Wizcat

So so glad I refound this book in my shed earlier in Summer. Thought I'd lost it forever, and it was an invaluable companion when I first read through the books in my distant youth. It's proving invaluable once again. Highly recommended if you're a Tolkien fan. It was out of print for decades, but it looks like there's a hardback version just been released (probably to coincide with the TV series)

Did you realise that we linked up the two NBAs at NERG? You can basically play a head to head game against a player on the machine next to you. It turns the game into a timed game, so each player gets a multiball at the same time and things like that. It's a pretty great experience and unique in the world of pinball I keep meaning to get a floor mat made to highlight the fact they are linked, because so many people don't realise Anyhow. It's Pinfest at Daventry this weekend if anyone is stuck for something to do. 130 machines I think we're up to at the moment, with some being used in comps but the vast majority on free play (after your entrance fee). Highly recommended if you're into pinball. And I'll be on the desk of the main comp there if you want to say hi www.ukpinfest.com for all the details

In world championship news, the UK players are out. But right now Keith Elwin (USA) is in a heads up match with Danielle Acciari (ITA). Two absolute giants in competitive pinball. Streaming on https://www.twitch.tv/pinballasylum

Just a heads up for anyone interested - it's the IFPA Pinball World Championships this weekend. This is like the 'world cup' of pinball - an invitational for the top two ranked players in each country (and then additional spots filled based on world ranking, which inevitably means a surplus of US based players) UK players this year are Andy Foster (a good friend of mine from Southport), and Sam McCourt (who runs Chief Coffee - another great pinball spot in London) Streaming is on twitch.tv/pinballasylum and it's in Florida, so the UK times look like: Friday 3pm – 5pm –> Session #1 5pm – 7pm –> Session #2 8pm – 10pm –> Session #3 (this will start 1 hour after the last group finishes Session #2) 10pm – midnight –> Session #4 1am – 3am –> Session #5 (this will start 1 hour after the last group finishes Session #4) 3am – 5am –> Session #6 Saturday 3pm – 5pm –> Session #7 5pm – 7pm –> Session #8 FINALS: 9pm – 11pm –> First Round (seeds 17 through 32 play) 11pm – 1am –> Second Round (Seeds 9-16 play the winners of the first round) 2am – 4am –> Third Round (Seeds 1-8 play the winners of the second round) Sunday 2pm – 4pm –> Elite 8 4pm – 6pm –> Final 4 and 5th through 8th match 6pm – 8pm –> Championship, Consolation final The last championships was in 2019 and if they can even slightly match the quality of that, then it will be a treat for sure. I've left a link below to one of the best games of pinball I've ever seen captured on stream. Some basics about Dracula: There are three multiballs in the game. Coffin - started by shooting the coffin on the right repeatedly. Mist - started by 5 ramp shots then a shot to the hole at the back, which brings out the 'floating' mist ball. The last multiball is hardest to start, but also has massive jackpots - Castle multiball, started either by shooting the dangerous standup targets to light locks on the ramp, or by seven shots to the ramp (to light a lock, then rinse and repeat - the third lock starts the multiball) What makes Dracula so much fun is that all three multiballs can be played together (ie you can start one and then continue to do 'the things' to start the other multiballs). The game increases the basic jackpots as you do this, from 10 million for one multiball running, to 30 million if you can get all three going at once. Plus the Castle multiball has incredibly valuable jackpots which are lit on the ramp and then collected at the hole at the back left (under the ramp) Spoilery explanation for what happens during the game:

Agree that this was better than last week's train wreck, but still amazingly bad writing. The interrogator guy ...

With TOTAN I always try to start a mode (centre shot to Genie), then concentrate on spinning the lamp. Every 15 spins it locks those in as bonus (for the rest of the game), and bonus can be massive. It also lights the scoop which will allow you to complete the mode (collect the jewel). Rinse and repeat There are very few points in playing the modes. There are decent points on the lamp once it is doing the lightning thing, and some people try to get that running with multiball If you can get all the jewels though it's an easy wizard mode that awards 50M (worth noting that if you get to the wizard mode you need to manually plunge the balls it keeps offering as you drain)

Anyone play Namco's "Winning Run" back in the late 80s arcades? This was incredible. Definitely my first experience with anything that could be called sim racing. Full motion cabinet and flat shaded polygons. Absolutely gorgeous to look at and play. Me and a couple of mates would walk into town every weekend to visit the local arcade and take turns on it Apparently it has been quite hard to emulate the hardware, so the videos don't quite do it justice, but still .. For the late 80s, when I was playing C64 games at home, this was mindblowing

I got lucky on that one! Daily Quordle #33 quordle.com

Friday 26th through Sunday 28th. Still working out some details. Friday is likely to be tournament games only until the evening (and then evening session is VIP only). Saturday 10.30am through 6pm free play, then evening session for VIP tickets Sunday is 10.30am through to roughly 5pm (or possibly longer depending when the tournament finishes) I'm told the discount rate isn't secret so: Call 01327 307000 and make sure you speak to Hollie at the Mercure Daventry hotel, and mention you're booking for UKPinfest to get rooms at £73 per night b&b twin/double room (or £63 for single room) You can also email Hollie at HA0I0-RE@accor.com (yes that really is the email address!) You'll also need tickets for the event: http://www.ukpinfest.com/booking/

Woo yeah. Mini meet at Daventry. Send me a pm if you're serious about booking and I'll pass over contact details for discounted room rates at the hotel You would need to book soon though as rooms are likely to sell out. (Or stay elsewhere close by of course) Offer open to any forum regulars

Yeah I'll give it a go. My best gaming PC has a 970 series card so I'll see how it holds up! I appreciate it's not a level playing field otherwise (but I did fancy a quick go whilst that table was available on a platform I had access to )

Some other tips that I've stolen from watching comp players over the years After the plunge, if you struggle to shoot the top loop, then let it drain during ball saver. The relaunch will go around the loop and award rpm. You can usually get two or three drains and free rpm shots during ball save if you're quick! In video mode toggle the gear stick a few times to get up to max speed, then try to drive between the lanes. There's also a secret mania mode. if you happen to see three cop cars when you drive past the donut shop, then twiddle the gear shifter a few times. The downside of doing this though is that the game becomes really buggy and all sorts of bad things can happen. It's great that the emulated tables still keep these issues in them (most top tournament players will never activate secret mania because the bugs aren't worth it, and the bugs affect all players! Still, it's with knowing about if you're on ball three and feeling lucky)

HS2 on Pinball FX3 on XBox. No super jackpots. Most of it came from supercharger where you get incremental 5M for each ramp shoot. If you can shoot the ramp and then hold the left flipper up as it returns you can sometimes 'ski pass' it back to the right flipper and repeat. Happy with that.

Yeah I think when people categorise the Solid State era it's basically games with seven segment displays for scores. T2 is generally considered the first DMD game, though Data East used a small DMD on Checkpoint which was actually released earlier. And EM games are similarly categorised by the reel score displays. Perhaps interestingly the very first solid state games actually kept the score reels and chime units (the ding ding sounds) traditionally associated with EMs. Chime units stuck around in quite a few solid state games because people considered them an iconic part of pinball. See also any time pinball appears in the movies, they almost always use chime sound effects, even on cutting edge games

Some epic play in the final rounds of INDISC , live right now : https://www.twitch.tv/iepinball (And if you're up late, Andy Foster from the UK will be playing in the High Stakes finals starting around 2am GMT)