Buffalo Pinball is headed to RetroGameCon in Syracuse, NY on Saturday, Nov. 14! We’ll be hanging out, giving pinball tutorials and streaming live to our Twitch channel throughout the day. Watch for a live “Bro, do you even pinball?” battle versus Shane Luis of Rerez and more.
There will be a number of additional games and a single-game IFPA tournament going on as well, which you can read about here. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi!
You can watch the stream right here once we go live:
Last Friday, Buffalo Pinball participated in Animotion, a giant party and fundraiser for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery that kicked off the opening of the gallery’s latest exhibition, Screen Play: Life in an Animated World.
We set up two machines for the event: the classic Williams Grand Prix electromechanical (EM) pinball from 1976, and a more modern solid-state DMD game, Williams No Fear from 1995. In addition, Lawless Gaming brought two more EMs: Diamond Jack and Pop-A-Card.
The games were full of players all night, with gamers of all ages trying their hand at a few rounds of pinball. Thanks to the Albright-Knox for inviting us out and to everyone who stopped by to play!
We’ve got new shirts! The back features a brand new two-color skull design and the front has a small Buffalo Pinball logo on the left breast area.
T-shirts are $15 each. Sizes available: small to XL. Email buffalopinball@gmail.com to order. Add $5 for USPS shipping, allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. We can also bring them to the Wrestlemania launch party at Pocketeer on April 10.
We are also taking pre-orders for hoodies. They have the same design as the new t-shirts and are printed on super nice zip-up American Apparel hoodies.
Cost will be $50 each for hoodies. To pre-order, email buffalopinball@gmail.com with the size you want. Payment will be due when they’re ready to go.
All apparel is printed by Argybargy Printing in Buffalo.
Nine players from upstate New York are headed to New York City on Feb. 7 to play in the IFPA State Championship at Sunshine Laundromat and Pinball in Brooklyn. That’s triple the number of players from our area who attended last year!
Congratulations to the following players from western and central New York who made the cut:
You can read more about the IFPA State Championship Series or see the full list of 16 players for the state tournament below.
Buffalo Pinball has jumped into the livestreaming game with a channel on Twitch. We broadcast our first test stream yesterday with some action on Stern’s Sopranos. In on the stream were Nick Lane, Kevin Manne, Bret Wallace and Jay Fairbrother. Watch for some gameplay tips and a glorious tilt out during stacked multiball.
Be sure to follow us on Twitch to receive alerts when we go live with future broadcasts!
http://www.twitch.tv/buffalopinball/c/5768170
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
I want to take a step back and thank everyone for the amazing year Buffalo Pinball has had. Ever since moving to Buffalo four years ago, I’ve dreamed of finding others that share a passion for this incredible game as well as introducing new people to it. Four years ago, it was nearly impossible to find a pinball machine to play publicly in Buffalo. There were no tournaments, no league, no Facebook group.
Our success is due to the hard work of numerous people, including our officials: Kevin Manne, Bruce Nightingale, Phil Hubert, and Jay Fairbrother. Special thanks to Kevin Manne for using his awesome PR/Marketing skills to gain us coverage in numerous media outlets. Kevin also designs the fantastic flyers for all of our tournaments.
And we’re just getting started–we have so many more exciting ideas to bring about in the New Year and ways to improve our tournaments. Stay tuned and hope to see you at the next event!
Best,
Nick Lane
Buffalo Pinball President
For all the new pinball players out there and those who want to improve, join Buffalo Pinball for a 1-hour session on all the basics you need to know to get started and improve your pinball skills.
In this session, we’ll teach you:
We’ll also be doing a complete tutorial on Iron Man.
This event is free to attend and no preregistration is necessary–just show up and learn. See you there!
In 1976 Roger Sharpe saved pinball by proving in front of New York City Council that pinball is a game of skill by calling his shot, Babe Ruth style.
Here he is at the 2014 Pinball Expo holding the Artvoice issue which features Buffalo Pinball on the cover. Thanks to Dave Fix for the photo!
Roger Sharpe with the Buffalo Pinball Artvoice cover story at Pinball Expo 2014 in Chicago.
Here’s the backstory on Roger and his history with the game:
A story in The Buffalo News covers the resurgence of pinball both locally and nationally and quotes league members Kevin Manne, Nick Lane, Jay Fairbrother and former league member John Barsh.
Barsh spends hours, and tens of thousands of dollars, feeding his hobby. His basement is a symbol of the nationwide resurgence of pinball.
Not the video game version on a touch-screen tablet but the real deal, played on machines as big as a car hood that used to be at every pizzeria and dive bar in the neighborhood, with flashing lights, dinging bells and levers that jettison little balls.
Barsh is part of a new generation raised on Xboxes and smartphones who has rediscovered the delights of pinball.
“Everything is so digital these days,” said Kevin Manne, a member of the Buffalo Pinball League. “You sit at work and stare at a screen and come home and stare at a screen. This is a physical, real game.”
It’s gaining momentum in Buffalo, too. The Buffalo Pinball League formed last fall and the organizers, including Barsh and Manne, had to turn people away.
You can read the complete story here, or on the front page of the Aug. 14, 2014 issue of The Buffalo News: http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/buffalo/classic-pinball-sees-resurgence-in-popularity-20140813#
Six Buffalo Pinball players were among the 400 competitors facing off in the 2014 Pinburgh Match-Play Championship this past weekend in Carnegie, Pa.
Nick Lane, Bruce Nightingale, Ron Hallet Jr., Jim Meszler, Ron Hallett Sr. and Jay Fairbrother went head-to-head with players from all over the world in more than two full days of match play pinball.
Of the group, the top finisher of the weekend was Nick, who took third place in the B Division. Bruce made it to the second round of playoffs in the C division and Jim to the first round of the D division playoffs. And kudos to Ron Hallett Jr. who battled it out among the best in the world in A division.
Overall, Buffalo Pinball finished 12th out of the 23 affiliated groups, topping Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco and more.
See the final affiliation rankings here or view the individual player rankings here. Orange Photography has many more images from the competition available here.
Buffalo Pinball 