My usual reason for traveling out to Katy is a weekly RPG (role-playing game) meeting on Thursday nights. We have missed about a months worth of meetings for various reasons. I had some car issues; others had work or family conflicts. It was definitely an evening to look forward to for me.

Then, I found out the meeting was canceled, but not until after driving the distance. Never one to miss an opportunity, I salvaged the trip by getting in some pinball at Einstein’s since I wasn’t too far away. This turned out to be a great decision. I got to play some old favorites like Stars, Hoops, and Black Knight: Sword of Rage, but I also got to check out Stern’s latest game, Jaws. (Unfortunately Attack from Mars was turned off/out of order.)

Now, Jaws is not without its share of controversy. Perhaps the biggest complaint, or at least the one that was most prominent from my observation, was that the shark toy didn’t eat the ball. After I played a few games, I can say that there’s no reason for the shark to eat the ball. Trying to work that into the game would, in fact, completely destroy the flow. I don’t have a picture, but the shark is above a captive ball mechanism, not any type of scoop or eject. These are two completely different types of objects with regard to the flow of play.

My very first game on Jaws happened to be the highest scoring game on that machine (144.2M+) for the night. The other truly notable score was a 303K+ on Stars, including the first time I’ve scored special on a game in novelty mode (twice in one ball).

Then on Saturday night, I decided to drop in for “a quick game or two of Godzilla”. Which, of course, meant I played eleven (!) games counting all the replays I won. Only two of those replays were from matching.

Perhaps the even bigger punch line: there was ¼ credit on the game when I arrived, so the whole session cost me only 75 cents. In summary: Top score for the night of 248.1M+. New scores for destruction jackpot champion (in the 248.1M+ game) and Godzilla multiball champion (later game).

So, this past Wednesday, I returned once again to Cidercade for this year’s installment of the annual Valentine’s Day Stoplight Party. Overall it was a pretty good evening. I put up quite a few good scores and got to play a few games I don’t get to play that often.

While I didn’t score quite as highly on the other reason I attended this event, there did seem to be more women, and specifically more women I found at least somewhat attractive, wearing green wristbands. I did make some small talk and did my best to be at least amicable.

Yes, I do plan to attend next year. I feel like this was time well spent, even if some of the results weren’t what I had hoped.

Another trivia night at Little Dipper, another post-trivia pinball session. Actually a couple of these were from before trivia started.

Of note, Stranger Things replaces Spiderman in the lineup. My score on Stranger Things would be the highlight of the evening; the other best scores range from “pretty good” (T2) to “bleh” (Creature).

This year’s event was on January 20. Football fans will remember this as the first day of the NFL Divisional Round playoff weekend, specifically the day the Texans played the Ravens (and lost). I really tried my best not to let this kill whatever good vibes I still had going into the event. I feel overall I still had a good time, though I didn’t socialize nearly as much as I had hoped to. So, this is going to be a bit light on details, and also light on other things like the slide video from last year. For better or worse there was no professional photographer this time around. I did get a quick selfie on arrival.

I hung around at Front Porch Pub until about the end of the game (6:30 pm). I followed the largest group to Dogwood first, then Electric Feelgood. This is where I played my first games of the night: someone had left a good $20 or so worth of credits on one of the Skee Ball alleys. Of course, I also got in on the slide a couple of times, neither of them on video this year.

Then it was onto FAO for a bit more hanging out, Skee Ball, Pac-Man Battle Royale  (not pictured), and Crossy Road. I also got some food here as I did on the last couple of bar crawls.

Finally, time to wrap up the night at Playground, as before. I didn’t keep track of most of the times when I changed venues but I remember leaving Playground around 11:20 pm.

I am still looking forward to returning next year. I still feel like it was time well spent even if my socialite/party animal personality wasn’t firing on all cylinders on this evening.

This was pretty much a typical visit to Del Mar to start off the year. While waiting for Godzilla to become available, I got in a quick game of Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship. This was one of my better runs; unlike the original Battle Royale this is a continuously running game which does keep score. Unfortunately the final score does not get shown unless you make the high score board, which on this particular machine is usually pretty easy.

Once I got to Godzilla I had what I felt was a pretty good run, with my best score being 193.8M+. I definitely feel like I’m getting the hang of multiball and getting better at saving balls from draining as they happen on this particular title.

The year 2023 concluded with two final arcade trips. The first was Friday, December 29, at Cidercade. I had a good feeling about this night the moment I got lucky and had someone leave giving me a decent parking space in a mostly full lot.

Dinner tonight was from the food truck that was on-site, Lovebird Hot Chicken. This is easily one of the better food trucks I’ve ever ordered from. I had the chicken tenders basket. I opted to go ahead and get the house sauce, which is something I don’t do often.

For better or worse, I didn’t get pictures of my food. However, I did get my usual score pictures. Among the more notable highlights of the night: 80.4M+ on Monster Bash (trying my best to do the “spam the Mosh Pit lane” strategy I saw on stream at last year’s IFPA Texas championships between Colin MacAlpine and Phil Grimaldi); 149.5M+ on Cactus Canyon, notable because the game had rather weak flippers yet I was still able to reliably make shots (and the start button bounced a lot, so it was a two-player game, and my initials were mis-entered as “SKK”); 17,650 on Zaxxon, which may well be a personal best (not one of the games I’m all that good at); 3.63M+ on Heavy Metal; and 53.5M+ on The Walking Dead.

A couple nights later, it was New Year’s Eve (December 31) at Little Dipper. I spent maybe $10 on pinball coin drop and about $5 on a beer after tip. Most of it was on Terminator 2, a game I remember fondly from my days playing pinball as a teenager (though I may have seen this game around a couple of times after I hit my twenties). At first, T2 was a drain monster. Finally, though, I hit my stride and put up a solid 127.7M+ for high score #2. Also notable (arguably the better achievement) was a 38.4M+ on Scared Stiff for high score #1, during which I made it to Monster Multiball for the very first time. What a great way to end the year!