Unexpected because I would never imagine seeing something like this here!

Okay most of you might not be able to attend this one, as it is in Switzerland - but, I thought many would appreciate the love that Switzerland is showing for this great American tradition! The local luxury shopping mall is hosting a "Swiss Flipper Tour" (The French use the word "Flipper" for "Pinball"). The tour is moving all over Switzerland and they have a really mixed selection of 30+ pins in pretty decent shape, all free to play, all day long 9am to 9pm, spread over 3 stories in the mall, for the next two weeks! I just got back from playing over 3 hours after work with my wife.

Highlights:
- Big selection of EM and SS games spanning every decade
- Free to play for next two weeks, friendly staff, and great to see so many people interested in playing
- Selection of "REALLY old" pins from the 1920's and 30's !!! (just to look at)
- Mall is oozing with "Americana" deco.. too funny!
- Also unexpected: a night rider EM outside of a French lingerie shop... (last photo) hard to focus on the ball!

I think the funniest is how they decked out the shopping mall. They have a big Statue of Liberty with giant pinballs floating around her, hung from the middle of the mall.. with a huge "I want you" poster of Uncle Sam underneath...!! This, in addition to a few Harley Motorcycles, some jukeboxes, and American flags everywhere. Even the Swiss hostesses were wearing American flag tee-shirts. As a guy who grew up in NJ, it was kind of a surrealistic evening for me here in Geneva

They also have a tournament going on with one pin: everyone gets one free game on 'Whirlwind' (this was in great shape) - The top three scores get a $200 gift certificate to the mall. I was actually nervous playing (got around 2,500,000)... I think the best score so far (tonight was the first night) was around 3,500,000 - I'm sure some of you fellow pinheads could kill that score!

Pin selection included some old school pins:
-Buck Rogers
-Supersonic
-Night Rider
-Fire! (okay not that old but felt like it)
First time I've played those.

And newer stuff like:
Whirlwind, W?D, ACDC, T2, DD, F14, GI, JP, etc. and lots more...

Anyway - thought you would enjoy these pics. I'll definitely be going back a few more times in the coming weeks.

If you are local (or coming here for vacation sometime soon), here's the link to the details - don't miss it!
http://www.la-praille.ch/%C3%A9v%C3%A9nements-nouveaut%C3%A9s/flipper-party-%C3%A0-la-praille

Cheers,
T

01-signs.jpg 02-Swiss_tour.jpg 03-Swiss_tour.jpg 04-Swiss_tour.jpg 05-Swiss_tour.jpg 06-Swiss_tour.jpg

These last two images didn't attach the first time - probably the funniest!

07-Swiss_tour.jpg 08-Swiss_adult-pin.jpg

Yes, I agree - I think it's a bit much to have the American Flag mats on the floor. But still overall, really nice to see something like this. Hope they are successful and have these every year.

Now, should I eat lunch with my colleagues today, or go over to the mall to play Dr. Dude and ACDC for an hour instead...

I wound up eating lunch at work (too much to finish up before the weekend!) haha!

@ rotordave: Nice to hear from another pinsider in Switzerland! Just glancing at the sign in one of those photos I put up, they'll be in Zurich at the "Centre Volkiland Zurich" from November 13-23, might be too late for you. But I managed to find out they have a facebook page - seems there's a good amount of info on there. www.facebook.com/Swissflippertour Hope you have a chance to check it out while you're in the country (especially since there's a ridiculous lack of sun around here these past months) - good pinball weather!

@ pinmister: Yes I totally agree about the benefits of exposing pinball to a wider audience, little kids included - have to keep the next generation interested! Last night as I was playing, there were multiple times some random little kid (4-7 years old) came up and grabbed the side of the cabinet to pull his/her head up to the glass and watch me play. (Their parents were busy playing other pins!).

Logistically I agree, its hard to watch over all the pins. Here they were 100% unattended. The only time I saw the staff (there were 4 people in charge of the tournament and registration) was when I played Whirlwind for the tournament, and when they came over to shut the machines off for the night.

Regarding family play, this Swiss tour even organized a "parent - child" tournament, where the mom or dad can play against their child under the age of 12. Pretty nice!

Anyhow- this might be the seed of a nice idea in the States. To have some kind of "pinball tour" at the malls to give kids and a wider audience a chance to play (since often pins are in bars / clubs and kids don't have access to them). It would take some organization- but maybe it can serve as a fund-raiser for charity, so people will need to pay some small fee, but at least the machines wouldn't be completely abused and proceeds would go to a good cause. Maybe the local boy and girl scout chapters could volunteer to look after each pin for the day. Who knows? Something to think about in the future... of course the tour should start in Chicago.

Well, a bit off topic but just to give my $0.02: In general the Europeans see us (Americans) as kind of the 'rowdy kids' in the (global) playground. They feel we kind of put our hands everywhere in the world and make trouble sometimes. But it's not anything really bad, just that in Europe here the populations tend to focus on their countries first. Actually when I'm back visiting in the States, I noticed that there is not much media coverage of US foreign affairs and policy. Makes sense as US is so big, too much to report about the mainland every day. But how US deals with Europe is not always the best way (IMHO).

HOWEVER: In general there is a LOVE for all things American (at least here in Switzerland - known to be more neutral and its true). I see lots of Harleys, old-school American classic cars (Mustangs, Chevys, etc) beautifully restored driven around by the locals. The "thing" to have around here on your American classic car is a real American license plate (in the back window) !! Here in our neighborhood there's even an annual "Western" festival weekend filled with American BBQ and western music (actually some great Swiss bands playing country music!) And every July here all the grocery stores sell their meat and BBQ stuff in the "American" spirit saying how fun it is to BBQ like Americans!

So, at least here, America is quite loved and American stuff (cars, motorcycles, bbq, pinball) is seen as cool! (*ahem, aside from the financial issues a few years back with UBS (bank of Switzerland) and the States (Americans trying to hide money here, IRS forcing UBS to give personal info, etc. long story for another forum!)