Skill Shot

The Airport Tavern weekly is moving to Saturday this week

Because the annual NWPAS After Party Tournament at the Triple Knock is happening this Sunday (June 4th) the Airport Tavern has moved their Sunday weekly to Saturday June 3rd. Along with changing the day, Airport Tavern host Anthony is also moving the start time back an hour to 8pm. Triple Knock host Altwin is also making a change to the after party, with this year’s event happening a bit later than years previous: 7pm. Details on the calendar.

If you are a facebook user and regularly attend Tacoma pinball events you should consider joining the Airport Tavern/Triple Knock Pinball Tournament Alliance group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/878516930086301 

Some website notes for both locals and visitors

If you are looking for somewhere to play pinball when you’re not at NWPAS this weekend take a look at our pinball list (link at the top). Tacoma now has it’s own section under the “road trip” link. If you’re from Seattle you may want to go to the Airport Tavern or the7 Seas Brewery to play the Jersey Jack’ Guns N Roses pinball machine since it’s pretty scarce in Seattle outside of the Seattle Pinball Museum. I’m pretty sure there will not be one at this year’s show. Note: the AAV next to a location’s name stands for All-Ages Venue (all of the rest are 21+).

Visitors looking for local tournaments should go to our calendar. We try to include all of the pinball related events from Tacoma, in the south to Bellingham, in the north and also Kitsap County, to the west (which includes Bremerton). While there are different catagory filters if you’re just interested in what’s happening during a short amount of time then clicking the main calendar link should be fine.

If you’re in Seattle without a ride to Tacoma (or back) here’s a link to our post on the public transportation options: Here

If you plan on playing in one or all of the tournaments at NWPAS and haven’t heard about the new formats yet you should definately take a look at them on the NWPAS site. There have been a number of surprised comments about the changes and pricing on Facebook. https://www.nwpinballshow.com/tournaments

Regular users of this site may have noticed that I’ve been changing the dates on some of the recent posts. This is done to bump the posts about past events down the page so the more relevant posts stay at the top.

If you see me (gordon) taking photos at the show be sure to say hi and let me take your pic for the collage in the upcoming issue of Skill Shot. (I’ll mostly be taking them in the lobby or outside). It’s been a while since we published an issue of the zine but there’s one planned for later this summer. Support Local Pinball!

Sean Irby built his own pinball machine and it will make it’s first public appearance at this weekends NWPAS

Sean Irby is bringing the pinball machine he built, Eight Ball Beyond, to the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Tacoma. You can read all about it in the post linked below but he wants to give a heads up to those attending that he’s giving away four Eight Ball Beyond translites at the show.
To enter the giveaway, just play the game and scan the QR code that appears on the display once your game is over. That will take you to a form where you can submit your entry. You will need a gmail/google account to enter the giveaway. The form will contain all the details but the plan so far is to give away three translites randomly and one to the highest score over the weekend. Sean will message the winners Saturday evening and you can pickup your translite on Sunday. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/eight-ball-beyond

Sean posted a rule card as well as some tips on “how to blow it up” in case you want to familiarize yourself beforehand. View the rules and tips: https://www.skill-shot.com/eight-ball-beyond-tips-and-rule-card/

Pinball wrestling will have a booth at the NW Pinball and Arcade Show this year

James Frost-Winn and Stephanie Hanlon are teaming up to have a vendors booth at this year’s show. While details are vague, it is known that there will be a limited number of the new Pinball Wrestling Koozies to give away – but with a catch. You will need to complete a challenge to obtain one; what is the challange? You will have to visit their booth to find out!

There are lots of other vendors at the show this year such as Marco Specialties, Next Level Pinball (where you can buy a new Stern pinball machine), Planetary Pinball (who sell game mods amongst other things), Another Castle, NW Pinball Collective and many more. Check out the vendor list on the NWPAS site for more info: https://www.nwpinballshow.com/vendors

this year you can Learn about fixing your own machine or how some of the new pins are created

On Friday afternoon Tik Tok’s Richard Godwin will host two different seminars about regular issues that vex new pinball owners: trouble shooting electrical problems and how to properly solder.  Saturday is all about game design and planning with Jack Danger & Tanio Klyce discussing the new Foo Fighters game and Mark Ritchie & Butch Peel talking about the new Pulp Fiction pin. Sound designer David Thiel will discuss the work he did on Pulp Fiction and the elusive Queen pinball machines. If you like video games, Warren Davis who created Q*bert! will be there too!

For the complete speakers and seminars schedule visit the NWPAS site: https://www.nwpinballshow.com/speakers

Join Chase Nunes and friends as Geekgamer.tv host a seminar based around pinball skills at the nwpas

This Friday, June 2nd at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show, join this fun event on the GeekGamer.TV Stage at 7pm. Learn a few new skills and possibly win some prizes – if you are selected you could also be a part of the live stream on Twitch!

Chase will also be streaming most of the day on both Friday and Saturday at: https://www.twitch.tv/geekgamertv

Our post about taking the bus to tacoma from seattle has been updated

I checked the current schedules for taking the bus to this weekend’s NW Pinball & Arcade Show and updated the post. Not much has changed this year so if you’ve done it before you should be good. Youth under 18 now ride for free on Sound Transit and the last bus leaves from Tacoma to downtown Seattle at 10:20pm. Get the full details here: https://www.skill-shot.com/the-bus-to-tacoma-2017/

this two-volume vinyl collection contains some of the most classic sounds in pinball from the 80s & 90s

Jackpot Records has announced the upcoming release of a two-record set: Jackpot Plays PINBALL, Vol. 1 & 2. The records contain pinball music and sounds from games such as Black Knight 2000, Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars and many more – the first time on vinyl. While the records are available individually there’s free shipping if you order both. Check out the Jackpot Records site for more info: https://jackpotrecords.com/pages/jackpot-plays-pinball