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First Impressions Of Stern’s Batman 66 Pinball Machine

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SOCK! POW! ZOK! WHAP! BIFF! OOOOF! NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!

We enjoy visiting our friends at Zax Amusements. Not only is it fun to catch up with the Zax crew, but it’s also fun to gawk in wonder at the machines on their showroom floor. One machine that caught our eye was the new Batman 66 Premium Edition pinball table from Stern.

Batman 66 is the first machine that Stern has released with a full colour high definition (HD) LED screen integrated in the backboard instead of the traditional dot matrix display. We were quite impressed with the HD LED screen’s vividness and its animation – it captures the cheesiness brilliantly from the 1966 Batman TV show. We initially thought that the HD LED display was on the small side, but seeing it in action it actually suits the machine to a T.

The visual package of the machine is complete with the awesome artwork by Christopher Franchi. The purple and blue hues of the artwork on the cabinet are eye catching (they stand out from a mile away!) and the equally beautiful backglass (above the LED display) and playfield art just scream sixties kitsch!

Being pressed for time, we only had five games on the machine, so we thought we’d comment on our first impressions on how the machine plays rather than an indepth review on its many play modes and features. First things first, the (software) code is nowhere near complete, which shows. We noticed that there were no callouts at the start or during the game, which obviously took away from the Batman experience – the game seemed too quiet. The playfield lighting about three quarters of the way up was on the dark side, making the ball hard to see, but it wasn’t anything major that detracted from the enjoyment of playing the machine – again, this may be an easy fix with a code update. We absolutely loved the illuminated batphone target and the villain vision TV set magnet feature.

Batman 66 features many cool toys, but the one that truly stands out for us is the interactive KG Bird Crane Co crane toy on the right hand side of the playfield. Once initiated, it takes a hard flip to smash the “wrecking ball” on the crane (a bit like Slimer in Ghostbusters), which sends your ball careening all over the playfield – truly heart stopping play! As mentioned earlier, the animation on the LED screen is great, giving the player lots of feedback on modes and features at play. Each go we had we got a higher score as we got to know the features, modes and the general flow of the playfield.

Batman 66 (Premium Edition) will definitely appeal to Generation X’ers that grew up with the TV show, but it also has the general pulling power due to its brilliant presentation. Once Stern irons out the software code, it will exponentially enhance the cheesy Batman KAPOW experience!

Batman 66 (PE) is eye catching from any angle!

Oo’er, Premium Edition!

Batman In Colo(u)r!

Autographed by none other than Adam West

Taking it all in – it looks so cheesily good!

Flipper button seems in the right place… Love the side art!

The Bat Gadget selector is begging to be pressed!

It all STARTS here!

Let’s give Batman and Robin a hand in defeating their evil foes!

Here comes the villain vision TV set! Watch that magnet lock!

Let’s see what this KG Bird Crane Co can do…

Bash that (wrecking) ball on the crane!

No!!! The game should never be over!

Damn, we didn’t match on the Bat Score-Match-Analyzer. Ah well, another credit…

Thank you to Zax Amusements for allowing us to play the new Stern Batman 66 Premium Edition pinball machine.

Timeshock! – The Arcade Edition Coming To Arcooda Video Pinball

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Video pinball has come a long, long way and Arcooda is leading the way with their innovative and advanced Arcooda Video Pinball machine.

Hot on the heels of their partnership with FarSight Studios (makers of The Pinball Arcade), Arcooda has just announced that it has partnered with Barnstorm Games Limited, to release Timeshock! – The Arcade Edition, an advanced video pinball cabinet version of the popular and realistic Pro Pinball:Timeshock! game.

If you remember the Pro Pinball series, then you’ll no doubt have fond memories of Timeshock!, one of just four video pinball tables released in the series between 1995 and 1999. With advanced pinball physics, a brand new lighting engine and photo realistic graphics at spectacular resolutions, Timeshock! – The Arcade Edition will take pinball simulation to heights never before seen on a full sized video pinball machine.

Working with Arcooda, Barnstorm Games will add many new features suitable for full cabinet support including multi backglass display, multi colour DMD, real pinball parts support including: pinball coils, plunger, shaker motors, advanced tournament feature and much more.

To say we can’t wait to get flippin’ on the Arcooda Video Pinball machine would be a massive understatement!

The most innovative and advance video pinball machine!

image source: Arcooda

 

Movieland Arcade: A Hit Of Nostalgia In Vancouver

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Ah Vancouver, the city of many cruise ships and retirees boarding these massive vessels! This post has been a long time coming, but that’s because we’ve been distracted – till now!

Continuing on with cool places we visited while on our North American trip (like the Seattle Pinball Museum, Toy Shack and A Gamer’s Paradise in Vegas), the city of Vancouver delivered its own piece of gaming nostalgia via the Movieland Arcade!

There are some amusement centres that are stuck in a bygone era, a period of time when arcade parlours in the 80s were lined with machines, both of the arcade and pinball kind, checkered linoleum flooring, cheeky signage, an attendants booth for exchanging your notes for coins and of course, the smell. Well, it is safe to say that Movieland Arcade encapsulates this 80s era perfectly.

Situated at the hipster end of Granville Street in central Vancouver, Movieland Arcade cannot be missed – its distinct red tile facade enticing you to go in and experience some real gaming nostalgia. With pinball tables and arcade machines ranging from the 70s to the late 90s, you better exchange your notes for a shed-load of coins as you will want to play them all!

Movieland Arcade reminded us of the arcade joints we used to frequent in the 80s on Swanston Street and Russell Street in the centre of Melbourne. Unlike those arcade joints going the way of the dodo, Vancouver can count itself lucky with a place like the Movieland Arcade.

Whoa, we spot Movieland Arcade across the road!

You definitely can’t miss the distinct facade of this majestic arcade parlour

We better grab some more coins!

Here we go! Hmm, pinball or straight to the arcade machines?

We shall start from the left and work our way to the right..

You have to go slow when you are in here! Too many awesome distractions!

We can’t go past some Neo Geo action

Killer Instinct is next!

Whoa man, haven’t seen a Gauntlet Legends machine in almost 20 years!

Some single racing action on Daytona USA!

Inserting coins now!

Nothing beats some 8P head-to-head racing!

We spy Medieval Madness! Time to destroy some castle!

Needing some gun action, which Area 51 will satisfy

We enjoy gunning down zombies!

Hmm, not sure if these ‘movies’ and that ‘theatre’ are appropriate, but…

OMG, Raiden Fighters! There go all of our coins!

Our shmup senses have gone into overdrive! Get us some more coins!

We spent our last few coins on some Playboy action *wink*

Darn it, the booth attendant must’ve had a toilet break. We’ll be back.

Meet The Jetsons Pinball Machine!

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Meet George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, Jane, his wife! We loved The Jetsons cartoon, so when The Pinball Company and Spooky Pinball announced The Jetsons Pinball Machine, our collective interest was piqued!

Designed by Dan and Nathan Goett, with stunning art by Jon Chad, coupled with sounds and music from the classic TV show, The Jetsons pinball machine will be one cool flippin’ experience! The LED lighting and the full colour 15″ LCD dot-matrix system will give your peepers something pretty cool to stare at! According to The Pinball Company and Spooky Pinball, the rule-set of this full featured pinball machine will be action packed and easy to learn for the whole family.

The Jetsons pinball machine will begin shipping in late March, with a production run limited to 300 units, making this an instant collectable pinball table. If you are in North America and pre-order one now, you will save $1,000USD. We still await on news regarding The Jetsons pinball machine coming to Australia.

Woohoo, it’s The Jetsons!

Love the vibrant artwork

The art is so cheery, it takes us back to our childhood

The playfield looks a bit sparse, but we’ll reserve judgement till we have a go!

No old school plunger here!

The devil is in the (art) detail

Oh yeah, Little Dipper School!

Jet Again!

Elroy, Judy and our fave canine, Astro, are all there!

The multi-ball cast!

The Flyer!
source: The Pinball Company

 

Strange Things Are Afoot At The Foodies Express

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We were driving along on a sunny Sunday afternoon and out of the blue what did we spot?  An amazing little outdoor arcade outside a Fitzroy convenience store – no way!

Strange things are afoot at the Foodies Express

Shaq Attaq and World Cup Soccer pinball tables, 60-in-1 vertical multicade and Cruis’n USA

Time to play at this outdoor arcade

We even scored some free credits on the Shaq Attaq – excellent!

Slam dunk!

We left credits for the next pinball wizard. That’s the pinball etiquette

Goooooooaaaaalllllll!

He shoots! He scores!

The control deck is inviting

Park and play!

It’s amazing what you’ll find when you go cruis’n

Mario is everywhere!

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

Pinball: 2016-17 IFPA Australian Championship Series Final Is Coming!

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The 2016/17 International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) Australian Championship Series (ACS) final will be held in Melbourne on February 11 and 12! Australasia’s top 32 ranked pinball wizards will face off for the ultimate crown!

With most of the Australian eastern states represented and a solitary New Zealander, the competition is guaranteed to be flipping hot! Number one contender is the young gun, Jordan Tredaway. Jordan has had another stellar year winning competitions or being in the top 4, which makes him the one to beat. Looking at the table of the top 32 players, any one of these wizards is capable of carrying away the crown. We will be covering the event, with live social media commentary and updates, so make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Bring on February 11 and 12!

TOP 32 Australian Ranked Pinball Players
Pos. Name State
1 Jordan Tredaway VIC
2 Greg Gee NSW
3 Luke Marburg VIC
4 Martin Robbins VIC
5 Paul Jones NSW
6 Brett Goodwin NSW
7 Jason Lambert QLD
8 Gavin Drogemuller QLD
9 Stuart Thornton VIC
10 Johnny Crabtree VIC
11 Pat Nichols NSW
12 Paul Reid NSW
13 Robert Macauley SA
14 John Hutchinson QLD
15 Greg Siegele SA
16 Rob Singh QLD
17 Matthew Venables NSW
18 Brian Schleibs VIC
19 Michi Henning QLD
20 Stacey Borg VIC
21 Jasen Mouritsen QLD
22 Andrew Ferguson NSW
23 Wal Dickie VIC
24 Geoff Wills VIC
25 Grant Quinn QLD
26 Marcus Sezonov VIC
27 Marc Bell NSW
28 Nick Hamhougias VIC
29 Chris Wade QLD
30 Alex Nunn VIC
31 John Ebejer VIC
32 David Peck NZ

Young gun, Jordan Tredaway will be the one to beat

The Pinball Wizard himself, Wal Dickie – we bet he’ll shake things up!

Johnny Crabtree will be tough wizard to beat

The dynamic pinball duo, Nick Hamhougias and Martin Robbins

Dr. C (Stacey Borg), will be flippin’ with precision!

For those of you that want to know more about the IFPA Australian Championship Series and it’s finals competition rules, here you go:

The IFPA Australian Championship Series (ACS) is an annual pinball competition where the qualification is done over an entire calendar year. Results of all IFPA-endorsed tournaments held in Australia count towards qualification. The top 32 players at the end of the calendar year are invited to compete in the IFPA Australian Championship Series Final, held the following February. The winner is crowned IFPA Australian Pinball Champion.

The IFPA ACS final consists of a group stage and a knockout stage. For the group stage, the field of 32 players is split into two pools of 16 players each. Qualifiers ranked 1,4,5,8,9,12,13,16,17,20,21,24,25,28,29,32 are placed in Pool A, and qualifiers ranked 2,3,6,7,10,11,14,15,18,19,22,23,26,27,30,31 in Pool B.

The group stage consists of 5 rounds of 4-player group match play. Each player is grouped with the other 15 players in their pool once each across the 5 rounds. Groups play 3 games in each round: one old, one mid, one new. 7-5-3-1 scoring. The top 7 players from each pool advance to the knockout stage. The winner of each pool receives a bye in the first round of the knockout stage. Players tied for 1st or 7th place in their pool will play a one-game tiebreak match on a randomly selected machine.

The knockout stage consists of head-to-head, single elimination best-of-3 matches until the final, which will be best-of-5.  Players will be seeded according to group stage standings, then ACS qualifying rank. The higher seed in each match will have choice of machine or order for game 1 or 2 (at their discretion), as well as game 3. In the final, the higher seed will have choice or machine or order for any two of games 1 to 4 (at their discretion), as well as game 5. No machine may be played more than once in a match.

If you want to watch Australia’s top pinball players in action, then head to the Thornbury Bowls Club, 27 Ballantyne St, Thornbury on February 11 and 12 (from 10am). It’s a short walk to the High Street cafes, the St Georges Motor Inn, Route 11 and 86 trams, and Thornbury station on the South Morang train line. We can’t wait!

 

Stern’s Aerosmith Pinball Debuts At CES 2017

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We knew there was a reason to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas! Forget about the hottest tech in smart home appliances and virtual reality, we were excited about Stern Pinball’s first showing of their latest pinball machine, Aerosmith.

Testing Aerosmith Pinball at CES 2017

The new Aerosmith pinball machine was jointly announced by Stern and Aerosmith’s global licensing agent, Epic Rights. This new machine honours the classic and iconic rock band by creating high-energy and excitement that accompanies the experience of a live Aerosmith concert. Pinball wizards will rock to nine famous Aerosmith hits in the concert arena playfield and embark on an exhilarating pinball experience. Players score points and finish game objectives to raise the audience’s levels of energy, thrill and enjoyment. Higher scores amplify the experience–the higher the energy level, the bigger and louder the show – we like the sound of that!

The Aerosmith machines all feature original hand-drawn art provided by “Dirty” Donny Gillies, who has produced work for huge bands like Metallica. In addition, the machines feature custom speech from Brendon Small, creator of Metalocalypse, the American animated television series centring around a death metal band.

In addition to the heart pounding music and game experience, the machine features a full-colour high-definition display. In conjunction with Stern Pinball’s new SPIKE-2 electronic platform, the display enables high-definition graphics and innovative animations. The game includes a high-fidelity 3-channel audio system that is three times more powerful than audio systems of previous generations. Aerosmith pinball will have what it takes and be suitable for all skill levels.

Prices start from US$6199 for the Pro model and go all the way up to US$8999 for the Limited Edition.

A 4 minute sneak peek at Aerosmith Pinball
image and video source: Stern Pinball Inc.

 

eSports Is Coming To The Pinball Arcade

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Get those flippin fingers ready, as eSports is coming to The Pinball Arcade!

FarSight Studios has partnered with Pinball Joe and Major League Pinball and starting this year, they plan to bring you sponsored tournaments where you can win cash and prizes. Players will be able to compete in time and objective based tournaments to establish themselves as the best in their geographical region. The first tournament is to be launched this month (January) with many more to come. This is going to be a huge year in video pinball!

For more information, check out Major League Pinball on Facebook, or sign up on their site.


Ausretrogamer 2016 Highlights

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As another year draws to a close, one can’t help but to reflect on the year gone by. With a record number of visitors hitting the site, we had a heap of highlights in 2016, so dwindling them down to a handful proved to be harder than we thought. Are you ready? Here we go!

We started the year by learning how pinball machines work and how to troubleshoot general problems – a course that was well worth doing!

Getting the grand tour of ZAX Amusements and getting to play the newly released (at the time) Ghostbusters Pro pinball machine was a double highlight!

What better way to spend your birthday than having the awesome Ms. ausretrogamer organising a birthday mystery tour involving escape rooms, USA foods, retrogaming hunting at vintage markets, arcade action and a drive-in movie!

It is always a wonderful surprise when you go on a holiday and find a market that has retrogaming goodies! Carrara Markets delivered the thrill of the hunt buzz we were looking for!

After the birthday mystery tour, it was only fair to repay Ms. ausretrogamer in kind, by surprising her with The Walking Dead Pro pinball machine for her birthday. The look on her face was priceless!

When Marcus Sezonov extended us an invite to his Rosstown Retro Pinball Arcade tournament, we definitely could not pass up the opportunity. With a fantastic pinball collection comprising of classic machines from a variety of manufacturers from around the world, we could not stop flipping the silverball. Oh yeah, Marcus also had an original Japanese Space Invaders cocktail table to satisfy our arcade urge.

Being part of Australia’s biggest gaming event is a privilege. For PAX Aus 2016, our Classic Gaming Area was even bigger and better – more arcade and pinball machines, old school computers and consoles, handhelds from yesteryear and for the first time, a classic gaming museum!

Another PAX Aus 2016 highlight was participating in Seamus Byrne’s Geek Trash or Treasure? Finding Collectibles with Real Value panel in the Gamespot Theatre! We can now say that we popped our public speaking cherry.

Last but not least, meeting Jack Guarnieri at the recent exclusive Melbourne Jersey Jack Pinball event was a huge highlight and one we will not forget in a hurry! Oh yeah, playing the Pat Lawlor designed, Dialed In, was pretty great too!

We can’t wait to see what awesomeness 2017 brings us all! We’ll take this opportunity to thank you for your patronage and hope that you’ll come and visit us again in 2017.

Happy New Year to everyone – we hope it is a happy, healthy, successful and fun one!

 

Get Sponsorship for your IFPA Pinball Event

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The good people at Playfield Protectors are putting their money where their mouth is, not only as the manufacturer of products for protecting pinball machines, but as passionate pinball players.

Playfield Protectors value the IFPA’s efforts in boosting the profile of competitive pinball, they have decided to support IFPA endorsed tournaments.

If you are organising a tournament that is registered with the IFPA and you have 25 or more participants, Playfield Protectors will contribute a prize voucher for the tournament winner worth:

• € 25 for tournaments with 25 or more participants
• € 50 for tournaments with 50 or more participants
• € 100 for tournaments with 100 or more participants

In addition, if your tournament takes place before the next IFPA14 World Pinball Championship (June 2 to 4 2017), they will also provide you with a 10% discount code for each registered player in your tournament.

If you are an organiser of a pinball tournament and are interested in getting a tournament package (including the voucher and an information card) then get in touch with the good folks at Playfield Protectors via email.

The small print: This offer is available worldwide until the sponsorship fund of € 5,000 is exhausted.

Get flippin’

title image source: Playfield Protectors and IFPA