Pinball Magazine will be present all weekend with a small surprise: Pinball posters by Santiago Ciuffo.
Pinball-posters-by-Santiago-Ciuffo.jpg
Following the publication of Santiago Ciuffo’s popular PINBALL book, Pinball Magazine had posters made of some of the most popular photos in the book. These posters will debute at the UK Pinball Party 2014. After the show the remaining posters will be available in the Pinball Magazine webshop. For the UK Pinball Party the following posters are available:

- Galaxy playfield detail (cover of the Pinball book)
- Centaur playfield detail (page 199 in the book)
- Nine Ball playfield detail (page 176 in the book)
- Pin-Bot backglass detail (not in the book)
- Time Line playfield detail (page 145 in the book)
- Xenon playfield detail (page 148 in the book)
- Gorgar (page 187 in the book)*

Besides these posters there are also posters of the cover of Pinball Magazine No. 1 (Roger Sharpe) and No. 2 (Dennis Nordman & Greg Freres). All posters measure 50 cm (w) x 70 cm (h) (= 19.7 inch (w) x 27.6 inch (h)). The posters are printed on 170 grams glossy paper.

* The Gorgar poster was done to tie in with pinball designer Barry Oursler’s visit to the UK Pinball Party 2014. Following Barry's fundraiser from earlier this year, all proceeds of this poster will be donated to Barry and Donna Oursler to fund their medical bills.

The posters are priced at 5.00 GBP each, 3 for 12.00 GBP. Besides the posters Pinball Magazine No. 2 and Santiago Ciuffo's PINBALL book will also be available.

For more info visit: www.pinball-magazine.com

Sure, will you be at the show, or ordering from the webshop later on?

Barry Oursler UPKK 2014.jpg
Pinball designer Barry Oursler holding a special Gorgar poster, taken from Santiago Ciuffo's PINBALL book, at the UK Pinball Party 2014. All proceeds of sales of this poster will be donated to Barry to fund his medical bills. More info on this and other posters: http://www.pinball-magazine.com/?p=2250

Didn't have time to write a blog about the show, but I did play Full Throttle. According to Andrew's presentation on saturday the game is about 85% done. To me it feels more like it was about 70% done as there were quite a few things that could be improved. The team was very open to feedback and suggestion, which I think is great. Then again, some of the suggestions from last year had not been implemented (positioning of the flipper buttons - the game currently has the buttons in a less comfortable position than on e.g. b/w games).

I came with quite a list of suggestions and Yanos Kiss was taking notes. To get the correct impression: these were mostly nitpicky things. e.g: there's a garage where you can collect stuff. One of the items is a new set of tires. On the image shown are 3 tires, but a motorcycle only needs 2. So that seems odd to me and I pointed that out.

After playing a couple of games on saturday night I played it again sunday afternoon and made a list of things I noticed that could be improved. I´ll email that to Yanos and/or other team members. Hope they can use it to present the best possible game for them.

One of the things that occured to me, and perhaps I should open a different topic for this, was the backbox. Ever since the introduction of the backbox people watching someone else play a game of pinball have been able to sort of see the progress on the backbox. Whether it was just a score, or a display, there was something there on which you could see how the player is doing. On FT you (currently) can't. You're just looking at this static art package. I do like the new backbox artwork, but not being able to understand how the player is oing felt weird to me. So I was wondering, and will suggest this to the team as well, whether it would be a good idea to present the game with an optional larger backbox that includes a second LCD that shows the (animated) art package, as well as scoring and progress during games. The game will have an output for a second screen, but I figured it makes sense to offer such a screen as well as an extra option. The current translite size may not match the size of a LCD monitor to replace it, but if height is not a problem a monitor could be implemented portrait wize (instead of landscape wize). That will actually give more room for (animated) backglass art as well as scoring and gameplay animations. Plus it will make the game stand out (pun intended) on location. Curious to see what other think of the backbox not showing any progress and how essential you think that is.

As for the show: I think it was very nice. A little less games than last year and tehre were some problems in the tournament area, but I think everybody attending had a great time.

I'll bet you $ 100.00 (and dare you to raise me) the flipper buttons are in a completely different position than on WPC games. If they would be positioned in the same place I would not comment about them being in another position. And indeed that lockbar felt terrible. Did see several people complain about that.

For what the game currently is it is clear there are some very nice elements and they've come a long way, but it is far from being able to operate without a troubleshooter next to it. It is a great first effort, but operators will need a game that will run smooth without having to come over every 5 minutes. I'm hoping the team will get there fast.

Just to be clear: the game, and the factory, look very promising. I can't judge how things go at the factory. The games I played did play smooth, although I didn't like the slightly higher flipper angle. But the game needs a lot of finetuning. I once heard of the 20/80 rule: that finishing the last 20% takes up 80% of the time. If true then we'll have to wait for another 8 years. I'm sure it can be done a lot faster if the team is open for constructive suggestions. I wrote down a list that will be emailed to Andrew and some team members. It will be up to them to act on it. I do know one thing: both collectors and operators want a game that can operate on its own.

These were the Tiny Pins, located next to the Pinball Magazine stand just outside the show hall. See www.tinypin.nl for more info.

You're on! Janos didn't believe me when I said the buttons were in a different place, so I showed him. I took a business card (credit card size) that I held against the side cabinet corner with lockbar of a wpc game at the UKPP. Anyone can test this for themselves: the flipperbutton will slightly overlap the lower corner opposite the corner aligned with the lockbar. I marked the position of the wpc flipper button on the card and then did the same on FT. Turns out on the FT game displayed last weekend the flipperbutton is closer to the front of the game and lower as well (just like last year). This forces the player into a less comfortable hand placement.

Thanks for taking the bet. You can pay me at Expo If you're not attending Expo: I also take paypal.