Pinball World Tour

I am catching up... this only happened about three weeks ago.

Before my wife got back from her dad's house, I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm DC weather and find all the pinball games in my area. Using the extremely convenient Free State Pinball Association guide, I planned a route and took off.

My first stop was Jerry's Subs where they had a Simpsons Pinball Party. Unfortunately, a couple was playing it, and after waiting a while I took off. Jerry's used to have two games (MM and something else), but the legs were sawed off so kids could play and it ruined my back.

Next was the infamous Crab Towne USA, a seedy crab cake restaurant with a 70's style arcade attached to it. 24 pinball machines, a few dozen arcade games, and all of them filthy and in serious need of repair. The first thing I noticed when I walked in is that Anne Arundel County allows smoking in restaurants, which Montgomery banned a few years ago (and good riddance). They're mostly newer games, but there are some odd chestnuts like Eight Ball Deluxe and KISS... honestly, when was the last time you played KISS in an arcade? All of the games I played had something wrong with them, but it was still fun. I had a good Twilight Zone game. Of course, I always love my Fish Tales and Pinbot. Whirlwind was broken so that a ball would lodge in one of the holes and score you points, so you couldn't miss getting a free game.

Then I went to Beltway Chevron, which inexplicably has a Funhouse and Lethal Weapon 3. A guy in a wheelchair was parked in front of Funhouse so I left without playing.

It was getting late, so I cut the next few short. I went up to a Hard Times Cafe where they were supposed to have a Harley Davidson, but I think they'd gotten rid of it. I ate dinner there... I can only handle their chili about once a year. My final stop was pretty close to my house at Buffalo Wings and Beer, which was supposed to have a Scared Stiff, but it had been replaced with Lord of the Rings... kind of disappointing, butwhat can you do. This was a working one -- the last one I played had a broken Balrog -- so it was fun. Here's an interesting tidbit... when trolling for the LOTR link, I found a pic of the German poster, and apparently its name in German is The Man of the Ring... kind of like the Man of the House, but he has a ring that can enslave the world.

A few days later I headed back to Beltway Chevron after work and played Funhouse (I'm not a big LE3 fan... Data East == barf). It was in surprisingly good condition... Rudy's eyes were permanently shut, and I think the second step switch was broken, but that was it. Also, during my most awesome game of the night the ball got stuck under the playfield and I had to tilt to get it out. But I loves the Funhouse.

I guess I'm kind of Pat Lawlor heavy on this post... not sure why that is. Here, I'll round it out with the full set: the Addams Family at Crab Towne had weak left flippers, so that kind of sucked.

Next up: You will believe what I did, because it follows the pattern of my behavior perfectly!