Pinball tables, my old nemesis. Don't get me wrong, I love playing pinball tables, but unfortunately, they tend to own me on a regular basis, which is basically every time I touch one. I love the feeling of being so close and personal to the game, to have actual control over what is happening rather than digital representation of a button push. Seeing the ball bounce around, the lights flashy and going crazy, the sounds of the points racking up ... and the devastation of seeing the ball slide right down the middle of the table, fitting perfectly between both paddles on its way to certain doom.

Trust me, I've seen that more often than I'd care to admit. Seems inevitable that with my quarter comes certain disappointment, quicker than I would hope. 

Honestly, I think pinball tables are created to make you feel inferior as a gamer. I admire thoroughly those pinball wizards who can keep a ball going for seemingly as long as they want, because for the rest of us casual pinballers, that gap between the bottom paddles seems ridiculously impossible to overcome. None the less, I come back to pinball tables every chance I get, just because I think maybe I'll get better by trying, or that the next time the quarter gets dropped in, I'll have an incredible run. 

These are what we call pipe dreams, my friends.

Thanks to PS+, I was able to satisfy my pinball craving at home, without having to lose a roll of quarter while doing so. I got Star Wars Pinball, for both my PS3 and my Vita, as did every other PS+ member. I've played some Zen Pinball tables before, and even bought the Plants vs. Zombies table, because well, it looked fun. And it was. 

But the Star Wars Pinball? Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. These tables actually feel like they could be real tables, except of course for the animation and stuff going on outside the table. Other than that, I could totally see these being real tables, and man oh man, that would be some fun. Regardless, these digital versions of pinball tables are a blast, and while I probably wouldn't have bought them because of how many other games I need to play, it was nice to be able to experience these for free, and be able to whenever I get that itch to play some pinball. 

Unless of course my itch is to lose a bunch of quarters, in which case, I'll see you down at the arcade, folks. 

So tonight was a pretty epic night. Let's just get that out there in the open right now.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Denny (@LuceScrew) from The 40 Cast, and Ben (@sha_near) tonight and their wonderful wives for a night out on the town in downtown Portland. We hit up the Widmer Brewing Company pub for dinner, and while the service was horrible at best, the food and the beers were pretty good. But the company was easily the best part.

After dinner, we slowly made our way to Ground Kontrol, a really cool bar and arcade. Before 5 pm, the arcade is open to everyone. But after 5 pm, they open up the full-service bar and kick out all the under 21 riff-raff. And when I say arcade, I mean legit, old school arcade with dozens and dozens of super old arcade games and pinball machines. It's an old school, arcade players nightmare.

We got drinks there and then played some awesome games before they had to go. While my original plan was to make this blog post just a photo album of all the games I played, I forgot to take pictures after the first couple of ones. So here we are.

One of the many games I played tonight, but easily my favorite pinball machine that I found tonight was The Simpsons Pinball Party. It's your typical pinball machine, but I found the bonuses you get really stuck out to me. Overall - any pinball is good fun, despite me being horrible at them.

So thank Denny and Ben, and the wonderful ladies that joined us. It was a great and much needed night..