Tron Pinball Release Party - Dallas, TX

Frax

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Well, not sure, but I may have been the only one of us there. I like the machine. I REALLY like the machine. It's freakin' sweet. Extremely unpredictable though, and at least one thing I would call a design flaw that's arguable....had a ball pop OVER the drain guard rail on the right side.

So, I participated in the tourney, had only played 1 ball prior. Posted 9 mil my first game, and 55 million my 2nd game. I ended up being the highest overall score during the tournament play. We get to the finals, the guy that ranked 4th disappeared, so the guy admin'ing the event played. I'm not sure if he had scored high enough that the guy disappearing bumped him in, or what. Whatever.

1st Ball. I ate it. Faceplant. EPIC FAIL YOU IDIOT. WHAT THE F- ARE YOU DOING?! 400k. Yeah. Not even half a million. <BLEEP>

2nd Ball. Not much better. Think I was around the 5-6 million mark, no multiballs. The organizer guy takes his 3rd ball. His score's not good, the guy that was 2nd placed in "qualifying play" is doing horrible as well. Organizer guy finishes with 21 million. I'm like....I already did 35 mil on one ball earlier, this should be something I can do, right?

Hell no. I get multiball going and this machine just did not want me to have that signed Translite. :( I finish with like 12 million. I'm automatically 3rd place. The guy who was 2nd score comes up for his last ball and barely knocks me out down to 4th.

I walk away with 20$ and a framed, looks like inkjet-printed 4th Place "winner" certificate. And the event organizer....

Walks away with the signed Tron translite. I'm really in a moral dilemna with the whole thing. First off, I don't feel that people responsible for organizing such events should be participating in the first place. No, it wouldn't have changed the fact that I ate a big HUGE FAT ONE when it came to crunch time. I think it's almost bordering on fraud to do so, when you're advertising that prize and then it goes to the person admin'ing the event for the group hosting it.

On the other hand, the guy's clearly got skills, he posted a 90 million + score prior to the start of tournament play, and even the guy that was 2nd in tourney play got jacked by the machine (30 million on one ball, 1 million and 2 million on 2nd and 3rd in tourney, then 17 mil-ish in the finals total?!) so it's not like I can really claim any kind of foul play.

I had a ton of fun, and putting up that huge score effectively on one ball as a total newb who hasn't played any real pinball in 10-15 years was amazingly adrenaline-pumping. I was shaking after I finished that game. Just kind of shell-shocked by the last 30 minutes of the event though.

Love the machine...though. Too bad I'll never be able to afford one, lol.
 
FWIW, I plan on buying a few of these for some of the Dallas area Cinemark locations. There will also be two of them in the Salt Lake area in two weeks.

Have not had a chance to play the game yet though.
 
Let me know where they end up, but if Nickelrama keeps one of the two that were there tonight, kind of a moot point. Way cheaper for me to pay their 5$ entry fee and then 10 cents a game, as well as get to play some other things.

I think we're gradually deciding that it would be worth the money to save up for one, I'm not really sure it's something that I want to expend that kind of cash on given our debts and everything but...damn. :|
 
FWIW, I plan on buying a few of these for some of the Dallas area Cinemark locations. There will also be two of them in the Salt Lake area in two weeks.

Have not had a chance to play the game yet though.

I recommend you getting one for the theater on greenback and garfield here in sacramento. :)
 
Let me know where they end up, but if Nickelrama keeps one of the two that were there tonight, kind of a moot point. Way cheaper for me to pay their 5$ entry fee and then 10 cents a game, as well as get to play some other things.

I think we're gradually deciding that it would be worth the money to save up for one, I'm not really sure it's something that I want to expend that kind of cash on given our debts and everything but...damn. :|

FWIW, I'm not a greedy operator. I'll put the games out at 2 tokens per play (50 cents). I dont like the new price schemes that many new games are coming out as.
 
With so many of these being pre-sold and the rule-set being so weak I expect you will see them for sale rather cheap by Feb/2012.

I know several other long time collectors who agree. If you are on a budget I would just wait and pick up one on the cheap when the novelty wears off.
Stern pins just do not hold their value like WMS/Ballys.
 
With so many of these being pre-sold and the rule-set being so weak I expect you will see them for sale rather cheap by Feb/2012.

I know several other long time collectors who agree. If you are on a budget I would just wait and pick up one on the cheap when the novelty wears off.
Stern pins just do not hold their value like WMS/Ballys.

Whats rather cheap? I'll have you know that I've been trading in and selling Spiderman and other Stern pins for $3500.00. Thats not much of a savings on a game that's a few years old.

As we all know the rule set is going to mature as the game gets older. Even the high and mighty WMS\Bally had update upon update until they got it right. A while back I worked with a guy that worked for a WMS distributor. He said that they couldn't keep enough EPROMs in stock to keep up with the updates they were coming so fast.

I'm probably going to buy 10-15 Tron's and put them out. Even if the game is a dog I'm not selling them next year for anything less then $4k.
 
Not sure what you guys mean by weak rule sets but for what it's worth I liked the way it played. I was too busy to really pat attention to the actual targets and games though.
 
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