Who won the North Bowl tournament?

Rick Prince

Thanks!

Any additional details? How many players? How did the machines play? When is the next one?

We ended up with 33 players so we ended up doing match-play qualifying (one person dropped in round two, and others joined in round 5).

I thought the machines played well; Ghostbusters, KISS, Star Trek, and the Can Crusher all played smoothly. Iron Man was in need of some work, but Jon Long had the good idea to post signs on the machines that had issues (and older code) so players knew what to expect. The vendor sent along an awesome tech guy named Bob who opened up the machines so we were able to change settings and tighten up the tilts ahead of the tournament. Thanks to guys like Rick Prince, Ken Rossi, John Moran, and Francesco La Rocca who arrived early and helped up get everything squared away.

I posted a write-up about the winners on the other forum topic here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/north-bowl-philly-pbrs-can-crusher-pinball-challenge

Jon Long and I are going to figure how we take the momentum forward into the new year. We'd like to start up a league in North Bowl, and the venue appears to want to support us. I'll start up another thread on the topic.

I know that some people mentioned about keeping this thread dedicated to machines on location, so in the spirit of that request I've started up a separate thread on leagues and tournaments:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/philadelphia-area-pinball-leagues-and-tournaments

I appreciate it and have book marked that other thread.

Here's my beef with the Pincrossing/Pinball Gallery updates in this thread.

Both of those places are awesome. Both of them individually also have about as many or more than all of the pins combined in the city.
But with Pincrossing/PG, you can wager that the pins will be playing well, as both establishments take great care of their pins.

You can't say the same about any of the pins in the city.
It's nice to be able to pop into this thread, and hopefully get some quick updates on the couple pins in the city without having to read through a bunch of other intel.

Got over to UP at lunch yesterday. Pins are in good shape.

The virtual pin is gone, and the remaining 4 are spread out nicely on that same wall.

Software has been updated on GoT and GB.

GoT is playing great again. It's clean and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

GB is playing good for the most part.
The tilt has been adjusted to more reasonable level. You can still make some moves, but it will tilt, and your most likely never going to get away with a death save anymore.
The left vuk occasionally shoots the ball SDTM. Like 1 out of 5. If you save your dangers though you can usually recover.
There's still something wrong with the ball lock. You still occasionally get awarded the lock and or mb start without making the shot.
I got to hear the scream for the first time. It really is loud. But it's also bullshit. When it happens, the power to the flippers gets cut, and the ball drains. But it actually made me lose a ball. I'm guessing that's not supposed to happen, so that was a lame intro.

TWD is working fine. However, it's not very much fun to play. It's very floaty. The right flipper is barely able to make the left ramp. And the tilt is still too tight.

Didn't play ST.

GoT and GB don't award replays anymore unless you get the GC. You now get an EB at 300 mil. Still no ticket dispensers on them either.
I put up the GC on both, but nothing too serious. Both scores are very beatable.

Got to UP for lunch.

Went to take down BATBOY and reclaim my GoT title. Gave it the business. Put up a monster of about 9 bil.

Of note, TWD was being worked on while I was there. Specifically he was working on the right flipper, so hopefully it'll have a little more juice in the future and be able to make that left ramp.

Stopped by North Bowl last night. Haven't been there since they had it set up for the PBR tourny.

Things have basically returned to normal.
GB, ST, Kiss are upstairs back in their original spot. Didn't play any but they were getting worked pretty good by the crowd so I'm assuming they're in ok shape. Last I was there, I had the GC on GB. Didn't have it now though, so I'm assuming it received some level of code update.

Of note, PBR is still there for now. It's downstairs right in front of the lanes. Seems like they are giving it away. There is some contest going on on Instagram where you have to take a picture of yourself drinking pbr and playing the game.

Played a couple games on it. My last review was favorable, this time around however I found it to be somewhat boring. Still looks really cool and it in great shape if anyone wanted to check it out.

Forgot I had a coaster with some intel.

Looks like this is more of a national contest, so I would guess you will win a PBR Can Crusher, not necessarily the one at North Bowl.

#PBRPINBALL

Guess I'll need to remember what my Twitter login is.

well too late for me! oh well maybe next year!

They've been doing it more frequently of late. For the past couple holidays they've had all non ticketed games on free play.

Like inside the WFC proper? So you need to have a ticket to an event to play it?

Where is it in the building? I was just thinking about how there were no WOZ's on location in the area.

I was at the Village Arcade in St. Peters, PA recently and saw that the owner has added a Williams Gridiron pitch and bat football-themed game to his line up. Looks great and played very well. It was kind of neat to see that game. I have not seen many like it in the past, only the baseballs.

I will be at Wells Fargo on Saturday, I'll try and determine the exact location and report back.

I keep cold beer in the fridge for Pinsiders, ping me next time.

IMG_0919 (resized).JPG

UP update

TWD is still not really worth your time.
Right flipper seems mildly improved. You can make the left ramp, but it's still not great.
The drops are acting up again. They register frequently without hitting them. Makes it tough to set up Bloodbath, but helps you get modes started.
Tilt is still very tight.

ST is in overall good shape.
Upper flipper is a little weak. Soft plunge to warp is very difficult to pull off as a result.
The tilt was loosened up and you can now make a move or 2. Will definitely still tilt though.
Kickout from the left scoop was being friendly. Was able to catch the ball on the left flipper a good amount of the time.
The slings aren't nearly sensitive enough. This combined with the now looser tilt has made the game play significantly easier.

GoT is still playing nicely.

GB is still playing good, but not perfect.
The kickout from the left scoop is going SDTM maybe 1/5.
The ball lock is still not occuring correctly, but this has always been the case on this pin.

I've been to WF a bunch recently and don't remember seeing any pins.

Possibly they meant it was at Xfinity Live, the bar complex that's in the middle of the sports complex? It's like a giant food court... for bars. One of the places used to have an Avengers.

So I couldn't locate it. Walked entire first and second levels, nothing. Stopped in PJ's bar, nothing. As Spiffy mentioned, it very well could be at Xfinity Live.

*** EDIT UPDATE ***
As we were walking out I located OZ. It's in the Cure Insurance Club/Bud Light Zone area. This area is located next to Campos and Chickie & Petes. Best I can describe it.

As of December, that Avengers is still there. Beat up, but still playable.

Pinball Gallery is getting an Aerosmith game soon. Launch party/tournament on March 19th. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/394757864250104/

(I'm not the organizer... If you have questions, I'd post them on that facebook event page or on Pinball Gallery's facebook page)

Hi Everyone,

I know that people are interested in keeping this thread about machines on location, but I wanted to mention that we are starting a group/league called the Philly Pinball Club at North Bowl in Northern Liberties with the four machines they have on site. First meet-up is this Thursday (March 23) at 7:30pm.

I've started a conversation specific to the group at https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/philly-pinball-club. Direct link to the website is at http://phillypinball.club.

Thanks, and hope to get to meet some of people from this thread that I haven't met before.

This league is played in Philly proper on location machines so it certainly is "on topic".

It is definitely worth noting the end of season raffle for a free pin.

Do you know what the machine lineup will be for Thursday?

Was going to say the same thing.

Im guessing the lineup is: ST, GB, Kiss, PBR

That's what it was the last time I was there.

Yes, ectobar has it right. Currently it's KISS (Stern), Ghostbusters, Star Trek, and PBR Can Crusher.

Originally I had posted that we'll start on March 23, but we've spoken with North Bowl and we're going to push the league portion back a week to give us more time to get the word out and to avoid the Thursday of PAPA.

New Dates:
March 23 -> "Meet and Greet", no league competition
March 30, April 13, April 27, May 11 -> four weeks of league
May 25 -> Spring finals

Anyone planning to check out the sip & flip event at Manatawny Still Works next month?

Any details? Didn't see anything on their site.

There's a post about it on the Pinball Gallery's fb page.

Pins will be there Fri 4/21 through 4/23.

Tourney on Sunday.

I've never heard of the place but I like beer and pinball so there's at least a chance I'm going.

Then just know that it's a distillery, not a brewery (think whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, not beer). The Sly Fox brewery is across the street from it though.

And I think I'm in.

I work right around the corner so I'll probably stop in a few times during the event, haven't decided if I'll try to do the tourney or not. Definitely check out Sly Fox while you're there, great food & beer.

Would be really cool if Manatawny lets us bring growlers in from across the street. My flipper skills fall apart pretty fast on the hooch.

Lol. Gotcha. Good to know.

I like that stuff too!

Heading to PAPA on Friday. Been to Pinburgh twice and PAPA once. It's a ton of fun if you haven't been before. Parking is a bit tight around the warehouse but there are are hundreds of machines and video games in the facility.

By the way, in addition to the Philly Pinball Club webpage (http://phillypinball.club), we've launched a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/PhillyPinballClub

First Spring League session is March 30, and if you want to get our e-mail notifications there's a signup on the bottom of the main website.

Good stuff. Thanks for the update.

I've been putting some games on the one at the Gallery and have been enjoying it. Fun game for sure.

Fellow Local Pinsiders - Along with @wmspin, we are trying to host an Annual First State pinball tournament in Delaware. We are in the early planning stages at this point and we are currently looking to see how many people would be interested in making the drive down to southern DE one day. Please visit the following link for more info https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/delawares-first-annual-state-pinball-tournament#post-3804940

First State Flip Out Flyer 3rd Revision (resized).jpg

Stopped by UP at lunch.

Put up some scores for you to chase on AS.

GoT still playing real nice. Seems a little faster than it used to be.

Also played some TWD. I'm going to say it's currently playing the best it ever has. Tilt is still tight, but the feed from the pops wasn't too angry. The right flipper strength finally is good enough to consistently hit the left ramp.

Really solid lineup they have right now and good to see them doing regular maintenance.

Spruce Street Harbor Park now has Batman (The Dark Knight) , #the_walking_dead , Junk Yard , Ghostbusters (Pro)

Spruce Street Harbor Park is located where?

301 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Right along the Delaware River in Philly

my hall is 1301 S Columbus BLVD. LOCAL 19. have to check it out.