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.
And then, for the first time in quite a while, I felt the urge to swing by Del Mar Lanes and get in a round or two on Godzilla (if nothing else, to confirm it’s still there and playable). The high scores have been cleared since my last visit; my 606M+ grand champion is still there. I didn’t get pictures of the (new) records and high scores, I will hopefully be able to get those on the next visit.
This was another in the many (mostly) monthly visits to Cidercade. The highlight was Game of Thrones, 256M (high score #4 and Stark Champion). Most of the rest were pretty run of the mill. And yes I am playing more video games when I go to Cidercade, not because I’m giving up on pinball, but because in most cases, these are games I actually enjoy playing that I never got to play very often as a kid (or in some cases, never made it to arcades in the Houston area where I was able to go play). Vanguard and Pengo are definitely great games, and I have previously talked about Pepper II.
After work in the Bryan/College Station area, I dropped into Yesterday’s Bar & Grill, which has the only known pinball machine in the area per Pinball Map. That game is a Star Wars Pro (Stern) with a couple of minor issues that don’t (usually) affect playability.
My best score was the first game I played, 183.2M+. I feel I made a pretty good run overall, winning three replays by score off of two paid credits, with an end-of-game match accounting for a fourth, for a total of six games from $2. (Well, actually, $1.25 to me as there was ¾ of a credit on when I walked up. But it would have been $2.)
