mustang and Iron Man at the N Bowl are the same ones from the S Bowl.

Played the Pabst Can crusher for the first time and really enjoyed it. Odd since I didn't really care for Whoa Nelly when I played it at Allentown. I have been coming around to older games recently though so that's likely the reason. If you don't know and haven't played it, there is a mini lcd on the apron with your score and to enter your initials. I GC'd it and had no clue what was going on until someone there pointed it out to me.

Avatar
Iron Man
24
Star Trek
Rolling Stones
Mustang
Kiss (Stern)
Ghostbusters

And Pabst Blue Can Crusher

The pins are upstairs. They used to have 3 and they were lined up on the wall. Currently, no pins are on the wall and the 9 pins form an island. Same area they were previously just on the other side of the seats. It works. Definitely don't need to worry about being pressured to bowl. I go to both N/S Bowl semi regularly and rarely bowl. Both have good bars and areas to hang out in that don't require you to bowl.

Additionally, when I was there, the pins were getting worked. Good to see them actually getting played.

Next awesome bonus, had a pinball first. Won 5 free games off of a two player game. My wife and I got there and there were 2 credits in GB. Played them and I got the score free game, the award free game, and set the GC for another freebie. Then for the cherry, we double free matched!

So currently, North Bowl is awesome. But like I said, I'm curious how this fairs for South bowl. Would like to know if anyone has been there recently. Aka did they replace the Mustang and Iron Man they shifted to the N Bowl.

As far as playability:

GB is slightly gangster. Left scoop was kicking out mostly SDTM. Basically saved my tilt warnings to deal with the kickout.

Avatar played floaty and kind of boring.

Wife played ST a couple times and didn't seem to have any major complaints other than she couldn't backhand the away team shot as consistently as she can on ours.

PBCC played nice all around.

Didn't play anything else.

Hmmm... a little suspicious that four of the new pins at North Bowl happen to be the four that were previously at South Bowl. Anyone check to see if they emptied it out?

Like I mentioned, I believe they are. Mainly because I have the GC score on Mustang at North Bowl, and have never played Mustang at North Bowl.

Haha, story checks out!

I'll swing by South Bowl to check it out. I suspect the extra machines at North Bowl might only be for the event and will be returned afterwards (meaning SB might be empty in the meantime) but it'd be awesome if it's permanent and they rotated some new ones into SB.

Good stuff. The current setup at North Bowl is pretty cool. And they didn't really have to lose anything. In fact, there is now some extra space on the wall where the pins were at to add something else.

If the South Bowl does have some new pins, that would be awesome.