Great Alaska Flipout

09/27/2026

Finished up reworking F-14 Tomcat and Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle.

Both were slowed down by my OCD and manual errors. Probably the worst pinball manual is ACNC. Maybe some day they'll actually finish it!

I'm going to submit the corrections and pictures to PinWiki, hopefully what I found with F-14 and ACNC will help someone else.

Feels good to have wrapped these up, moving along to the next one or ten! :)

09/25/2026

So it's been a while, life has been moving fast - and winter sure seems to be on its way!

Got F-14 Tomcat repaired and on its way to a new home, and Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle as well.

Most of the repair work on pinball is frustration with a few glimmers of understanding and then more frustration!

I'm going to document and send to PinWiki the documentation errors I found for F-14 Tomcat and ACNC, hopefully they will shorten the hair-pulling for other owners. The least I can do, to keep pinball going for the next generation.

Here are a few random pictures showing some of the horror :)

09/11/2026

I saw a really spectacular homebrew game on Knapp Arcade, called Dark Chaos.

What is really incredible to me is that this game started off as a virtual pinball table, VPX, and made its way to an actual physical game by a new team.

There's so much to love with it, take a watch.

Who knows, might actually be made into a commercial game at some point! I'm hopeful!

https://youtu.be/_OnV3F2H_ZY?si=GwkeOlgtxFi6JoMg

https://www.knapparcade.org/blog/popular-dark-chaos-virtual-pinball-table-becomes-real-machine-in-search-of-a-manufacturer

The original sci-fi virtual pinball table, Dark Chaos, has become a real, physical pinball machine. The homebrew version of the game made its playable...

06/26/2026

I've been thinking about the 2026 IFPA Statewide tournament.

Thinking about hosting it at Mugshots in Wasilla, much larger space and more breathing room.

Also have been thinking about bringing in the community to loan pinball games for the event, that would make it easier on me.

Mugshots has five pinball games already listed on Pinball Map. Thinking about bringing in other games owned by the pinball community for play before and during the IFPA State tournaments.

Also thinking about hosting a "repair party" the week up to the event for those who are either interested in knowing how to repair games or for those who are volunteering games and need light repairs.

Let me know your thoughts.

06/18/2026

Heading down to WA state again next month, Chehalis area. Any advice on cool pinball places around there?

06/09/2026

Back from Tacoma and the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show, Sooooo many games! Such a great crew to volunteer with!

I even got to get a selfie with the man, the myth, the legend Roger Sharpe!

I took 200+ pictures, here's a few of my favorites!

05/31/2026

Another cool tournament with some cool folks playing some silverball!

The Pokemon Pinball Launch Party held 5/30 Koot's went well.

Technical troubles included; John Wick decided to hand-grenade its left flipper the night before (not a coil stop, but the vertical pawl bolt/nut snapped in half! New one for me!) and fiddling with the Pokemon left orbit su***de drain issue, a little change but not great. Stern apparently has a fix for the Pokemon left orbit issue but I'm waiting on the parts. Bear with!

We had 16 players including myself, and using the swiss/knockout/3 strikes/2 players per game; second time I've done it this way. Seems to keep the players playing.

The trick I believe is if someone is having a banger of a game, to concede the game to the person 'in the zone', as there seems to be no way to move it along and just watching someone play is not as much fun as actually playing.

Thanks all for coming by and playing! Send pictures of the event!

05/02/2026

Next up, refurbishing a game I've had in storage for a few years. Finally have the right cause!

Gottlieb System 1: Genie.

The corrosion on the MPU is due to leaking battery pack. And that corrosion eats into the connectors and wiring if ignored.

Probably my least favorite connector to repin, they are a pain!

But all is not lost, going to get this sucker ready for prime time soon!

04/27/2026

Here are some blood and guts shots from Medieval Madness (dang loose screw!) and action on the games from Saturday and Sunday.

Arctic Comic Con Stern Pinball

04/27/2026

Once again another fantastic event held by the great folks at Arctic Comic Con. Much love for everyone that helped, especially Kristin and Brad. The Denina Center was great and next year will be even better! Keep your eyes on posts from Arctic Comic Con and Great Alaska Flipout for what's next!