Today in our series of Pintastic NE 2023 videos I bring you Mike from the Pinball Co-Op out of Vermont who had one of the Club Rooms at Pintastic:
Maybe it’s just me but the number of Pinball clubs in the area seems to be increasing. This is a great thing for those folks who either can’t afford a machine to buy or rent or have no room to permanently have a Pinball machine in the house.
Their facebook page is here, Their listing on the site: We love the Arcade is here
1st Romana: Look, we haven’t got time for you to practice anything. We’ve got to find the fourth segment. 4th Doctor: You find it. I’m taking the day off. 1st Romana:The day off? 4th Doctor:Yes. After a journey of four hundred years and twelve parsecs, I’m allowed a rest of fifty years. 1st Romana:Where does it say that? 4th Doctor:Section ninety three, paragraph two, laws governing Time Lords. You look it up
Doctor Who The Androids of Tara Episode 1 1978
Well as you all know by now I’m at Pintastic NE 2023 at their new location at the Best Western Hotel in Marlborough Ma and as you might have guessed I have shot a bit of video today and yesterday like this:
And This:
So far I find I like this location better than the other one not only because of the close proximity of Linguini’s Italian eatery my favorite restaurant but because of new formats that will be made plain in other videos.
The biggest drawback however is the net which is considerably slower than our previous location which slows down uploads a bit and Rumble’s upload style which I’m still not used to.
But beyond all of that I find that I’m about as relaxed as I’ve been in many many months. For reasons I won’t go into things have been very tense for me and the complete lack of tension for me here was been a delight and a half.
And that why, dear readers I have decided I’m taking the next two days off. The nets too slow for the uploads and I don’t want to deal with the left, the Biden admin, the culture wars or anything else, This weekend belongs to my pinball with a good chunk of Rosaries and prayers in between because there are some things that trump even pinball.
Rest assured I’ll shoot and post some nice video but for now I’m going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow with my son and a bunch of pinball machines.
I might sneak in a post when my wrists need a rest (I have a particular way of playing that puts some strain on them) but after nearly 15 years of regular blogging it time for a day or two off.
The worries and the outrages of the world will still be there on Monday & Tuesday.
One of the more interesting developments in the Pinball industry has been the “Homebrew” machine, basically single machines or sometimes two machines that are made out of the whole cloth or occasionally made using other machines with new art and roms.
Example 1 is Ferris Bueller
What’s rather interesting to me is that with a home brew game you don’t have to worry about buying the rights because it’s not an item for sale. The fellow who made the Sonic the hedgehog pinball machine didn’t have that problem as Sega apparently embraced the whole idea of the machine.
And there are also others that are more basic, made completely out of the whole cloth to wit:
The great thing about a festival like Pintastic is that these one or two of a kind games get exposure to the general public who can enjoy and appreciate all that comes with this hobby.
Yesterday In my post on the EPM crew it was noted how much the crew make a difference for their ability to safely pack and move dozens of machines from Providence RI to Sturbridge MA. There is a another crew at every Pintastic that is worth a shout out and that’s the crew of volunteers like Lisa:
And the People like David Marsdon one of the founders who keep things going
You will see folks like them working hard to make sure you are able to have a good time. If you attend Pintastic NE 2023 this year, make it a point to say thanks.
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