Category: news & gossip

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news & gossip reviews

A Rather Short Guide To Pinball At Shorty’s

Originally published in Skill Shot issue 11, October 2009

by Uglúk

Note: This list of pinball machines will surely change. Hopefully extra balls will be turned off for the annual tournament but there’s no telling.

SPEAKEASY:  Pinball gambling. Pay attention to the roulette wheel, especially after every ball, and avoid the dreaded Subtract-A-Ball “feature” at all costs. Leans to the left.

REVENGE FROM MARS:  Advancing to (and doing well in) Bonus Wave Multiball is handy for a solid score. Beware, this RFM’s tilt is dangerous and likes to carry over to the next player’s ball; always wait a minute or two before launching, especially after your opponent tilts.

CHAMPION PUB: Everyone’s favorite bare-knuckle boxing pinball machine! Shoot stuff and jump rope then hit the dude in the middle a bunch. Spitting gallery is easy points… door prize skill shot.

INDIANA JONES: Temple of Doom Multiball is a quick way to start racking points, I guess. Raiders of The Lost Ark Multiball is fun. Don’t ignore the Crystal Skull ramp. Shoot the Map Room a lot for more fun with bonus. EB’s abound.

’24’: Uhhhh, shooting the easy center ramp while it’s lit seems to do something. Suitcase Multiball is fairly lucrative. Moving on…

FATHOM: Now here’s a great machine for head-to-head battles. Lock the ball(s), then knock down those drop targets to release the locked ball(s) for old school multiball! (with 2X or even 3X playfield scoring!) It’s all there on the Instructions Card, if I remember correctly. Lighting and collecting the timed extra ball is a real challenge. Bonus is vital here, so don’t tilt… tilt too hard and you run the risk of tilting your competition’s turn, so be gentle or suffer the consequences!

THE ADDAMS FAMILY: Another classic game you don’t want to tilt because of the potentially gamebreaking bonus involved. Shoot the chair, shoot the ramp.  Kick ass at multiballs.  Victoly!

FAMILY GUY: Shoot the right spinner repeatedly to light the valuable TV modes. Stewie Pinball is where it’s really at, complete those shots for Stewie Multiball! A good Stewie Multiball coupled with Sexy Party or Good ‘Ol Boys (and/or Crazy Chris) should be enough for a dominating score.

BATMAN: Placing beer coasters over the searingly bright flashers so you can, you know, *see* is a good idea. Yeah. Lots of nudging is useful here. Balls like to get stuck in places, have fun with that.

STAR TREK: The Next Generation: Those outlanes are ruthless, keep ball away from them, obviously. Try forward nudges. Get comfortable with the right lock shot because Borg Multiball is the fast path to mountainous pinball success. Holodeck is easy points. Start Mission shot ain’t all that easy, timing out missions to get to The Final Frontier…?

EVEL KNIEVEL: Knock down them drop targets on the left for double bonus, then do it again for a precious EB. Shoot the lit spinner for rad points and stuff. And, seriously, don’t tilt ‘cuz it’ll make you lose.

SURF CHAMP: Rollover those rollover stars. Don’t even think of muscling this sucker around. Tilt it too hard and forfeit your whole game, fool.

NBA: New kooky pinball features spinning disc of random fun. Super fast game. I like shooting the right ramp.

MONSTER BASH: All the shots are very makeable. Collect monsters and instruments. Stay alive during multiballs to win.

TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS:  Spin the lamp to make it all lightningy.  Next, shoot the make-a-wish scoop and choose 3X lightnings. Now wail on the lamp and make mega-lightnings for massive points!! If that doesn’t work, a more conservative approach is in order…but I can’t help you there because I’m gonna make more mega-lightnings! Tilty.

MEDIEVAL MADNESS: Crush the castles! Both ramps are easy enough, don’t miss. No rubber on right outlane post makes it extra drainy lately.

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news & gossip

The Official Skill Shot Pinball Crawl!

Are the cloud-filled skies, leaf-laden sidewalks, and shortened days of autumn getting you down? Now that you’ve tossed your lawn darts and rollerblades back in the closet for the next few months, are you sitting on your sofa, twiddling your thumbs, wondering what to do with yourself? Well, worry not my frazzled, fall-fearing friend, for we now bring you…

The Official Skill Shot Pinball Crawl!

by Geoffro
Originally published in Skill Shot issue 11, October 2009

Installment 1: The University District

Although the U-District pinball crawl can be attempted on a Friday or Saturday evening, Skill Shot does not necessarily recommend doing so (you will have to deal with hordes of highly intoxicated college students everywhere you go). But don’t let those rabble-rousing youngsters deter you any other night of the week, there’s plenty of flipper-filled fun to be had here.

Start at the south end of the U-District and work your way north. This way you’ll save the better games for last, and you’ll get some exercise walking uphill! Woo hoo!

The COLLEGE INN PUB

Descend a flight of stairs to enter this somewhat cave-like subterranean bar. You may have to shoo a group of graduate students off to another table to make room for yourself to play The Addams Family and World Cup Soccer. Neither game is very well lit, and although functional, The Addams Family machine has certainly seen better days. The dot-matrix display fizzles in and out and the ball tends to get stuck (temporarily) up near Thing. However, everything seems to be in more or less good-working condition on World Cup Soccer, including Magna-Save! You’ll likely find no reason to linger at the College Inn Pub, but it’s not a bad place to start out and shake the rust off your game. Mosey on up the Ave a few blocks and you’ll come to…

EARL’S ON THE AVE

If you’re wondering what it’s like inside this incredibly classy joint, the chicken wire on the open-air windows facing the Ave tells you all you’ll need to know. Not sure how to fit in with the throng of 21-year-olds drinking way more than they should be out of plastic cups? No sweat, just shout out “Woo! College! Yeah!” when you walk in the door and you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Pull a pint, post-up in front of the fine Fish Tales machine, and give a pinball lesson to the strapping young lads and lasses attending Seattle’s finest institution of higher learning. Less than a block away from Earl’s, just off the opposite corner of 45th lies the 3rd stop on our pinball crawl, the pleasantly dingy tucked away nook of a game room at…

SURESHOT ESPRESSO

Crammed in with extra chairs and various other odds and ends are a couple of retro arcade games and 3 vintage pins: Space Mission, Wizard, and the coffee shop’s namesake game, Sureshot. All 3 games, although over 30 years old, are well-maintained by Dominique of Silver Age Silver Ball, and are a lot of fun to play. The older games and relatively peaceful coffeehouse atmosphere provide a nice change of pace along the midway point of your journey. After you’ve refueled with a shot of espresso and had your fill of the classic pins at Sureshot, strap your drinkin’ boots back on and walk about 8 blocks north on the Ave to get to our favorite pinball establishment in the U-District…

THE GALWAY ARMS

The Galway is a great little pub with a stripped down Irish punk aesthetic and friendly bearded bartenders. If there’s still a ray of sunlight in the sky by the time you arrive, be sure to try one the epic bloody marys (beef-jerky infused vodka, splash of Guinness, cocktail onions, olives, pepperoncinis, croutons). Yum! Normally we’d save the best stop for last, but in addition to the fantastic bloodies, the Galway Arms also regularly hosts punk and metal shows that could potentially interfere with your pinball plans. As for the pinball – you’ll find the machines here are the finest in the area, maintained monthly (or more if need be) by Classic Amusements. Currently they supply the bar with 3 games: Surf Champ, Monster Bash, and Twilight Zone. Report any ongoing issues to one of the pro-pinball gentlemen behind the bar and they’ll likely be remedied before long. Eventually you’ll have to leave the friendly folks and pristine pins at the Galway Arms behind and head over to the corner of 53rd and Roosevelt to complete your excursion. Here lie the 5th and 6th stopping points on our pinball tour, Dante’s and Piccolo’s Pizza.

DANTE’S

Dante’s is a large bar with multiple levels and a dark, dungeon-like feel. You’ll find the pinball machines lurking in a corner downstairs behind the air-hockey table, cleverly shielded from the occasional mayhem that descends upon Dante’s. There are 2 games. One is a slightly shabby Bram Stoker’s Dracula that will at times seem to acquire a mind of its own. The other is one of the gems of the U-District, a well-worn but extremely playable Theatre of Magic, one of our favorite games. If you feel your tummy rumbling, and have not yet filled your belly at one of the area’s seemingly endless array of restaurants, feel free to do so here (standard greasy pub fare) or walk across the street for a tasty slice at…

PICCOLO’S PIZZA

Grab a slice or two and meander on past the classic wooden pizzeria-style booths to the game room, where you’ll find a couple of intriguing pins (alas, there used to be more) amidst a number of other arcade games. Piccolo’s is currently featuring 2 solid state games from the early 80’s: Ready…  Aim… Fire! and The Incredible Hulk. Last we checked, both machines were leaning heavily to the right.  If you’re out crawling with a mate, that shouldn’t be too hard to remedy, assuming they haven’t already been adjusted. Regardless, both games are enjoyable; note the Hulk’s amusing sound effects, which for some reason we find mysteriously pleasing.

It should be noted that the Knarr Shipwreck Lounge, on 55th and University (a couple of blocks north of the Galway Arms) does have one pinball machine, World Cup Soccer. Unfortunately, as the days go by it seems to fall into further and more advanced states of disrepair. Will this trend continue to the machine’s eventual demise? We hope not.

This brings our pinball tour of the U-District to a close. We hope you enjoy it! Stay tuned for the next installment of the Official Skill Shot Pinball Crawl!

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news & gossip

Skill Shot #10 News & Gossip

Originally published in Skill Shot issue 10, September 2009

Wow, tons of stuff has happened since our last issue! We succeeded in getting out the last issue of Skill Shot in time for the 2nd Annual Northwest Pinball and Game Room Show (aka PAGS) which was held at Seattle Center on June 12-14th. It was tons of fun with lots of free pinball once you paid the admission fee (or volunteered like some of us did).

Some of the notable games this year were: Tommy (which has blinds that cover the flipper area); Orbitor 1 (with a crazy optical illusion playfield); Black Hole (that has a lower reversed playfield); Iron Maiden (a rare German pin); Fire! (with a LOUD bell); and Twin Win (which we had never played before despite it being featured on the cover of issue #3). Old favorites that we don’t get to play very often were also there like Whirlwind, Baywatch, The Shadow and Whitewater (which was also a raffle prize!). All the games at the show are owned by private collectors and one thing that a few of them did this year was place info cards on top of the machines that gave interesting tidbits such as the year and make of the game and other trivia. It was very cool and we hope that others will do the same thing next year.

The arcade game section was much larger this year and had its own room. If you were lucky you had a chance to see Steve Wiebe (from the movie King of Kong) play Donkey Kong in person! Naturally there were also various pinball celebrities in attendance, such as Dennis Nordman (Pirates of the Caribbean), Greg Freres (Fathom) and Steve Richie (No Fear, STTNG). There were also many world ranked pinball players at the show because of the IFPA sanctioned pinball tournament and many people were thrilled to be able to watch them ply their trade in Seattle. Some of the players (who are currently ranked in the top 20) in attendance were Keith Elwin (currently #2), the Sharpe brothers (#’s 4 & 6), Neil Shatz (#12) and of course Seattle’s own Cayle George (#14).

Like last year the tournament took place along the back side of the show space and had games that were only available to people in the tournament (like Flash and Theatre of Magic). For $10 anyone could enter the tourney and play these tables. Some of the NW locals who entered and did very well were Jamie Beth, Jeff Groper, Roya Naini , Bonnie Bedford (this year’s Powder Puff Champ), Darren Catlin (Novice Champ) and Julie Gray (Women’s Champ). The overall champion of the tournament was Eden Stamm from Vancouver BC who won both the Classics and the Open Tournament. Good show you guys!

Another good showing that weekend was by everyone who wore their brand new Skill Shot t-shirt to PAGS! Featuring the cover from issue #5, these darlings were the talk of all the pinball fashonistas and also sported the wearer’s very own pinball initials on the back! We rushed to get them ready and were ironing on the letters late into the night so that everyone could wear them to the show. They look pretty cool if you ask us. Unfortunately (for you) they are sold out.

Another highlight of that weekend was the after party at Add-a-ball Amusements in Fremont on Saturday night. Add-a-Brad (the owner) has a great collection of electro-mechanical pins in his shop including Jumping Jack, which is one of the top ranking EM machines according to the International Pinball Database (www.ipdb.org). The Skill Shot crew met lots of cool people (and a dog) at the party that had lots of pinball, beer, puking and a long walk home for Timmy!

Summer is the time for pinball parties around Seattle and the one at Rodney’s on the 4th of July was a hoot! We arrived sort of late but still were able to cram in a fireworks war, a hoola hoop contest, hot tub wrestling and (of course) a ton of pinball into our short late night visit. We were in ecstasy! Another awesome party was James Edes’ 50th Birthday Party on August 1st which featured 50 (mostly) working pinball machines! It was like being at a mini PAGS with all the great games (like Embryon and Spectrum), an awesome cake and a tournament that not only lasted late into the night, but also qualified the players for IFPA points!

Other great parties that we didn’t make it to included the one for the PAGS volunteers at Lou Perazzoli’s, Keith and Dave’s Full Tilt 2009 birthday bash (with pinball outside on the deck), and Andrew Nunes’ Summer (solstice) Soiree which had a Future Spa machine that Brian Headley loved so much that he added one to the collection he is building in his apartment! Groper apparently has a bunch of new games at his place too, but we haven’t actually seen or played them yet (sniff sniff). This makes us think that we should get a pin for the Skill Shot office since we have the space for one. Anyone have a suggestion? (hint hint)

After a recent visit to Headley’s we stopped at the Redwood to play Tee’d Off and were pleasantly surprised to discover a Baby Pac-man. At least we were pleased until our ball got stuck on a piece of duct tape that was used to repair the playfield! Duct tape, really? The game was so wobbly that there was no way to dislodge it without tilting and it was kind of funny in a way. Space Age Amusements who (owns the games there) sometimes gets a bad rap for having sub par pins out on location, but we think we should still give them some props for maintaining as many games as they do. Recently we’ve heard rumors that the owner Marc O’Farrell was thinking about getting out of the business (after 30 years!), but he says that isn’t the case and he keeps adding locations such as a new spot opening soon in Burien with 6 games! Just no more duck tape please.

Speaking of things that are not well kept, many of you may have noticed that the Skill Shot web site hasn’t been updated since last October. Oops. That is soon to change as we are currently working with people to build a new site with a different URL (soon to be announced). Meanwhile the Skill Shot page at Myspace still has our most up to date Pinball List available on the internet. Check it out: www.myspace.com/skillshott

While a few places have gotten rid of their pinball machines this summer (Ozzies, Nite Lite, Teddy’s Tavern) a bunch of new places with pins have opened up! Add-a-ball Amusements of course was mentioned last issue (and this one too). Other new pinball venues are: Full Tilt 2 in Columbia City (4 pins); The Lookout (Frankenstein); and the Tiger Lounge in Georgetown that has 5 EM games (with more on the way) supplied by Silver Age/Silver Ball. Dominique, the operator of Silver Age is a great guy and he is really passionate about the older games. He’s even been building one in his basement! We love him (and gal pal Destiny) and you should too, because they helped print back issues of Skill Shot so we could give them away at PAGS. Meanwhile back at the Tiger Lounge, we’ve heard plans about a tournament they are planning for the weekend of October 24th. It will be a roving tournament with pins supplied by various private owners who won’t install the games at the venue until a few days before the event. Sounds intriguing….

Another intriguing event happened during 4th Place Andrew’s birthday party at Shorty’s when we released our other zine Chicken With Penis, and introduced the first CWP Half and Half Pinball Tournament. As you may remember Half and Half is when two-player teams compete, with one person controlling each flipper. Since this was a CWP tournament we introduced a twist at the last moment by whipping out XXXL t-shirts that both players had to wear at the same time, which then made it a Siamnese Twin Pinball Tournament! We were able to keep it a secret and some of the better players were thrown off their game, especially when a taller player like Maka was teamed up with a less tall player like Add-a-Brad. The twist worked better than expected as we got to observe a Timmy and Jason love-fest inside their shirt, and (tournament winners) Cheese Boat & Alena kicking a frisky fella out of their shirt. Skill Shot contributors Geoffro and T-Bone also participated, but for some reason the lovely Nycole stayed on the side lines. (Aww…)The top 3 teams received original CWP t-shirts hand drawn by Gordon2. Jealous!

Meanwhile after a slow summer the weekly Sunday Pinball Tournament at Shorty’s is beginning to pick up again. The main organizer Paul had a baby (well, sort of) earlier this year, but now he is ready to get things moving. These Sunday Tournaments are fun and a great way to meet people who also love the sport. Not to mention a convenient way to watch some of the better players in the area up close and personal (as they trounce all our asses). Sign up begins at 6, and no they don’t have Coca Cola!

In other related tourney news: PAPA 11(Professional/Amateur Pinball Association) World Pinball Championships in Carnegie, PA happened in August (Keith Elwin won) and according to everyone who went it was a lot of fun. Imagine our surprise when a recent visit to Facebook revealed that PAPA organizer Kevin Martin is an old school chum of Skill Shot’s own Bernard Boulevard! Guess where we’ll be next year?

Back at Shorty’s we were surprised to discover that the new Stern release NBA had replaced the (still sort of new) CSI machine. Part of our surprise was that we didn’t even notice the new game until we were there for over an hour because the new Stern games look so similar to each other. Like their last release 24, NBA doesn’t have a skill shot so we are kind of bummed about that, but it seems like a fun game, as long as Avout can keep that spinner on the playfield working.

In other news: Hooverville, that had a fire earlier this year, will be reopening soon (September?) and yes there will be pinball! As before, Shorty’s will be providing the games so maybe we will see the return of Wheel of Fortune to Seattle? We hope so. Avout is still unsure if the Centaur that was damaged in the fire is salvageable, but the game may soon be opened up for inspection.

And ELF was on tour and missed it all!

Categories
news & gossip reviews

Money Money Money

by Bernard Blvd.

It’s time for another great new way to play pinball with your friends:  Dollars!

Dollars is a multiple player game during which each player strategically puts one of their own dollars on the playfield of a chosen pinball machine in an attempt to sabotage the other player(s) game.  So say you’ve got four people on Indiana Jones (the newest one).  Your friends would probably put dollars in the most obvious spots like:  Over the two scoops (there are bumpers behind them and the Sankara Stone scoop isn’t always open), hiding the magnet in front of the arc (that’s a good way to distract other players from an easy target for multiball), or covering the flippers (duh).

Their choices leave you free to be more careful with your own dollar placement.  A good spot would be over the plunger lane because you can cover the five choices for the skill shot.  Another place that could handicap your opponents is over the pegs on top of the side drains.  That’s a spot where most champs can save their ball by nudging the machine, so placing a dollar there increases your chances of crippling the competition and winning FOUR BUCKS!

Of course, you can put more than one dollar down, and have each player put in a dollar at the start of every ball.  Although this option is more profitable for the winner, playing ball three with twelve dollars covering the playfield is hard.  And most people can’t afford to spend three dollars to play pinball in this economy.

But some people are still rich.  Why not play five dollars?  A hundred?  With the stakes a lot higher, players could get so into the game that they try to actually move the dollars by shaking the machine.  What about a million?  Maybe someday James Bond will bet one hundred million dollars on one ball in a big budget 007 movie.  My suggestion for the title:  Goldflipper.

So you put in a buck, pick a spot that you think would be hard for your competition to play without being able to see it, and lay your money down.  You could win a million dollars!  But remember, betting money on pinball is illegal and we only “play flipper skill games for fun and recreation”, so if the cops show up, grab that dough and run.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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news & gossip

Skill Shot #9 News & Gossip

Originally published in Skill Shot issue 9, June 2009

The 2009 Powder Puff Pinball Tournament happened May 17th at Shorty’s and it was so much fun! 28 ladies signed up in the double elimination head to head competition that was hosted by Larry Reid, who also hosts the Annual Shorty’s Tournament as well as the recent one in Georgetown. Many of the area’s top female players were there including Julie Gray (Powder Puff winner for 2007) and Nycole Hyatt, who was the top scoring female at the last two open tournaments. Skill Shot caused a bit of a stir by premiering our super-limited edition t-shirts, because we didn’t have any extras to sell. Elizabeth and Savannah were good sports and agreed to be our Powder Puff t-shirt models for the day- and Savannah actually did very well in the tournament, tying with Naomi for 6th place! The grand prize was a Night Rider pinball machine which was won by Bonnie Bedford of Vancouver BC, who narrowly beat Jamie Beth by just 160 points! Other prizes for the event included t-shirts, Jagermeister thongs, and a PBR tent! Check out SeattleWeekly.com for pictures of the tournament.

Speaking of PBR: Our last issue was rushed from the printers so that we could hand them out at PBR Customer Appreciation Night at Shorty’s on April 1st (which actually fooled some people). Shorty’s sells the most PBR in Seattle (#2 in the state) and besides having lots of the usual give-aways (t-shirts, stickers, etc), almost all of the pinball machines were set to free play for the night. The Shorty’s/PBR beer mugs were the most sought-after freebie and by the end of the night, if you weren’t holding on to yours tightly, you risked having it snatched from under your nose (right, Geoffro?).

Another tournament that happened recently was at Ground Kontrol in Portland Oregon on April 19th. They had 120 contestants for the event, which lasted a whopping 16 hours! Seattle didn’t have a lot of players there that weekend despite many of the plans we heard beforehand, but a few of those who did go represented Seattle well, with ELF and MAK tying for 9th place and Cayle George cementing his standing as one of the Pacific Northwest’s best players by winning the whole thing.

In other regional news, we recently took a trip to Tacoma to check out their pinball scene. Our first stop was Hell’s Kitchen, which has a nice pin area featuring a very nice The Shadow machine. We loved playing this game since there isn’t one available in Seattle, and the Doctor Who game was nice too. Over at Tower Lanes, the Super Mario Bros. pinball machine had the volume set at ear-piercing levels – which was quickly fixed when Stan the pinball repair dude showed up less than 20 minutes after being called! We were impressed. Although we only hit those two spots, the locals happily informed us of other good places to go, including a Whirl Wind game at a hotel (!). We’ll be back!

Meanwhile, back in Seattle: May 25th was the grand opening of Add-a-Ball Amusments in Fremont. Part scooter repair shop, part pinball hall, Add-a-Ball plans on having EM (electro-mechanical) pinball machines, including a few European ones that are rarely seen in the States. Dominique of Silver Age Silver Ball naturally has some of his games there since EM pins are what he distributes, and Add-a-Brad (Add-a-Ball’s owner) hopes to turn more people on to these classic games. Go there NOW! http://addaball.com/

Another new addition to the Seattle pinball community (besides Avout’s new baby) is Stern’s latest release, 24. We haven’t played enough to have a super confirmed opinion about it but the fact that there is not a skill shot doesn’t leave us feeling too positive for obvious reasons. Still there’s plenty of easy to get multi-balls so that’s cool. We were sad to see Wheel of Fortune removed to make room for it though since it was the only one around and it seemed as if people were finally warming up to the game (it was interesting to play, but suffered from a dorky theme). Bring Back WoF!!!

On June 12-14 the NW Pinball and Game Room Show returns to Seattle Center for what looks to be an exciting weekend! Over 200 different pinball and arcade games will be set at free play and we are hyped to play some of these rarely seen machines. A few of the pins we’re looking forward to include games that were featured on past covers of Skill Shot (Spectrum, Twin Win) and other machines that we haven’t seen since last year’s show (Banzai Run, Pharoah). There’s also tons of cool arcade games (Berzerk!), guest speakers, tournaments, and prizes, and it should be tons of fun. (For more details go to http://www.nwpinballshow.com) Look for us at the show and say “Hi!”. We’ll be handing out zines in our fancy Skill Shot t-shirts.

And if you act quickly, you too can get a fancy Skill Shot t-shirt! We’re printing up a limited edition shirt with the cover of issue #5 on the front, plus (while supplies last) you’ll get 3 iron-on letters so you can put your pinball initials on the back. Gnarly! Ask about them when you see us, or shoot us an email at chickenwithpenis@yahoo.com.

Another thing you’ll want to ask us about is the first ever Skill Shot Half and Half Tournament. Half and Half is a team game with one person on each flipper (introduced in Skill Shot #7), so pick your partner now and be ready to sign up for fun and fabulous prizes! Email us for more details.

Categories
news & gossip tips & tricks

“Make It So”

by Geoffro

After eight (and a half) successful issues of  Skill Shot, we thought it was about time to print an article concerning our namesake. And since the cover of our latest issue features the lovely Lt. Worf from the backglass of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we figured, why not talk about the skill shot from this classic game? Most machines’ skill shots are fairly straightforward affairs, and often simply hitting a lit target will do the trick. Star Trek’s opening shot, however, is a bit more complex.

After you’ve popped in your quarters and have been welcomed aboard the Starship Enterprise by Captain Picard, you’re faced with five different skill shot options cycling across the display. Just pull the plunger (in this case the trigger) when the option you want is on the screen (pressing the flipper buttons will cycle through them faster). Make sure not to dawdle or they’ll flash by too quickly to make an accurate selection.

Start Mission immediately activates one the game’s seven modes:  Battle Simulation, Time Rift, Q’s Challenge, Worm Hole, Asteroid Threat, Rescue, or Search the Galaxy.  These are all fun to play and of course have the potential to yield a significant amount of points.

Flipper Skill Shot gives you a limited amount of time to shoot for the Beta Quadrant (the right ramp).  A successful shot will award a random bonus – sometimes even an extra ball or special!

Launch Probe allows you to immediately utilize Star Trek’s most intriguing feature, the two plastic guns sitting on top of the slingshots. Launch Probe lights a flashing shot and sends the ball to one of the guns, which will then begin to rotate back and forth allowing you to pull the trigger and shoot the ball out onto the playfield. Hit the lit shot in time and collect a random award!

Light Lock is as straightforward as it sounds – although Light Lock lights AND locks the ball, advancing you towards multiball. This option can only be selected twice per game – the third time around Light Holodeck will appear instead, which is by no means a bad thing. Shooting the Holodeck (the Right Orbit) will allow you to access the game’s video mode Shuttle Simulation.

Warp Factor 4:  This requires a brief explanation of Warp Factors. Warp Factors are increased by hitting the Spinner (the Left Orbit) and the Delta Quadrant (the Left Ramp). Each advance in Warp Factor (from 1 to 9) yields a unique bonus of some sort (WF 8 is an Extra Ball and WF 9 starts Factor 9 Mode). So… selecting Warp Factor 4 as your skill shot gets you almost halfway there! Not bad…

As you can see, Star Trek’s skill shot possibilities are nearly as endless as the universe itself! Choose your skill shot and “Make it So.”

Categories
news & gossip reviews

Right Here Right Now

By Bernard Blvd.

Introducing another great new way to play pinball:  Skill Shot’s NOW!  The point of NOW! is to switch players mid-turn with whoever happens to be playing and standing closest to you.  When you reach a point during play where the ball is suspended for a period of time, loudly say “NOW!” and the player you choose to go next hops onto the flippers.  In choosing that player, you must believe in their ability to keep the ball in play, and to not get caught off guard and drain the ball immediately.  The surprise of the switch can sometimes throw people off, so everyone playing has to be prepared to jump in when they hear “NOW!”.

A good time to shout “NOW!” would be before a multiball (when the ball is locked and the dot-matrix display is going multiball crazy), when the ball lands in a scoop, or when the game starts up a mode.  More advanced players of NOW! can do it when the ball goes around a ramp or even when it is going up the playfield after hitting the flipper.  This last option leaves little time for the next player to react, so remember to only do that move if they are an expert of the game.

NOW! is great for playing with people in a bar or social setting, because you can stop playing in the middle of your turn without wasting the ball or giving up the game.  This might free you up when a friend shows up that you want to talk to, or if it is your turn to buy the next pitcher and your friends are getting thirsty.  NOW! is a Round and Round type of game, as the nature of it doesn’t allow for score keeping or typical three ball games.  NOW! is a fun way to interact socially while practicing America’s favorite pastime, Pinball!

Coming up next:  Dollars!

Categories
news & gossip

Skill Shot #8 News & Gossip

Originally published in Skill Shot issue 8, April 2009

Tragedy struck the Seattle pinball community on February 25th when a fire devastated the Hooverville bar and its collection of pinball and arcade games. According to the Seattle Fire Department the fire was caused when a ceiling fan on the second floor mezzanine overheated. While the fire was contained to the second floor, the smoke and water damage to the bar and its contents was extensive, causing an estimated $400,000 in damages.

The four pinball machines located at Hooverville at the time of the fire were Spider-man, The Getaway: High Speed 2, Twilight Zone, and Centaur. Although the fire was on the second floor, the mezzanine was directly above the pinball area which resulted in a lot of water pouring down on the games as the Fire Department extinguished the blaze. Besides the water, the smoke damage to the machines was considerable. According to Avout of Shorty’s who owns the games, it looked as if someone had spray painted the machines black, both inside and out!

The extent of the smoke damage to the games is still unknown at this point, because while the soot can be wiped away on the metal and glass parts, the plastic pieces of the games have a tendency to suck it up. Besides making everything stink, smoke also has a corrosive effect on the parts and Avout is unsure whether he will be able to coax any of the games back to life.

Although the destruction of any pinball machine is sad, it is the loss of Centaur that has hit Seattle the hardest. Not only is Centaur a rare machine, Hooverville’s was the only one available to the general public and helped make that bar a destination for many of the area’s pinball players. Manufactured in 1981, Centaur is a great game to play with its “orb” multi-ball feature that is both challenging and fun (if you can get it), but it is the artwork on the machine that is its most striking feature. Like the name implies, a centaur is the main focus of the backglass art, except instead of half man and half horse like a mythological centaur would be, the pinball Centaur is half (monster) man and half motorcycle, with the predictable “babe” along for the ride. The playfield art is also memorable and details of it were featured on the two different covers to Skill Shot #6. (Amazingly, un-burnt copies of Skill Shot #6.5 were discovered in the ruins of the bar later in the week. Thank you Jesus!)

Although unconfirmed at this time, according to posts on The Stranger’s SLOG, owners Todd and Billy plan on rebuilding and hope to have Hooverville reopened in the near future.

Pinball machines to be announced…

The 1st Annual Georgetown Pinball Tournament happened on Sunday February 22 and was a success with 56 contestants and almost as many onlookers attending. This tournament was set up much like the Annual Shorty’s Tournament (with the exact same rule sheet) but went quite a bit smoother due to the fewer number of contestants and the fact that it was spread out among three bars (Jules Maes, Calamity Jane’s and The 9LB Hammer).

9LB Hammer had recently enlarged the game room section and added two more pins for the event (The Getaway: High Speed 2 and Monster Bash). The expanded room is sweet and we enjoyed the time we spent hanging out there talking to members of Dead Baby Bikes and Kelsey from Tacoma who was competing to be the most drunken contestant.

At Calamity Jane’s we lusted over the Jack-Bot pin we couldn’t play (since we weren’t contestants), and marveled that Avout switched the Hurricane pin for Junk Yard which was the second one in the tourney. We’re happy that this Junk Yard has found a new home after being bumped from Shorty’s, but since there was already one nearby our excitement was a bit restrained.

Most of the Skill Shot staff made an appearance and we spent much of our time handing out copies of our zines Skill Shot, Chicken With Penis and stickers/lighters. A side trip took us to Stellar Pizza where we were determined to actually play some pinball, but were deterred due to a broken Indiana Jones (which ate our money) and the lack of quarters from the staff (a waitress changed a dollar for us after we begged)! Didn’t they realize that there was a big pinball thingy happening just a block away?? Ouch! Maybe we should have walked to the Georgetown Liquor Company instead.

Jules Maes was ground zero for the tournament and was where the scores and announcements were done. The open performance room gave extra elbow room for everyone, including customers who weren’t there for the pinball. Many pinball regulars attended, along with those we don’t see very often, including Zak who once co-owned the Hi-Score arcade on Cap Hill and the incomparable Tim Smith who was working to retain the most drunken contestant title. (He won!)

While we didn’t stay till the end we were there long enough to see Nycole Hyatt once again become the highest scoring female player. Some time after 10 PM Jeff Groper and Jason Hatch had a legendary battle on Elvira’s Scared Stiff, in which Jeff rose to the challenge and made it to the Scared Stiff mode on his second ball, winning the Tournament and the grand prize: a keg of beer!

Later in March, Jeff and his keg of beer were the guests of honor at a house party in South Seattle which had a lot of cool pins including Xenon, Laser War and many others. We practically forced people to compete in an impromptu Half and Half tournament (a game described last issue). Rod the host was super cool and didn’t seem to mind very much when our party stayed long after everyone else had left. Thanks for the ride, Maka!

In other tournament news: The First Annual Ground Kontrol Pinball Tournament is in Portland OR on Sunday April 19th. Ground Kontrol has the most pinball machines in the region (26!) and this event is sure to attract many excellent players, especially since this is the home turf of the Crazy Flipper Fingers pinball gang. On Sunday May 17th the semi-annual Seattle Powderpuff Tournament happens at Shorty’s which is sure to attract all the best female players in the area. See our back page ad for more details!

Breaking News: There is now circus music in the bathrooms at Shorty’s! The Evel Knievel pinball machine featured on the cover and list page of this issue can also be found there. Timmy recently broke his foot kicking the game while trying to save his ball. Haw haw. Speaking of classic games, Add-a-ball Amusements in Fremont is due to open soon and will focus on EM pinball machines. Dominique from Silver Age Silver Ball is locating some of his games there which so far include Jumping Jack, Space Mission and Surf Champ.

Another upcoming event is the 2nd Annual NW Pinball and Game Room Show at the Seattle Center June 12th – 14th. Last year’s show was awesome and had over 100 pinball and arcade games all set to free play (with the price of admission). We had a great time last year and have taken the whole weekend off from work for this year’s show in order to attend. If you like pinball you won’t want to miss it!

Stern Pinball released their latest game 24 recently to mostly good reviews. Seattle should see one at Shorty’s in the next month or so, which then raises the question of which game is getting bumped? (Our vote goes to Indiana Jones.) Big Buck Hunter and NBA are rumored to be the next two Stern releases, and speculation is that the company is trying to break into the Asian market, particularly China where anything NBA is extremely popular. Bola Salvada!