shanghai

[bounceback]

had one of those games on FG at the shang where i felt ok at the end, knowing it could have been better but was still better than what the rest of the wankers have put up. lois shot still has a tendency to send the ball sdtm, and that right orbit slows the ball down, often stalling it for a while and bringing it back down the right side. now you have to really watch closely, because you won't know until the last second whether the ball is coming to the right flipper, or if you're going to have to slap save with the left. after a 68 mil first ball, and having a friend show up to talk during my 2nd ball, (the curse of the meeting?) i finished with a 92 mil GC-- with the beer can totally non-working. i think i hit the beer can over a hundred times without even aiming for it, and managed to start one beer can mode. so no double scoring, no stacking fart and lard multiballs, no beer can wizard, and pretty low bonuses. best balls came from running crazy chris, a tv mode, and fart at the same time.

didn't play spidey, but the scores i put up there a couple months ago are still hanging out. it's hard to say whether the lois shot on family guy was dealt with by phil, or if it just changed its geometry by being played more. DDT informed me last night that the BOG pulled a game and put in a buck hunter, which deserves a post of its own. anyway, i'm just getting confused here-- i know phil's been more apt to erase CFF scores in the past than some operators, and that i've seen the condition of the machines go from great to terrible at times, without seeming care, but he's still the only guy in town consistently buying multiples of every new machine to come out, usually has them first, and seems to care about pinball beyond just seeing it as a money maker and vibe-provider for his bars. i was hearing rumors that he was working on opening a new super pinball arcade. so does anyone know what's up with the neglect of the machines and a fucking buck hunter? there was one upstairs at the shanghai too, and i can't remember if it's still there-- i tend to block them out like a naked toothless crackhead coming toward me offering a blowjob if i can help them get a fix. why the fuck would you let something like that creep into your rad pinball spots? having a pinball culture is something you cultivate by choice-- people need to see this. if you put pinball everywhere, it seeps into people's consciousness and they start to realize how fucking awesome it is. once they start to make themselves more awesome by playing it, you start to make money off of spreading that radness. that's rewarding. big buckhunter is dehumanizing. yeah a couple drunk fratboys might drop some quarters in it because it's ironic, but is that really all that matters? your bar gets dumber to hang out in the more you let that shit, and the sloth-like people it attracts, hover in your area.

someone help me decide what else can be done, cuz i'm tired of having those good games DESPITE the game conditions, rather than because of them. sure it's rewarding to GC a machine after weeks of trying to get on the board, when everything's working ok EXCEPT a few major features. but i've got to say it feels infinitely better to play a tip-top game and kill it, getting a much higher score than the ones where you're overcoming a problem, AND it keeps me playing a lot longer and more often.

[bounceback]

now has batman, indy, family guy, and that stupid buckhunter. games seem to be mostly working-- other than batman, natch.

[ROM]

I wonder where the Spiderman will reemerge..

Indy has some weird ball sensor problem last time I played it. But I fixed it by using up a game launching balls over and over until the ark was finally filled, and with a drunk guy next to me exclaiming how it was probably the best game I'd ever played, right?!

[ROM]

Also, it's totally lame that Phil hasn't made the 2mm adjustment to the peg under the Lois shot so that the ball doesn't pop out and drain half the times it come out of that loop. If I hadn't been busy GC'ing the machine when he was there a few days ago, I would have said something. Alas...

We need a better way to communicate with operators. Passing notes through bartenders doesn't seem to cut it.