AC/DC Pinball

I'll start by saying I'm not a massive fan of AC/DC.  I'm aware of their music, from movies like Little Nicky and Private Parts, but I don't own any of their albums.  And when it comes to me and pinball, theme is a very strong factor.  So AC/DC as a pinball theme did not have a leg up just by being AC/DC.

When I first saw it at FunWorld in Nashua, I wasn't that interested, but it was the newest machine there so I gave it a go.  You get to choose which song you start with, and I was choosing Highway to Hell consistently, and before long I realized something; I loved playing this machine!  One advantage is that we were playing a premium edition.  The base model of AC/DC has a big picture of the lead singer's face on the playfield instead of the cool lower playfield included with the premium and limited edition models. 

It's not just me of course, the buzz about AC/DC pinball on the forums is high.  Especially after a recent code update, people are even saying this one gives Lord of the Rings a run for its money as Stern's best pin ever.  So... yeah, we want it.  We were going to hold off getting a NIB (new in box) machine for Stern's expected announcement of Avengers this year, but we simply must have this beast. 

Anyone who thinks pinball is a thing of the past should step up to one of these machines.

Geeksploitation

Just came across this:



Could be an interesting series, I'm not familiar with Adrianne Curry (not one of those who consider her "Queen of the Geeks") but one nagging concern crept into my mind watching this trailer.  This could, as it claims in the description, explore why super fans are inspiring to the rest of us fans.

But that isn't what it appeared to be doing for the most part.  There is a huge risk of geeksploitation with this, just like Morgan Spurlock's being criticized for in his Comic-Con documentary (which I haven't seen yet, man, I am behind on geekumentaries!).

geeks·ploi·ta·tion [geek-sploi-tey-shuhn] verb:
to misrepresent a segment of geek culture in a way that is unnaturally skewed toward over-the-top examples, especially for one's own ends.

Geeksploitation documentaries use the "look at these freaks" approach to topic presentation. They seek out the fringe extremists for a particular hobby, and then present them as a curiosity. One could also consider this the "Side-Show" method. People who aren't initimately familiar with the subject matter watch and are entertained by the spectacle of how the crazy eccentrics, the "other half" live.  This approach is usually offensive to actual fans of the given topic.

The opposite of geeksploitation would probably be advocacy.  These films naturally appeal to the fans of the subject matter because they treat the subject matter with more respect and portray it in a positive light.  But when you're talking about a niche topic, there's a risk of appealing to a smaller audience.  That's one of the temptations for going with geeksploitation.

Sometimes geeksploitation is unintended, or unavoidable.  But sometimes it is all too intentional, and as geek culture becomes more and more mainstream, there's going to be ever greater backlash against it.

I can think of a few documentaries that are known for geeksploitation.  Special When Lit has elements of it, as well as King of Kong and Trekkies.  Is Adrianne Curry's Super Fans geeksploitation?  Time will tell.

New Blog Category: Geek Kids

I figured you readers (all three of you!) might get tired if I talk about nothing but pinball here, so as I was doing my afternoon solo walk, I thought of another major category I could pretty consistently write about that might be interesting.

There are loads of us Geek Moms and Geek Dads out here, doing geeky things to make sure our kids have zero hope of not growing up geeky.  We struggle with the constant questions, "Is this appropriate for my child?  Am I doing damage?  Did the other parents at daycare find out that Colin was telling his classmates all about werewolves today?"

I am not all that concerned about all that.  My kids are 5 and 6 and so far have handled all the geekery I've thrown at them just fine.  OK, so for a while there Colin was scared of Gollum, but the other day in the car he told me he wasn't scared of Gollum anymore, and got all enthused when I said if that was true, we could probably go see The Hobbit in 3D this Christmas. :)

So anyway, will probably post kid-related stuff on maybe Fridays, but it'll be geeky kid-related stuff, OK?

Pro Pinball Kickstarter is live

There was a recent news release about Pat Lawlor (famed pinball designer of Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, and more) joining the Pro Pinball team. I wasn't aware of Pro Pinball before this, but their story is evidently an interesting one of rights lost, and rights finally regained.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1790321238/pro-pinball-revived-and-remastered

I'm not as enthusiastic about video pinball as I am about the real thing, but I have to say, their Kickstarter video is a winner.  If you can make me laugh, you have my attention.  If you make me laugh multiple times, you probably have my backing.



They've only given themselves 30 days to raise a pretty large $400k funding goal. FarSight studios is doing really cool video pinball and recreating classic tables, but I think it'd be sweet if these guys get a chance to show us what they can do and make something totally new.

And just look at the comments section on their Kickstarter.  They must be doing SOMETHING right!

Adventure Time Pinball

What time is it? Time for my latest obsession... the desire to see an Adventure Time pinball machine become a reality!

First, if you think pinball is dead, it's not. Pinball has found a way to survive. Stern, one of the big manufacturers from back in the pinball heyday, is still around, cranking out a few NEW designs every year. A large chunk of these go to private owners now, but whatever works, right? And believe it or not, there are quite a number of pinball expos and tournaments going on around the country. (Check out Pinball Passion, Special When Lit, and TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball, three geekumentaries on the subject of pinball).

While there is a frustrating lack of pinball expos here in New England, there ARE two big arcades in New Hampshire, one of which is all ABOUT pinball. Even the Manchester, New Hampshire airport has a couple machines. So if you start looking for them, you'll see, pinball is very much still around. At the same time, there is a surge of these video game versions coming out (very cool to look at, but not the same experience of course). So it's definitely still something people have a soft spot for.

Two of the most recent new machines that Stern has produced have been AC/DC and X-Men, obviously two big licenses. What Stern has to look for when making new machines are big niche audiences, because they need that venn overlap of people who like pinball, and people who like certain themes.



Enter Adventure Time. While I like Regular Show just as much, Adventure Time is a smashing success with probably broader appeal (unless you like coffee). Their Facebook page has around 3 million fans.  If you think the audience is too young to also be into pinball, I'm not so sure about that. Not if I'm at all representative of the viewership. Oh sure, my kids love it too, but as it turns out... they also love pinball. :) I have a feeling the audience who would appreciate this is plenty big, and Cartoon Network is plenty capable of doing it.

Secondly, the theme lends itself SO well to a pinball treatment! One of my Twitter friends' first comments on the idea was to imagine a big stretched-out Jake as a ramp. With all the ridiculous one-liners, the fantabulous settings and episodes, the characters, and the colorful art design... it begs to be pinball.

So I'm begging, too.  It'd be MATH!

Personal Pinball Journal 2

Welcome back, Program.

Today I got home from work a tad early to drop off some groceries before picking up the kids. Adam was already home, and had the Tron machine playfield-up, a sure sign he's tinkering. He told me his LED order had come in.

He was busy, so I brought home the kids and made dinner while he worked. After dinner, I helped him install some of the remaining lights. I discovered something cool; on the newer games, like Tron, you don't have to do nearly as much unscrewing of sockets. The sockets are now plastic, and 2-piece, and the actual socket piece comes in and out just by squeezing the two edges together. Nice improvement, Stern.

Anyway, we changed out all the lights, including the flasher inside the miniature Tron arcade machine. Evidently it had burned out at some point. We didn't have the white flasher you're supposed to put there, so we put a red one in instead. It looks sweet, which is lucky because it was a pain in the ARSE to get into that little arcade machine! We turned on the game and just WOW. The lights are super cool as LEDs, dramatically different. I think if a purist were to approve of any machine having LEDs vs. incandescent bulbs, it'd be for Tron (given the subject matter, it seems fitting).

Then Adam said I could have first play to test out the flashers and so forth. I noticed very quickly that the flashers seemed to not only be extra LED-bright, but they seemed to be coming from all over the place. Even the carpet was lighting up! I kept saying, "Did you see that? Those lights are so bright they are shining outside the machine!" He said he wasn't sure what I meant.

After questioning whether or not he had gone BLIND, and several exclamations, he finally admitted that he'd bought an under-machine lighting kit and wired it in to fire in concert with certain flashers (he has the best poker face, and I'm gullible. NOT a good combination). It's amazing. Talk about a light show! I do think our Tron needs a seizure warning now though.



The next thing we need to do is see about getting the disc spinner motor replaced, though. It's loud. I mean REALLY loud. So I just took some video of that, and the whole tape (primarily gameplay of our LED'd out Shadow) is loading into my computer as I type this.

Personal Pinball Journal 1

There's the world of pinball in general, and then there's our own situation, and I figured I'd delineate the two and call the entries where I write about our collection "Personal Pinball Journals." At this point our collection is: The Shadow, Tron, Frankenstein, The Lord of the Rings, and Ripley's Believe it or Not. One of the first things we've been doing when we get a machine is replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDs. This is a somewhat controversial move; some people HATE the LED look. It's much brighter and colder light than the warm incandescent lights. It can be overdone too, there are different levels of LEDs and some are quite blinding. We go with the smaller ones, but are also keeping the incandescents from each machine in case we trade or sell them and a purist wants the old lights back in.
 

The upside is that LED lights burn cooler and conserve electricity in the long run (check out this post with heat signature comparisons). Some playfield parts can even be damaged by the heat an incandescent puts out over time, like the clock in Twilight Zone. The bigger upside is that it just looks badass! Anyway, that's been a first move for us in most cases. We may not be doing that with Ripley's or Lord of the Rings, but for the others we have. Except maybe Frankenstein, I think it came with some LEDs, in some VERY funky colors I might add. This past weekend, we installed the plastic protectors we'd bought for Lord of the Rings. The machine is in gorgeous shape and we intend to keep it that way. These protectors keep the ball from slamming into and damaging parts of the playfield that tend to be susceptible to that action. We also moved the pins closer together, and I did some careful measuring. We COULD squeeze six into that row, but unfortunately I think it would just be too crowded. It's really hard not to be greedy.