We like to play it all, welcome to Tally Hall
First thing I did at Marvin's was take photographs of the pinball playfields used as the ceiling for the vestibule, earning a comment from CST that yeah, he was there doing the same thing, photographing everything. I can't say I did photograph everything because there's too much to accomplish that, but I did my best to get a lot of shots and from many different angles. I also took a movie while walking through the place, although I suspect I was walking too fast for it to be really useful apart from as a lesson in how overstimulating the place can be.
The pinball-playing, though, that ... I started out on some other games. With only two tries on each of the three Launch Party games I figured to need some warmup on other games. I also figured to try playing all of the games on Pinball Row, and at this I succeeded, although it wasn't complete until after the tournament was finished --- the games just next to the three Launch Party games were turned off, allowing competitors to play with diminished distractions from the corners of their eyes. The three Launch Party games were next to each other, though, so you couldn't help seeing someone playing another game beside you. But, hey, how distracting could that be?
Here bunny_hugger is readying a comment about how angry she was. Because one of her games was spoiled, as in losing the ball because of the distraction and not recovering her playing equanimity the rest of the game, by a kid who was yelling at his parents, across her, heedless of why this might be a bad thing. You can't exactly fault a kid for having bad situation awareness or being slow to recognize how they might be bothering someone else; a rough definition of your maturity is realizing other people have stuff going on that's not about you. But his parents --- also there to compete --- not warning him of the problem is bizarre, and a bit infuriating.
Between that spoiled game, and her pace being off every time she saw the kid was around again (and of course he stuck around), she didn't put up any games good enough to qualify for finals. She had one game of Jaws that was threatening to get good enough, but in an accident she can blame no one else for, misjudged how fast the ball was stopping and let it dribble off her flipper. She'd rather have had the B-Division Win last month be her final Marvin's visit experience.
For me, I had ... mostly bad games. Now, most everyone was having bad games, since on tournament settings the games get pretty short and unforgiving. But, like, on both John Wick and Jaws I never managed to get a multiball going, and any pinball game since about 1990 is designed to get you at least one multiball if nothing else. My one bright spot was one game of Ultimate X-Men, where I managed to get the Sentry Factory Mode (whatever it's called) going with the Sentry Multiball, which just blew up into sixty million points or so. There's no telling how good a score that is, because competition mode makes it hard to compare scores, and the Ultimate X-Men's code is very primitive and fluctuating. (Rumor around the pinball floor is that Stern rushed the game into production because something went wrong with another game.)
It was a good score, good enough to launch me into the top four for that game and to knock CST out of contention on it. His wife would also beat his score so it wasn't just me keeping him from being in all three finals. (There was one person in all three finals, though not someone I know particularly. There were also someone besides CST in two finalses.) This did not enchant bunny_hugger, even though I sincerely did not believe my score was good enough to make finals or that, if it was in the top four at any particular moment, that it would stay there.
Still, the 9:00 deadline came, and there I was, with the third-highest score on X-Men. And the finals began to play. First, John Wick, as PWT (running the event) wanted to get the fastest game over with. Here, wow, nobody put up a good game; I was hoping at least to see some good players on it. My qualifying scores wouldn't have beaten any of these finals scores, but it was a closer thing than should have been. CST came out the winner, with his good first ball enough to win the day.
Then Jaws, and again, a round that went faster than people would have guessed for how this table normally goes on forever. Once again CST won, although it wasn't as overwhelming a win as normal. This one I was less looking for knowledge on; Jaws, at least, I have a bit of an understanding of. I can at least have reliably okay games on it.
And then, Ultimate X-Men. I got the position I wanted, going second, and was haunted by thoughts of how great it would be to win, a great way to freeze up and trash the game. So instead I focused on how to get a mode started and, particularly, to get that Sentry Factory Mode and then hit the target that eventually starts multiball. Miracle of miracles, I didn't drain while trying this, and instead put up something like fifty million points on the first ball. This was fantastic for me; besides being a score better than most qualifying scores, it meant everyone else got to play nervous, thinking how they had to have a great couple balls to overcome this. My second and third balls weren't anything much, but that still netted another ten or so million, mostly on the cumulative bonus. So, against my expectations ... I won, and took home the last trophy that'll be awarded for pinball play at Marvins's former Tally Hall location. I'm still amazed that it could happen.
We spent another hour or two hanging around after that. Playing the rest of the pinball games. Trying out coin-op devices. (Someone who'd been at Marvin's many times was stunned to learn that the parade of airplanes running back and forth over the room is itself a coin-op, that anyone can start for fifty cents.) Taking pictures, taking movies. Talking with the guy who runs the place about the hope that the move will be successful, and that we'll be able to play again by summer.
Here's hoping 2025 sees some good news to come.
Now, looking back to June 2024, here's more Kentucky Kingdom:
And there's the lazy river, on the far side of the roller coaster tracks.
I didn't think the last turn on Thunder Run was so severe that everyone should be fallen over to the right but we have the photographic proof of it there.
Sign off in the distance that gives Thunder Run the subtitle 'The Legend'. I have no information about what use the subtitle ever was, or when it was used.
Entrance to Storm Chaser, originally a dueling wooden coaster named Twisted Sisters until the band heard about it, and converted into a non-dueling coaster with the weather-phenomenon theme that Kentucky Kingdom would use until the Kentucky Flyer messed things up.
Storm Chaser's track has this soothing wavy line to it.
Here's the back of the station, where you can see the half of the station that used to be used for the other half of the dueling coaster, and now just keeps a spare train. I have no idea how they get the spare train off the side track and onto the main.
Trivia: After the 1915-16 failure of the Newspictures series Paramount did not produce a newsreel until 1927, when it could be produced with sound. Source: The American Newsreel 1911 - 1967, Raymond Fielding.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine Volume 51: Icicle Island!, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle. Bold choice of Sims and Zaboly to do a story about finding Popeye's Father (who's gone missing again somewhere along the line) that completely forgets about looking for him, or why.
PS: What's Going On In Flash Gordon? What's this Toa's Law about? October - December 2024 gets me a bonus plot-recap essay this week.