And Then There Were Six
With thanks to Colin and Jennifer, we welcomed Bally/Williams’ 1992 Creature from the Black Lagoon into our home today. You might not think it from the artwork, but it’s actually quite the charming pinball machine. We played one at Ober Gatlinburg, were then lucky enough to find a guy locally who was selling one that was in need of a little bit of love. Hooray!
After breaking a tremendous sweat bringing it into the house this morning (thanks, Colin!), we gave it a few plays and then set upon 409′ing tons of invisible filth off the sides and glass. After some cursory ramp cleaning, replacing a couple fairly important plastics, and installing a credit card where a ramp had fatally broken, we were in business. The hologram is in terrible shape, basically invisible. Thankfully, it’s kindof like sprinkles on an ice cream cone. It’s pretty, but you’re still going to really enjoy the ice cream without it. A real testament to this game’s design.
I played several games during the day (gotta make sure it’s all working, right? Best score: a vaguely respectable (?) 75,000,000 — not high enough for a high score), ended up pulling the flipper buttons and giving them a good scrubbing (one was sticking), and then at 6, Colin and Jennifer returned for dinner and, well, pinball! For several rounds we had Police Force and Creature running 4-player games simultaneously. It really changes the dynamic to have more than one game going at once. If only Whirlwind was running! Arg!
It’s rather interesting to play a game like Creature after some three months of Police Force. There’s a big difference in depth between the two, a factor I’m increasingly cognizant of. Particularly after skimming the freakishly large rules sheet for Twilight Zone.