PINBALL "SUMMER" PARTY 2002

Here are some pictures from my "summer" pinball party held on July 13, 2002. They were all taken with disposable cameras and scanned. Click on any picture to enlarge (or on the first one to view it as a slide-show). Below the thumbnails are some stats as originally posted to the rec.games.pinball newsgroup.

 

 

 

 

 

PARTY STATS:

I counted 25 heads (including 5 kids ranging from 8 - 14 and a 4-year old). It was a pretty nice turnout, especially since there were a lot of local events causing many "last minute" cancellations. The best part was that the party lasted for 8 and 1/2 hours. It began at 5:00PM and the last group walked out around 1:30AM. I couldn't believe how fast that time went. If only my work day were just as fast.

I enjoyed watching everyone play as we gobbled down everything from fried chicken, to pizza, to cupcakes to....oh man. My stomach hurts. Luckily we had beer to drown all that out.

It was also fun watching the kids play. They were pretty excited to reach into the grab-bag (thanks for the idea Dave) of extra plastics and pull out a keychain to take home. They had soda. :)

I reset the audits before the party so I could find out the number of plays and information on each game. The results were rather interesting and I thought I would share them with you here. There were nine games available for play. Each of them was waxed up and ready to go. And each of them worked almost flawless, minus a ball-hangup or two. Whew....that is always a good thing.

Keep in mind that my games are set to 5-ball play. No replays. Medium-Hard settings. Max 2-EB per play.

Also keep in mind that there was a 10th game setup called Judge Dredd. It was a project game I was working on at the time and had it working "well enough" for play. So it was also available although I didn't take audits for it.

Here are the stats (in year order):


1. FUNHOUSE
Avg. game time: 3.08
Total plays: 65

2. THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Avg. game time: 3.35
Total plays: 52

3. FISH TALES
Avg. game time: 5.26
Total plays: 32

4. MEDIEVAL MADNESS
Avg. game time: 5.70
Total plays: 56

5. CIRQUS VOLTAIRE
Avg. game time: 5.13
Total plays: 36

6. NO GOOD GOFERS
Avg. game time: 5.32
Total plays: 47

7. MONSTER BASH
Avg. game time: 5.68
Total plays: 50

8. SOUTH PARK
Avg. game time: 3.41
Total plays: 60

9. MONOPOLY
Avg. game time: 4.17
Total plays: 66


I thought this was a very interesting set of audits. Obviously the game with the highest number of total plays doesn't necessarily mean it was the more popular machine. But, it was interesting to see Funhouse in second place for total number of games played behind Monopoly. Gotta' love Rudy!

But, then again, the average Monopoly game was almost a minute longer than the average game of Funhouse. So, in reality, Monopoly was played a lot more than Funhouse. That is where the entire "total number of plays" gets tricky. It doesn't factor in all of the variables (like how much time a game is actually being played verses sitting in attract mode and waiting).

So, using the equation (total plays x gametime) and figuring out which game was played the "longest"......we find Medieval Madness at the top followed by Monster Bash, Monopoly, South Park, and No Good Gofers. The bottom four played the "longest" would be Funhouse, Cirqus Voltaire, The Addams Family, and Fish Tales (bringing up the rear).

Also surprising was the amount of game-time Fish Tales had. Usually FT is a speedy son of a gun that takes no prisoners. However, the average game time was 5.26. That seems aweful high. Only the "good" players must have tackled that game. Right Barry?

Many people got their names on the high score boards (some of whom have never before). Here are a handful of initials I saw the next morning: LAL, GSW, MMB, CMB, MJN, PJD, BMI, and DAY.




 

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