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What Pinball Looks Like When the Stakes Are High
siobHan writes "The PAPA World Pinball Championships recently concluded in Scott, PA (near Pittsburgh), as covered on Slashdot already. The organizers recorded full 1080p/60 HD video of the playfield during the final games, and have uploaded the entirety of the crucial deciding game, with commentary (direct link to just the video). The winner of this game received $10,000 for his skillful play."
Pinball Fantasies is the best software pinball game that I've ever played. Stones'n'Bones kept me busy for weeks in all its 320x400 pixel glory, scrolling with silky smoothness on a 386 CPU, and awesome tracker music that never got old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Fantasies
Some brazilian guy is currently building a full size replica of the "Party Land" table. It looks pretty good already!
Granted the time at the tournament would make it look good but if you average all the time spent getting there. The payoff is recognition amongst your peers more than monetary rewards.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
http://www.vpforums.org/ is the site you seek.
Granted Bally had some stinkers, but with a roster like this it's hard to back up your argument:
The Addams Family
Attack From Mars
Cactus Canyon
Champion Pub
Cirqus Voltaire
Safecracker
Theatre of Magic
The Twilight Zone
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
A better question to ask is "why in the world would widescreen monitors be so prevalent when so much content is predominantly vertical?"