So last night was the usual trivia night at Little Dipper. I’m only mentioning it because that’s the main reason I was there. The team I was with this time didn’t finish in the top three, and in fact, by the final question we weren’t really in the running to be realistic about it.

During the halfway point intermission I got in what I was hoping to be a quick game or two of Spider-Man. The second of those “quick games” (with a score of  wound up stretching well into the music round, which is just as well as I only knew one of the ten songs.

By the time pictures of the winners were being taken, I was ready to be done with trivia and give my full attention to the silver ball. My first choice of the lineup at Little Dipper at this point in time, all other things being equal, is Creature from the Black Lagoon (the others being Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Monster Bash, and the aforementioned Spider-Man). Unfortunately Creature is right in front of the moon prop used for the pictures, so I decided to play a quick game of Dracula while waiting.

Not surprisingly, I did well at Dracula and kept playing. I would crack the high score list twice with scores just barely good enough to make it. Then, I would bust loose with a first ball that was over 150M at one point (I think 200M+ after bonus). After the earned extra ball I was over 300M and guaranteed grand champion. I would sign off with 413,339,960 for grand champion and a new personal best.

I will concede that until now I did not really consider Dracula one of my favorite games. Despite this, I had a great time playing it even though it was not my first choice. Now that I know how to run up the score on Dracula, that is apt to change. I’m not giving up on getting grand champion on Creature, though; that game is a title I am likely to see in tournaments many times in the future.