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UK Pinball Party 2014 - Put your pics and thoughts here!!

cooldan said:
......and just have Dominos or Pizza Express deliver a load of cheap and reliably tasty scran.
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As at the SCS - Will @SOUTH COAST SLAM spent lots on Dominos, and it was probably the most welcome evening meal i've ever had at a pin do!!
Hot, tasty and just what was needed - probably hotter and more tasty than some of the reports ive heard from the weekend :(
 
With regards to the UK Pinball Party...

Thanks for the positive comments. The negative comments are also noted.

The quality of the dinner was not acceptable - and I will be taking this up with the hotel.

Some people say everyone was machine-hogging, some people say nobody was. So I guess it's subjective.

To the few people who brought machines along - I thank you all.

There were not enough machines this year. With the rise of regional events, fewer people want to take games to the main show. Either that, or they just don't want to bring machines to the Party.

Will there be a Party next year? Honestly I don't know. I personally feel very tired and deflated.

To the person who suggests everyone book at the cheaper Ibis? That just might seal the fate of the Party.

To everyone who helped at the Party and brought machines - I thank you all.

Andy
 
A big thanks for organizing yet another PP Andy.
We know it can't have been easy with everything else going on.
Fingers crossed there will be a other next year.
Thanks again.
 
I understand that the comments about our first game are mainly negative from forum members.

I will address the points:

  • This is not the final cabinet design
  • Comments that the flippers are weak. The flipper power is adjustable, but is not perfect yet. It can also vary a little depending on various factors. This is being worked on and will be addressed. It is not a difficult fix. We turned the power of the flippers down anyway for the show so it was possible to make the right ramp (see later comment). The flipper strength can be WAY more powerful than that...
  • Right ramp - the ramp makers will be making an adjustment to the production tool. There is a bump at the entrance and it can cause an air ball which ricochets off the top ramp protector. Right ramp is achievable from a held ball on the left flipper but not from a volley. This will be fixed shortly. Although nobody has commented on this, it is easy to make the right ramp with a backflip from the right flipper
  • New motors for spinning wheels arrived today - 4 days late and too late for the Party. Yes, they will be 4-5 times faster
  • Stuck balls - on top of captive ball. Before the Party this never happened once. Not a single time. We had inductive switch targets for the lock targets but replaced these just before the Party with standard standup targets, to make the lock switches more reliable. This they did, but a negative side effect is that the switch was more "springy" and launched the ball onto the captive ball every 4-5 hits. Obviously this is an easy problem to solve
  • Screen/game crash - this happened more towards the end of the show. We believe we have a few software bugs causing this. However, it also appears the power cord was a little loose and could have been causing the recents. I thought it "may" have been due to live updates, but later discovered that it wasn't
  • Getting Full Throttle out of the Westerburg Suite, before the pre-launch event. No pinball machine will fit through those doors on its legs. Yes we could have easily removed the head but the quicker option was to wind the levelers up
  • Lockdown bar/magazine - as discussed, the lockdown bar will be incorporated into the magazine. The flipper buttons are in the correct place but because the lockdown bar sits too high, it is harder to reach the flipper buttons. The new magazine is designed and ready to build
To everyone who expected to see a 100% working and finished machine, I apologise to you for ruining your expectations.

To everyone who realised that although the game is nearly finished, it still needs some tweaks and changes in places - thanks for your understanding

Clearly we did not do a good enough job. Next time, we will try and do better
 
Andy,

You have in fact done what i suspect everyone hoped there :) Explained the status and answered the questions/issues mentioned. Every machine has to go through testing - We know that Stern have their specific places where machines go to be "trialled". This was in fact (As far as i can see) - your first - and i would actually say that it's faired up very well!! A few questions, and lots of answers with specifics.

I think it's probably more of a case of everyone wanting it to be right, both for them and for you guys!!

I have to say i'm rather impressed!!

Northern lights as a final bugfix trial before release?? ;)

Paul
 
I for one enjoy staying at the Daventry Court Hotel and having everything under one roof.

I really hope next year goes ahead but Andrew, may I suggest you ask for pledges as early as you possibly can? Also we were speaking to some locals over at the Queen of Hearts and they had asbsolutely no idea there was anything like this happening at the Daventry Court Hotel - it might be worth doing local advertising next time.
 
The Pinball Party was the ideal place for testing in a environment that would put the machine through its paces plus get the comments from people in the know.
Now that Andy has the comments Highway Pinball can tweek and put right things that were going wrong.

Let's look forward to a machine that's nearly ready for release at the NLP.
Looking forward already.
 
I would have taken some tables but was unable to make it due to holiday. Couldn't make it last year either because of holiday.

Maybe have it at a different time of year as a lot of people with kids take holidays in July/August.
 
Nedreud said:
Got to play my all-time favourite pin again - BLACK HOLE - and pleased that it was being less temperamental that last year, but sad to hear that it had been sold to someone from Switzerland so will likely be leaving UK shores.
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Sorry about that. Actually, it was sold to a Brit, living in Switzerland, so it may one-day come back, especially if everyone works hard and the currency appreciates. (But don't hold your breath.)

Nedreud said:
Biggest let down though was PARAGON. Not because it's a chuff game. Quite the contrary, it's an awesome game! I should know, I've got one. It was disappointing because it was so badly setup. Loads of missing GI and feature lamps, mis-aligned flipper making the VALLEY OF DEMONS near impossible and wobbly legs.
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You'll probably feel even more let down when I tell you it's going to Switzerland as well, but to a Swiss National, for whom it is a Grail machine and who was resigned to thinking he'd never ever get one. I bought it blind for him, and he's over the moon.

Fortunately, they'll probably be in our local club when they're up and running with 30+ other machines. In fact, any of you could come and play them any Friday all night for a tenner, like some other Brits have already. Alternatively, they could have gone into some obscure collector's basement and you might never have seen them again, so could be worse.

http://www.flipperclub.ch
 
I've been going to the shows since the first Aston Villa one that Nick Pins Anon put on.

I'll be blunt...my call is that the Pinball Party has got to the end of the line, 5 years without any recent fresh ideas (auctions, presentations, tutorials etc.) or new people coming up with different stuff means that it's got boring and it's now in decline. Andy alluded to this in one of the first sentences in at the evening meal. The fact is that Andy puts in a great effort, but he can't be expected to run the UK pinball world on his own.

The tournaments suffer the same. (Although one can't argue that they're not popular, with increasing numbers of participants every year!) Nonetheless, I believe they need a refresh, perhaps new formats, different venue/rooms, multiple days, there are lots of things that stop other nations players coming to the UK tournaments. One of the major complaints is that you get to play only 6 +1 machines to qualify, it has been pointed out many times that it's not that good value. One might suggest that it's the social aspects and not just the raw playing that makes a tournament, but they have a point. Also, I hate tournament machine queuing, the token system that somebody mentioned in another post, was used at the EPC in Spain, that would work.

My experiences this year was that:

- The hotel is starting to look a bit old.
- The meal was shockingly poor and bad value. Just ordering in lots of pizza's isn't the answer though, Andy needs to make money from the meal, as part of the costs for running the event. Barry Oursler flights aren't cheap.
- Barry's presentation needed "some work". He's a lovely bloke (especially as I took a fiver off him at Poker on Friday night), but he's not a born-showman and he needed to provide material.
- The number of machines was significantly down (20%?) and there were no other events (e.g. video games people) in the outside rooms.
- I don't think machine hogging was as bad as I've seen in the past, but that was probably due to there being significantly fewer people attending.
- Electrics were well taken care of as always, by those unsung electrics heroes, thanks guys.
- Thanks also to everyone who bought machine(s), you rock!
- Game selection I actually thought was OK, quite a good variety, but then again, when I remember back to Aston Villa with it's 170 machines + some vids...

5 or 6 years ago, the UK Pinball Show/Party was the only event in the UK and everyone was jumping on-board. Now there are several other top events that are taking up people's bandwidth and commitment. I think we'd be better off if Andy stepped back early and said "No more Party", and used his resources to support other people's events, perhaps as a vendor/sponsor. Whether someone else would take up the gauntlet or not to run a show, I don't know. But I don't think it really matters, it's not like there are no alternatives.

As great oaks fall, other acorns spring up in it's place. (But ideally not-for-profit and not at the Daventry hotel...Wicksteed Park again, perhaps? :))

And where would that leave the tournaments.... I wonder...:rolleyes:
 
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D-Type said:
Sorry about that. Actually, it was sold to a Brit, living in Switzerland, so it may one-day come back, especially if everyone works hard and the currency appreciates. (But don't hold your breath.)



You'll probably feel even more let down when I tell you it's going to Switzerland as well, but to a Swiss National, for whom it is a Grail machine and who was resigned to thinking he'd never ever get one. I bought it blind for him, and he's over the moon.

Fortunately, they'll probably be in our local club when they're up and running with 30+ other machines. In fact, any of you could come and play them any Friday all night for a tenner, like some other Brits have already. Alternatively, they could have gone into some obscure collector's basement and you might never have seen them again, so could be worse.

http://www.flipperclub.ch
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I'm unlikely to make it to Switzerland any time soon, but thanks for the invite! I'll get me a BLACK HOLE... one day... it's my grail pin. As for Paragon, I'm pleased it's gone to a good home. I'm much happier knowing it's someone else grail pin and that they'll give it the love and attention it deserves rather than knocking back and forth in the UK, gradually going downhill.
 
Nedreud said:
Thanks to everyone for putting together another excellent UKPP!



Other awesome pins included BUCK ROGERS, DRACULA, HOT WHEELS, PLAYBOY, COMBAT, DEFENDER, and special mention to @myPinballs for bringing his unique HIGH VOLTAGE. Way cool :cool:
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I reckon that Stern's 1979 Dracula probably only exists as it does due to seventies chip technology - the software had been used previously, on Wild Fyre the year before. Stern could've been left with a lot of otherwise unusable masked Roms, and asked the designer (Harry Williams, I think) to produce another game with the same features and rules. The early Stern solid-state games include three instances of this; Pinball/Stingray, Wild Fyre/Dracula and Lectronamo/Nugent.
 
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Carl Spiby said:
I for one enjoy staying at the Daventry Court Hotel and having everything under one roof.
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I agree Carl, travelling between the venue and your digs is a PITA, particularly if you want a few beers. I thought my room was perfectly fine and at reasonable cost, no hassle with parking (on your doorstep) and there's a pub, Tesco and MC's close by. Premier Inn can be over £100 at times with no breakfast !

I enjoyed seeing some older machines not played before and didn't really notice a reduction in numbers. I say keep the venue and cost involved, as you've said Andy, just address the dinner problem that everyone has been unhappy about. I don't want them taking all the tables at our Chinese next year. :D
 
Jay Walker said:
I reckon that Stern's 1979 Dracula probably only exists as it does due to seventies chip technology - the software had been used previously, on Wild Fyre the year before. Stern could've been left with a lot of otherwise unusable Roms, and asked the designer (Harry Williams, I think) to produce another game with the same features and rules. The early Stern solid-state games include three instances of this; Pinball/Stingray, Wild Fyre/Dracula and Lectronamo/Nugent.
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Thanks for this interesting tidbit @Jay Walker. I love stuff like this. Looking at pins produced adjacent to each other (I'm getting quite familiar with the Bally lineage between 1978 and 1982) you start noticing that bits of each often made it into the next. Maybe sometimes they had surplus parts so worked those into the design. Other times it must have been a cost decision to use say a lesser sound board, etc. but what a difference a good design can make: compare CENTAUR with VECTOR. Pretty much the same pile of bits and only 4 months between the project dates. Whilst VECTOR isn't a bad pin it certainly isn't the sought classic that CENTAUR has become.
 
Nedreud said:
Thanks for this interesting tidbit @Jay Walker. I love stuff like this. Looking at pins produced adjacent to each other (I'm getting quite familiar with the Bally lineage between 1978 and 1982) you start noticing that bits of each often made it into the next. Maybe sometimes they had surplus parts so worked those into the design.
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This used to happen at Stern as well, particularly with Mr. Williams. Wild Fyre featured a row of 3 adjacent eject holes, yoked together for one solenoid to clear. This appeared later on 'Ali'. Ali's spinner target wasn't a direct shot, since it was concealed inside a tricky 'U' loop - that came back on Cheetah.

Williams have been known to use existing parts too; on Hurricane there's a black plastic box mounted above the entry to the larger 'Hurricane' ramp. That's actually the same item used in a similar way on High Speed.
 
Full Throttle:
Good points: The illuminated cabinet sides look good. Colour changing LEDs were impressive. Flippers felt good, obviously too weak on the day but Andy has addressed this, I thought the angle was a bit steep too. Integrated display in the playfield looks good.

Negative points: The LCD on WOZ is a *massive* step forward and is how any new pin should be done, the new Sterns with the small red LCDs look antiquated after playing WOZ. Could Full Throttle have a LCD in the back box as well as the playfield ? - that would be superb. The theme does nothing for me I am afraid but then I like the WOZ theme so maybe that's just me!

If I saw one on site, would I play it? Definitely.

The Pinball Party generally:
Seemed as busy as last year which was very busy. I thought there were less inoperable pins than last year. It was a real bonus to play pins from the 70s - they may not be deep but just to get the chance to play any is fascinating - that Hot Wheels (?) was like new. Why did the owner of 6 Million Dollar Man not get it up & running?? The Centaur was the best example I have ever played - really enjoyed playing it. Carlsberg at £2.95 was reasonable, but glad I did not fork out for the Meal.
 
Paul R Owen said:
Negative points: The LCD on WOZ is a *massive* step forward and is how any new pin should be done, the new Sterns with the small red LCDs look antiquated after playing WOZ. Could Full Throttle have a LCD in the back box as well as the playfield ? - that would be superb. The theme does nothing for me I am afraid but then I like the WOZ theme so maybe that's just me!
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I really like that the screen is in your eye line on FT, I'm still not used to looking up at that huge screen then trying to work out which part of it to look at on WOZ.
 
Maybe I'm just an old hippy but I've always found DMD or LCD displays a huge distraction in any pinball game. Looking up is the real killer, but I concede that they're the only way to explain the really complex rules and modes in modern games. The only pin I've played that had a potentially happy balance between the display not being a distraction or taking over the playfield is in CIRQUS VOLTAIRE, in which Bally mounted a DMD at the back of the playfield. Low enough to be in your line of sight whilst playing but taking nothing away from playfield real estate. Also meant the backglass art could fill the entire space. What a classic!

bigyearpinball.files.wordpress.com_2013_03_dsc02286.jpg
 
I love the CV DMD setup more than I like the table to be honest - definitely a rather good table, but a great improvement on the normal translite/DMD setup. I'm surprised we don't see it more often, but I guess it's trickier wedging a DMD in there along with toys/ramps/etc.
 
Does anyone know who the owner of 6M$ is? Andy N. commented that he couldn't find out who owned it. Considering he's one of the most talented pinball mechanics in the UK it would have been fool of anyone not to acquaint themselves with him if they had an iffy pin! And it if was broken, why was it switched on all day Sunday?
 
node said:
I love the CV DMD setup more than I like the table to be honest - definitely a rather good table, but a great improvement on the normal translite/DMD setup. I'm surprised we don't see it more often, but I guess it's trickier wedging a DMD in there along with toys/ramps/etc.
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I've always wondered why better use isn't/wasn't made of the apron area traditionally used by the instruction cards. I've seen mods that allow the fitting of a mini-DMD in the card holder. Seems pretty cool. And right next to where you looking most of the time - the flippers!
 
You need a DMD extender..... Very useful bit of kit fitted on the apron with a small DMD to duplicate the main DMD... :D
 
Paul said:
You need a DMD extender..... Very useful bit of kit fitted on the apron with a small DMD to duplicate the main DMD... :D
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Yep, that's what I'm thinking of. Great after-market mod. Just wondering why designers didn't go with this arrangement originally. But then I guess the DMD/LCD in the backbox is part of the sales pitch when a pin isn't being played and in attract mode. So from a commercial "pay and play" point of view it makes sense to have the DMD in the backbox.
 
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