Baby’s First MGC, Part 1

This past weekend I attended the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, WI. I went with a bunch of friends and it was definitely an intense experience. I had a pretty decent time! It was an interesting and fun experience, and

Man. I don’t even know where to begin. So I guess I’ll start with Friday?

I met up with Krystle after work, and we headed to Logan to play a few games. We didn’t stay long because we needed to wake up around 4:00am the next morning. Had a few ok games but nothing great. It was good to play but I think I was just too anxious and unfocused on the present time to really do too well. Being around so many tables that I really want to play for hours on end is distracting. I’d hear the gong from the Addams Family table or the thumping bass of the Tron table and immediately lose interest in my current game, wishing I were playing one of those instead. The fact that I was going to be playing in my first tournament was unsettling me as well, but in a good way. I know that, no matter what I’m doing, I put too much pressure on myself to be better. I’m not the best, but I’m a stronger player than I was when I started. As long as I’m consistently beating my own high scores, I’m moving in the right direction. I’ve got a LONG way to go, and I’m moving at a much slower pace than I would like, but I’m getting there. I hope.

We woke up at 4 and hit the L by 5. Since there is some construction going on with the Brown Line and like, everything in Chicago, we hoofed it to the Amtrak station to meet up with the fellas. Chicago is an absolutely gorgeous city which looks even more amazing right as the sun is setting, and just as it’s about to come up. It makes me nostalgic for college nights spent out too late, walking back through campus as the sun crested that main drag down through the film school & movie theatres. When I moved to Chicago, I resolved to go on adventures where I’d come downtown to watch the sun rise before anyone else was awake. I haven’t done that yet, but perhaps this is the time for it. Regardless, everyone looked pretty sleepy and thanks to no announcement to board our train, the damned thing left without us!

We all grumbled off to grab breakfast and waited for the next train. Being with a bunch of your friends while you’re waiting is a lot fun more fun when everyone’s half asleep. We joked around a bunch, then it was time to board the train! I felt like a little kid, because this was my first Amtrak ride. There really is something incredibly delightful about traveling via train, and I would like to do it some more. We didn’t see any cows, but we saw a lot of pretty farms and houses.

A motley crew indeed

We spent most of the train ride asking questions and being loud weirdos, as friends are wont to do. When we arrived at the Milwaukee Airport, we wandered into the coolest bookstore I’d ever seen in an airport. It was like someone had plopped an obscure and used bookstore in an airport. Because that’s what it was. There was also some fun taxidermy around the airport as well as a wee flight museum (which I checked out on the way back). And a Brooks Brothers. A few of us grabbed some boozey morning drinks to start our weird little vacation off riiiiight, y’all.

Anyhow, we hopped on a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. There was a bit of tabletop gaming going on right when we checked in, and I kinda just wanted to drop my bags in the middle of the floor and run around the hotel to survey the scene. But, we stopped by our rooms, necks craning to catch a glimpse of everything around us, and then picked up our wrist bands. And off we went!

Anything you could have wanted to play was there, pretty much. Pinball and standing video game cabinets had their own massive room, tabletop gaming areas were set up in the front and in the massive back tent with the vendor tables (there was a kickass library of games where you could check one out and play and just keep playing more and more games. Ugh, it was clutch). Video game consoles were placed throughout, accompanied by giant tvs and there was a rad little like, walk through area with rare consoles and computers (apparently someone spilled a beer on a $60k machine. Yiiikes).

My main focus was the pinball room, which got real hot (and kinda stinky) real fast. The mix of older and newer tables was so great, and I got to play a lot of titles I’d never heard of or imagined I’d see irl. Granted, I’m still a new kid so there are a LOT of tables I had (and still have) no idea existed.

I made my rounds to check out what was there and headed straight for the Big Lebowski, which was a spectacularly pretty let down, mostly due to technical difficulties. The upper right flipper was stuck, and my ball kept getting stuck behind the far left rear bumper. I didn’t want to tilt with so many people behind me, but the table was having a hard time locating missing balls. I didn’t end up tilting but like, the last thing I really wanted to do was rough up a new table. I cautiously smacked it a few times, but the game ended poorly for me anyhow. I forgot to circle back on Sunday to give it another try.

Next I played the Hobbit, which was pretty! That was also where I got my first “Have you ever played pinball before, sweetheart?” of the weekend. Honestly, it didn’t happen as much as I’d anticipated, but it’s annoying that it happens at all. Anyhow, the mechanics of the table were nice and everything was super pretty, as you might expect. I feel like it was too busy in some aspects, kinda like Wizard of Oz where everything’s just flashing and you’re like “let’s all calm down and what the heck am I aiming for, here?” From an artistic perspective, there’s no good focal point, unless it’s Smaug, but he kinda blends until you wake him up. I’m still trying to get used to the LCD displays on the Jersey Jack Tables, but I find them to be more distracting than anything.

America’s Most Haunted was the one that I was most looking forward to, because it’s a cute table and I ❤ ghosty things! I really liked how it played and had pretty decent success for my first go. There was no rules sheet on the table, though, which was kinda disappointing, and when I tried to get someone’s attention to ask about some things, everyone was kind of looking dazed and bored, but also like they couldn’t be bothered, so I left after my go.

On my way back around, I bumped into Whoa Nellie. While I understand that a lot of time and effort went into making that table, I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I will never play that table. I do wish I could go back to Sunday, however, to see how it was received on Family Day.

Bobby & I grabbed sandwiches (after drinking a bit of whiskey!) and I lost my phone, as we were too busy talking about how being able to pass your favorite nerdy qualities onto future generations is one of life’s greatest pleasures. A stranger texted my friends and they got it back for me. That was awesome. Thank you, guy in the orange hat who got snarky texts back from my garbage friends who I guess thought I was just really drunk and being a jerk until they realized I’d actually lost my phone and that they were corresponding with a nice human who was just trying to get my phone back to me. Please note: I love my garbage friends. But my gosh.

The most beautiful Attack from Mars I have ever seen, and likely will ever see, was there (which was was helped locate my phone, since my friends had been texting me to let me know that the table I would most love to own was being rill pretty and calling its siren song to me, but I was sandwiching). I bombed on it spectacularly because I couldn’t stop just absorbing everything on it. I think I hugged it at one point (did I mention the whiskey? But also I would have hugged it were I sober, considering I’d hugged AC/DC the night before at Logan because I’d missed it so much). It was so perfect and gorgeous and played smoothly but it was like talking to your crush: you’re so nervous you’re going to do something dumb that you can’t even enjoy that you’re talking to them. And then when something comes out of your mouth you just end up talking over them or accidentally combining words so you just say something that’s not words or words that clearly do not go together. I watched other people play for a while, just standing there going “Ooooh…shiiiiiny” until I realized that I was in a ballroom filled with pinball tables and I really should get crackin’.

After a while, I decided to get my tickets to try and see if I could qualify for the tournaments. It was not as nerve-wracking as I’d assumed, the waiting and everything. As the line moved fairly quickly(ish). Everyone played Metallica, Mustang, and Super Soccer twice (I only played Super Soccer once though due to my own time constraints), and Walking Dead was reserved for the women’s tournament…or so I’d thought. Turns our everyone had tickets for Walking Dead, and they were actually giving out extra WD tickets to people so basically the long line of dudes ahead of me got to play it before I could even attempt to qualify for the Women’s tournament. I accidentally tilted a few times on my first Metallica, which threw me off for the rest of my Metallica turns, and everyone told me not to nudge Super Soccer which made me super paranoid because I’m a nudger so my game was super stressful. I don’t ever get nervous about tilting on Mustang even though I nudge the shit out of it when I can, and I even had to smack a ball loose at one point. I was so nervous that I wasn’t even going to get to play Walking Dead to qualify for the women’s tournament that I channeled that energy into my second Mustang game and did fairly well. I ended up hitting the Walking Dead table twice, which was good because my first game sucked. Second game wasn’t that great, either, but it put me at 10th.

Where my ladies at? No…seriously…

Eventually, I decided I was done because there was no way I’d get another go at Walking Dead to qualify for the Women’s tournament (it was top 8), and I didn’t want to wait in line to play a very tense game of Super Soccer again. And I was getting REALLY hangry. I double checked with the people at the registrations table of the tournament that they were only taking top 8 and, since I was number 10, Mark and I headed to the mall that was next door and grabbed some food. After we ate, I checked my phone which had blown up in the 30ish minutes since we’d been gone. I had four voicemails and about 15 texts telling me to get back to the tournament because two people didn’t show up and I was in! I got back to the hotel a half hour too late and missed my chance to play in the Women’s Tournament. But I actually wasn’t too upset. I qualified! That was cool!  I ended the Saturday tournament in 53rd, which I’m pretty happy about, and 10th in women’s. I did it! It wasn’t horrible! And next time, I’ll maybe do better! At least, that’s what I’ll strive for. All around I think I was like 78ish. Perhaps not astounding great to some, but the experience was super!

Things get a little muddy after that, due to my pals whiskey and beer. I remember hanging out in one of the rooms for a while chatting with friends, then hanging out in our other room while we were just being giggly and silly and drunk and musicy. But it was all good and eventually I fell asleep listening to my iPod because drunk people in the hall were being loud and I forgot to bring ear plugs. There was a super secret but not at all secret party which a few of my friends gave me a recap of, and it sounds like, had I been invited, I would have spent all of my time getting wasted, playing pinball, and not talking to anyone. Every recount of the party I get from people typically involves the phrase “You would have hated it.” being uttered several times.

I concur.

I’m going to take a moment of this MGC post to say that this weekend made me feel a bit insignificant but also invisible in a cool kind of way in that almost no one knows who I am, which is maybe fine I guess? I’m not really a joiner or a talker or an eye-contact-maker or a “Let me introduce myself!”-er. I spoke to a few people here and there while waiting in line to play some tables, or in the tournament line, which was pretty cool. I do rather poorly in the social aspects of most things unless I know a handful of people there, and while I like to do stuff alone, if my friends are involved I’m likely to stay close to where my friends are when more focused stuff is going on. I am also fairly claustrophobic and dabble in anxiety, both socially and personally. I’ll go places alone all the time, but I feel badly for people who try to talk to me when I’m alone because I’m sure I come off as a huge weirdo (ie: I just kinda go wide-eyed and look at my feet) or I make eye contact and then my brain screams “LOOK AWAY!” and I just dart off. I’m not good at peopling unless the environment is just so. Even then, though…no guarantees. So parties are something I frequently avoid, especially bigger parties filled with strangers who I already fear look down on me because I’m an outsider, or at least because I feel like an outsider. On occasion, I am SO good at peopling that it’s kind of ridiculous that I can’t be like that more or all of the time. I don’t know, it really depends on a lot of factors. Many people don’t think I’m bad at peopling, which is encouraging. I’m very cat-like in that (and may other) respects. But peopling at the MGC party seems like it would have been very difficult and I would have gotten very angry quickly on account of the nature of the conversations and happenings I’d heard about. And no one wants to talk to the drunk girl who’s starting nothing but conversations on the topic of feminism/misogyny in gaming (but like, if anyone does, lmk). I also feel like I don’t know enough to fit in, and that is something I’ll probably feel for a while. It’s rare that I feel like I fit in, even if I know what I’m doing.  I still feel like a poser being around all of these people for whom pinball was a huge part of their lives growing up or who have been playing pinball for years. I’m a new kid. Pinball was never a huge part of my life until like maybe two years ago. And then there’s just the part of me that’s always wanted to fit it to a degree, but also doesn’t want to fit in at all because that’s not really my style. Finding a middle ground would be rad.

All of that to say, I can hold my own at some social situations, but at others I’m mildly useless.

Tune in for part two maybe tomorrow or something!

The Almighty Pinball Essay

Jessica Note: Here is my sweet sweet pinball essay, which has been slightly revised because I read it out loud and omfg I have no idea how they understood half the stuff I put in here (like it was just these dense sentences about game play and mostly still is)! Also added the Demo Man stuff because it’s adorable and I ❤ cursing, though I would never submit expletives for a writing sample unless…well…unless absolutely necessary! Also I think the X-Men thing is technically wrong but it sounds cool but also it’s kinda like, you’re just collecting everyone anyhow. But it would be cooler if it were how I explained it/in my head, that’s how I play it. Also I’m thinking of peppering it up a bit more (ie: making is useable for a ten-minute piece because this thing took about ten mins. to read out loud and yeah…I need to clean up that last paragraph because it’s so not at all compelling).

You guys I love pinball so much.

Enjoy:

Pinball has been a hobby of mine for the past year and a half. For those who are unfamiliar, it is an arcade game that is a bit more physical than you might expect, and requires a decent amount of eye-hand coordination as well as anticipation. Pinball table themes vary, which causes each table to have a different set of rules on how to achieve points. One of my current favorite tables is the Addam’s Family table, which is the highest selling pinball table of all time. Instead of just taking sound clips from the film for the table call-outs (the sounds that occur depending on which part of the table you hit with the pinball), Raul Julia and Angelica Houston actually recorded the bits specifically for Midway, the company who made the table. It makes a world of difference and definitely pulls the player deeper into the game. Not all pinball tables are based on films. Some center around bands, such as Rolling Stones or KISS. Others may focus on a general theme, such as space, fishing, or magic. Basically, most anything you think of can be turned into a pinball table if someone has the time to design and create it.

Now, assuming your table is on Free Play, which means that you don’t need to put in any money to start playing the game, players must first press the “start” button. The start button is typically located on the front left of the table. If your game is not on Free Play, you must enter tokens, quarters or dollar bills (depending on which currency the establishment in which you find yourself playing pinball, requires). The display screen, which you can locate by simply looking up and staring straight ahead if you are facing the table, will keep track of how your money turns into credits. One credit =  one series of game play for one person. On most tables, pinball can be played with up to four players. Pressing the start button the same number of times that corresponds with the number of players who will be using the table will ensure that everyone’s score is logged appropriately during game play.

A few tables allow the player to select a mode, quest, or song, depending on the theme. Tables based on bands, such as Metallica and AC/DC, let you choose a song to play which corresponds with various targets and items on the playing field. AC/DC is currently the only table where choosing a song actually dictates how many points certain targets and shots will give you. Both Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG let the player select their mission. Transformers asks players to choose between playing as an  Autobot or a Decepticon. X-Men, however, determines which side you’re on based on shots you make while playing, and not by selecting anything prior to plunging your ball. In all of these cases, making these choices will further dictate the focus of game play for the table.

Players will begin their turn by plunging their first ball into the playing field. The plunger is located on the front right of the cabinet (which is another name for the part of the pinball table where the pictures and name of the table are located) and is either a knob you pull and release, or is a button that you press. The plunger button on Judge Dredd is actually located on the right side of the cabinet! Releasing or pressing the plunger will deploy the pinball. Each player has three balls per game. If there are multiple players, each player will play one ball and then rotate to the next player once they drain their ball and end their turn. Depending on the table, a player who scores very poorly and drains their ball too soon may be entitled to a ball save. This means that another pinball will (sometimes) automatically shoot out from the deploying area near the plunger and let that player continue where their last ball left off. There is usually a fun call out from the table to let you know that this is happening. My favorite is on Attack From Mars, which commands you to “Return to Battle, Soldier!” as you attempt to protect the world from a martian invasion. There is also an opportunity to acquire an extra ball during each turn, but it is not always possible. If an extra ball is acquired, the player who received it will be prompted to shoot again after their initial ball drains.

Once a player plunges the ball, it would behoove them to place their hands on either side of the cabinet to locate the buttons which operate the flippers. The main flippers are located at the left and right base on the playing field and are what assist players in keeping the ball in motion.  Many tables may have one or more flippers throughout the play field. If I am unfamiliar with a table, I like to toggle the flippers to locate any other flippers that may be on the playing field as they are some times difficult to see when not in motion. Twilight Zone has a hidden flipper that I didn’t even know about until about a month or two after I started playing that table! For reference, it is located on the left side, near the camera target, under the upper playing field.

Most newer (1970’s and on) tables have a skill shot, which is an up-front bonus for hitting a target upon the plunge of the ball. All tables should have a summary of play on the lower left corner of the glass top which describes how to hit the skill shot. That summary will include other great information about different types of shots which will award players more points as well. Stern, a company just located outside of Chicago, has been programming super skill shots into a lot of their newer releases within the past several years. Almost all of these super skill shots are triggered by the player holding in the button for the left flipper so that the flipper is pointed upward, and plunging the ball at the same time. The ball will then shoot around the back of the play field and return toward the flippers. The player can now release the left flipper and hit the ball at any major target on the table. Successful completion of a super skill shot could give the player upwards of one million points!

As stated previously, the actual play field of a pinball table depends on the theme, though they are all made up of similar parts. Working up from the flippers, there are the slingshots which snap when a pinball hits them, causing the ball to ricochet throughout the table.  Past the sling shots will be some targets, of which there are quite the variety: drop targets, which, as the name suggests, drop into the table when hit, bulls-eye targets, which have different point values depending on where a ball hits them, and spot targets, which really don’t do much except award points. The a fore mentioned slingshots are also a type of target. Most tables also have ramps, which assist the ball in navigating through the table and let the it out right by one of the flippers. There may also be an upper or lower playing field, which I touched on briefly before. Twilight Zone, Simpson’s Pinball Party, and the stunning Wizard of Oz table all have upper playfields on the top left corner of the table. AC/DC has a lower playing field in the center of the table, closer toward the flippers, which is shaped like the head of Satan and accessible by selecting any song with “Hell” in the title. All tables also include bumpers, another type of target which is similar to a slingshot but with a more focused ricochet. These are a standard target, sort of mushroom-looking in shape, that often comes to mind when people think of pinball. Bumpers are grouped together for optimal point gathering, though in some of the older machines they may be spaced out across the play field.

As a game progresses, both the display area at the head of the table and light up notifications on the playing field will give players a heads up of which targets or ramps they need to hit in order to accumulate the most points, obtain a jackpot, or start a multiball. The first multiball appeared in the 1956 table, Balls a’Poppin. Multiballs are both terrifying and amazing, as a player can amass a high amount of points once a multiball is started by repeatedly hitting jackpots, but they also need to focus on more than one pinball in play which becomes quite chaotic. One of the best pieces of advice anyone gave me with a multiball is to take your time and, with the flippers pointed up, carefully attempt to cradle one or two pinballs while keeping one moving throughout the table. It sounds like it would be easy, but there is so much juggling involved, not only to keep a hold of all of the pinballs, but to ensure that once they are cradled within a flipper, they don’t drain to make way for another ball. Multiballs are usually where fancy passes come in, such as a post-pass, where the player can pass a ball from one flipper to the next by bouncing it off of the lowest slingshot post, or the Chill Manuever, which is not for the faint of heart and can only be done if there is a central post between the flippers on which the ball can bounce. This pass will fail if the ball does not hit the post just so, in such a way that it bounces back up to a flipper instead of simply draining.

It took me a while to realize this, but it’s ok to physically jostle a table. In fact, it’s encouraged and referred to as shaking or nudging. Nudging could save a ball from teetering out of play and draining. On the other hand, it could also influence a ball to drain, which is a risk players have to take. Shaking often comes into play when a ball is in the bumper area, as a player who shakes the cabinet could rack up a lot of points by manipulation the ball so that it continues to bounce betwixt the bumpers. However, this is not without its potential for penalty. If the display screen flashes “DANGER” that means the table has been hit or moved too forcefully. If that happens more than once, a player runs the risk of tilting, during which the table flashes as though it’s shorted out, automatically drains the ball, thus drops any bonus points acquired during play of that ball. It is not at all pleasant, and Demolition man has a call out of “Fuck You!” to remind players of this. However, sometimes a ball might get stuck behind a target or ramp and players may need to slightly push or hip-check a table to push it back into play. Quoth Raul Julia’s call-out on Addams Family: Careful!

There are many tutorials and fact sheets available on the internet for each table, and countless pinball forums! I try to stay out of the forums because I’m still not up on a lot of the lingo, but the video tutorials are by a lot of pinball greats so it’s like having private coaching. I highly recommend them!