I’m going to spill my thoughts of the ReplayFX Gaming Festival and Pinburgh Match Play tournament from a pinheads perspective (there were plenty of KLOV and arcade love in conjunction with computer- and console gaming, cosplay, crafts and art, I can’t really speak for that. I did go listen to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing Distant Worlds, the Final Fantasy symphony, which was pretty much out of this world!).

Pinburgh
The world’s greatest pinball tournament almost twice the size as previous year. I can’t imagine all the effort of emptying PAPA HQ and hauling over 300+ machines and have a shy of 700 player tournament running like clockwork. I can’t thank the organizers enough to make this brilliant move, there’s nothing but positive uptake! If you didn’t qualify into any of the playoff’s, you could play over half of the machines from Saturday morning and on the Sunday the entire floor was open for play. This is good practice to learn which tweaks they apply to prohibit easy scoring. I’ve never seen so many tapered rubber posts as on the banks I played.

Sunday will also be the official “play the games that fucked me over day” from here on forward. It was also a great opportunity to scout titles you’ve never played before, however, it has the side-effect of increasing your wanted list. I’m hereby on the lookout for a Solar Fire (and Centigrade 37 and Asteroid Annie and the Aliens and, and, and).

The non-pinburgh machines that was open for free play were plentiful and there was never any issues getting onto a machine, where some shows are absolutely awful, like if you see an open machine, it’s most likely broken/defect. Only disappointment here was that the BW100 had trough-issues and was turned off for the entire show.

With a tournament this size and the genuine fun factor of the pinburgh match play format, this will be a summit for pinball exhibition years to come!

Stern
All the current Stern line-up was setup, I dunno if it was a Stern booth or a distributor, the nearest vendor stand was Cointaker and I think the machines were theirs. WNBJM, WWELE (rare), Mustang LE (mega mega rare) and KISS (pro). I did not like KISS at all, comparing it to AC/DC or Metallica at this point is a barrel of laughs. I only played a few games in the sub 20M category and didn’t get very deep into it. The starchild area was a really tricky shot and so was the right light-lock for some reason. I had only played the prototype WNBJM before and it was great fun to play the production machine.

The Hobbit
I lined up for Hobbit on occasion and got like two or three 2-ball games in. I watched it mostly when others played. It looks absolutely lush, the art, the audio! I did not like the movies but it makes a damn fine pinball machine. All the mechanical issues that was put on display completely cooled me off on getting in line for one and that upper flipper is just too damn annoying that they kept. What is it doing there? Please help me understand. The issues I saw was the VUKs that struggled to eject the ball to the ramp, this is an easy fix and most likely a “continuous use” issue. I got the same on my Stargate during league nights. Works perfect otherwise. There was also some mode where you had multiball and the pop-up “trolls” in the same mode. On one occasion a ball got trapped between the playfield and the mech, successfully allowing you to play a multiball mode with one ball in a controlled manner. I cringed watching that ball being crammed there as it looked like the assembly was completely skewed. It eventually popped out and went back to normal operation. I really wish they fix these early production issue as I want to see The Hobbit being just as successful as WOZ (and allow for the Star Wars license brag to materialize).

Full Throttle
I spent some time on Heighway’s Full Throttle and as with the Hobbit, this was a first hands-on. I’ve followed Heighway for quite some time and was present at the initial announcement three years ago (when it was a pig farmer’s theme or something) and the reveal of the whitewood at The UK Pinball party like two years ago (can’t remember, time flies). O’boy this machine is packed to to the brim and will most likely attract a huge fanbase. The theme does nothing for me but the game is really fun and have really good shots. They should do a re-theme with The Fast and The Furious, that is the first that comes to mind. But, o’boy again, the mechanical issues present on these early production machines.

First off, (maybe not mechanical) is the weird lightning difference between the cabinet and the playfield. The translite and sideart look really mellow but very pleasant to look at, the full LED playfield will burn your retina out if you stare at it (it was pretty dark on the show floor), maybe this will look better with more ambient lightning but what sprung to mind was that the lightning didn’t match, like having warm white and cool white mixed (not just as bad, but same effect). The flipper mechs feel absolutely god-like and have pretty strong coils for the long ramp shots, this however cause major airballs at the close shots, I remember missing the scoop a number of times and the ball took quite a ride. I’m not entirely sure if this was because of the spinning wheel inserts grabbing the ball. Those wheels they could completely left out, there’s plenty of pinball in there without those. On the left inlane there’s a very peculiar design flaw that will cause nothing but dinged balls, it’s like a corner where two metal brackets meet where there should really be a rubber of some sort to allow a nudge save, like IJ and Centaur, or at least a rubber sleeved post to prevent wear. The last but last issue I found was the loss of juice (like half the voltage) in the coils when the game kicked off multiball, I was sure a reset was imminent but it came back to life once all three balls were on the playfield.

On the first whitewood I saw, the game looked really flingy where the ramp bulged during shots, this issue is completely remedied and the one main big ramp really lifts the game and shots are solid. The “Mario Andretti” loop is totally wicked fast and they’ve managed to fix the issues I witnessed with that shot on earlier machines. The in-playfield display is a very nice change of scenery, for the player that is, watching a game couldn’t be more boring without a display in the backbox, heck they should put in a alpha-numeric LED pin display to provide feedback to the audience if that would be cheaper. I’ve also read some criticism on the feel of the lockdown bar-less design and wide side rails the “lid” encompasses. The game sure feels different but I can’t really say anything negative about it. Overall I’m very excited for Heighway and Full Throttle is enough proof for me that they will succeed with Alien, without a doubt. I just hope they employ early QA and testers that aren’t afraid of criticizing, even if it’s not constructive. Subjective critcism is what kills products in the end (the pinside effect). I’ve come to understand that Stern invites top players to provide feedback early in the process to give feedback that is critical to make a game successful, if that feedback isn’t candid and met with professionalism, where will the product end up?

I had to leave early today and missed the Heighway seminar, unfortunately.

America’s Most Haunted
They came, they saw, they conquered. As a “boutique” game I can’t put words on how well executed this title is. The theme does nothing for me but Spooky sure knows what ingredients to pour into a game to make a fun pinball machine. Shots are nothing but solid but could look a bit dodgy with the staircases but it’s absolutely brilliantly executed. The “elevator” lock is really clever and I didn’t realize it had come up until it grabbed my ball. The eerie audio package and light effects does not come across very well on show floor like this but in a private game room it will stand out for sure. I did not put in many games on this one as it was just as busy as every other boutique game. I do sympathize with the folks who lost their chance to get one.

There was also a Lexy Lightspeed on the floor but I didn’t get to play that, I stood and watch for a while but I can’t really comment on it more than it looks neat.

With sore palms at 10,000’, yours truly
DRI