The Ring Master

A few weeks ago, I got to meet world famous pinball designer John Popadiuk, creator of well respected classics such as Tales from the Arabian Nights and Theatre of Magic. In the golden era of Bally Williams, Popadiuk's designs stood out with intricate sweeping plastic ramps and fantastic modern theme integration peppered with old school devices like roll-over buttons. I remember Ted Estes saying once that Popadiuk innovated by prototyping with bending foam board to simulate his crazy ramps.

Whatever he did, Popadiuk rocks. I own two of his machines. World Cup Soccer '94 is fun for experts and beginners alike with instantly recognizable objectives of shooting goals and ramps to win soccer games. With the home roms, Cirqus Voltaire is in most first rate pinball collections. CV broke the mold in so many ways. If I had to thin the herd to 3 machines, Voltaire would still be a keeper.

Survey Says: Pinballs by Production Date

Poll closed. "By Production Date" won.

I voted "By Popularity". It just makes sense to me to space out the good ones so that you can optimize the number of people playing pins. I'll wind up packing the machines in so tightly that I really have to account for the crowd control.

Pinball Lineups?

Greeting True Believers. In an exhuastion-induced moment of weakness, I have allowed myself to consider gameroom arrangement in the ethereal Barbie Dream House.

So I ask you fellow pinheads, collectors, and devotees of the silver ball. What is the best way to arrange your lineup? The choices are limitless, but here are a few suggestions:

• You could go the straight and narrow, and arrange by the predictable production dates. This would give you a nice appreciation of your various machines' respective place in history.
• You could group by theme, placing blue box nature themes in one category, movie themes in another, and leave an empty splace next to your Attack from Mars for the eventual Revenge From Mars (oh it will be mine).
• You take the insider approach and arrange your machines by designer, revealing where you fall on the Lawlor / Ritchie debate. Or maybe you sort by programmer as we can all admit that the newer Sterns are all about the software.
• You could arrange by utility, spacing out the most popular players to maximize your playing comfort.

What say ye?

Pacific Pinball Expo

Last Saturday, I went to the second annual Pacific Pinball Expo in San Rafael. Non-pinheads will be surprised to discover that this is the third and newest pinball show in the Bay Area. There is also CA Extreme in San Jose and Pin-a-go-go in Dixon. Pinheads will be surprised to discover that the Pacific Pinball Expo overlapped with the Chicago Pinball Expo (the mecha of pinball shows).



Overall this was a great show with about 350 pins. This show is pinball only (CA Extreme has vids) and emphasizes older electromagnetic machines and the talks focused on classic art and restoration projects.

Highlights for me included:

* Playing and beating world famous Steve Ritchie on a cherry Firepower machine. Steve Ritchie is one of my favorite designers and is responsible for fast and furious pins such as firepower, black knight, black knight 2000, highspeed, getaway, terminator 2, terminator 3, and the new STERNS spiderman. To be fair, neither of us put up decent scores.

* Playing and flipping an EM Nightrider. Nightrider, featuring a truck driver not a talking car, was the West Dorm pinball machine at Harvey Mudd College. I probably played that pin a thousand times freshman year. I love that pin for nostalgic reasons.

* Talking to Martin at his pinbits booth. Martin has become a established expert in pinball restorations and mods. I don't get to see him as much anymore because his new job prevents him from trekking out to pinball league nights.