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Tales - Revived - Power that be

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:52 am
by WARLOCK
It seems that it is now perhaps time to tell some new Tales, online...
So much isn't told publicly; and it appears it might be time to do so again...

We have become accustomed to reading and perhaps responding to the content of the day, collectively, selectively, boringly.
But: from the perspective of the content creators of old here; it doesn't really appear the storytellers departures mattered much.

Personally, I have always judged the popularity of threads by "view count" as opposed to "responses" on that "any one" particular thread or thought print.
Perhaps that is how others view a particular threads popularity as well, and perhaps this is a "mute" point that is irrelevant in modern times on these forums.

I guess what I am am saying is simply this in a nutshell...
Do you want the stories of old to return? Or not? I am fine either way.

Simplified, here it is...
The rest of the world finds...
These stories...
Fascinating...

Do we?
More soon...

Or not.

Re: Tales - Revived

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:04 am
by Azatotht
I'm always interested to read these stories Scott.

Yes view count should tell you how popular a thread is... replies, not so much.

People are shy or scared to reply sometimes but there are a lot of readers.

Cheers

Re: Tales - Revived

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:36 am
by Slacker
Well you posted at almost 4am cause umm that's what you do.... who knows maybe it was removed twice edited re-added and time stamped by a PC that had the time altered but I doubt it ;-)
by 8:20am almost 50 people viewed it so I would say that's a good start and hell Sparky has even showed back up in the past month or so and commented on shit.
Like Azatotht said people look but don't post much anymore why??? Don't know, I must say I'm an offender of that as well. I look at least twice a day everyday but never login again why?
Anyways I like Ian say YES! Type on brother!

Re: Tales - Revived

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:54 am
by Patrab
Simply told YES, love to read stories.

Re: Tales - Revived

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:10 am
by Dave W.
Slacker wrote:I must say I'm an offender of that as well. I look at least twice a day everyday but never login again why?
Ditto. Half time I log on at work and read through the topics at lunch and am not logged in.

Re: Tales - Revived

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:12 am
by Chris Silver
A lot of us read. I do enjoy hearing alot of your stories Scott. Often we might just not have a reply.

Re: Tales - Revived - Post 2

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:49 pm
by WARLOCK
Thank you gents. Viewcounts tell the Tales....

I will post Chapter 1 shortly. It is uncharacteristically short, and a bit of a refresher from where we last left off 2 years ago.
I have really taken a break from online writing for the better part of 18 months, but I think it has been about 23 months since full fledged Tales were told online.
I do miss writing, it is my favourite thing to do; and yes, the writing is more important to me than the subject matter. I haven't stopped writing, but I did break from formatted posting.
I love writing, but after writing solidly from early 2012 until late 2015, I became somewhat burnt out after almost 4 years (and 3 novels worth) of written material in the Tales and news threads here.

I will be fumbling a little bit with format to start with, so indulge me while I catch my writing stride again. Rather than look to my notes to tell the last 2 years of Tales, I will write fresh "stream of consciousness" chapters about the past.
Analyzing and editing and deleting will probably and noticeably be far less common this time around. I will leave the deep editing for much further down the road when it is time for book 4...

More in a few moments...

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 1

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:58 pm
by WARLOCK
Chapter 1 - Where we left off... almost 23 months ago...

..........................................................................................................................................................................
Re: One Tale At A Time...
Postby WARLOCK ยป Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:58 pm
Well, I must admit, I am distracted "doing" things lately which leaves no time for writing.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19805 (BPL - Bluffs Pinball League)
Since Brewmanager and I are busy with our friends getting pins on legs for a new league, I had this thought...
I will start documenting and posting 10 pin fixes on 10 machines in the next 10 days until our first league night in 10 days or so.
1st pin on deck is a very nice Firepower II that just had a quirk or two and is happily running. Super great pin from a friend in NY state.
More soon.
All the best.
.............................................................................................................................................................................

Once upon a soft Toronto winter approaching; in December of 2015, a merry gang of pinball misfits began taking pinball machines and vids and coin OP objects of some sentiment and notoriety, out of 2 large south Scarborough storage units.
The silencing of Mike Wong was fantastic, and the prompting from Mike of me getting pins on legs and playable ceased. I owe Mike a debt of gratitude that I cannot repay. Mike pushed for me to either sell pins or get them on legs and playable. After 2 and a half years of stacking pins in storage, (many of which Mike Wong - The Enabler, helped me procure) the time had come to get them all out and playable at the new shop.

Bluffs was born before that Christmas, and the storage units were empty before New Years. Bluffs Pinball League - BPL was born that cold January and we pushed to get those first 10 pins up and running immediately. The storage units were floor heated units, so the pins did do well in the 2.5 years in storage. Many just needed some tweaking and cleaning, wax and rubber to play well. Once we were into the new location at Bluffs, not far from my other work and business shop, we rushed to get the league up and running for every 2nd Thursday initially for the first 18 months. It now runs every Thursday with finals occurring every 2 months afterward. We picked Thursdays as it didn't conflict with the Toronto or Durham League event nights, and we still try to coordinate all finals and special events, tournaments and fundraisers around what is now 4 leagues in the GTA including City league in the west end. Scarborough and(The Bluffs) is in the east end of the GTA, and south, close to the lake and the natural beauty of these Bluffs and the waterfront is what inspired the name for our pinball shop close by.

Brewmanager (Walt) (http://www.portunionpinball.com) is our league administrator and runs the Bluffs league and his PFC (Pinball for Change) Charity events from his website in the Port Union area of the far eastern most part of Scarberia.
Walt's double door garage has perhaps hosted more pins from more different people on a temporary basis than anyone else I know in this hobby. Walt's eagerness to assist pinheads wherever possible is... wait for it... legendary. Bluffs (Port Union) Pinball was originally intended for Walt's garage until we, (I) had to many pins and we became too big... Many of us from the GTA, southern Ontario, Ottawa, Montreal and many places inbetween owe Walt - The administrator, our gratitude for his assistance in temporary housing of pins from all over in this, the most infamous of garages. From early spring to late fall, that garage could tell great stories of pins of temporary residency. We discussed putting new doors on it and winterizing it, and I bet one day we will...

Bluffs is also home to all of the "stuff" that doesn't fit into the shops of a couple of other businesses that I and one of my business partners run. I run an Audio Visual production company (http://www.pandor.com) and my business partner at Bluffs runs a Flower Shop that also provides florals for large events. Together, we have a Decor company (McMann Events) which provides furniture and other event rentals that fall outside the realm of our Floral and Audio Visual companies. We have even rented out video games and pinball machines to corporate clients that ask us for them. This new company we formed was how Bluffs became, well Bluffs. It is the reason that we have machines there and our League. Bluffs has space for pinball and contributes to the rent of the building. Bluffs runs differently than most places with pinball machines. It has a great management team who volunteers their time and energy, providing what the league and the machines requires. I will go into further detail on this in a later chapter but I want to ask everyone's permission first before naming names just yet.

10-12 machines was initially the goal to have up and running at Bluffs in early 2016. Eventually 16 would be great, and if we had 16 members in league, then 16 pins should be lots... This quickly (in my mind) went to 24 pins plus 2 spares based on floor space available to us. The desire was to play PAPA style banks of 4 pins, with an EM, SS, DMD and something kinda special in each bank of 4 pins. We play 2 banks of 4 pins each Thursday night. We play 8 Thursday nights and we need 6 sets of scores of those 8 nights for IFPA rankings. We have approximately 80 members, with 28-32 regular players attending with 40 showing up for finals once every 2 months. There is redi-rack with shelves that house an additional 24 pins above the ones we play weekly. There is easily another 48 pins that are in the wings in various places either under restore or on loan so there are 96 pins that are in the lineup to play for league. This should keep us busy for several more years before we can get to playing all the inventory. 20 more long term projects wait patiently on higher shelves and in other places until their time comes.

Bluffs came about out of necessity to deal with having too many pins in storage with an overwhelming desire to play them. It developed differently than I thought it would and has become it's own unique entity. Bluffs turns 2 in a few weeks.

Next Chapter, I will touch on the last day at Pitt Street in Montreal and what happened in that time from early May until that December of 2015 when Bluffs was born...
And I will get to that list of the first 10 pins - but I do have to look that up...
More soon.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:51 am
by WARLOCK
Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Short and sweet:

Bluffs week 1 was in January (on the 14th) of 2016. We did indeed get 12 pins up and running in under 30 days from receiving the keys.
I owe many people thanks for that with all of your assistance. Much appreciated. Still having fun with these original keepers. More to come.

Joker Poker (SS)
Jack's To Open (SS)
Firepower II
Volley

Target Alpha
Pinbot
Johnny Mnemonic
Orbitor 1

Alien Poker
North Star
Star Trek
Firepower

9 of these 12 pins are still in the cue at Bluffs.
3 were destined for others and remain with those 3.

More soon.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:47 am
by Chris Silver
Sparky wrote:Gonna sound crazy but I do miss my old Orbitor. LOL
Yup :lol:

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:16 am
by Honey Badger
Sparky wrote:Gonna sound crazy but I do miss my old Orbitor. LOL
Why?

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins - where they are at

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:37 pm
by WARLOCK
Orbitor 1 is safely out at Big Pete's and we can still play it out there when he hosts.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:38 pm
by WARLOCK
North Star is at Spiroagnew's. Rob found it on kijiji and I owned it and took care of it until he had space for it and time to restore her.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:39 pm
by WARLOCK
Star Trek was on loan and is back in the owner's basement. Had it at home for a spin as well and my wife loved the game. Would consider it one day for sure.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:42 pm
by WARLOCK
Joker Poker (SS) went to a friend when Tim and I went to Washington DC to pick up a rare Joker Poker (EM) find.

Jack's To Open went to Adam's in Keswick when I bought Jack's Open EM from the North Star. That example went back to the North Star and another Jack's Open EM is at Bluffs permanently now.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:48 pm
by WARLOCK
All keeper pins:

Joker Poker
Firepower
Firepower II
Volley
Jack's Open
Target Alpha
Pinbot
Johnny Mnemonic
Alien Poker

Of these 9 keeper pins, I have owned JP and Pinbot twice. Volley, Jack's Open and Johnny Mnemonic each 3 times (all different examples of each) and all at different times. Only 1 of each now.
2 x Alien Poker plus 4 x Firepower. I decided to sell the duplicates so, Alien Poker and likely 1 or 2 Firepower pins will be for sale in the future once they are all tuned up and happy. I think only 3 of the 4 Firepower's total can be saved.

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 2:55 pm
by Guard
Put me on the wait list for Firepower....

Re: Tales - Revived - Chapter 2 - 12 pins -Firepower's spoken for

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:14 pm
by WARLOCK
Will do. 1 collector out in Caledon will take 1 already and I will put you down for the other one. I am keeping 1 example myself and the 4th copy will basically make sure examples 1, 2 and 3 are all good to go.

Perhaps I will build a virtual pin in the 4th Firepower cab. I need to learn the rules to all these pins I don't have someday...

Re: Tales - Revived - Interlude

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:05 pm
by WARLOCK
Writing delayed to fix pins while the iron is hot.

Working on pins at Bluffs Pinball and at home. 1 x STTNG fixed, repaired and playable and off to Drano so he can do his magic with it. STTNG at home is finally playable as of this morning. No Fear DMD replaced and a happy pin again at Bluffs.
Sparky and a couple of the Bluffs crew have Space Shuttle, Rollergames, Flip Flop, Future Spa and Alien Poker all tournament worthy again. That puts our count at 25 tournament calibre pins ready with plans to have 4 more ready by Saturday.

Re: Tales - Revived - Interlude

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:17 pm
by WARLOCK
Interlude... Part deux...

I prepared the Black Knight project pin (known as BK #2) this week as well for pickup by Dino.
Brewmanager and Dino and Chris Y. packed and shipped and delivered to Dino. 1 more shelf space free.

Sparky and Chris Y and myself finished off all the small repairs this morning at Bluffs in South Scarberia.
Well, Sparky did and Chris Y and I were each present for some of it.

27 tournament playable pins on the floor.
3 more on legs that require parts.

A great week at Bluffs.
Thank you all.

Huge thanks to Sparky. Thanks to Kevin, Chris Y and all the Bluffs regular management.
Much appreciated to all.

Re: Tales - Revived - Power that be

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:03 am
by WARLOCK
Rewired power at Bluffs tonight. 8 man-hours minimum between 3 of us.
Then I fixed a pin (sort of) with some text help advice from Menace and Sparky.

Thank you my brothers.
I have so much more to learn.

And do.
More soon.