NEW LEAGUE INCOMING!

I keep my eyes and ears open to all the latest happenings of pinball in Toronto and most recently, I have heard word of a new pinball league starting up in the city!

City Pinball is the new pinball league based in Toronto and will be operating out of Junction City Music Hall, right in the heart of the Junction! That's right, we will have a league right here in Toronto so for those that are confined to the limits of public transit, this is a much more accessible pinball league. Big ups to the fellas running City Pinball, this is something that the city really needs.

The first night will be on Wednesday September 9th (click the link for the Facebook event page) and will be running bi-weekly in a three-month season, operating exclusively out of Junction City Music Hall. Registration will be a one-time $20 fee for a single season and the games will be set to coin-op, ranging from 25 cents to $1. Make sure to grab a drink or two at the bar and help out Junction City Music Hall too. JCMH is a great venue and has one of the best line-ups in the city thanks to Dan of Guelph Pinball Club. BIG THANKS to Dan for keeping the machines at JCMH in working order and updating the line-up every once in a while with new machines. Word is that Twilight Zone is now among JCMH's roster and will be available for play on the inaugural league night on September 9th!

Thanks to Pinball Mike for the pic!

The bar has been set, gang!

The main goal of City Pinball is to organize Toronto's pinball fiends together in a great venue accessible by TTC and especially to have fun! That's what pinball is all about and that is what City Pinball is all about too! So mark yer calendar for Wednesday, September 9th, save up $20 for the registration fee (just a one-time fee!) and go couch fishin' for a couple of quarters and loonies! You can also RSVP at the Facebook event here. Let's establish City Pinball as the number 1 pinball league in Toronto!

Johnny Mnemonic

In my previous review of Georgian Grill's pinball arcade, we took a look at "the woman of the 90's", The Machine: Bride of Pin·bot so how about we travel into THE FUTURE and review Williams' Johnny Mnemonic!

Like Demolition Man, this was a table based on a Sci-Fi film that flopped in theatres. It seems as though Williams was trying to recreate the success of Terminator 2: Judgment Day but had a string of bad luck, basing their pinball machines on movies that became box office bombs. Despite the quality of the movies, both Demolition Man and Johnny Mnemonic are solid but underrated tables released in the golden years of the mid 90's. Johnny Mnemonic takes full advantage of the trappings of the film the table is based on which makes for some interesting designs. The feature that catches one's eye upon stepping up to the table looks like Nintendo's powerglove.

Not quite though! It's the DATAGLOVE, a piece of the VR equipment that Johnny uses to cyberhack the 'net. In the movie, Johnny has to "physically" navigate a virtual reality landscape of the internet in order to obtain some information. The dataglove acts as a part of the ball lock, capturing the ball and dropping it into the Datamatrix (WHOA)

The Simpson Pinball Party

The legendary Stern classic, The Simpsons Pinball Party has once again entered the city limits! There was a very brief period where The Simpsons Pinball Party was at the old Pinball Cafe but it has now found a place among the lineup at Junction City Music Hall!

This particular table first set foot at Handlebar for the Beer & Ball Festival before making its way over to the Junction.

The Simpsons Pinball Party is one of Stern's most ambitious tables; the table was produced by Keith Johnson and Joe Balcer, the latter going on to design Jersey Jack Pinball's Wizard of Oz. TSPP was released in early 2003 and certainly was a sign of things to come with the release of The Lord of The Rings near the end of the year.

The Simpsons Pinball Party is jam-packed with all sorts of shots and features. When you first step up to the game, it's nearly impossible to figure out just exactly what you are supposed to do! The complexity of TSPP isn't just in the playfield; the ruleset is considered one of Stern's most in-depth. There's a variety of modes to activate, like the episodes or the Itchy & Scratchy Multiball episodes, Otto's 2X scoring, or obtaining all of Cletus' kids, just to name a few.

The Machine: The Bride of Pin·bot

For a little place up in cottage country, Georgian Grill has a really good offering of pinball. When my brother Shane mentioned swinging by the arcade, I was hopeful for a good line-up but remained a bit skeptical, thinking most machines would be in barely-working order due to being in a bit of a remote area. I must say, I was quite surprised! Every pinball machine was in fine working order and seemed to be well taken care of. One of the employees at Georgian Grill even gave the glass tops of the pinball machines a wipe-down!

One of the tables that I was most surprised about was The Machine: Bride of Pin·bot! It was the oldest table in the line-up yet it was looking pretty dang good!

The good looks aren't just because of the condition the table was in but the artwork. Bride of Pin·bot has to be one of Python Anghelo's finest works from head-to-toe. There are so many little details packed into BoP with all sorts of astronauts running around the playfield, a signature in Anghelo's work.

Take a look at tables like Taxi or Hurricane for other examples of Anghelo's "world building"

There is also a ton of innuendo which is par for the course with Anghelo. I'm not going to point it out because this is a family-friendly blog (well... relatively speaking) but take a look for yourself and see if you can spot it!

Georgian Grill in Balm Beach TRIP REPORT PREVIEW

Shane and I hit the road one weekend in June in search of the American Dream but I think we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque as we ended up in Wasaga Beach. I can't complain though because we had some beautiful weather on Saturday and saw some even more beautiful cars!

Nothing better than cruising along the beach, checking out all the sights and catching some sunshine!

but HEY this is a blog about pinball! Our trip did not go without some pinball and on Sunday, we headed over to Balm Beach to check out the legendary Georgian Grill.

Despite what the site says about "Summer 2014", I can confirm that it is open for Summer 2015! I have heard that Georgian Grill has a decent arcade and I was not let down! There was a full arcade available at this little beach grill complete with shooting games, racing games, ticket dispensing games, and of course, pinball!

It was like stepping into a time machine; there were arcade games from all eras. Ticket games I haven't seen since the 90's and my time spent at North End Bowl (that's for you folks from Oshawa!), a brand new Big Buck Hunter featuring the Duck Dynasty, even a Cruis'n' World cabinet upgraded with LCD monitors! The pinball lineup was also quite varied, from System-11's to new Stern tables. All the tables were in decent to great condition with a few small exceptions here and there, like the upper flipper on Family Guy being unresponsive or Fish Tales having mismatched flippers...

That's what we call Hard Mode

Bump & Surf 2: The Reckoning

The surfin' and ballin' events in Toronto just don't quit! Hot off the heels of Shut Up and Hang Ten at 3030, Luau or Die are at it again!

Click the pic to RSVP on Facebook!

Luau or Die is teaming up with the bad cats sent to the past to save the present from the Future, Rocket XL5! Good times are to be had at Junction City Music Hall this coming Saturday on July 18! Bump & Surf is mixing things up and kickin off the surfin' and swingin' at 1 PM! There's no cover so just mosey on it, grab a drink and grab a game of pinball! Maybe grab a t-shirt or something from the bands too. Show a little love for two wicked Surf bands! If you need any convincing, allow me to persuade you to join us in the Junction on July 18th!

Dag yo, if that doesn't get yer hips shakin' then I don't know what will! Just don't shake too much or you might tilt the pinball machine! Luau or Die are no strangers to the silver ball; they know that pinball and surf go quite well together! 

Pretty cool set-up at Shut Up and Hang Ten! BUT HEY Junction City Music Hall also has a pretty cool lineup so mosey on down to the Junction this Saturday on July 18th for a whole lotta Bumpin' and Surfin'! Luau or Die and Rocket XL5 are bringing the afternoon tunes at 1 through 5 so squeeze it into your day! The chores can wait.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO BUMP & SURF 2: THE RECKONING! 

KISS

You have to hand it to the Toronto Pinball Crew for keeping up on the pinball updates! One of the crew members dropped by California Sandwiches this past week and confirmed that KISS has found its way to the city! WHAT! Stern just started releasing this table and KISS has already touched down in Toronto. I couldn't help myself and made my way to California Sandwiches soon after finding out. KISS was indeed there and man oh man, am I excited to talk about it!

I am going to ahead and say it but this has to be one of Stern's best tables and will be considered an absolute classic. Stern really knocked it out of the park on this one. Custom hand-drawn artwork, great music, and a solid playfield come together to make one great table. The code is pretty bare-bones as per usual but even then, there's still plenty to do. I imagine that further updates will make this table even better.

The game begins in the same manner as Stern's other music-themed tables, AC/DC and Metallica, in that you select a KISS song and certain shots are activated according to that particular song. The game takes place at a KISS concert so along with selecting a song, you also select the city you're playing in. There's about 10 songs like DETROIT ROCK CITY and BLACK DIAMOND (two of my favorites) and they are live versions which add to the immersion of being at a KISS concert! Whether it's due to licensing issues with record labels or what, it works. Also, this table needs to be loud because it's rock 'n' roll! Good thing California Sandwiches table is turned up loud! So many times I caught myself rockin' out, air guitarin', and singin' along FIRST I DRINK ... THEN I SMOKE!

I have to warn you though that the autoplunger on this table is very impatient and will launch your ball within the span of 30 seconds, even if you're in the middle of selecting your song. Now that the game has started, let's take a look at the playfield.

This is cool, real cool.