New Year's Eve Party - Comments and play numbers

stangbat

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I had three families over last night, a total of 9 adults and 8 kids were present including my family. This was my first get together since I've had pins in the house. The pins were wildly popular and pretty much got played constantly. There were good stretches when all four were being played at the same time. Between the pins and Rock Band on the Wii, it was pretty noisy downstairs. And I have to say it was the best New Year's party I've had with my friends since we all got married and had kids. I thought the old days of crazy fun parties had died, but now that the kids are older and can participate, I think they have returned.

Thankfully nothing broke and I didn't have any problems. I didn't have to remove the glass from anything even once, which surprised me. And wow, kids can sure hammer flipper buttons! I finally got most of the monkey flipping under control but it is tough to watch your machines getting beat silly, you can just picture having to fix and replace stuff. I'm not saying I was a party pooper and yelled at the kids to stop, I let them have their fun and by the end of the night things were pretty good as the kids learned how to play.

Only one guest had a good knowledge of pinball and what machines are popular to pinheads. A lot of the play was by the younger kids and it was just pounding the ball around. So the play numbers may not really mean much, but I still found it kind of interesting.

I have four machines set up, Data East Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Attack from Mars, and Simpsons Pinball Party. Here's the breakdown after the evening:

DE SW: 125
AFM: 96
JP: 84
TSPP: 68

Grand total plays: 373

No big surprise on SW being the most played. I expected that. I was kind of surprised that AFM was #2, I expected JP to be in the second spot. Only two of the guests really knew of AFM's pinhead stature. One of my friend's son really likes the game so a lot of the plays were probably him. And it didn't really surprise me that TSPP was last, I expected that. It is a tough game, especially for novice players.

By far the machine that got the most comments was Star Wars. People just like the way it looks and the toys. I understand, it is a cool looking machine, and it is a fun machine to play with other people. I find that I actually like it more than I was expecting based on the comments you hear about its gameplay.

Only one of my high scores fell, and that was on AFM by my pinhead friend. I'm not a great player and my score was nothing special, but I've now got my work cut out for me.

Next year I'll set all the games for 50 cent play, I would have made $186.50 this year! :D ;)
 
I had three families over last night, a total of 9 adults and 8 kids were present including my family. This was my first get together since I've had pins in the house. The pins were wildly popular and pretty much got played constantly. There were good stretches when all four were being played at the same time. Between the pins and Rock Band on the Wii, it was pretty noisy downstairs. And I have to say it was the best New Year's party I've had with my friends since we all got married and had kids. I thought the old days of crazy fun parties had died, but now that the kids are older and can participate, I think they have returned.

Thankfully nothing broke and I didn't have any problems. I didn't have to remove the glass from anything even once, which surprised me. And wow, kids can sure hammer flipper buttons! I finally got most of the monkey flipping under control but it is tough to watch your machines getting beat silly, you can just picture having to fix and replace stuff. I'm not saying I was a party pooper and yelled at the kids to stop, I let them have their fun and by the end of the night things were pretty good as the kids learned how to play.

Only one guest had a good knowledge of pinball and what machines are popular to pinheads. A lot of the play was by the younger kids and it was just pounding the ball around. So the play numbers may not really mean much, but I still found it kind of interesting.

I have four machines set up, Data East Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Attack from Mars, and Simpsons Pinball Party. Here's the breakdown after the evening:

DE SW: 125
AFM: 96
JP: 84
TSPP: 68

Grand total plays: 373

No big surprise on SW being the most played. I expected that. I was kind of surprised that AFM was #2, I expected JP to be in the second spot. Only two of the guests really knew of AFM's pinhead stature. One of my friend's son really likes the game so a lot of the plays were probably him. And it didn't really surprise me that TSPP was last, I expected that. It is a tough game, especially for novice players.

By far the machine that got the most comments was Star Wars. People just like the way it looks and the toys. I understand, it is a cool looking machine, and it is a fun machine to play with other people. I find that I actually like it more than I was expecting based on the comments you hear about its gameplay.

Only one of my high scores fell, and that was on AFM by my pinhead friend. I'm not a great player and my score was nothing special, but I've now got my work cut out for me.

Next year I'll set all the games for 50 cent play, I would have made $186.50 this year! :D ;)



that's awesome. we have my wife's extended family in town this weekend for our christmas and this was the first time i've had any sort of big gathering where pins were involved. like you, i had a great time just watching people enjoy my pins. and, like you, i had to "teach" some of the younger kids how to play without "monkey flipping" (i like that term...lol).

took a few pics of the family playing:

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168353_182289055128688_100000427840538_550717_4029731_n.jpg


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i wish i would have reset my pins so i could keep up with the plays...that's a cool idea. i'd say the most popular with the adults was probably starship troopers and who dunnit. the kids loved south park, star wars, and jurassic park.
 
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Thanks for sharing the pics. I wish I took pictures. I completely forgot and I was running around and playing pinball so it didn't cross my mind. How did your other arcade stuff fare against the pins? Did the pins get played most?

I didn't reset my games, I went into the audits before the evening started and wrote down the total plays. My curiosity couldn't let a situation like this go by without finding out how much each machine was played.
 
Thanks for sharing the pics. I wish I took pictures. I completely forgot and I was running around and playing pinball so it didn't cross my mind. How did your other arcade stuff fare against the pins? Did the pins get played most?

I didn't reset my games, I went into the audits before the evening started and wrote down the total plays. My curiosity couldn't let a situation like this go by without finding out how much each machine was played.


i wish i would have kept up with the plays...audit menu is a better idea than resetting. i have a big shindig here every march (for march madness; pinball/arcade/basketball followed by a poker tourney that night). should have 15-20 dudes here. i'll keep up with the plays that night.

as for my other arcade stuff: almost no plays. i think a few games of silver strike were bowled and maybe one game of blitz. nothing else got touched. everybody loves pins....even people who DO NOT play video games. the pins were played almost non stop.
 
Man, pudluther, that little girl with the demon eyes really creeps me out!
 
Only one of my high scores fell, and that was on AFM by my pinhead friend. I'm not a great player and my score was nothing special, but I've now got my work cut out for me.

That was me...:) I was in the zone. Definitely the best New years party in ages. Thanks Stangbat!

I wish I could have played TSPP a little more. After you explained the rules set, it made more sense.

As for Star Wars...those outlanes were brutal. Stangbat had a multiball going where two balls simultaneously went down the left outlane. It was one in a million. Not to mention the ball save feature is nonexistent. The lack of a legitmate ball save really kills that game.
 
oh, and as for high scores falling, i lost my starship troopers #1 score early today. not a real big deal as i haven't had it very long and haven't really put up any big numbers on it.....still, you hate to see your name disappear like that. :)
 
That was me...:) I was in the zone. Definitely the best New years party in ages. Thanks Stangbat!

I wish I could have played TSPP a little more. After you explained the rules set, it made more sense.

As for Star Wars...those outlanes were brutal. Stangbat had a multiball going where two balls simultaneously went down the left outlane. It was one in a million. Not to mention the ball save feature is nonexistent. The lack of a legitmate ball save really kills that game.

Of course you downing my high score was one of the last games we played. You couldn't have beat it early and given me a chance to come back. ;) Nice job though.

Yes, it wold be nice if SW's ball saver actually worked. It is pretty worthless as is. And I think you got a first hand chance to witness how brutal its outlanes can be.
 
Besides being a great game, AFM will have more plays because its ball times are a bit shorter unless you have some really good ball control players playing.
 
Tycoonbrad no longer has a score greater than mine on my AFM. I'm now the Grand Champion. :D

As for AFM ball times, I'd think that TSPP could be shorter for beginning players, even with its generous ball saver. A few badly placed shots in TSPP can have you draining fast.
 
Cool!!

Kids love to keep firing those flipper buttons LOL!! and it can drive you nuts until you teach them about flipper control.I kinda figured SW was going to get all the attention its a very cool pin,Mike
 
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