Originally published in Skill Shot #20, August 2011
The Ballard Pinball Tournament had the unusual starting time of 3 in the afternoon on Monday May 30th, because it was Memorial Day. As always the Ballard Tournament is a roving event that moves to different establishments in the neighborhood, but because of the holiday many of the planned venues were either closed or had inconvenient hours. Claire and Headley’s Pinball Room was also out of the running because of a new floor being installed, so all the matches were held at Snoose Junction and Liberty House. Julie Gray took first place and Graham Klym took second. Liberty House was a great place to go because they had hosted the Sam Theoharis Memorial Croquet Tournament the day before and were still stocked with grills, beer and pinball machines. Pinball Summer!
Another reason Headley’s pins were not available was because they were being packed up for the Pacific Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (PAGS) later in the week. This annual event is something we look forward to each summer and Skill Shot was graciously allowed to take pictures of the games while they were being set up on Thursday evening. A lot of love and work goes into this show and we were impressed with how it was set up this year. Look for our full report on PAGS elsewhere in this issue!
As usual, there have been a lot of local tournaments happening, and on June 9th the Seattle Pinball Museum held the first in their new quarterly format. Hosted by Jeff Groper, the tournament had 40 contestants as well as many observers, including British pinball author Gary Flowers and Canadian Bally repair expert Lindsey Rupertus. Steve Ackley took the top prize and Brian Headley took second. Later that evening we had a 5 game tournament of our own at Shorty’s against Sergey and Heather. Using our 100 Pinball Game Equation (from issue 16) we luckily didn’t bet any money because Heather won. It’s more fun to compete!
As if that wasn’t enough pinball tournament action for a week, the next night (6/10) was the first of three official TRON Pinball Release Parties! The TRON events also featured a tournament and the first one at the Seattle Waterfront Arcade was won by Maka. The next day (6/11) had a TRON party at Flynn’s Arcade in Tacoma (a.k.a. Dorky’s), and the pinball machine was hooked up to the sound system for the final match, which ELF won. Four days later (6/14) at the Seattle Pinball Museum, TRON had another release party that was won by Seattle Pinball League treasurer Hannah Olson. And we missed them all!
photo by Katy Jacobson
Other pinball events we missed include the annual Summer Solstice Soiree at Andrew Nunes’ house that happened on the same day as the Fremont Solstice Day Parade; the July Seattle Pinball League Tournament that was held at Mike Lorrain’s home, won by Randy Pouley; the first tournament at Bridle Trails New York Pizza in Kirkland, won by Beth Johns; and the Super Multi-Brawl tournament in Vancouver BC, won by Cayle. A Vancouver tournament is apparently a rare event because most pins are in private homes rather than on location. They haven’t had a public tournament in years. Sorry, Maka.
Rod Olson’s annual 4th of July Party was a great time as always. The festivities included tasty food, fireworks, tank battles and of course, lots of pinball. Rod has a great collection of pins and this year he also had a nice set up in his garage. Some of the games included Fish Tales, two NBA Fastbreak that were connected to each other and 300, which became the center of attention when we held a Biggest Loser Tournament, won by Rod’s stepmother. Those Olsons have pinball in their blood!
Birthdays seem to be popular times to have pinball tournaments at Shorty’s. 4th Place Andy hosted The Trick Pinball Olympics on June 21st. Four different pins had different games: Biggest Loser on Speakeasy; Pat Hand on The Addams Family; Blind Folded (Tommy) on Family Guy; and Half and Half on Champion Pub. The highest scores were awarded points with the four highest scorers moving on to the final match on TRON, which Pancakes easily won. Jawn Wakefield had a Batman-themed birthday on July 21st, with a Bat-Hand tournament on Batman, naturally. In this tournament, players had to use the opposite hand for each flipper and you could do either forwards (like most people did) or backwards, which seemed to help some folks. This style of playing is fun and challenging and we would like to see it played again sometime on an easier game. Bat Fun!
We made it to Dorky’s recently and were impressed with their large game selection. It’s like a mini PAGS with a ton of arcade games and over 20 pinball machines, many of which you don’t often see available to the public. Dirty Harry, Data East’s Star Trek and Indianapolis 500 are just a few of the older games there, as well as newer pins like Big Buck Hunter and TRON. There were a few bands playing in the big room the night we visited and we watched Lesthe owner moving games around so a stage could be built. Later he even had a working arcade game out on the sidewalk for people to play. Dorky’s is in a nice part of Tacoma and there’s a lot of different neat bars and other businesses within walking distance. You don’t have to go anywhere else to get a drink though, because beginning August 1st Dorky’s started selling beer. Beer!
Another business that recently got a license to sell beer and wine is the Seattle Pinball Museum! With their ever-changing collection of games and plans to open The Upper Playfield soon, the SPM just keeps getting better and better. Owner Charlie Martin wanted us to mention that if you need a pinball machine fixed in your home, the SPM might be able to help and Cindy Martin reminded us that they are now selling Full Tilt Ice Cream. Speaking of Full Tilt, we heard that the building permits for their future Ballard business have finally arrived. The new location will have more pinball than either of their other two arcades and will most likely be open in 6 to 8 weeks. Sweet.
The Pinball and Arcade Swap Meet happened in the parking lot of Specialty Coin in Kent and despite the rain there was a good turnout. There was lots of different stuff for sale or trade, including a No Good Gofers pinball machine and various ramps, switches and instruction manuals for many different games. Specialty Coin was also open and had Rolling Stones and NASCAR pins to play. Chris Walsh and Butch Clifford brought a generator along with Radical and Strike and Spares in the back of their truck, so those pins were also available to play. There’s talk of starting another swap meet on the north-end, but organizer Keith Nelson would rather have someone else coordinate that one. Thrifty!
Last issue’s Skill Shot Folding Party at The Lookout was our most successful one yet; over 1600 issues of the zine were folded in record time and we would like to thank everyone who stopped by to help out. Also, thanks again to The Lookout who provided us with tasty sliders and hummus (and beer). Have you been to our website? www.skill-shot.com is the place to go for all past Skill Shot articles and covers. There’s also current news and gossip tidbits, updated calendar listings and more, so check it out. You can also see what the current The One To Beat score is. We had to change the pin because no one could beat MAK’s 1,136,165,620 on Batman at Shorty’s. We’re sure everyone wants another chance to beat Maka so the new TOTB is the Jack-Bot at the Rabbit Hole in Belltown. Go Team Skill Shot!
Pinball Tidbits: The WWF Royal Rumble at the 9LB Hammer has a DMD that randomly goes out multiple times during a game. The Randy Savage sound bites made this a fitting place to have a drink when remembering The Macho Man • The Lookout has finally replaced the no tilt Frankenstein with Pirates of the Caribbean, and it plays pretty well if you’re not Jeff Groper • Pinball champ Nycole Hyatt is now bartending at the Tiger Lounge and plans are forming for a tournament there • The Fun House finally has a Fun House • The current season of Hell’s Kitchen has a pinball-themed intro that you should check out (on FOX) • The Highline took out part of the bar and built a pinball cove • The next new Stern will be Transformers • The Annual Shorty’s Pinball Tournament has changed dates to November 5 &6 • We want to go Pinball Camping!
The Annual Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (PAGS) was held at Seattle Center again this year and it was bigger and better than ever! With over 400 pinball and arcade games, an exciting roster of guest speakers and seminars, and The Northwest Pinball Championships, it was a sensory overload of fun. Plus it was Seattle’s first warm and sunny weekend of the summer!
Unlike last year that had the pinball machines and arcade games in separate rooms, this year’s show had the two mixed together. It seemed a little unsettling for some pinball fans at first (no doubt because many remember that arcade games displaced pinball in the arcades back in the 80’s), but in the long run it was a welcome change and helped cement Seattle’s role as a city that embraces both communities of players and collectors. As far as we know, PAGS is unique as the only national expo that showcases both pinball and arcade games. We even played more arcade games this year because they were both in the same aisle and it was easy to play one while waiting for the other.
One of the cool pinball features this year was the complete collection of Williams System 11 pinball machines that took up two rows in the main room. There were 30 pins in this collection, beginning with High Speed (1986) and ending with Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball (1991). There were a lot of fun games in this collection including classics such as Pin-Bot, Cyclone, and Black Knight 2000, as well as pins we don’t get to play often like Swords of Fury and Earthshaker. Some of the games that we had never seen before (and fell in love with) included Grand Lizard, Big Guns, and Transporter the Rescue, all of which have cool artwork and playfields. The pins in this collection are owned by different area collectors and Seattle Pinball League President Rod Olson actually bought a Millionaire machine so that the collection would be complete!
Another section of PAGS had a chronological collection of older (mostly) Gottlieb pins from the 1960’s and 70’s that showcased both the evolution of flippers, which became larger, and back glass art, which became rather surreal and psychedelic at times. A few of the standout pins in this section include Big Casino (1961) with its unique bottom bumpers (similar to Stern’sWheel of Fortune) and games like Domino (1968) and Atlantis (1975) which show hip young people in unusual settings. Other older pins were also scattered around the hall, including the first flipperless pin to make an appearance at PAGS, an Exhibit Bounty (1938).
Friday was a fun day to go to PAGS, as it was the day with the least amount of people so there was less waiting to play our favorite machines. Not everyone could take the day off from work, so there was no wait to play popular games like Theatre of Magic, Banzai Run or Black Hole, compared to the other two days. One game that did have a bit of a wait was the Seattle debut of the new Stern TRON pinball machine that was set up next to the Raffle Table. Not only did you have the chance to play the latest Stern pin, you also had a chance to win it if you were able to purchase one of the $20 tickets (limited to 250), which sold out rather early on Friday afternoon.
Saturday had a larger crowd and was a good day for attending some of the seminars. Jack Guarnieri of Jersey Jack Pinball did a presentation on his company which is making The Wizard of Oz pin, due to be released later this year. Another seminar featured John Youssi (Jokerz, White Water, TRON) giving us the rundown on how he began his career as album cover artist and made his way into becoming one of the most prolific pinball artists of the modern era. There were many other seminars during the weekend featuring talks by local champ Todd MacCulloch, pinball designer John Popadiuk (Circus Voltaire), artist Greg Freres (Scared Stiff and this years PAGS poster), designer John Borg (Guns N’ Roses), and many more, including “The Making of TRON Pinball”.
Gary Stern of Stern Pinball did a presentation about his company and family’s history in pinball. It was a fascinating rundown on how his father began as a coin-op distributor and eventually created a family-run business that became the only pinball manufacturer in the USA. Gary explained how the sales of Stern pinball machines break down into three main groups (operators, enthusiasts, home owners) and how 60% of the new Stern games are distributed outside of the USA (which explains Stern’s commitment to licensed themes). He also presented his theory on how games were becoming too complex for the casual player. Stern believes that making games easier to figure out and by adding more random features, pinball will become more appealing. He ended his talk lauding the social aspects of pinball by having fun events like tournaments and new pinball release parties. (And with pinball zines we might add.)
Saturday afternoon was the second annual Guerilla BBQ outside on the plaza, hosted by Claire and Headley. With the Space Needle as a backdrop, wieners and burgers were grilled to order and several side dishes were shared during this delicious break from all the pinball festivities. You didn’t have to be a local gamer to partake in the food, as a few homeless men soon found out, as well as Jeff Brownsberger from Georgia, who won tickets and airfare to the show from the PAGS website! Eventually a representative of the Center showed up and asked for the grill to be shut down, but mostly everyone was already fed. Did we mention that it was a gorgeous day?
photo by Keith Nelson
Saturday evening had the biggest crowds of the weekend and it was sometimes a bit of a wait to play a popular pin. This was the best time to play the games that might otherwise be ignored, like the kid-size Punchy The Clown, the unwieldy Algar, and the unusual (but fun to look at) Orbitor 1. Meanwhile, a lot of contestants were trying to get good scores to place in The Northwest Pinball Championships, up until the midnight closing time. Graham and Cayle worked together to get the results on the Skill Shot website so the finalists would know to be back at the tournament before the noon start time. We are not sure that all of the contestants knew that we were going to do this, but we want to make this a regular thing, so watch for it to happen again next year.
Sunday was the last day of PAGS and also Skill Shot’s Biggest Loser Tournament! The two hour Biggest Loser event was held on Headley’s Future Spa, which fortunately had extra space around it due to Space Invaders being commandeered for the main tournament. Hosted by Bernard Boulevard, contestants were invited to try to get the lowest score possible without tilting! There was a lot of interest from people who had seen our posters as well as people passing by who were attracted by all the excitement. Biggest Loser is harder than it sounds when playing on a game like Future Spa. You never knew who was going to get the lowest score: a seasoned player, a shirtless Aaron McAbee, or perhaps the young kid hanging out with his dad. Ultimately Lee Hopson of Tacoma walked away with the lowest score and a Skill Shot T-shirt!
photo by Cheeseboat
As PAGS wound down for its 3PM closing time on Sunday, and people scurried around for some last minute pinball playing, The Northwest Pinball Championship Finals was entering its exciting conclusion. This is the largest pinball tournament in the region, with a big cash prize, so players from all over the area (and beyond) come to compete. Earlier in the day the tournament had the final playoffs for the Women’s Championship (won by Seattle’s Linda “Cheeseboat” Nasfell), the Classics Division (won by New York’s Francesco LaRocca), and the Novice Competition (won by Mercer Island’s Eric Dubofsky). Some of the players for the main tournament included Keith Elwin from Carlsbad CA, Zachand Josh Sharpe from Chicago IL, various members of Portland’s CFF crew and local favorites like Robert Gagno, Maka Honig and Cayle George. When all other locals had been defeated, Raymond Davidson from Mukilteo WA was the lone Seattle Pinball League member left in the contest. Raymond showed that he was a pinball force to be reckoned with when he tied number one ranked Elwin for first place and the $2,400 grand prize! Ultimately Elwin was able to wrest the first place win from the young upstart during a nail-biting tie breaker on Supersonic. Dang!
Skill Shot 19 was released on May 25th and our Folding Party at The Lookout was a big success with over 1600 zines folded! Thanks to everyone who helped fold and distribute the zine, and thanks to The Lookout for the hummus and sliders: dee-licious!
The Ballard Pinball Tournament happened on Monday, May 30th and because it was Memorial Day many of the planned pinball locations were closed. The tournament ended up having most of the matches at Liberty House (which was the scene of a croquet party the day before). Despite many of us having a chance to practice on the games at the party, Julie Gray came up from behind and took first place and Skill Shot’s GrahamKlym was second place.
Distributing Skill Shot gives us an opportunity to check out the pins on our Seattle Pinball List that we usually don’t play. A trip to Georgetown took us to all the usual spots with our favorite game being the WWF Royal Rumble at the9LB Hammer, a fun game even if the DMD fizzles out half the time. More time was also spent at Jules Maes watching 4th Place Andy doing the video mode on Star Trek the Next Generation which was more fun than it sounds. Tiger Lounge was the location with the most game changes so check our List for current updates!
The Northwest Pinball And Gameroom Show (NW PAGS) happened June 3 – 5 at the Seattle Center and was a lot of fun (as usual). This year they mixed up the pinball and arcade games more than in the past and we thought it was nicer this way. The fact that PAGS has both kinds of games (pinball and video) makes the show unique and it was nice that the two audiences weren’t segregated from each other like in the past.
There were a lot of interesting speakers this year, including Jack from Jersey Jack Pinball who is building the new Wizard of Oz game, and Gary Stern who heads Stern Pinball. The newest Stern pin TRON made its Seattle debut and there was a raffle to win the game. There were also seminars by many pinball artists and designers such as John Youssi, Steve Richie, John Popaduik, Greg Freres, as well as King of Kong and local celebrity Steve Wiebe.
Other ultra cool happenings at PAGS include the Pinball Guerilla BBQ (hosted by Claire and Headley), our own Skill Shot’s Biggest LoserTournament (won by Lee Hopson). Winners at The Northwest Pinball Championship included: Linda (Cheese Boat) Nasfell who was the highest scoring woman; Francesco La Rocca who was the Classics champion; and Eric Dubofsky who won the Novice tournament. The main tournament had an exciting finish when local youngster Raymond Davidson had a tie-breaking game against top rated Keith Elwin and almost won the whole tournament! WOW!!
The Seattle Pinball Museum hosted their quarterly Thursday Night Tournament on June 9th. It was the first time they’ve had one since they switched to the quarterly format and there were a lot of players there. Steven Ackley won, Brian Headley was second and Aaron McAbee took third.
The first of three TRON launch parties/tournaments happened this weekend at the Seattle Waterfront Arcade on Friday (6/10) and Dorky’s on Saturday (6/11). We didn’t make it to either event, but we heard that Maka and Chase Nunes got the wins on Friday and ELF got #1 at Dorky’s, along with Mary Pacha who was the top novice! Dorky’s changed their name to Flynn’s for the event, after the arcade in TRON!
There’s still one more TRON release event happening in Seattle at the Seattle Pinball Museum this Saturday.
We just went to Wolfie’sBirthday at The Lookout and it was packed! The Simpsons pin was mostly working (although the right flipper would sometimes go dead) and the Frankenstein was turned off. We were told that Pirates of the Caribbean will be replacing Frankie on Tuesday and since Wednesday is $5 PBR night we guess we will check it out then.
Congratulations to everyone who has won a tournament and/or had fun at a Seattle pinball event! EXTRA SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS GO TO CAYLE GEORGE! He won the World Pinball Championship in Sweden on May 29th. Check out world Pinball Rankings here!
SUPPORT LOCAL PINBALL!
For more pictures and general Seattle pinball chit chat check out our facebook page:
As promised, here are the results for the Open and Classics finals tomorrow at the Northwest Pinball & Gameroom Show. Thanks to Cayle for helping make this happen so easily.
Check back here at Skill-shot.com Saturday night and Sunday morning for a list of the finalists at the Pinball & Gameroom Show’s pinball tournaments!
Play our Biggest Loser Tournament from noon to 2 PM on Sunday on Future Spa! Don’t know how to play Biggest Loser? It’s easy. Just read about it here or in Skill Shot #19. Free to enter!
The last issue of Skill Shot got off to a rough start, with staff and printer meltdowns, a cancelled Folding Party and a last minute rush to have some issues ready for Gordon’s Birthday Party on April 4th. It was stressful and exhausting, but it all came together like magic, culminating in our Biggest Loser Pinball Tournament! It was a confusing, drunken good time with prizes won by just about everyone who stuck it out to the end, including IOU’s for new Skill Shot T-shirts! Big thanks to Jeff Groper, Jawn and everyone for the best birthday ever. Fun!
The April Seattle Pinball League (SPL) Tournament was held at Todd Mac’s house on Bainbridge Island and had a members-only restriction to keep the number of participants under control. The format was Pin Golf and the winner was Cayle George (we believe it was his first ever SPL tourney win). As always, Todd is an awesome host with a great pinball and arcade collection. Cathyand Steve deserve praise for once again supplying a ride to those without cars. Thanks, Cartoons!
Another April birthday was Claire’s and of course there was a pinball tournament in her and Headley’s Game Room. The Highest Score contest on Paragon was quickly dominated by Jawn, but the Biggest Loser Tournament on Future Spa caused the biggest ruckus. That was until Winston the party-pooping dog took a big dump in the middle of the floor! Happy Birthday Mommy!
The first ever 420 Greenwood Pinball Open happened on April 20th and had a start time of 4:20PM. The qualifying rounds had pins at Liberty House and Andrew’s basement, with the final matches at Add Motor Works in Fremont. It was a good turnout despite the $20 entry fee, and all for a tie-dyed t-shirt and a chance at the grand prize: a Bally Future Spa! The pins were set up to be challenging and rounds moved quickly until Lord of the Rings, which many of the contestants had long games on. The playfield glass on Stars was broken, the new SPL T-shirts debuted, the Cartoon Party Bus gave rides, and Cayle won. Far out!
For various reasons we missed a few tournaments: The Tiger Lounge EM Tournament on 4/23 (we should all support this place more since they have a lot of pins!); The Ballard Pinball Tournament on 4/25 (which was very crowded and is branching out to different locations next time); and the May SPL Tournament at James and Janice’s (everybody loves to go there!). We did make it to the First Sunday Brunch and Tournament at Shorty’s on May 1st and that was a lot of fun as always. Daryl and Jolie from Tacoma made their first trip up and ELF (freshly back from tour with Black Breath) won. Pizza for breakfast!
ThePowder Puff Tournament at Shorty’s on May 15th had women coming from all over
the Pacific Northwest to compete. We made special Powder Puff Skill Shot t-shirts for the event, worn by a team of our friends! There were a lot of new faces and it was a lot of fun, even though Cathy left in a huff. While no one on Team Skill Shot made it to the final four, it was still an exciting finish with CFF’s Zoe “Legs” Varbel winning the first place prize, a custom made backglass. Cheese Boat won the most coveted prize, a PBR toaster. Hot!
As mentioned above, we had to cancel the Skill Shot Folding Party because of printing issues, so we were especially grateful to those who showed up to the rescheduled folding party at The Lookout one week later. The Lookout wants to switch out both of their pins (Frankenstein and The Simpsons) and is considering starting a Tuesday free pinball night! Lots of pins have moved around lately, especially as Space Age Amusement’sMark O’farrell has taken a behind-the-scenes role and Darryl is now in charge of the day-to-day operations. So far, the Redwood got No Good Gophers, the Highline got Medieval Madness and The Grizzled Wizard is expecting a switch-out for the Black Knight 2000. Hmmm…
In other Skill Shot News: The One To Beat on Batman at Shorty’s almost had a new champion when 4th Place Andy got Grand Champ, but Maka noticed and got over a billion points on a free credit! 4th Place wrote an article on Batman scoring in Skill Shot 17, so chances are that he hasn’t given up. Speaking of issue 17, have you seen our new t-shirts yet? They feature a modified version of #17’s cover (SilverballMania) and are pretty sweet, if you ask us. Ordering info can be found on The Seattle Pinball List page of this issue. Awesome!
Pinball Tidbits: A new Full Tilt Ice Cream will be opening up this summer in Ballard and will reportedly have over 20 pins • The Seattle Pinball Museum will soon be opening their Upper Playfield to the public. They will also have a Beer and Snack Bar too • Tacoma Underground Pinball Society is sponsoring an Evel Knievel contest at Dorky’s throughout the summer. Ask for details next time you are there • Stern’s newest pin TRON is going to have 3 separate Launch Parties in the area: Dorky’s, SPM, and Seattle Waterfront Arcade • One Capitol Hill bar is considering a switch of vendors and adding more pins • SUPPORT LOCAL PINBALL!
It’s time for another great way to compete with your pinball buddies: The Biggest Loser Pinball Tournament! “But I play to win,” you might say. You can still win with the Biggest Loser! Just get the lowest score. The Biggest Loser is the big winner!
The rules to Biggest Loser are simple. One machine is chosen and players try to get the lowest score within a given amount of time on that game. Players can try as many times as they want. No tilting! Try to pick a machine where the ball has to go through pop bumpers, saucers, rollovers, and sling shots. More obstacles = more fun! Find the “sweet spot” and try not to hit anything. And avoid the urge to use the flippers!
Biggest Loser is a really exciting way to play pinball. We’re doing it at NW PAGS this year! Late 70’s Bally games are great for this type of tournament, so we’ve picked Future Spa again. The tournament will be on Sunday June 5 between noon and 2pm. If you are knocked out of the NW PAGS tourney, come over to Future Spa and see if you can lose again, but this time in a good way. The prize is a Skill Shot T-shirt!!
The Biggest Loser Pinball Tournament is best played in a free-play environment, like PAGS, or as a side tourney at SPL meetings. If you have a game in your home or office, try it with family or coworkers! It’s great at the Seattle Pinball Museum, where you make a donation and get to play all the games as much as you want. Pick a game and throw down a tournament, Biggest Loser style.
3 in the afternoon on Monday May 30th, because it was Memorial Day. As always the Ballard Tournament is a roving event that moves to different establishments in the neighborhood, but because of the holiday many of the planned venues were either closed or had inconvenient hours. Claire and Headley’s Pinball Room was also out of the running because of a new floor being installed, so all the matches were held at Snoose Junction and Liberty House. Julie Gray took first place and Graham Klym took second. Liberty House was a great place to go because they had hosted the Sam Theoharis Memorial Croquet Tournament the day before and were still stocked with grills, beer and pinball machines. Pinball Summer!
were being packed up for the Pacific Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (PAGS) later in the week. This annual event is something we look forward to each summer and Skill Shot was graciously allowed to take pictures of the games while they were being set up on Thursday evening. A lot of love and work goes into this show and we were impressed with how it was set up this year. Look for our full report on PAGS elsewhere in this issue!
The festivities included tasty food, fireworks, tank battles and of course, lots of pinball. Rod has a great collection of pins and this year he also had a nice set up in his garage. Some of the games included Fish Tales, two NBA Fastbreak that were connected to each other and 300, which became the center of attention when we held a Biggest Loser Tournament, won by Rod’s stepmother. Those Olsons have pinball in their blood!
Birthdays seem to be popular times to have pinball tournaments at Shorty’s. 4th Place Andy hosted The Trick Pinball Olympics on June 21st. Four different pins had different games: Biggest Loser on Speakeasy; Pat Hand on The Addams Family; Blind Folded (Tommy) on Family Guy; and Half and Half on Champion Pub. The highest scores were awarded points with the four highest scorers moving on to the final match on TRON, which Pancakes easily won. Jawn Wakefield had a Batman-themed 
birthday on July 21st, with a Bat-Hand tournament on Batman, naturally. In this tournament, players had to use the opposite hand for each flipper and you could do either forwards (like most people did) or backwards, which seemed to help some folks. This style of playing is fun and challenging and we would like to see it played again sometime on an easier game. Bat Fun!
We made it to Dorky’s recently and were impressed with their large game selection. It’s like a mini PAGS with a ton of arcade games and over 20 pinball machines, many of which you don’t often see available to the public. Dirty Harry, Data East’s Star Trek and Indianapolis 500 are just a few of the older games there, as well as newer pins like Big Buck Hunter and TRON. There were a few bands playing in the big room the night we visited and we watched Les the owner moving games around so a stage could be built. Later he even had a working arcade game out on the sidewalk for people to play. Dorky’s is in a nice part of Tacoma and there’s a lot of different neat bars and other businesses within walking distance. You don’t have to go anywhere else to get a drink though, because beginning August 1st Dorky’s started selling beer. Beer!
Specialty Coin in Kent and despite the rain there was a good turnout. There was lots of different stuff for sale or trade, including a No Good Gofers pinball machine and various ramps, switches and 
instruction manuals for many different games. Specialty Coin was also open and had Rolling Stones and NASCAR pins to play. Chris Walsh and Butch Clifford brought a generator along with Radical and Strike and Spares in the back of their truck, so those pins were also available to play. There’s talk of starting another swap meet on the north-end, but organizer Keith Nelson would rather have someone else coordinate that one. Thrifty!
Last issue’s Skill Shot Folding Party at The Lookout was our most successful one yet; over 1600 issues of the zine were folded in record time and we would like to thank everyone who stopped by to help out. Also, thanks again to The Lookout who provided us with tasty sliders and hummus (and beer). Have you been to our 
website? www.skill-shot.com is the place to go for all past Skill Shot articles and covers. There’s also current news and gossip tidbits, updated calendar listings and more, so check it out. You can also see what the current The One To Beat score is. We had to change the pin because no one could beat MAK’s 1,136,165,620 on Batman at Shorty’s. We’re sure everyone wants another chance to beat Maka so the new TOTB is the Jack-Bot at the Rabbit Hole in Belltown. Go Team Skill Shot!
when remembering The Macho Man • The Lookout has finally replaced the no tilt Frankenstein with Pirates of the Caribbean, and it plays pretty well if you’re not Jeff Groper • Pinball champ Nycole Hyatt is now bartending at the Tiger Lounge and plans are forming for a 
tournament there • The Fun House finally has a Fun House • The current season of Hell’s Kitchen has a pinball-themed intro that you should check out (on FOX) • The Highline took out part of the bar and built a pinball cove • The next new Stern will be Transformers • The Annual Shorty’s Pinball Tournament has changed dates to November 5 &6 • We want to go Pinball Camping!
arcades back in the 80’s), but in the long run it was a welcome change and helped cement Seattle’s role as a city that embraces both communities of players and collectors. As far as we know, PAGS is unique as the only national expo that showcases both pinball and arcade games. We even played more arcade games this year because they were both in the same aisle and it was easy to play one while waiting for the other.
don’t get to play often like Swords of Fury and Earthshaker. Some of the games that we had never seen before (and fell in love with) included Grand Lizard, Big Guns, and Transporter the Rescue, all of which have cool artwork and playfields. The pins in this collection are owned by different area collectors and Seattle Pinball League President Rod Olson actually bought a Millionaire machine so that the collection would be complete!
evolution of flippers, which became larger, and back glass art, which became rather surreal and psychedelic at times. A few of the standout pins in this section include Big Casino (1961) with its unique bottom bumpers (similar to Stern’s Wheel of Fortune) and games like Domino (1968) and Atlantis (1975) which show hip young people in unusual settings. Other older pins were also scattered around the hall, including the first flipperless pin to make an appearance at PAGS, an Exhibit Bounty (1938).
Friday was a fun day to go to PAGS, as it was the day with the least amount of people so there was less waiting to play our favorite machines. Not everyone could take the day off from work, so there was no wait to play popular games like Theatre of Magic, Banzai Run or Black Hole, compared to the other two days. One game that did have a bit of a wait was the Seattle debut of the new Stern TRON pinball machine that was set up next to the Raffle Table. Not only did you have the chance to play the latest Stern pin, you also had a chance to win it if you were able to purchase one of the $20 tickets (limited to 250), which sold out rather early on Friday afternoon.
due to be released later this year. Another seminar featured John Youssi (Jokerz, White Water, TRON) giving us the rundown on how he began his career as album cover artist and made his way into becoming one of the most prolific pinball artists of the modern era. There were many other seminars during the weekend featuring talks by local champ Todd MacCulloch, pinball designer John Popadiuk (Circus Voltaire), artist Greg Freres (Scared Stiff and this years PAGS poster), designer John Borg (Guns N’ Roses), and many more, including “The Making of TRON Pinball”.
Gary Stern of Stern Pinball did a presentation about his company and family’s history in pinball. It was a fascinating rundown on how his father began as a coin-op distributor and eventually created a family-run business that became the only pinball manufacturer in the USA. Gary explained how the sales of Stern pinball machines break down into three main groups (operators, enthusiasts, home owners) and how 60% of the new Stern games are distributed outside of the USA (which explains Stern’s commitment to licensed themes). He also presented his theory on how games were becoming too complex for the casual player. Stern believes that making games easier to figure out and by adding more random features, pinball will become more appealing. He ended his talk lauding the social aspects of pinball by having fun events like tournaments and new pinball release parties. (And with pinball zines we might add.)
This is the largest pinball tournament in the region, with a big cash prize, so players from all over the area (and beyond) come to compete. Earlier in the day the tournament had the final playoffs for the Women’s Championship (won by Seattle’s Linda “Cheeseboat” Nasfell), the Classics Division (won by New York’s Francesco LaRocca), and the Novice Competition (won by Mercer Island’s Eric Dubofsky). Some of the players for the main tournament included Keith Elwin from Carlsbad CA, Zach and Josh Sharpe from Chicago IL, various members of Portland’s CFF crew and local favorites like Robert Gagno, Maka Honig and Cayle George. When all other locals had been defeated, Raymond Davidson from Mukilteo WA was the lone Seattle Pinball League member left in the contest. Raymond showed that he was a pinball force to be reckoned with when he tied number one ranked Elwin for first place and the $2,400 grand prize! Ultimately Elwin was able to wrest the first place win from the young upstart during a nail-biting tie breaker on Supersonic. Dang!
Skill Shot 19 was released on May 25th and our Folding Party
at The Lookout was a big success with over 1600 zines folded! Thanks to everyone who helped fold and distribute the zine, and thanks to The Lookout for the hummus and sliders: dee-licious!
List that we usually don’t play. A trip to Georgetown took us to all the usual spots with our favorite game being the WWF Royal Rumble at the
9LB Hammer, a fun game even if the DMD fizzles out half the time. More time was also spent at Jules Maes watching 4th Place Andy doing the video mode on Star Trek the Next Generation which was more fun than it sounds. Tiger Lounge was the location with the most game changes so check our List for current updates!
who is building the new Wizard of Oz game, and Gary Stern who heads Stern Pinball. The newest Stern pin TRON made its Seattle debut and there was a raffle to win the game. There were also seminars by many pinball artists and designers such as John Youssi, Steve Richie, John Popaduik, Greg Freres, as well as King of Kong and local celebrity Steve Wiebe.
Other ultra cool happenings at PAGS include the Pinball Guerilla BBQ (hosted by Claire and Headley), our own Skill
Shot’s Biggest Loser Tournament (won by Lee Hopson). Winners at The Northwest Pinball Championship included: Linda (Cheese Boat) Nasfell who was the highest scoring woman; Francesco La Rocca who was the Classics champion; and Eric Dubofsky who won the Novice tournament. The main tournament had an exciting 
finish when local youngster Raymond Davidson had a tie-breaking game against top rated Keith Elwin and almost won the whole tournament! WOW!!
The first of three TRON launch parties/tournaments happened this weekend at the Seattle Waterfront Arcade on Friday (6/10) and Dorky’s on Saturday (6/11). We didn’t make it to either event, but we heard that Maka and Chase Nunes got the wins on Friday and ELF got #1 at Dorky’s, along with Mary Pacha who was the top novice! Dorky’s changed their name to Flynn’s for the event, after the arcade in TRON!
cancelled Folding Party and a last minute rush to have some issues ready for Gordon’s Birthday Party on April 4th. It was stressful and exhausting, but it all came together like magic, culminating in our Biggest Loser Pinball Tournament! It was a confusing, drunken good time with prizes won by just about everyone who stuck it out to the end, including IOU’s for new Skill Shot T-shirts! Big thanks to Jeff Groper, Jawn and everyone for the best birthday ever. Fun!
and Headley’s Game Room. The Highest Score contest on Paragon was quickly dominated by Jawn, but the Biggest Loser Tournament on Future Spa caused the biggest ruckus. That was until Winston the party-pooping dog took a big dump in the middle of the floor! Happy Birthday Mommy!
Pinball Tournament on 4/25 (which was very crowded and is branching out to different locations next time); and the May SPL Tournament at James and Janice’s (everybody loves to go there!). We did make it to the First Sunday Brunch and Tournament at Shorty’s on May 1st and that was a lot of fun as always. Daryl and Jolie from Tacoma made their first trip up and ELF (freshly back from tour with Black Breath) won. Pizza for breakfast!
points on a free credit! 4th Place wrote an article on Batman scoring in Skill Shot 17, so chances are that he hasn’t given up. Speaking of issue 17, have you seen our new t-shirts yet? They feature a modified version of #17’s cover (Silverball Mania) and are pretty sweet, if you ask us. Ordering info can be found on The Seattle Pinball List page of this issue. Awesome!
