I know I should have gotten this post up yesterday but there was simply too much pinball to play and not enough time to play it so here goes…
Day 3 of Pintastic NE started late for me as I stayed up much later than I expected both uploading videos and getting in a pair of games in my 1972 Dynasty Baseball online league (getting my first series loss of the season by losing two games to the Yankees now tied for 1st in the AL Alpha division)
After a late breakfast I headed to the freeplay room and finally managed to get in line to try the Looney Tunes game.
It’s one of the best game to be waiting to play because you get to watch the old cartoons while you’re in line.
But the game in the free play room I really wanted to play wasn’t The Godfather, wasn’t James Bond or even Elton John, it was Paragon!
Paragon is one of my favorite games hands down and it’s has never been at Pintastic before at least not in the free play room, so whenever it was open (which was not often) I made it a point to play.
After a bit I checked out the homebrew room and found that Brian had fixed this Boarderlands 2 game (it turned out to be a software bug) and had it up and running and what I saw was incredible.
A game whose playfield moves in the X-Y AND Z plane during gameplay? Absolutely amazing!
After another stop in the Tycoon room where the line for the Princess Bride was out the door but the line for Batman 66 which I wanted to play the most was short I headed back toward the Extra Ball Lounge where I saw a familiar face.
Saturday is generally the kids day at Pintastic NE so of course Maggie the Clown would be there again as she has for so many years at Pintastic painting faces and making balloon animals for the tots and others.
At this point I ran into Michael who showed me something that I had never seen at a Pintastic NE a NASCAR racer and team with their car:
While what he said about people being in too much of a rush might be a tad ironic for a race car driver it mimicked what a trucker once told me about his driving philosophy: “I’d like to be 1st, I’m glad to be 2nd but I don’t want a tie.”
Incidentally Michael let me know the next day that there is an unwritten rules against mentioning crashes to a driver during interviews. Having never met a NASCAR driver or team I was unaware of this and I’ll make it a point to observe said rule when they return next year.
This was followed quickly by another sight I’ve never seen at Pintastic, the Sock Fairy:
When the booth was closed late in the evening I saw her getting serious playtime in.
BTW she occupied the space next to what usually would be the Cupcake Lady, who was scheduled to be there but alas had a personal issue pop up while required her to cancel leaving many a sweet tooth unsatisfied.
When I went back to the extra ball lounge the team that produced the Happy Gilmore game that I wrote about for day 2 was there.
And THAT’s when I realized that the lady sitting down behind me as I played Elton John with my son was Reby Hardy and this was the same team that produced the excellent Ferris Bueller Game a few years ago who where back with their new game. They kindly game me a second interview:
It astounds me that I didn’t recognize Mrs. Hardy but what really caught my attention was my conversation with Brian afterwards about the whole personal custom Pinball business. It simply had not occurred to me that the rich and famous who might be pinball fans might order specialty pinballs made for themselves. And the idea of a family having a custom pinball made of a parents life was simply astoundingly clever.
Daniel my son was very interested in playing the Labyrinth pinball game again, having not seen the movie I wasn’t all that excited about it as there were quite a few games I wanted to repeatedly play but as it had a pretty good reception I thought I should give it a try. We were waiting in line when my son noted that the creator for the new company Barrels of Fun was standing right behind me so I jumped at the chance for an interview:
David was rather proud of his game and team and when I got a chance to play as part of a four player group I enjoyed it. After my first ball I noticed them packing up the 2nd Labyrinth game as a family had just purchased it. They graciously consented to an interview was I awaited my next ball:
I admit it now I want to see the movie and I suspect that while I liked the game, I’ll like it even more once I see the picture.
We took some time for dinner and a bit of prayer at a local church that had an adoration chapel (that when I found out about the Iranian attack on Israel but I’ll blog on that later) when we came back it was some serious pinball time, but as I passed the main area I noticed that for the 2nd night there was stand up comedy another first for Pintastic NE. I caught the end of comic Trent Wells set and he gave me an interview afterwards:
It looks like the comedy might return next year as well. I played for a while longer and had intended to get upstairs before midnight but ran into a fellow named Mark who I had met the day before and we chatted an chatted and before you knew it was after 1 AM and I had to head up.
This was actually a common theme of Pintastic NE 2024 for me. Many people came up to me saying: “I’ve seen you at every pintastic but never knew who you are” and introduced themselves. It was quite a pleasure.
I had planned to crash at once but the upload speeds were solid so I uploaded all I could before I could keep the eyes open no longer. It was time for sleep perchance to dream about the final day of Pintastic NE 2024 that would follow.
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