The fun didn’t end at CGE. Time for Flack and me to HIT THE STRIP. Beware, dear friends, for even when in the wildly reckless world that is Las Vegas, our nerdiness knows no bounds.
Our first stop was Star Trek: The Experience, where I literally took all of two photos, and this was one of them.
Flack got one of me being clubbed by a Gorn, so I’ll post that as soon as I can. 😆 Ubikuberalles met up with us there and we went from there to the Pinball Hall Of Fame Museum, having heard so much about it from the Retrotopia party (which I missed). They had some neat stuff there, including a working Doctor Who pinball (of which I’ll have to extract stills from some video that I shot at a later date), but it’s very cramped, and I can’t imagine there having been a party there the night before. Anyway, here’s a look at some of their pinballs and their back walls of video games.
Rob demonstrates the odd video/pinball hybrid that is Star Wars Episode I, and in the process…
…we found out what happened to all the Jar Jar action figures that didn’t sell.
My favorite pinball machine there was South Park. As with any South Park game, the soundbites make the game, but actually being able to comprehend the game play mechanics was a big plus.
Q*Bert’s Quest.
I’m still not sure who at Gottlieb said “Hey! I’ve got it! We’ll turn Q*Bert into a pinball game and it’ll be huge!”
Stargate pinball.
A really unfortunate pairing of machines in the entryway. 😆 😯
Ubik demonstrates the Strikes & Spares pinball game, which was at least neat to watch.
Pinball Skaro-style.
I failed to make it so on this machine. But it looks cool.
Ubik & Flack take on the classics.
Flack & Field: Rob shows me his technique for che…winning at Track & Field.
CRAZY CLIMBER! Holy crap, an honest-to-God CRAZY CLIMBER! Around the time I played my third or fourth game of this, the guys had to drag my ass outta there. I actually had a pretty good night playing games back here, including a Tron maneuver that impressed the hell outta Rob (and surprised the hell outta me – I didn’t think it would work, but it was a damned stylish way to dispatch three enemy light cycles!).
There’s something both poetic and funny about a NUGENT pinball machine next to a big honkin’ electromechanical gun game.
So indeed, I did play both the South Park (mostly while waiting for my food order at the snackbar next door to our usual hangout bar, so after a few drinks…) and the Star Trek: TNG tables. I kinda remember seeing the Stargate one but I never played it.
They had Tron at Star Trek: The Experience? Sacrilege! Good shot of the Enterprise D. My camera way underexposed the ship and the flash just made it worse.
They should have put a cat-themed pinball machine on the other side of the Ted Nugent machine. Perhaps even scratch the machine a little. *rimshot*