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The Pinball Diaries (what did you do today?)

brewmanager

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Nov 14, 2012
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Was thinking of this as a thread to share recent events/experiences/pinball jobs.

I can only call this my dim sum pinball weekend.

Was in bed early on Thursday night when Warlock and mwong168 started texting about getting together. Back on went the clothes, and out the door I went. Met up with the two of them, we spent a few hours playing and planning, then headed out to the Perfect Chinese restaurant, where we did serious damage to their squid and hargow stock. Love that place.

So I happened to mention this to Menace the next day, and he was wishing he'd been there. When his plans fell thru later, before I knew it he and Monkeybug were on their way down. Watching the great Santiago at work is always a pleasure, and while I won't steal his thunder, he quickly identified and solved some problems that had others so stumped they got rid of the machine. While Warlock and Menace were fixing, I had brought my RS translite. When I run into something I haven't done before, I always like to ask (especially after the f14 fire of 2012) but this turned out to be an easy task. My RGP search for a translite to replace my rough one led me to a Youssi signed NOS replacement, and after cleaning the glass, Monkeybug and I put everything back together, then started playing.

I got smug after 1 good ball, and I think Chris determined that I shouldn't do that any more, as he proceeded to kick my ass completely on every game we played. The man has skills, for sure. Mike joined us for a few games later on, while Doug and Scott brought some life back to a project machine that had been sitting in my garage since May.

Then it was time for some food. Back to the Perfect, which raised the following math question. If Mike brings two white guys on Thursday and four white guys on Friday, how many white guys will he bring for dim sum the following Wednesday?

Might take a few days to answer that one. We were there til 2 am, and had an absolutely great time.

Saturday my afternoon plans fell thru (major understatement), so Scott and I headed down to the Pinball Cafe, where I popped my cherry on MM and Bad Cats. Liked MM, bad cats was meh, and the brownie and black cherry pop were awesome. Then we went up to mrxsiv to pick up a machine. Played a few more machines for the first time, but don't want to put other people's collections out there. Did wind up making some changes in lighting based on seeing a different example of RS which made mine look much better.

So today I loaded up my van with females and headed off to Frasorville. After dropping off the girls at a baby shower, I met Bish and Mcmean at Mings, the planning of which started the whole dim sum craze in the first place. After a far larger meal than I should have eaten (I skipped dinner), headed over to Mcmeans to play, which lasted exactly one game before I got the dreaded "pick us up" text message.

Lots of pinball, and lots of dim sum and sushi, and lots of great people. All I can say is - Shwarma anyone?
 
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brewmanager

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Nov 14, 2012
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Scarborough, ON
Re: The Pinball Diaries

Bit off topic, but since it involves dinosaurs, why not?

Headed down to the acc right now to see Aerosmith, many thanks to Warlock who hooked his brother and I up with the ducats.

Remember hearing a lot of Love in an Elevator while hanging in the arcades back in the day. Looking forward to this show.
 

DRANO

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Nov 15, 2012
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Re: The Pinball Diaries

Mike was taunting me with all that talk of late night Dim Sum this weekend.
I think I would've driven across the city for some good har-gao and shui mai. My favourite spot in the West end got shut down a few months ago :(

Next time you're near the Pinball Cafe drop me a line. It's 5 minutes from my place. I can promise a well set-up MM and zero bad cats :D
 

Vengeance

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Nov 14, 2012
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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

WilliamsFan is dropping by today to pickup his 2 new machines he bought off me, we will spend some time putting some more hours on my new ACDC :)
 

WARLOCK

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

Shuffling pins in the warehouse over lunch time today to make room to set up a couple more to play and a couple more to tweak.
 

brewmanager

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

I felt frustrated that my Pinball Diaries thread didn't seem to work out and has morphed into this one. (sobs)
 

DRANO

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

Transfered switches and flashers to my new WH2O ramps so I can finally get this project finished!
 

WARLOCK

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

Heading back over to the pinball warehouse to shuffle pins again @ 5pm. This rocks being so close from work to where I can work on my pins.

Don't worry brewmanager, when it is time for a long winded story, I will post on your Pinball Diaries thread. This thread is for the quick posts.
A down and dirty what's up today! :D
 

Vengeance

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Nov 14, 2012
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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

Today is kinda a monumental day for me a little bit, this is the first time in like 2 years that I don't have a single game folded in storage :mrgreen: #firstworldproblems
 

WARLOCK

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

Spent a 20 minute lunch shuffling pins. Work was really busy today, so 5pm turned into 7pm and spent 7pm-8pm shuffling more pins and setting one up.
6 up and ready in the new space. Many folded. I think I will sell a few large arcade games to make room to set all the pins up. Going to be a fun month!
 

DRANO

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Re: The "What did YOU do today?" Thread

WARLOCK said:
Spent a 20 minute lunch shuffling pins. Work was really busy today, so 5pm turned into 7pm and spent 7pm-8pm shuffling more pins and setting one up.
6 up and ready in the new space. Many folded. I think I will sell a few large arcade games to make room to set all the pins up. Going to be a fun month!

Nice to have games at the office huh? Sounds like you have more room than I do though ;)
Need pics!
 

DRANO

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Oh yeah,
Also did some more restoration work on that TAF playfield I posted yesterday.
Here's a before & after.
 

WARLOCK

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Nice work Drano. The Pinball Diaries (What did you do today?) is all one nice thread now. Good idea Brock. (or mods, admins, that internet guru etc.)
Lunch is late today for me, I usually eat at my desk and keep working. With my pinball space a 1 minute walk away, I can always get something done now.
3 - SS and 3 - DMD's set up and ready in the pin warehouse. Just waiting on parts for 2 of the DMD's. Woo hoo! Maybe I will have 8-10 up by Monday!
 

DRANO

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WARLOCK said:
Nice work Drano. The Pinball Diaries (What did you do today?) is all one nice thread now. Good idea Brock. (or mods, admins, that internet guru etc.)
Lunch is late today for me, I usually eat at my desk and keep working. With my pinball space a 1 minute walk away, I can always get something done now.
3 - SS and 3 - DMD's set up and ready in the pin warehouse. Just waiting on parts for 2 of the DMD's. Woo hoo! Maybe I will have 8-10 up by Monday!

Wow, sounds like a good space.
I have FT currently set up next to my desk and my TAF is neatly folded up behind my door awaiting a pf swap.
In the workshop I have my WH2O and two EMs (C37 set-up and Spin Out still wrapped up).
I am bursting at the seems and I have another game coming in a few weeks!
 

DRANO

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REVOLUTION said:
I have to admit, Drano.. I was never a huge FT fan 'till I played yours. I've never played one with lightning flippers before, it totally changes how that game plays, IMO.

You know, I got it more out of nostalgia than anything. It was part of the usual 4 I would play a lot as a kid (TAF, T2, NGG and FT).
I had not played one in maybe 15 years and could not believe how much fun it was. At $1500, one of the best bang-for-buck pins out there in my opinion. No real modes and the rules are straightforward, but it can be a punishing game. Super Jackpots are super hard to get.
I think I must have a thing for Mark Ritchie pins. Both IJ and FT are super enjoyable for me. The game originally shipped with those flippers. I had thought about changing them when I finally restore it, but they've grown on me. I've even put off tearing it down because I'm having so much fun with it.
 

mwong168

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REVOLUTION said:
I have to admit, Drano.. I was never a huge FT fan 'till I played yours. I've never played one with lightning flippers before, it totally changes how that game plays, IMO.

They were suppose to have lightning flippers from the factory. I played a DW who last week at Nick Angel's place and I think that game is suppose to have them as well. FT very much like RS is a fun game if you can get over the country redneck-ish music theme and if Adriano didn't have one I would probably be gunning for this title too.
 

brewmanager

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Nov 14, 2012
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Scarborough, ON
mwong168 said:
RS is a fun game if you can get over the country redneck-ish music theme and if Adriano didn't have one I would probably be gunning for this title too.

I can get over the country - the one thing I can't get over on RS is the cab driver. Somewhere there has to be a mod to get rid of that little bit of racism, right? Perhaps a nice cabbie from Australia or something? I'm almost too embarrassed to have any of my brown friends over to play it....

And I wasn't really sobbing.... :) But I do like the merge, thanks to whoever took care of that.