Concordia Ale House

[Kickback]

Cactus Canyon plays fine other than the pop bumpers not working. A 45 million ball yielded about 1.2 mill in bonus at x2. It was hugely frustrating. If that gets fixed it should yield much higher scores. Without it, I played it nearly an hour and came just over 1/3 of the way to the board. I will play it again. The staff lacked charm and hospitality for the most part. $7 for frozen onion rings is just a start, everything is overpriced and for no apparent reason. It sucked. I guess the lack of atmosphere is pricey in this dead part of town. Family Guy wasn't worth playing while being poked by pool players and their sticks. These games do not mix and will just lead to a fight with the angry buff chick. She didn't seem to like how I play pinball very much, or my penis. I would be apt to spend money there, despite all of these drawbacks, as long as Cactus Canyon works. It's the only one I know of and I hope it doesn't get broken by lesser players that only know how to kick and slam machines. Not sorry I was born with a penis either. Even when I'm hanging out north of Hollywood. I just wanna play good pinball on good machines.

[bounceback]

dude, you smell like weed... maybe you were hallucinating being poked.

that FG has been fucked since months ago, the guy that owns those games apparently doesn't care or doesn't know anything. i've talked to the bar owner about the games a few times, he keeps saying things that are reassuring then nothing happens. i find the staff nice, i wouldn't spend money on food there. they have a great tap list, cheaper than green dragon, and there's not much else like it in northeasty portland, so yeah, they can get away with some atmosphere issues. after all, their nextdoor neighbors are a subway, a cellphone store or something, a grocery store, and a gas station. you can't blame them for too much. if i didn't drink though it would be a lot less appealing. the CC and some rare beers are the only reason to go in. subtract the beers and it gets tougher, but hey... lots of people have never seen a cactus canyon in person.

[inthecan]

As of this weekend TAF $ Cactus Canyon are out and South Park and The Rolling Sterns are in .

The last time I played it about a week ago CC was working "better" but it was still nothing like the machine I first played back around Oct. 2009. Even though it was working inconsistently I I was a bit sad to see it gone yesterday, it will be 2 yrs ago this October when my buddy I grew up with in Reno rolled through and asked, "So is there anywhere to play Pinball in Portland?" not knowing then what I know now (don't think I even knew what PPM or CFF was at the time) we ended up at the Concordia and my boy was stoked as he had never played let alone seen a Cactus Canyon before. Pretty much my mind instantly flew back to the summer of 87' to Mr. Bill's pool house in Sparks, NV. amongst the various videogames they had a few pins, namely High Speed and F-14. I was a hardcore video gamer at the time (mostly 720 and Super Mario Bros in this era) but those tables were super bad ass and when I got sick of the vids I would rock em' and I loved them! Needless to say that day of playing Cactus Canyon truly sparked a renewed desire to seek pinball out and learn how to play them, the last two years have been quite a fun time and I look forward to many more. As a side note upon recent visits to the Reno, NV. area it has proven nearly impossible to find a table in decent condition, such a shame as Reno used to have truly epic arcades..

Last I checked my #1 score of 87,000,000 was still up on CC, right underneath the GC by MAT of 100,000,000 (stock score?)

Amen.

P.S. I updated the PPM to reflect the change of machines.

[DannyBackglass]

I had that thing up to 214 when they put it in. They let it go to such royal shit. I was going in there 3 times a week to play it. Really sad. That was an awesome game. It turned into a big pile of fuck. Looks like they came in and cleaned it with shit. Poor operation.

[inthecan]

214, damn that is an awesome score! I totally recall seeing several different CFFs up on it at varying times, probably why I never got up with the 1 or 2 100+ ones I got on the rare occasion back in the day. It is a damn shame that it went to crap as it was a very fun machine to play. From what I heard from the Concordia owners they say that apparently the owner was talking about possibly selling it. I will try to find out if it is going anywhere else around town.

[Opto]

If you stack the fast draw and mine cart MB's (start mine cart with the last fast draw target in the up position), you can play it forever - just keep hitting the raised targets to add balls/ball saver.

I should add that this is easier said than done.

[inthecan]

I think that I might have accidentally caused that particular progression to occur on CC a few times back when I was in my, "just keep attempt to keep hitting the lighted targets and smack dem balls" phase, it was always especially exciting to get it into the "Showdown mode" and then have it followed almost immediately by a Stampede! At one point they took CC for about a month and then it when it re-appeared it was cleaned up really nice and fucked it up in every other regard. The owners of the Concordia were way bummed on the fact that neither CC or TAF were ever in good working order and yet I am sure they make enough money off of the video poker in the back to not sweat it too much. I never see anyone playing anything besides pool or poker there anyways. About the only thing this bar is good for is having a beer outside as you can get a great view of 33rd and Killingsworth, needless to say this may be one of the best people watching corners in all of Portland in my opinion. That and the lead cook, Ramon makes a mean ass salsa.

[Opto]

They have an awesome tap selection. And their blind tasting competitions are cool.

[inthecan]

I really miss Cactus Canyon, I wonder what the hell happened to it? Doesn't seem to have been routed elsewhere, bummer.