Howdy folks, been a lurker on here for a while now and finally getting around to joining. Was planning on saving my hello for when I get my first wanted thread up but not quite ready (currently got a 8month old daughter and selling my house)
I have been an arcade fan and more importantly a shmup fanatic but over the last year I have gotten right into pinballs (pinball arcade, of course) I think they have very similar appeal as shmups (beautiful art, simple but difficult Gameplay, high score chasing etc)
Anyway I'm babbling already. The reason for my Hello is I had my first experience on a real pinball in about 10 years.
Being from Scotland there isn't a huge many places that have pins. So I was delighted that my wife suggested going to Glasgow for the day a few weeks ago. I headed straight to Megabytes cafe as I knew they had a number of good pins. It was only when I got there that I saw they had no pins. In fact the cafe was closing. Was pretty gutted.
Fast forward a few days later and I am at a caravan park called Pettycur bay in Kinghorn which is just 10mins from my house. I was swimming with my daughter and had heard they had a pinball machine. Unfortunately I couldn't go play it that day.
After heading home, I checked the net to find it was a Big Buck Pro. Was pretty excited yo try it. I heard it wasn't in great nick but I wasn't bothered. I watched numerous vids on scoring and shots on YouTube to get ready to play it. Eventually 3 weeks later(today) I finally got 20mins away from the wife and child to go play it.
As I walked into their little arcade I was shocked to see it was no longer there!
But in its place was a Metallica pro. To say I was excited was an understatment. It was a newish stern pin in the flesh and looked in really good condition.
Although the sound was quite low and the lights weren't so bright due to the room being well light, it looked awesome.
It was 50p or 3 for a quid so I fired in a few quid.
Pulled the plunger and away I went, only for the ball to drain right away. Ok I thought, first try and that. Then 2nd ball was pretty much the same.
Turns out the machine wasn't level. Incredibly difficult yo keep the ball in play. It was most frustrating!
I tried to level the legs only to be asked by a staff member what the hell I was doing. The young lad just shrugged and told me to stop.
So I had 7 balls left to play so tried to make the most of it.
I managed to get the ball round the top loop only for it to get stuck! It would not budge. So after a few nudges, the tilt activated but no movement on the ball. I managed to lift the pin quite high and it finally fell only for the **** to tell me off again.
So my first experience has been underwhelming to say the least. I certainly had mixed emotions about the 15mins I had there.
I hope to go back soon and hopefully it is levelled or I have enough time to sort myself.
The pin itself is pretty cool though (although a little basic)
I don't really know why I felt the need to tell this story but I told my wife and she said she didn't care and to tell someone who did
You don't know how lucky you guys are down south with multiple pinball locations.
Anyway, Hello chaps and thanks for having a great forum
Cheers
Mark
I have been an arcade fan and more importantly a shmup fanatic but over the last year I have gotten right into pinballs (pinball arcade, of course) I think they have very similar appeal as shmups (beautiful art, simple but difficult Gameplay, high score chasing etc)
Anyway I'm babbling already. The reason for my Hello is I had my first experience on a real pinball in about 10 years.
Being from Scotland there isn't a huge many places that have pins. So I was delighted that my wife suggested going to Glasgow for the day a few weeks ago. I headed straight to Megabytes cafe as I knew they had a number of good pins. It was only when I got there that I saw they had no pins. In fact the cafe was closing. Was pretty gutted.
Fast forward a few days later and I am at a caravan park called Pettycur bay in Kinghorn which is just 10mins from my house. I was swimming with my daughter and had heard they had a pinball machine. Unfortunately I couldn't go play it that day.
After heading home, I checked the net to find it was a Big Buck Pro. Was pretty excited yo try it. I heard it wasn't in great nick but I wasn't bothered. I watched numerous vids on scoring and shots on YouTube to get ready to play it. Eventually 3 weeks later(today) I finally got 20mins away from the wife and child to go play it.
As I walked into their little arcade I was shocked to see it was no longer there!
But in its place was a Metallica pro. To say I was excited was an understatment. It was a newish stern pin in the flesh and looked in really good condition.
Although the sound was quite low and the lights weren't so bright due to the room being well light, it looked awesome.
It was 50p or 3 for a quid so I fired in a few quid.
Pulled the plunger and away I went, only for the ball to drain right away. Ok I thought, first try and that. Then 2nd ball was pretty much the same.
Turns out the machine wasn't level. Incredibly difficult yo keep the ball in play. It was most frustrating!
I tried to level the legs only to be asked by a staff member what the hell I was doing. The young lad just shrugged and told me to stop.
So I had 7 balls left to play so tried to make the most of it.
I managed to get the ball round the top loop only for it to get stuck! It would not budge. So after a few nudges, the tilt activated but no movement on the ball. I managed to lift the pin quite high and it finally fell only for the **** to tell me off again.
So my first experience has been underwhelming to say the least. I certainly had mixed emotions about the 15mins I had there.
I hope to go back soon and hopefully it is levelled or I have enough time to sort myself.
The pin itself is pretty cool though (although a little basic)
I don't really know why I felt the need to tell this story but I told my wife and she said she didn't care and to tell someone who did
You don't know how lucky you guys are down south with multiple pinball locations.
Anyway, Hello chaps and thanks for having a great forum
Cheers
Mark
