Episode 269: Howard Dobson
Howard normally travels all over to play pinball. But staying at home in Maryland, he has devised a new way to play while in isolation. It's pingolf meets solitaire and it's fun!
Highlights
- Howard achieved a WPPR ranking of approximately 190-200 at one point
- MAGFest uses an all-you-can-play tournament format with admission covering unlimited entries
- Crab Town Pinball League is held at a crab restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland that has had arcade machines since the 1970s
- Holy for Holies Pinball League in Baltimore expanded from Thursday-only to two nights per week
- Howard traveled to Australia and New Zealand for tournaments approximately 16-17 months prior to this interview
- Pin Baltimore festival features approximately 60+ pinball machines during the tournament weekend, up from ~9-10 in regular operation
- Trent Augenstein won the main, classics, and head-to-head event at Pin Baltimore
- Walking Dead code previously included a 'crossbow multiball' feature that was removed
Notable quotes
“Using pinballs as an excuse is always good. Shh, my wife might listen.”
“I mean, when you go into a league where the only way you're going to make any points is if you win it, you know, if you're, sometimes you feel that pressure”
“I really should be better at multiball than I am, given that I can juggle six balls.”
“It's not a competition. I'm not cheating anyone. What I'm doing is using the facilities of the game to help me learn to play it better.”
“The game was designed with 200 settings, 300 settings, and you paid five or six grand for it. You should be able to make use of those settings to do things that help you improve.”
“I'm used to practicing things. So if you're practicing juggling five balls and you drop a ball, you reach down and pick it up and you start juggling five balls.”
“So I was on about a one-month binge of going for Last Man Standing, which I got to several times. The only cheats were death saves. I've never gotten there all the way without death saving.”
“Jeff Teolis: I mean, I'm banned from Australia because I went there in January, ran a tournament called the Pinball Profile World Tour, and I won it, and they won't bring me back.”
Entities
- Australian Championships· event
- Crab Town Pinball League· event
- Denver Pinmasters· event
- Division 82· event
- Indisc· event
- Kiwi Pincade· event
- MAGFest· event
- Pin Baltimore· event
- Fishtails (Williams)· game
- Jurassic Park Premium (Stern)· game
- The Walking Dead (Stern)· game
- Holy for Holies· location
- Howard Dobson· person
- Ian Harrower· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Justin Bath· person
- Martin Robbins· person
- Snow· person
- Trent Augenstein· person
- Stern Rewards· program
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