Pinball Update for Summer 2013

Back again with another Pinball Update! I missed the end of the month deadline though WHAT A BUMMER! I have a good reason for it however. I was planning on putting the update out on Sunday, June 30th but instead Shane and I decided to go on ST. CATHERINES PINBALL JOURNEY 2013!!! Want a preview? WELL.... OK.

Is that... DEMOLITION MAN?

Only a small taste though! I'm going to be writing a trip report very soon. That's a FAQT JAQ!

Anyways, the pinball search in Toronto has been a FINE HUNT this month with a couple of new machines popping up in the wild and a couple of updates to a few locations. The replacements are a boon as the former machines at these locations were often out of order so it's nice to see that they have been put out to pasture and replaced with operational tables.

Lets get started with some new locations! This update is mainly focused on College St. as that's where the machines have seemed to pop up! That's good news as I always thought College to be kinda starved for pinball compared to Dundas West and Queen West.

I caught word that Andy Poolhall houses a couple of machines. I'm glad to say that word did not fail me and two tables actually reside at Andy Poolhall!

Two Pat Lawlor tables, NASCAR and Roller Coaster Tycoon take up residence at Andy Poolhall. 

Pinballapalooza!

Haha, continuing my tradition of posting about pinball events about a month later (just like my Michigan Pinball Expo 2012 post), here is my look back on Pinballapalooza on May 16, 2013!

Pinballapalooza was put on by the Stratford Festival to promote their production of Tommy. The event took place in the lobby of First Canadian Place and had up to 100 pinball machines all available for free play.

There was a good variety of new and old tables. Some of the oldest tables there were some old alphanumeric solid state tables like Williams' Jokerz and Data East's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The machines were provided by Playdium and let me tell you, what an example of the pinball machines they have stored away! Many of the machines were for sale and some may have even been on route out in the wild! Playdium also rolled out a bunch of the newer Stern releases. There was about a dozen AC/DC and Avengers tables each. Both tables had at least a row exclusively. Another new Stern table also emerged at this event...

That being METALLICA!

SHAQ ATTAQ

GET BAQ JAQ, IT'S A SHAQ ATTAQ!

Gottlieb, once considered one of the top-tier pinball manufacturers during the early era of pinball, neck and neck with Bally and Stern. To give you an example of how Gottlieb was cream of the crop, take a look at IPDB.org's Top 10 EM tables. The entire listing is Gottlieb tables. That just goes to show that Gottlieb were, at one point, top-of-the-line pinball manufacturers. Unfortunately, hard times hit the pinball and arcade manufacturers when home consoles started gaining popularity. Columbia Pictures, the parent company of Gottlieb, shut down the company as they thought pinball was no longer profitable. However, a couple of the workers at Gottlieb and some investors revived the company as Premier/Gottlieb but they struggled to meet the popularity of Bally and Williams tables as well as the quality of previous Gottlieb greatest hits, like Black Hole and Haunted House. After Williams' Space Shuttle was released, which is touted as the machine that saved pinball in the 80's, Bally and Williams pulled ahead in the pinball race and left their competitors like Data East and Gottlieb in the dust. I guess, as a pinball company, when you're struggling to stay afloat, you're willing to throw some wacky ideas out there in hopes of hanging on. Gottlieb had released some really wacky tables like Bone Busters Inc, (which you can see more of from my trip report to Pinball Gallery here) Wipe Out which is a Skiing game based on a Surf song, and Tee'd Off (looks like a rip-off of 1997's No Good Gofers but was actually released prior to in 1993!) as well as some very unusual licensed tables like Rescue 911 (I JUST found out this is actually licensed from a TV Show!), Waterworld, and Barb Wire (remember that show? Post-apocalyptic series starring Pamela Anderson). Speaking of weird licenses, here's another one...

SHAQ ATTAQ!

Believe it or not, Basketball pinball machines seem to be pretty popular, or at least the theme is compared to other sports. You have Williams' NBA Fast Break, Stern's NBA, Bally's Harlem Globetrotters, Gottlieb's Hoops and of course this machine in particular, SHAQ ATTAQ!

NEAT SHAQ ATTAQ FAQT! There are actually two pinball machines based on the two most popular basketball players of the 90's, there's Shaq Attaq as well as Michael Jordan in Sega's Space Jam! Radical! (wait no, that's a machine about skateboarding...)

Pinball Update for May 26, 2013

You know that I just love doing these pinball updates at the end of the month! I've been awfully busy lately, playing pinball, setting high scores, hunting down machines... You know, the usual stuff! I have a lot of great updates to bring you this time around but first how about a little preview of Pinballapalooza? I will be doing a more thorough review of the event soon but I have something special for it so hold yer horses! Enjoy these pics for now!

That's only half of it! But I don't want to spoil too much! Now let's get in to the real reason for this post: UPDATES!


California Sandwiches has replaced Spider-Man with The Rolling Stones.

Batman still resides at the restaurant and I also put a high score up this weekend!

PINBALLAPALOOZA THURSDAY MAY 16, 2013!

Stratford Festival is putting on The Who's TOMMY this year during their 2013 season which is pretty cool. If yer not in the know, Tommy is a "Rock Opera" based on The Who's Pinball Wizard. It is also a pinball machine by DATA EAST! (who also made Star Wars!)
 

This is a Tommy machine from The Church of The Silver Ball in Mississauga. It's also signed by Pete Townshend!

Stratford Festival is doing something really friggin' cool to promote their production of TOMMY...

PINBALLAPALOOZA (that's a mouthful!) on THURSDAY, MAY 16TH! That's next week, geeze! I only heard about this recently. I'm super excited but also super bummed because since I found out so late, I missed out on the application for being a part of The Guiness World Record attempt. At the event, which will be from 9 AM to 6 PM, they will be making an attempt to have the most people simultaneously playing pinball. They definitely need a PINBALL LEGEND like myself playing! They could use a high score setter in their ranks...

DATA EAST's Star Wars

I am getting awfully tired of talking about Stern tables! Not to say that Stern tables are lame or anything but they do cover the majority of tables in the city. Not surprising though seeing as Stern is the only current pinball manufacturer at this time (There is Jersey Jack Pinball and their Wizard of Oz table but good luck seeing that in the wild around these parts). There are not enough classic tables in the city! World Cup Soccer is out and about but it's a shame that there aren't more golden era tables in the wild. The Pinball Cafe covered that niche but unfortunately, it is no longer with us. There is, however, a little gem hiding out in the corner of Unlovable on Dundas West. That table being DATA EAST's Star Wars!

So, technically speaking, this is still a Stern table. DATA EAST, moreso known for their arcade and home console games, also tried to get their slice of the arcade pie in the late 80's and early 90's by releasing pinball machines. Data East was kind of the underdog of the pinball game; they couldn't hold up to Bally and Williams but were fighting for arcade space with former pinball great Premier/Gottlieb.

Pinball Update for March 2013!

I recently posted about how I updated my Google Pinball Map, Pinballin' In The Big City, but I figured an update to show where the actual updates are would be a good idea. Pictures always help too.

I do come with some bad news though. Pinball in the city has kind of hit a slump in the beginning of 2013 but hopefully things will pick up soon!

Stern's Batman at Bar 918 on St. Clair West had been having intermittent troubles with the right flipper which unfortunately came to a head when I was last there. The right flipper got stuck in the upright position and cannot move back down. Hitting the button multiple times and resetting the machine had no effect on fixing it. It has yet to be fixed.

Pegasus Bar on Church St. near Wellesley replaced Lord Of The Rings and CSI with TRON: Legacy which you can check out my review of right here!