Bishop Cidercade Valentine’s Day highlights

First things first: I’m not going to go into details on the social aspect of the party, other than it didn’t pan out as expected. I did get a compliment on the Pac-Man shirt I wore. I decided to wear that shirt because it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, given it was my first time back at Cidercade in quite a while.

I did get a few good scores in on pinball. But, oddly enough I felt a bit more satisfied when playing some of the classic arcade games than I did when playing pinball. The variation of Skee Ball on offer was a particularly nice change of pace from the typical silverball shenanigans.

It’s not that I no longer think playing pinball is fun—it most definitely still is­ for me, at least in a casual play setting—but I haven’t really sat down and played a lot of these old video games before. I’m pretty sure I never played Solar Fox in the arcade, for example, and I got too frustrated with the likes of Space Ace as a preteen video gamer to properly enjoy it.

As a side note here, I can see why Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace didn’t do as well as one would have hoped. They take a special type of play and attention to detail. You have to move the joystick or hit the fire/sword button at just the right time, and you only have three lives, translating into two chances to screw up as the third means game over.

Notable scores:

  • Ghostbusters 626.3M+
  • Heavy Metal 9.00M+ (high score #4)
  • Q*Bert’s Qubes (video) 99,760
  • Star Trek 111.4M+
  • Star Wars Mandalorian 84.46M+ (high score #1, Razor Crest Multiball champion with 50M)

Upcoming: Cidercade Stoplight Party

If you are in one of the three metropolitan areas with a Bishop Cidercade, you’re in luck. All three locations will be hosting a Valentine’s Day stoplight-themed party where attendees will select a colored wristband based on their relationship status: green for available, yellow for “it’s complicated”, red for taken.

Tickets (including further details) are available at Eventbrite. Please be sure you have selected the correct city.

I will be attending the event at the Houston location and am looking forward to a great time.

Scores from after Houston Arcade Expo through January, tournament

How about some pinball scores for a change?

These are the highest scores per machine per day from immediately after Houston Arcade Expo until January 31 (last Monday).

  • Little Dipper 2021-11-29: Spiderman 25.65M+, The Walking Dead 41.54M+
  • Darkhorse Tavern 2021-12-11: Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man 926,520
  • Darkhorse Tavern 2021-12-16: Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man 793,320
  • Colorado Canyon 2021-12-23: Ghostbusters 648.8M+ (high score #4 and Super Jackpot champion 351.5M+)
  • Darkhorse Tavern 2022-01-07: Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man 837,260
  • Little Dipper 2022-01-24: Spiderman 62.4M+ (high score #3), The Walking Dead 107.1M+ (Bicycle Girl champion 14.4M+)
  • Colorado Canyon 2022-01-29: Ghostbusters 74.02M+
  • Little Dipper 2022-01-31: Spiderman 52.94M+, The Walking Dead 173.8M+ (grand champion, tunnel champion 67.6M)

Sidenote: The 107.1M+ on The Walking Dead was frustratingly close to the high score #4 at the time (not currently pictured) which was 107.2M+. That makes the grand champion the following week all the more satisfying.

In case you missed it: Tonight is the first monthly tournament (of what we can only hope are many more) at Little Dipper. See linked post for further details.