Well I had a chance to meet another Maaca Member from out east--------------------------------------------> Necro Nemesis, who came to Flashman's Phantabulous Pinball Alley on Sunday, Sept. 24.  

All I can say is Glen....... you Rock!  Man I couldn't believe what a good time I had talking shop and meeting someone as enthusiastic about pinball as myself.  Someone like myself who likes to get inside a pinball and see what makes it tick, sort of speak.  It really is a much better way to exchange ideas as most people can talk way faster than they can type (he he).    


Well we talked and talked and talked and we even managed to play a little pinball.  My only regret is that we didn't have a longer visit and more time to indulge in the cheerful glass.  Cheers Glen, thanks for coming by and I hope we can do this again in the not so distant future.

                                      flashman

  

The Necro_nemesis World (Or at least Western Canada) Tour!

I also had the pleasure of Hosting an evening with Necro, Great Fun, Good people and some Pinball to boot!!

Glad to have met you Necro, Feel free to drop by anytime you are out west! I fact, I will be insulted if you don't!

Dave

i was also glad to meet the famous Necro.i wish i had more time to hang but i had a promise to keep.Nerco thanks for the cake and soda.i hope that our paths cross again.next time bring a pin or two.  cheers  

Where's the obligatory photo of Necro standing on  Portage & Main with the Maaca shirt?

I was very fortunate to meet with all of you over the last two days. I was getting to the point of questioning my own sanity over the fact that I was collecting these large heavy machines. Now I know at least I am sane, or at the very least, this form of insanity may exist elsewhere, but people are still extremely functional and quite personable regardless of the ailment.

Really nice to meet with all of you... that includes you Stan (hardcor).

Here is a review of the highlights of the visits:

Pins_Only: So after a bit of casual dinner conversation that was about.. you guessed it pin. We proceed to Dave and Brenda's. As we approach the seemingly normal suburbian house Dave opens the garage as if to pull the car inside. Well that is where normal and suburbia depart from anything but the norm because there is no way to fit a car into the garage! Here you will find the first of a series of gamerooms. 8 Pins set up and one folded just for good measure. So we try a few in there, this appears to be the testing ground to verify keeper game from the rest. If it passes through the garage test it is given higher status and moves onto the next of a series of rooms.Now it's on into the house. Dave takes me into his second stash. In this room sits anouther five pinballs, four of which are ready to be played, one, Spiderman, is "under construction". Dave tells me how Space Invaders was one of his favourite old skool machines and we try a couple games. At this point he reveals that he still has some grasp with reality because he comments on the concern for the neighbours viewing the infinity glass backglass and frightfull alien picture from the street. As if his neighbours haven't figured out yet that Dave is well.... a little different. . Now it's out to the hall where some of the less mainstream items are resting. Here we find the odd pitch and bat, Monster Score and an 50's woodrail. We try them both and we do a little Fonzie style trouble shooting on the woodrail (i.e. knock it around a bit to get it going). After playing there it is downstairs to the main event. In the basement DE has it's own special section away from the Williams/Bally line. Dave proceeds to show me the merits of TFTC. I have had little experience with this one and found it to be the best DE title short of G&R that I have tried to date. We hit the main pin row and I start with MB just because I enjoy this one a lot. Then we bypass the A list stuff and go for the ones that I have lesser experience with. Spent some time with CFTBL and Gilligan's Island since these I am less familiar with. Dave collects, well eveything that is really cool, he shows me some of the items but that in itself would require a whole nother visit. It's time to go and Dave brings me back to the hotel.

Flashman: Garth brings me to the Phantabulous Alley. Down we go and the lineup is beautifully displayed, a real nice showing, room lit by pins and neon signs. It gives the real retro-arcade feel to it. Flashman has his main pin row and then the work pin area. Both are populated with fantastic finds. Garth is a real detail man and he has no shortage of words. He proceeds to go through in detail a lot of his finds and the story of how he brought the machines back to collector status. I was amazed at the condition of some of the mechanical machines playfield conditions for the age of the machine. Garth obdviously puts a good solid effort into finding machines to find examples like this. We hit the Alley and are playing TOM. TOM for me is one I have been hot and cold on for years. This is the first time I have gotten to spend some serious time with a TOM that is working to perfection. Let me just say Garth that playing your machine has put this back on the upper list for me. Fantastic TOM in beautiful condition. We go back over to CFTBL. Again as Dave did Garth explains the rules. They both understand how the scoring increases exponentially for this game based on doing certain things. Both Garth and Dave were able to play the game as it should be played in front of me but I in both instances fail as miserably as a pin noob. We finish up with a couple of games of Garths HUO LOTR. I must say as you know I am not much of a Stern guy but LOTR is becoming very attractive the more I play it. Anyway I have to check my watch because otherwise I would end up shooting the mess and playing there until the sun comes up but I have to go so we head out for the hotel.

All in all it was a great pinball adventure.

I challenge anyone including gory to try and beat this pinball adventure:

John's Juke Vancouver
Pins_Only Calgary
Flashman Winnipeg
Home in three days  

Quoted Text

All in all it was a great pinball adventure.

I challenge anyone including gory to try and beat this pinball adventure:

Ah! My paid tax dollars at work  

Quoted from mark

Ah! My paid tax dollars at work  

I wish. It was more a function of luck. You take the good with the bad. Again this year I was away for my son's birthday party.

Any of you guys with jobs on the road will know what it's like. Unfortuately this year I have been away from home more than at home.

Glen,

Thanks for the comlimentary review so to speak, and sorry you missed your son's B-day.  

As far as the EM's go I wish you were able to see a few, I sold/traded recently such as Big Deal, Cassanva, Buccaneer and Aladdin's Castle.  They were just spectacular looking after I restored them (No paint touch ups though).  Well at least my buddy Robzilla bought two of them, and there's still a lot of EM pins in great shape still around.  I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open.  

                                                flashman

PS I like that, "pinball adventure."  Wait a minute haven't I heard that somewhere before?  he he