Game Over Retro Pub in Mobile hosted Gulf Coast Pinball League’s March Pinball League Night, Monday Evening, March 25th.
Charlie getting the games ready for League Play
Good turnout, 11 players showed for this play outing.
The Yin & Yang of an Arcade bar
The game selection at Game Over in Mobile is comprised of a mixture of 1 part barcade-owned titles and 2 parts on-loan from private collections. It is neat to see the collaboration of the local collecting community & the commercial barcade endeavour co-exist in this way. Kind of a Yin & Yang, Feng shui thing or maybe I’m mixing my Asian philosophical metaphors. I didn’t see Tsing Tao on a tap handle FWIW..
The Arcades..
There are some cool arcade titles… . The highlights of which for me were mostly-working but playable Silent Scope Dark Silhouette, a Ms. Pacman / Galaga Reunion, Soul Calibur, a Neo-Geo, Cruisin USA, TMNT and some boilerplate multicades that seem to get some love.
I believe everything is on .50c per play.
A few games stood out in disrepair, though. The multicade in a Centipede cabinet was sort of a bummer. The NBA Jam was hard to see (LCD monitor with limited viewing angles). House of the Dead 2’s guns were out of alignment making it unplayable. Lots of dark marquees. I suspect the respective game owners are working on these things, though. In fairness, they’ve been on location for about a month so there is still time to get in and get a working baseline on everything.
The Yang: Finishing a game on 1 credit. :)
The Yin: Games in need of repair
In all fairness, the arcades that are here are still an order of magnitude better than what our local coin op are pawning out to Pizza places & bars. This isn’t a museum, it is a bar with trade stimulators along the outer wall. The measurement for the win-condition should be: Is it Playable? Is it Frustrating to Play? Most games were playable, so that’s a positive step forward, right?
… right?
.. anybody?
(clears throat)
The Pinballs..
The Pinball Machines (on loan from a private collection) include some awesome titles and are in very good condition after a month of play. Much better than any operator-owned games I’ve seen on the Gulf-Coast thus far.
The current titles are:
Star Trek: The Next Generation
No Good Gophers
NBA Fastbreak
Black Pyramid
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
Revenge from Mars
It is pretty rare to see some of these Bally-Williams titles on the street, taking quarters. Get out there and feed them while you can. :)
Thirsty?
The only thing I see in this picture is a Guinness handle. It is like those laser-art pictures in the mall from 90’s.
Game Over Retro Pub were gracious hosts. The tournament coincided w/ their open-mic night so we enjoyed some home-grown jams while we played.
However, they were..
out of Guinness. (dun, dun, duuuuuuun!)
I think there is a law against having “pub” in your name and not having Guinness? But.. I’ll allow it (this time) considering proximity to St. Patty’s Day & Mardis Gras. The Mobilians were thirsty last week I guess..
(Chants): Guinness of Health!
err..umm.. what happened? Sorry, I lost you for a minute in a tasty extra-stout day-dream… . where were we?
Oh, right.. Back to stumping for our friends at Game Over Retro Pub for all of the good things they did… . Plenty of drinks to choose from and a simple menu that will take you back to the hungry snackbar along the bike-route to your neighborhood arcade. Cheez Whiz, ya’ll.
If you are local to the Mobile, Alabama area you should stop into Game Over Retro Pub. Order a drink and a tasty sandwich, cheese fries and get some quarters from the bar. The place has a great vibe, friendly staff and a neat location in Downtown Mobile.
On the-book-of-faces: https://www.facebook.com/gameoverretropub/
Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/vGgoZUx45A62
The Tournament
Charlie brought his A-game and schooled us in the A-Tournament with Black Pyramid and Indy acting as the deciding matches.
Pro Tournament Standings: https://matchplay.events/live/v1gr0/standings
Pro Tournament Matches: https://matchplay.events/live/v1gr0/matches
Mike Cast rolled up the Novice matches, undefeated in head-to-head play for the night
Novice Tournament Standings: https://matchplay.events/live/qbxnw/standings
Novice Tournament Matches: https://matchplay.events/live/qbxnw/matches
This is a series… informally.. so the series standings are as follows:
https://matchplay.events/live/series/913