Originally published in Skill Shot issue 4, Summer 2008
A recent visit to Shorty’s brought to our attention that their Sunday Pinball Tournament has a new starting time of 5pm (every week!). A different visit reminded us of something one of the bar backs at the Madison Pub once told us: “The worst thing some one can do is puke in the urinal.” Yuck!
And speaking of the Mad Pub (a.k.a. Skill Shot office East), we’ve heard that we can finally say goodbye to their Lord of the Rings and it’s bum Balrog and say hello to the new Indiana Jones pinball! This is exactly what we hoped for since we are d-u-n with LotR. For an advanced look at the Indiana Jones pin we’ve been told that there will be one or two of them at the first Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show that is happening at the Seattle Center June 6 – 8th. We are very excited to see this show as they will have 100 or so pinball machines all set at free play!
Another new pinball happening in Seattle is the opening of Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center! Opening day should be June 15th and they plan on having 10 or so games in their shop (although we are uncertain if they will all be pins). Full Tilt is going to be an all-ages space which will be great for the under 21 crowd since most of the pinball in Seattle seems to be in bars. 5 Point Laundry has a Frankenstein game and they are all-ages also, just watch out for the old guys in their see-thru plastic suits washing their clothes! Or don’t look as the case may be…
A different overlooked Belltown establishment is the Lava Lounge where you can find the Gilligan’s Island pinball machine… usually. We were almost sad when on a recent visit we discovered Gilligan replaced by yet another Fish Tales, until the bartender informed us that it was just a replacement while Gilligan was being repaired. Apparently the wiring is fused to the back board and difficult to fix on site, but Lava Lounge is dedicated to Gilligan since this the third one they’ve had.
Don’t forget that you don’t have to be a member to look at our mySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/skillshott . That’s where you will find our most up to date Pinball List as well as current Seattle Pinball News and Gossip! A Skill Shot website is currently in the process of being built and should be finished before our next issue so watch out for it! And remember to support local pinball!