New Zealand Pincade 9 Closes

And so, after a whirlwind 5 days of pinball, arcade, console and computer gaming across the amazing country of New Zealand, us international visitors (at least most of the Australian crowd) are back in our homes, and back at our day to day lives. I for one feel saddened and somewhat relieved; I miss it already, but I was happy to get some good sleep in my own bed after a very exhausting and fun time.

Gary Stern, brandishing a few drinks, and mulling over the abundance of door prizes at one venue in Pincade 9.

As always with these events, and especially with the tight community of pinball and arcade enthusiasts, it's the people that make it. The people you already know and get to know a little better, and all the new people you get to meet and share the passion for this amazing hobby. The personal stories and backgrounds of how these 150 odd people decided to get together and mingle for 5 days, share in the exhaustion of little sleep, and play together on some of the best machines around. From the common A-List titles that you see everywhere, to the incredibly obscure that you'll never see again, it was a pleasure for all to enjoy these games together.

There are obviously too many incredible moments to mention. Such as getting to know one of the guys who work on the MAME project and has done so since the beginning. Wandering the devastated streets of Christchurch. Walking into a gameroom of over 100 pinball machines on free play. Chatting with Gary Stern over a healthy number of beverages, and witnessing and sharing in some of the greatest competition play in pinball.

Mark Tibbetts being presented with the grand champion prize for winning the System 11 World Pinball Championship.

It's all possible thanks to some very dedicated and generous people both in New Zealand and Australia. If you wish to get involved for next year, you best join the wonderful pinball and arcade community over at http://www.aussiearcade.com.au and join the conversation.

I personally can't wait until New Zealand Pincade 10. Only one whole year away!

Just a very small sample of a room that housed 100 pinball machines, all waiting for someone to walk up and press the start button.

System 11 World Pinball Championships

Mark Tibbetts wins the first System 11 World Pinball Championship held during Pincade 9 in New Zealand. Matt Venables finishes 2nd. A final of 3 games played, best out of 5. Mark took Matt to Grand Lizard first, then Matt chose Elvira and the Party Monsters, then Mark choosing Grand Lizard again, to take the best of 3 in one sweep. 

After a playoff for 3rd, Dani Peck and Rob Singh played a best of 3 on Radical, with Dani taking it in a very close game, with a 5 million jackpot on her last ball to squeek past Rob. He was unable to catch back up on his last ball despite getting within a million. Very close game!

New Zealand Pincade, Day 3!

Traipsing all over Auckland, we visit 4 venues which end in a world ranked tournament. The tournament was held at a beautiful location overlooking the bay.

74 people competed and finally saw Richard Rhodes win, John Cosson 2nd, and David Peck 3rd.​

​Full results at matchplay.events here.

Pincade Day 2

No competitions today, it's all a social romp through some great personal collections. A last location in Christchurch, and then jetting off to Auckland for 2 more.

Most of us are hitting the sack at 2am, in readiness for more tomorrow morning at 9.

Pincade Day 1

Franck Bona wins the first competition here in New Zealand at the C1 Cafe. Luke Marburg finishes 2nd. The pair faced off on Game of Thrones, with Franck putting up over a billion on his first ball. Luke was never able to crawl back.  Gary Stern presented the trophies to the winners.

Celebrating International Women's Day

It's a great time to be involved with pinball with the resurgence of the hobby over the last few years. New players are finding the love of the silver ball, and so is a wider and more diverse group of players, young and old, male and female, it's an exciting expansion on the wonderful pinball community.

What better time to celebrate the growth of pinball than International Women's Day! Over time we are seeing more and more women and girls joining the hobby, playing in competitions and enriching the experience for everyone with fresh perspectives and killer skills.

Naiomi Goodwin - Highest placing female player at the recent 2016 Pinball HQ Marathon

Today and for the rest of the week, the Welcome page will feature female players exclusively. We also of course can't go without mentioning the successes of two of the female players in the recent 2016 Pinball HQ Marathon, pictured here with their winnings, Naiomi Goodwin (AUS rank 47th) winning the highest finishing female player, and Mia De Riz (AUS rank 320th) winning the highest qualifying player under 15 years of age. Both of these great competitors have been playing for a number of years, with notable results including Naiomi taking 3rd place in the 2014 Australian Pinball Expo Championship (which until just recently was the largest and most difficult competition ever held in Australia), and with Mia taking 11th place in the 2014 Supanova NSW State Final (and knocking me out of the competition to boot!).

Mia De Riz - Highest qualifying player under 15 years of age at the recent 2016 Pinball HQ Marathon. Look at all those prizes!

An Australian Women's Pinball Championship has been talked about for a little while now. Let's hope this great initiative gets off the ground very soon - the players are ready!

2016 New Zealand Pincade 9

Had enough pinball for a while? Need a break after the week long Pinball HQ Marathon competition? Well as a wise man once said, “No time for that now!”.

The 2016 New Zealand Pincade kicks off this Thursday, 10th of March, and spans across the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Attendees of this annual Pinball and Arcade extravaganza will arrive in Christchurch on the Thursday and visit 2 different venues and participate in a world ranked pinball competition. On Friday, visit another venue, then fly out to Auckland in the afternoon and visit yet 2 more! Saturday in Auckland will see no less than 4 pinball and arcade venues, and another world ranked pinball competition.

On the Sunday, again in Auckland at another venue, attendees will play in the inaugural World System 11 Pinball Championships. This will be a massive competition where players face off on every System 11 pinball machine ever made!

Monday will more than likely be recovery time for everyone involved… Plus some more pinball I’d say…

Extraordinarily, there are 150 people attending across the 5 days, including 31 Australians, 1 from the USA (Mr Gary Stern himself), and 1 Frenchman (Franck Bona).

It’s going to be a whirlwind tour of fun and games. We will be there and attempting to update everyone with the crazy times as they happen.

Greg Jones Wins the 2016 Pinball HQ Marathon!

In an epic final that lasted hours between the top 4 players, Australia's own Greg Jones (AUS rank 19th) held off the 3 time European Pinball Champion Franck Bona (FRA rank 1st) to take the win.

It came down to the last game, on Hurricane, with odds on for Pat Nichols to take the over all win after a strong lead. Greg also managed to fend off Paul Jones in the same game, who was also crushing every competitor in the previous rounds.

Points allocated across the finals matches show how close the end game really was. Well done Greg!

• Greg Jones 10 points
• Franck Bona 9 points
• Pat Nichols 8 points
• Paul Jones 8 points

Full results of the marathon competition will be posted when they come to hand.

Highest Placing Female Player

Ceremony for the highest placing female player, Naiomi Goodwin! She won the same award last year too, and gets another trophy for the mantle, and another iPad. Well done Nomes! 

And the finals are in full swing, with 4 people remaining.

• Pat Nichols
• Paul Jones
• Franck Bona
• Greg Jones

State of Finals 4:30pm

Qualifier Winners Announced

Richard Rhodes wins the highest qualifier. There was also Kirby who won the best qualifier under 10 years old, and best qualifier under 15 won by Mia, and best rookie (not IFPA qualified). Now the finals begin! 

Finals Day

Scores are being triple checked, and the top 24 will soon be locked in for the finals. 

2016 Pinball HQ Marathon, Saturday Morning Results

Finals are tomorrow, Sunday from 3pm. You only have today and tomorrow morning to qualify in the top 24 in order to go through! Full results as of Saturday morning below.

The heavy hitters, Richard Rhodes (AUS rank 2nd) and Franck Bona (WORLD rank 46th), doing well as expected. Paul Jones doing exceptionally too. Who's going to win it!?

• 1 - Richard Rhodes
• 2 - Paul Jones
• 3 - Franck Bona
• 4 - Pat Nichols
• 5 - Matthew Venables
• 6 - Paul Reid
• 7 - Marc Bell
• 8 - Reon Seeney
• 9 - Greg Jones
• 10 - Brett Goodwin
• 11 - Zac Veron
• 12 - Greg Mc Mahon
• 13 - Naiomi Goodwin
• 13 - Tim Chapman
• 15 - Michelle Clark
• 16 - Martin Snicer
• 16 - Terry Hunt
• 18 - William Gill
• 19 - Rod Brooks
• 20 - David Loewy
• 21 - Ian Hooper-Richardson
• 22 - James Yau
• 23 - Regan Rist
• 24 - Larissa Veron
• 25 - Andrew Waszkiewicz
• 26 - Martin Toth
• 27 - John Pansini
• 27 - Norbert Snicer
• 29 - Jett Reid
• 30 - William Ward
• 31 - Andrew Sorensen
• 32 - John Arena
• 33 - Gail Steiger
• 34 - Sandra Epstein
• 35 - Ron Loewy
• 36 - Andrew Constantinou
• 37 - David McKinnon
• 38 - Gary Steiger
• 39 - Mia De Riz
• 39 - Kerby Reid
• 41 - Adrian Conti
• 42 - Lucas Christian
• 43 - Mia Sorensen
• 44 - Curtis Constantinou

2016 Pinball HQ Marathon, Begins!

The first day of qualifying starts for the Pinball HQ Marathon, and what a start it was! Regulars spotted include Pat, Paul Jones, Paul Reid, Reon, Terry Hunt, Brett and Nomes, Matt Venables, and the welcome return of Andy (MUD)! Plus many more. And it's only the first day, and only 6pm! Competition will be very tough indeed. 

**UPDATE** (JWP)
As of Friday night standings
1st RGR
2nd Paul Jones
3rd: Franc Bona

New shot of Ghostbusters playfield

A new shot of part of the playfield for Sterns upcoming Ghostbusters game has appeared online. The shot gives us a close look at some of the playfield art and inserts.

The art looks great, and more colourful than what we have seen from Sterns other recent games. We can also see two drop targets on either side. One labeled "Tony Scoleri" and the other "Nunzio Scoleri".

For those who aren't Ghostbusters nerds, the Scoleri brothers were sentanced to death by electric chair in 1948. Typically, they make themselves a nucence by coming back as ghosts and have to be put away by our heroes.

The Scoleri brothers - Ghostbusters II

It would appear as though these guys are going to pop up during play to be shot down ala Cactus Canyon.
Another point of note is the inserts that appear to lead towards the main shots in the game. In line with a 'jackpot' insert are inserts with the labels 'The ballroom', 'He slimed me!' and 'We got one!' While its only really speculation at this early stage, these would appear to be all themed around the Slimer ghost character. This implies that the shots will be in an Attack from Mars style (monster bash), wherein each shot lights an insert, and completing all the inserts on each shot starts a multiball.

This is of course a tried and true style we've seen on many games, and I for one would be happy to see this shot style on the new Ghostbusters!

Brisbane ACS in Full Swing!

Busy scenes here for the first night of the Australian Championship Series 2016 in sunny (humid) Queensland.