Keeper of TASBot
I have great news - Mike has consented to a trial run of having a couple of pinball machines set up at AGDQ 2015!
I've been acting as a liaison between the speedrunning community and the pinball community and I'm proud to announce a wonderful fusion - pinball wizard mode speedruns! The concept is simple - nearly all 90's and later pinball machines have a wizard mode, or a natural culmination of the game's theme. For Twilight Zone it's completing Lost in the Zone, or for Attack from Mars it's becoming Ruler of the Universe. Beating the wizard mode on modern pins in the shortest amount of realtime can be a fun challenge due to deep rulesets with multiple possible paths of completion and.. er... extremely realistic RNG mechanics. AGDQ 2015 stands to be the first time this concept will be put to the test at scale, and I can't wait to see what happens.
There will be two yet-to-be-announced pinball machines set up to accept donations, with 100% of the donations received going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. One pinball machine will have a camera over the playfield and will be streamed with live commentary to http://twitch.tv/pinballjoe by the man himself and his volunteers, contingent on their availability. While the pinball community typically uses metrics such as points in league play, the concept of speedrunning isn't unheard of; the primary issue has been a lack of good record keeping, which is something that's about to change. At the end of the marathon, the winners for each pin will be recorded and the fastest times will be announced.
As a pinball collector myself, I'm always glad for an opportunity to provide new venues for people to become familiar with modern pinball. If competition isn't your thing, don't worry - the second machine will be set up with no cameras for general play, although we may still have a clock so you can practice. We also hope to rotate different games through, subject to availability and logistics (because storing and moving pinball machines is hard :). If donating for every game you play is an issue, don't sweat it - the games will be set to free play at all times, but as noted any donations you can give will go to a good cause. So, if you're attending AGDQ 2015 and you happen to walk by some pinball machines, don't be shy, come on over and have some fun!
I'd like to take an opportunity to thank everyone who made this possible (with a much more official list later) - first, CoolMatty deserves thanks for suggesting the idea, coordinating the staff response, and working out physical floorspace. I should say upfront that pinballjoe has already put in many hours organizing the stream and helping make connections and I suspect the number of volunteer hours he'll put in by the time this is done will exceed everyone else's combined. The director of http://replayfx.org/ out of Pittsburgh is providing the pinball machines for free for the enjoyment of attendees; I know exactly how challenging it is to move pinball machines around and I applaud his willingness to help out and share his passion for pinball. Lastly, the members of the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA at http://fspazone.org) and the DC Maryland Virginia Pinball league (DMV Pinball at http://dmvpinball.com) have been extremely helpful in connecting resources and have my thanks.
This is a rare opportunity for two communities to come together and I look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out, no pun intended. Here's to a great trial run, and happy flipping!
I've been acting as a liaison between the speedrunning community and the pinball community and I'm proud to announce a wonderful fusion - pinball wizard mode speedruns! The concept is simple - nearly all 90's and later pinball machines have a wizard mode, or a natural culmination of the game's theme. For Twilight Zone it's completing Lost in the Zone, or for Attack from Mars it's becoming Ruler of the Universe. Beating the wizard mode on modern pins in the shortest amount of realtime can be a fun challenge due to deep rulesets with multiple possible paths of completion and.. er... extremely realistic RNG mechanics. AGDQ 2015 stands to be the first time this concept will be put to the test at scale, and I can't wait to see what happens.
There will be two yet-to-be-announced pinball machines set up to accept donations, with 100% of the donations received going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. One pinball machine will have a camera over the playfield and will be streamed with live commentary to http://twitch.tv/pinballjoe by the man himself and his volunteers, contingent on their availability. While the pinball community typically uses metrics such as points in league play, the concept of speedrunning isn't unheard of; the primary issue has been a lack of good record keeping, which is something that's about to change. At the end of the marathon, the winners for each pin will be recorded and the fastest times will be announced.
As a pinball collector myself, I'm always glad for an opportunity to provide new venues for people to become familiar with modern pinball. If competition isn't your thing, don't worry - the second machine will be set up with no cameras for general play, although we may still have a clock so you can practice. We also hope to rotate different games through, subject to availability and logistics (because storing and moving pinball machines is hard :). If donating for every game you play is an issue, don't sweat it - the games will be set to free play at all times, but as noted any donations you can give will go to a good cause. So, if you're attending AGDQ 2015 and you happen to walk by some pinball machines, don't be shy, come on over and have some fun!
I'd like to take an opportunity to thank everyone who made this possible (with a much more official list later) - first, CoolMatty deserves thanks for suggesting the idea, coordinating the staff response, and working out physical floorspace. I should say upfront that pinballjoe has already put in many hours organizing the stream and helping make connections and I suspect the number of volunteer hours he'll put in by the time this is done will exceed everyone else's combined. The director of http://replayfx.org/ out of Pittsburgh is providing the pinball machines for free for the enjoyment of attendees; I know exactly how challenging it is to move pinball machines around and I applaud his willingness to help out and share his passion for pinball. Lastly, the members of the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA at http://fspazone.org) and the DC Maryland Virginia Pinball league (DMV Pinball at http://dmvpinball.com) have been extremely helpful in connecting resources and have my thanks.
This is a rare opportunity for two communities to come together and I look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out, no pun intended. Here's to a great trial run, and happy flipping!
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