Pintastic 2023 September

Pintastic is back, this year in Marlborough. Once again I was only able attend Friday, but I got plenty of flipping in. 2 days later, and my wrists are still sore. There were seminars and vendors and even some video games. But I spent the day playing pinball–catching up with old friends and making some new ones.

Starting off with the old timers–the electro-mechanical (em) machines.

And the new kids on the block. These machines released in 2022-2023 can feel more like video games than pinball, and the deep rule sets and complicated combos generally mean I don’t get much from the 1 or 2 games I get at the con, but there’s plenty of replay value for your home arcade. If I was going to spend $10k+ on a new machine, Toy Story 4 would be my choice. And not just because I got a high score.

The most interesting machines are in the homebrew room. These range from modification of existing games to entirely new games. Rock Lives! was back from last year’s Pintastic, and once again I played the Weird Al soundtrack.

The homebrew crew included The Adventures of Sinbad, a mod of Sinbad (Gottlieb, 1978) with stereo sound and movie clips. Classic Sinbad.

The Southern New Hampshire Pinball Club was well represented, including this fine specimen of Evel Knievel. It’s in great condition, obviously well loved and cared-for. The playfield smooth, the colors bright, the flippers strong, and targets that spin for days.

And the rest…