Regular readers will notice I have attended the Texas Pinball Festival, including the Wizards tournament, for the past four years starting in 2022. I appreciate the opportunity to attend and compete in the tournament over the past four years. The annual trip to Frisco has resulted in quite a few fond memories and it has been an honor to share them here.

For various reasons which I will not be elaborating on at this time, I have made the difficult decision to spend the time and money I would have spent preparing for and attending the 2026 Texas Pinball Festival on another interest. I have not yet decided if I will attend once again in 2027 or later years.

I do tentatively plan to attend Houston Arcade Expo this year as I have in years past (as a regular attendee, not a vendor or pinball tournament player) and this announcement should not be construed as affecting my plans to continue attending that event each year.

For those just now catching up, here are the series links for my posts on each of the past four years of TPF:

• Texas Pinball Festival 2022
• Texas Pinball Festival 2023
• Texas Pinball Festival 2024
• Texas Pinball Festival 2025

Moving on to the few outings I was able to complete in September. Admittedly this is a bit sparse, but there’s a reason for that which I may or may not be explaining soon.

September 5, Del Mar Lanes:

One of my better runs on Godzilla at this location. Still looking to beat my old grand champion score, though.

September 12, Luna Pizzeria:

A couple of quick games on the multi-arcade cabinet. I never considered myself all that good at Donkey Kong Jr. and only decent at Frogger. So I’m pretty satisfied with both of these.

September 23, Cidercade Houston:

Usually I put Cidercade visits in their own post as I tend to play a lot of different titles, both video and pinball, over the course of an evening. So there’s a lot to digest here.

Most of these are fairly run of the mill, though I do have something of a stand-out run on the D&D pinball. I’m not sure where the score for the carnival shooting game lands, I would like to think that’s pretty good.

I’ve got a lot to catch up on, as I didn’t realize I managed to get two whole months behind. This post will cover what I was up to for August, with the following post covering September.

August 4, Poison Girl:

A pretty good evening, I’d say, with 250k+ on Playboy (Bally) being the likely highlight.

August 8, Luna Pizzeria:

Quick run on Mr. Do (multi-arcade cabinet).

August 9, Hot Dog Stand:

Quite a few games I either don’t get to play often (everything but Looney Tunes), or have played for the very first time (Looney Tunes). I was only able to get about $3 in change so I had to make the most of it. The Bow and Arrow score is what I’d consider the highlight; for Cactus Jack’s and Looney Tunes I’m not really that sure what a great or even good score would be.

August 15, Eureka Heights:

One of my better runs on Pulp Fiction in recent memory, with a mode high score to boot. Though I’d say that the Godzilla score was pretty good too (note this is a premium version, not a pro version like the one at Del Mar Lanes).

I’m going to go ahead and combine all of these into one post, since I’m unfortunately so far behind.

I endeavor to get everything within a month at most, but that was just not possible this time around. There is also the possibility that posts here may become fewer and farther between due to some changes happening in other aspects of my life. I will mention details appropriate for public consumption as they become appropriate and time allows.

July 11: Del Mar Lanes

Yet another decent run on Godzilla good for a high score.

July 14: Little Dipper

A few good runs, with the standout game being a 727k+ on Firepower (personal record).

July 25, Cidercade

The standout game here would be the 39,200 on Pengo. I had some pretty good pinball scores as well (including the high score on D&D, which probably made in on because the high scores were recently reset).

July 27, Blue Rooster

Didn’t play all that many rounds on Stranger Things this time, so this will have to do.

Not a whole lot to report on for these. Stranger Things at Blue Rooster is still on the same (ancient) code, which thankfully is the only thing really “wrong” with it. I managed to beat my previous grand champion score by a little bit.

I also got a few games of pinball in at Comicpalooza, as John Speights was kind enough to lend a couple of his games to the Eureka Heights booth. This is one of my better runs on Star Wars (anywhere); I had a lot of other things to do at the show.

About a week ago now, I happened to be at The Blue Rooster Pub & Grill. They had a Stranger Things (Pro) that, as it turns out, was on pretty old code. (Skill shots scored 500K, 600K, etc instead of 5M, 6M, etc.) It also had (upon my arrival) some of the default high scores, including the default grand champion of 130M with initials “BRE”.

That changed by the time I left: the new grand champion score was 154.6M+. Not sure how that compares with a score on modern code, but I’ll take it.