For August, Marshall and Caitlin have offered to open up their home to have us over to play from their collection!
This will also be a good opportunity to kick-off a Pinball League -- The league play portion will only take an hour or so to get through a bracket. We will work out an opportunity for a make-up session if you can't make this event.
To register for league play, go here: http://www.gulfcoastpinballandarcade.com/pinball-league/
- I will build the bracket from this list.
Pins:
No fear,
big guns,
hardbody,
Johnny mnemonic,
getaway hs2,
Demolition man,
junk yard,
Demolition man,
junk yard,
And possibly:
Fire - it is being restored but might be finished
paragon - also being restored but might be finished
Arcades:
galaga,
centipede,
dig dug,
pacman,
jr pac man,
golden tee
Multicade - under construction, but maybe finished
RSVP to my email at bill.dodd@graffitilogic.com and I will post the details
Event Link: http://www.gulfcoastpinballandarcade.com/events/2015/8/29/august-meetup
It looks like we might have something lined up for September as well (at a home), I'm looking for suggestions for additional meetup locations. Plenty of public restaurants would love to have us but finding public places with food and games, intact seems a bit more difficult. Shoot me your suggestions as you have them.
A couple things I'm toying with:
Bel-Air Mall Arcade in Mobile - (Then food somewhere)
Adventure Island in Orange Beach
Other Stuff
As mentioned above, we've had some interest for establishing a pinball league. Frequency of play is still TBD but the general idea would be to meet at minimum, monthly to play out a bracket. One bracket should only last 1-2 hours max if enough pins are on hand.
In addition to private collections, we will loop in some pins in the wild as we find them. Make-up sessions will be offered. Free to enter and play, aside from any quarters needed at a given game.
No prizes have been announced yet but I imagine something will materialize in that department.
Rumors, Rumors, Rumors
There have been increased rumblings of a Dave and Busters finally coming to our neck of the woods. At first the rumor was announced they would be coming to the McGowin Park complex in Mobile. Some of those rumors have later been called into question. I've talked to a number of D&B insider peeps that say there are definitely plans to bring a D&B somewhere between Pensacola, Gulf Shores - Orange Beach and Mobile. *fingers crossed* -Beer and games, what's not to like? Only wish they had pins still!
Member Activity
We have a member, Allen, who has an awesome Jurassic Park pin for sale. He's asking $2750, it is located in Spanish Fort. He's also looking to buy a multicade and a newer stern pin. Let me know if you need his contact info!
Charlie is looking for a Silent Scope, Silent Scope S 2 or Silent Scope EX boardset that is working for repairable - or a brave soul that can repair one.
Erick is looking for some help troubleshooting a tricky set of problems with his GORF Arcade.
If I missed your activity here, please let me know directly and I'll include it in the next mass-mailing / postings.
On that: Apologies, I haven't been the best at posting over the last few weeks. I've had an arcade construction project of my own that's taken a few cycles to get completed. Something that is a cross between a much-more-redneck version of a Paul Bourke/iCinema iDome and a Star Wars Battle Pod. (Google it) :)
I'll post more on that soon. It could be cool as hell or it could just take up a bunch of room in my basement - jury is still out.
New Member Outreach
We have a Facebook Page, a Website & Forums. We have a meetup.com account and my friends at GameStop were kind enough to let me put some leaflets on their counter. The Craigslist Ad and Word of Mouth continue to be our best membership generators.
I'm going to try to get some flyers to the classic gaming store in Foley and the ones in Mobile in the coming weeks.
Organizational Structure
As we grow, we will unfortunately have the need to develop a more organized structure. I'll be honest, this is something I dislike because I've never been fond of clubs that are run like businesses or have 'business meetings'.
Still, it is valid to have some responsibilities and structure. For now, we are going to try this out.
This, Knights of the Round Table but with fewer beheadings and no stupid class structure. The idea is, equal parts voting on crucial ideas, a majority vote wins on an idea.
About a year and a half ago Marshall and Caitlin approached me with some ideas to form a Pinball Club. Not far after, Charlie also had similar ideas. Since then, we've all become friends and I've found these couples to be really awesome people with an honest and pure love for this stuff that I think will serve this group well. They have great ideas for the future of this thing!
The Council / Quorum
Me: (Bill Dodd) - Some days, I'm a programmer, some days, I'm a photographer. All days, I'm a geek. I've only been collecting formally for about 3-4 years but I'm here to stay. :) I'm an okay pin player but I will kick your butt at Mortal Kombat.
Marshall Youngstrom - Marshall is a business owner and passionate collector, also a crazy-good pinball player. He has great ideas for future arcade-pin events and ventures.
Caitlin Youngstrom - Caitlin has a ton of business and event organization experience that is going to help us greatly in the future. She's also a heck of a pin player.
-Marshall and Caitlin get to go to many of the regional shows and have some great contacts in the industry, whose good ideas I plan to.. umm.. borrow. :)
Charlie Rose - Charlie is a business owner both inside and outside of the amusement-gaming space. He restores pins, and his initials tend to haunt every machine he plays because he is crazy good. Charlie has been a huge motivation to me to help get this club organized, quickly.
Tami Rose - Tami is also a business owner whose accounting, business expertise and level-headed approach are going to be a great resource for us moving forward.
These folks should all have admin rights to the facebook group, blog, forums and meetup accounts. (If you don't, ping me I'll fix that!)
Add'l help needed: We need folks help in administrating the forums for the non-facebook peeps and generally and I would love to see others posting to these blog areas as well.
Help out in these areas, get a Quorum seat / vote if you want one.
Anyway, that's all I have for this mailing / post. Hope to see you at the end of the month gathering at Marshall and Caitlin's place.
May your pockets be full of quarters and your replays and 1Ups plentiful. :)
