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Pinball Party?

Back to the original topic of this thread, but did I miss an official announcement from Andy Heighway about this year's UKPP? I get this impression it's not happening - just wondering if that's been announced formerly somewhere?
 
Nedreud said:
Back to the original topic of this thread, but did I miss an official announcement from Andy Heighway about this year's UKPP? I get this impression it's not happening - just wondering if that's been announced formerly somewhere?
Click to expand...

Correct it's not happening this year
 
there is no reason why a closed comp has to be at a show other than footfall. There was always numerous complaints from show goers that they couldn't play on X machine, right back to the villa days. As the machines would be separate anyway then hold it separate. Maybe at arcade club.
 
Just reading back through the thread and it's exhausting. Why so much anger? We are talking about PINBALL here. Wooden boxes full of wires, balls and ramps. That's it. I personally loved all the UKPP and sad there isn't one this year but it is totally understandable. Andy must be a very busy man and we should support him. I'm sure they'll be an 'Alien' launch party so bring it on. Beer and a high score anyone?
 
Nice quote from Aliens there but we have got to look a little more hopefull , we all need another Slam.
 
I think it is fantastic that Peter has stepped up to host the uk open, and provide the resources for such a large and prominent competition. @Moonraker is taking on a big workload and doing us all a big favour

I have only been to one pinball party, last year's, and i thought it was superb. I had a fantastic time, and the format meant I could attend with a mate who had never been to a knock-out tournament before as he knew there was lots to do regardless of how he did - team comp, main tourney, classics tourney, general games etc etc

To be perfectly honest, and amongst friends we should be able to be perfectly honest, there ought to be a better outcome than a capacity constrained event for the 2017 uk open, which is presumably the UK's premier tournament. Or if it carries the name "UK Open" it should be the premier event.

Last year in the uk open I got to play against some truly superb players. For example Franck Bona in the heats. Then I was knocked out of the As and Bs by Albert Nomden and Cayle George respectively. Maybe this year's UK open will attract players like this, I just do not know. But I am pretty sure they would show up were it held in Manchester

Salisbury is a very long way from the Midlands, let alone the north and scotland. And for those eliminated early, their options are limited due to space constraints. I also think that a fresh selection of "random" machines also makes for a fairer tournament than an existing pool of games well known to locals

If the UKPP does not happen in 2017, the 2017 uk open courtesy of Nlp at the expo in manchester would be a good outcome in my opinion. Manchester has superb air, rail and road transport links. The trafford centre offers top class event hosting capabilities as does the Gmex in the city centre. Plenty of space. Manchester is on the international radar thanks to its sporting heritage (United, City, Old Trafford Cricket, Commonwealth Games' facilities, MEN arena etc etc). A great night out can be had here.

The nlp guys are fantastically well organised. I wonder if their co-ordination could be extended to the "lone guns" elsewhere

By
  • restricting the hammering that games take by limiting their use to tournament play
  • having a zero tolerance policy on tournament machine abuse
  • Co-ordinating bulk transport of games
I would imagine that there will be pinball owners out there who might step up and offer additional games that are in good order for the uk open. Perhaps better games that they do not wish to have two days of full hammering by all and sundry. I have not, and cannot speak for others, but there are guys like me in the midlands and elsewhere with a few well maintained games who currently lug a single game to events in our own cars.

If it were possible to arrange co-ordinated transport of machines, have zero tolerance on machine abuse, I would pledge one for general use, and two games for the tournaments
 
DRD said:
I think it is fantastic that Peter has stepped up to host the uk open, and provide the resources for such a large and prominent competition. @Moonraker is taking on a big workload and doing us all a big favour

I have only been to one pinball party, last year's, and i thought it was superb. I had a fantastic time, and the format meant I could attend with a mate who had never been to a knock-out tournament before as he knew there was lots to do regardless of how he did - team comp, main tourney, classics tourney, general games etc etc

To be perfectly honest, and amongst friends we should be able to be perfectly honest, there ought to be a better outcome than a capacity constrained event for the 2017 uk open, which is presumably the UK's premier tournament. Or if it carries the name "UK Open" it should be the premier event.

Last year in the uk open I got to play against some truly superb players. For example Franck Bona in the heats. Then I was knocked out of the As and Bs by Albert Nomden and Cayle George respectively. Maybe this year's UK open will attract players like this, I just do not know. But I am pretty sure they would show up were it held in Manchester

Salisbury is a very long way from the Midlands, let alone the north and scotland. And for those eliminated early, their options are limited due to space constraints. I also think that a fresh selection of "random" machines also makes for a fairer tournament than an existing pool of games well known to locals

If the UKPP does not happen in 2017, the 2017 uk open courtesy of Nlp at the expo in manchester would be a good outcome in my opinion. Manchester has superb air, rail and road transport links. The trafford centre offers top class event hosting capabilities as does the Gmex in the city centre. Plenty of space. Manchester is on the international radar thanks to its sporting heritage (United, City, Old Trafford Cricket, Commonwealth Games' facilities, MEN arena etc etc). A great night out can be had here.

The nlp guys are fantastically well organised. I wonder if their co-ordination could be extended to the "lone guns" elsewhere

By
  • restricting the hammering that games take by limiting their use to tournament play
  • having a zero tolerance policy on tournament machine abuse
  • Co-ordinating bulk transport of games
I would imagine that there will be pinball owners out there who might step up and offer additional games that are in good order for the uk open. Perhaps better games that they do not wish to have two days of full hammering by all and sundry. I have not, and cannot speak for others, but there are guys like me in the midlands and elsewhere with a few well maintained games who currently lug a single game to events in our own cars.

If it were possible to arrange co-ordinated transport of machines, have zero tolerance on machine abuse, I would pledge one for general use, and two games for the tournaments
Click to expand...
Some good points.

I could be wrong but I believe the NLP ethos has always been 'bringing pinball to the people' - in practice having as many great games as possible free to play for ALL. And they pull this off brilliantly year after year.

With the exception of a few small fun competitions running for just a few hours and raising more money for charity - games are not tied up for exclusive use by serious tournament players. And I personally think it should stay that way.

Regarding bringing games/logistics..... Having been closely involved in the running of the Slam (2010 - 2014 RIP ) I can tell you that getting folk to commit and bring along their pride and joy is one of THE major headaches.

Understandably.... as it is a huge effort, as anyone who has or continues to support events with machine loans will testify. The UK pinball scene is also relatively small so you do find that it's the same good folk that step up the plate year after year to commit machines.
 
You're certainly right that the NLP ethos has been about introducing pinball to newcomers, but that doesn't necessarily rule out competition play. In fact I'm sure many (like me) found the competitive pinball scene quite enjoyable and a reason to keep coming back

The 8 Bit Flip show we've done the last couple of years has had more of a competitive focus, and there certainly were discussions about introducing competition play to the main NLP show too. So it's not something we'd ever rule out

This year though the stumbling block was mainly down to unfortunate timing.

For the main NLP show we would have liked to keep the competition machines separate to public play machines, and given that the UK Pinball Open is a long competition, it would need to be 'in addition to' the normal sorts of numbers of machines people expect at the NLP show.

As you say, we're incredibly grateful to those that year after year dedicate their machines to this cause. There are a separate group of people in the competitive pinball scene that are equally generous with their machines, and we would love their support to putting on a world class competition, but the timing this year didn't work out. Many were already committed to other events in the calendar, some of which were very close to the weekend of the NLP show.

Speaking personally I think the NLP show would be a perfect venue for the best competitive pinball players to display their skills to a new audience of gaming fanatics. In addition to the benefits that DRD pointed out, there is enough space at the show to dedicate to a viewing gallery, with TV monitors relaying the play to a seated audience. I think it could do really well. Maybe next year :)
 
Wizcat said:
For the main NLP show we would have liked to keep the competition machines separate to public play machines, and given that the UK Pinball Open is a long competition, it would need to be 'in addition to' the normal sorts of numbers of machines people expect at the NLP show.

As you say, we're incredibly grateful to those that year after year dedicate their machines to this cause. There are a separate group of people in the competitive pinball scene that are equally generous with their machines, and we would love their support to putting on a world class competition, but the timing this year didn't work out. Many were already committed to other events in the calendar, some of which were very close to the weekend of the NLP show.

Speaking personally I think the NLP show would be a perfect venue for the best competitive pinball players to display their skills to a new audience of gaming fanatics. In addition to the benefits that DRD pointed out, there is enough space at the show to dedicate to a viewing gallery, with TV monitors relaying the play to a seated audience. I think it could do really well. Maybe next year :)
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I have little interest in competitive pinball these days so I'm a little biased against it truth be told if it impacts on the general enjoyment of the majority for the sake of world ranking points for the minority.

And yes, would need to be seperate additional number of machines .... the sticking point has always been the use of large number of machines that non competitors then have no access to. This was a constantly fed back to us at the Slam, someone comes for 1 day and is irked that Game X is off the main floor all day. So any reduction in the number of games available to the public would be a shame.
 
What about the lock-in on saturday evening ?

Would that be a good time to have the competitive play? Time might be short I guess and would need to have it only on machines earmarked by their owners as useable etc. Also it affects the lock-in which I believe is a bit of an event in its self

I haven't been to a NLP event (other than the nba challenge tagged onto the slam) so I'm no place to comment really. I am heading to this years event and can't wait as it always seems to be a great weekend. The fact there is no tournaments mean I can play a lot more machines...
 
DRD said:
By
  • restricting the hammering that games take by limiting their use to tournament play
  • having a zero tolerance policy on tournament machine abuse
  • Co-ordinating bulk transport of games
Click to expand...

In my experience a machine is FAR more likely to suffer abuse from tournament play than out in general play. Myself and Stormy were playing Bona in a quarter final on my friends avatar. Frank shoved it so hard when he lost the ball he got the locked ball to roll up and activate the switch for multiball. How the legs on the back didn't buckle I'll never know. We did both step in front of him and tell him there was no way he was playing the multiball though!

As for organizing a show, there's a lot of talk and not many taking action. I think folks need to realize you need to put cash up front (probably around the £10K mark for a UKPP type event) and you are more than likely going to make a loss so doing this as a business won't work. If you hold a centrally located show then you're likely to get more games transported.
I looked at a few venues for the Christmas Cracker last year. Any place large enough for a show will charge accordingly.

The ideal venue is Donington Park exhibition centre. Centrally located, hard floor, next to an airport, next to the M1, don't care how much noise you make. I shudder to think what it'd cost!

On bringing machines. Before UKPP we all did it for the love of the hobby. There was no money and you brought games because you wanted to show them off. No prissy "it might get damaged" crap. Bring it, look after it, take it home, get a nice warm glow about providing something special for people to experience and enjoy. One year I took my sample Earthshaker and it got played so much it wore all the lettering of the multiplier inserts! Did it matter to me? No.
 
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