Author Archive

Pintastic Day 3 We’ve Got the Band Back Together

Posted: November 21, 2021 by datechguy in culture, entertainment, fun, gaming, special events
Tags: , ,

Saturday at Pintastic NE is always a busy day. You tend to draw the largest crowds and there is plenty going on.

One of the more popular games was the Beatles 1964

Not only is the gameplay of this machine great but it of course has the best sound track of all the games here

A lot of people bring Pinball games here to sell but one of the problems is: If you sell a game how do you get it home? Well that’s where Dino of Shipmypinball.com comes in

Getting the machine from point A to point B is something that always needs to be considered when buying a machine.

Of course there are those who offer an alternative to buying game, RENTING THEM

I’m thinking the Bushey Brothers may cut the Gordan knot for many guys like me whose wives don’t want a game in their house or big money spent but might actually go along with getting a game in the house if it’s only for a month or two and someone else moves it in and out for you.

Of course there are some thing that shouldn’t be forgotten during Pintastic NE and such as God and the Sacraments. Luckily for a Catholic like me there is St. Anne’s Shrine only a mile away down the road.

If you’re wondering where the hat is , hey I’m at a church of course I have it off.

Of course if you’re buying an old game or even if you need an newer one there is always the need for the parts, that’s where Mayfair Games (not to be confused with the old wargame maker) comes in.

You will see them as the first dealer on the left at every Pintastic

Of course while the old game are big here It’s the new ones that draw eyeballs. One of those new players is American Pinball and I talked to their man David Fix.

He was in high demand and I didn’t have a chance to talk to him until the vendor room was closing. But it worked out very well because he moved one of the Legends of Valhalla games to the Extra Ball Lounge were my youngest and I started playing.

Alas my son is too good so we couldn’t show the full game

Of course I’m not the only guy filming here Todd Tuckey was Livestreaming

While the Guns and Roses Tribute Band: Welcome to the Jungle who played the event played on…

They came in to celebrate the release of the new Guns and Roses game from Jersey Jack who for some reason I didn’t manage to interview this year (more from the band later).

You might recall I talked to Michael two years ago when he brought a bunch of games, well he and Emily have graduated from hobby to Pinball Museum Proprietors in Pawtucket RI

You heard that right 28 of the machines people were playing came from them and it’s worth noting that on day four those machines were still here to play as they’re invariably the last folks out (next to Gabe of course).

But while the hobbyists and game providers are big the real question is what did the folks who paid their money to play think. I ran into four such folks who were attending Pintastic for the first time

When people are willing to come 3000 miles and say they’ll do it again next year you’ve got it right.

By this time is was late and I finished my work day talking to the tribute band after their 2nd performance.

after that I finally got to play the popular Sonic the Hedgehog homebrew which won best Homebrew game and can be played either via flippers or from a Sega controller

2 AM came very quickly and checkout is 11 AM so it was time to crash and prepare for the final day of Pinball.

Pintastic Day 2 Shake it up and Make Your Own Pinball

Posted: November 20, 2021 by datechguy in fun, hobbies, special events
Tags:

Day two of Pintastic NE is always interesting because machines keep coming in the vendors are set up but its not yet the weekend so there is still a bit less of a crowd to compete for time.

I talked to Greg and Shawn who were not here together but met here,

There is a lot of meeting people who are into the hobby here and hanging out, after all why watch a game alone when you can play two, three or four and socialize a bit (and rest your wrists).

One of the things that I’ve seem this more than any other has been the rise of “Homebrew” games. These are games that are designed and made by individuals for themselves. One such creator was Zachary Frey who created a rather unique game called Poker that rather than a backglass has it’s screen built into the body of the game. We talked about his creation:

This is one of the cleverest games I’ve played in a while. it has an interesting extra two button feature with a Maga save on the left and a pop up that can save a ball about to drain on the right.

A much fancier and more recognizable game was Ferris Bueller’s day off I talked to the designer and the artist.

There are only two copies of this game (which is double the production of Zach’s Poker game) and I must admit I felt very old when Redi (who is a delightful lady who I shared a game of Twilight Zone with later) said she had to watch the movie when Brian approached her about doing the game as it came out the year she was born.

There was a constant line in front of this game and I didn’t get to it until late that night. One should always play homebrew games at events such as this as it’s likely the only time you will ever see these games.

Later on in the day I ran into Jeff the hot sauce guy. He had been set up at Pintastic NE2019 and I thought at the time it was an odd mix for the place, but he was back and with an expanded product line.

Apparently hot sauces and Pinball mix pretty well. It was also interesting to hear how COVID effected his business.

There are all kind of accessories available for pinball machines one of the coolest ones I saw was a vest to be used with a sound system that was being demoed at the Pinnovators booth

It looked too cool not to try myself so Sandra kindly took over the camera and I got strapped in and gave it a go while playing Areosmith.

The Venders hall was packed and one of the big games was Legends of Valhalla. I played it a couple of times and found it my favorite of the new games there (so far). I talked to Shawn of Maine Home Recreation that was carrying the game.

The American Pinball company (which made one of my favorites from 2019 Octoberfest) is creating some excellent games for the hobby.

And old favorite is Stern Pinball was well represented by special guest and pinball designers John Borg who I was able to get a few minutes with:

Their brand new Godzilla machine was everywhere and all with lines in front of them. The lines were well earned as it’s an excellent game.

Of course Pintastic would not be Pintastic without Todd Tuckey. He gave a seminar on how to avoid buying a pinball Lemon online which was too long to put here but he gave me ten minutes during the afterparty.

Alas I could not embed the link in the video he was referring to put I’ve got the clip here from Pintastic 2017 that he was referring to here.

ah the days when I still had both of my front teeth but on the bright side I’ve finally stopped calling Todd: “Tom”

Well that’s all for now it’s just after 10 AM on day three as I’m finishing this and there is pinball to play and interview to do, so we’ll be back tomorrow with day 3 stuff.

It’s November of 2021 Pintastic NE is Back!

Posted: November 19, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

It’s been a long wait, 2 years and five months but Pintastic NE is not only back but back at the Sturbridge host Hotel

That space behind me that’s behind me is a bit of bad news, one of the vendors cointaker who have been a regular here had to pull out at the last minute but that will have little overall effect on what going on.

As always I started the coverage with an interview with Gabe D’Annunzio who I inexplicitly kept calling D’Ambrosio during the interview.

Note that he is wide awake and full on energy. This will not likely be the case when we get to our closing interview in four days.

A big feature of Pintastic NE the Extra Ball lounge which is not accessible with a mere day pass. Here are the games there

A 24/7 pass or one that allows access overnight is required for this room.

The Pinball Hobby also has a charity called Project Pinball that places pinball machines in children’s hospitals

I’ve been telling people that a Pinball machine is a great way to relieve stress and these people prove it every single day.

As always there will be seminars and exhibits as well but right now the machines are calling me so you’ll have to settle for this image for now.

The Price of Allowing Riots and Intimidation is Now Visible in the Rittenhouse Trial or Why Courage remains the Primary Virtue

Posted: November 18, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

In many ways, you are already in the authoritarian state. You just don’t know it 

Ai Weiwei 

One of the bits of history concerning the baseball’s “gentlemen’s agreement” that excluded blacks from the game is that this wasn’t always the case. In the early days of professional baseball when Cap Anson (one of the biggest names and admittedly one of the if not THE greatest player of the 19th century) first threatened to pull his team from the field when facing another team that had a black player on the roster he ended up backing down because the home team told him bluntly that he pulled his team he and his players would not only forfeit but would not get paid. It wasn’t until teams intimidated by Anson’s fame and worried about blowback kowtowed to his demands and such kowtowing became habit that segregation in the game became the unofficial rule. If teams had told him to get stuffed consistently and not be intimated by him and his fame then one of the biggest disgraces of the game would not have taken root and Jackie Robinson would have likely played 20 years because he wouldn’t have had to carry the weight of a race on his shoulders.

Likewise in the Catholic Church if when the first signs of the abuse scandal started turning up in the 70’s if Bishops had swiftly defrocked those priests involved and turned them into law enforcement and made it clear this would be the cost of such behavior the scandal that blew up 20 years ago and is causing harm to the church both culturally and in its mission to the people would have not taken place. Instead fear of expose, loss of revenue, and a misguided conflation of forgiveness of sins (always the policy of the church) with tolerating and hiding criminal behavior (not the policy of the church) that led to this type of behavior multiplying to the point where twenty years later the church and the perception of it to the public is still reeling from the scandal’s effects.

In both of these cases there were no consequences for bad behavior and because the people involved did not have the courage to impose consequences for bad behavior it went on till it reached a breaking point.

And that brings us to the Riots of last year and the Ritenhouse Trial.

For many years we refused to fight the culture wars and allowed the radical left free reign in our institutions. Political leaders didn’t want to rock the boat content in their power so that when the idea of collective guilt for actions of people 100’s of years ago was advanced people did not slap it down as the nonsense that it was.

From there came the idea of the permanently oppressed being that if one’s ancestor was oppressed two or three or ten generations ago it meant that one was permanently and generationally oppressed meaning that one’s failures in life were not the responsible of the individual but were due to collective oppression applied to ancestors (even if such oppression and all those advancing it were long dead).

Collective “innocence” was soon to follow whereby rioting, crime, looting and arson were advanced as legitimate expressions of grievance and that any move to stop such actions were considered a form of oppression.

At each of these stages the unreality of the situation was advanced and that any object to this nonsense was pained as a sign of evil intent and equated one with all the evils of centuries ago.

At each of these stages the lack of courage as a society allowed this to progress aided by the dollars of our enemies who found it cheaper to buy people rather than weapons and by those who found that advancing a false narrative paid well.

From there it was not hard to decide it’s easier to let an election be stolen than to face critique for daring to speak out about what’s happening in front of your face.

Now we have actually reached the point where judging the innocence or guilt of a person accused of murder can not be judged by the evidence or the testimony or the clear video of same but must be judged by the fear of violence and intimidation of those who must make this decision.

And because we have a media that has pushed a narrative rather than the truth. (That is how leftists who normally live in a bubble are shocked and surprised when they actually view the trail and discover that basic face from the races of those involved to their criminal records are something these supposedly informed people did not know). It’s no coincidence that CNN & MSNBC cut away from the trial when the defense was making it closing arguments for fear it’s viewer might learn something or their paymasters might be offended.

As in all these previous cases courage is required, courage by the judge, courage by the jury and courage by the people, because if it’s established that the verdict of someone unfavored by the woke will be decided not on fact and evidence but on the threat of violence and rioting by the left supported and financed by their political allies then all bets are off and we as a nation will be, to paraphrase Benito from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Inferno: it will be very cold, and very dark, and we will be there for all knowing we as a nation u put yourself there.

Older Entries
Newer Entries