2014 in review

Geeze louise, what a year it has been for Bumper City! 2014 was a really exciting year what with all the stuff that has gone on. If you have been an avid reader of Bumper City, I think you know that I am all about the shameless plugs... So, here's my Year in Review post that is just a thinly veiled attempt to get you to look at the myriad of posts from 2014!

 Things were pretty quiet around the early parts of the year, though we did hear about the release of Mustang in January.

I also released my first podcast under the Bumper City banner, "Bumper City: Down at The Arcade", a hybrid podcast that consists of music and pinball soundscapes to create the illusion of spending some time down at the arcade!

Bumper City - Down at The Arcade by Derk Brigante on Mixcloud

Things really started to pick up in April, though! In the first few days of the month, I headed down south to Michigan Pinball Expo and got to take Stern's newest title, Mustang, for a spin!

While I was there, I also found a rare table in the wild, Banzai Run, in Windsor!

Once I got back to Toronto, Pinball Sunday was set to begin. Pinball Sundays were a series of tournaments held all over the city, from Brass Taps on the Danforth, Lipstick & Dynamite in Parkdale (though I did not attend this one), Get Well at Dundas and Ossington and finally 3030 in the Junction. Throughout most of the tournament, I made it through the first few rounds but I always managed to come up short near the finals.

HOUSE OF TARG TRIP REPORT PART II

Part 2 of Bumper City's House of TARG trip report is up next! This time around, we are going to take a look at some 90's pinball goodness in the form of Williams' Fish Tales!

Unlike Part 1 where we had two tables from Sega, Independence Day and Baywatch, this time it is just going to be about Fish Tales. The other Bally/Williams tables at House of TARG were Dracula, The Addams Family, and Doctor Who, all of which I have look at one way or another... click the links and read their reviews!

Fish Tales is an underrated table of the 90's but when its name comes up, it is often considered a solid and challenging title. The fishing theme is a bit of an odd choice, especially when released around the same time as tables based on big licenses like The Addams Family and Doctor Who. The designer, Mark Ritchie, seemed to have been saddled with quite a few strange original themes, having designed Taxi, Police Force, and Diner, but always managed to make the most out of them. Fish Tales is no exception and is arguably considered one of Ritchie's best tables, though it is tough to say, seeing as he also designed Top-10 table, Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.