This coming November will mark two years since we discovered the nearly destroyed Spider-man pinball machine at Chrissy Brown Hematology and Oncology unit at The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. The Project Pinball organization was born that very day.

How It All Began:

Our charity all started because the parents of a patient named Jimmy donated a Spider-man pinball machine as a gift to the Children Hospital of Southwest Florida. My better half discovered the machine which was non-operational and desperately in need of parts and repairs too numerous to list.

The pinball community came together by donating of money, time, labor, parts, kind words of support and spreading the word about our cause.  From your generous donations, we were able to restore the machine to fine working condition in only six weeks.  There was about 108 hours of labor just for the repairs.  We worked feverishly to get it back to the kids just in time Christmas! It was truly amazing to see the faces of the children as they saw their Spider-man being returned.  It was certainly an uplifting moment.

As we became further involved with the Children's Hospital, we started hearing about the  benefits the machine provides that we hadn’t even realized. This was more than just a pinball machine. The benefits that this machine provides those at the hospital were the inspiration for our mission statement.
 
Project Pinball Mission Statement:

To provide patient, family and staff recreational assistance through pinball at local Children's Hospitals. A pinball machine offers powerful therapeutic benefits which fit perfectly with the dynamics of a hospital environment while providing the additional beneficial effects of keeping patients active and mobile and also providing amusement.

Think about it. Have you ever had the misfortune of being stuck in a hospital room and longed to have something to pass the time?  The kids don't want be stuck in their room all day. They need a break.  Now consider the parents waiting for their child or even siblings of the patient who are undergoing treatment.  They need a small pocket of relief, an escape from the grueling hours spent in hospital waiting areas.  Even the doctors and nurses might need a little break to recharge their batteries.  Trust me, I see the high score initials and know that there is a doctor or two that has slinked into the spider’s web.

This Spider-man pinball machine is so very important to this environment.  Each and every time we service the machine we are greeted with smiles and a genuine “thank you” from every staff person on the floor.

We Are Still Going Strong and Growing:

Project Pinball strongly supports the needs of the children at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida and we have plans to expand to other Children’s Hospitals. Tampa is our next goal. The pinball machine that will go to St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital of Tampa is being prepared for its introduction into service.

It is through the continued support from many wonderful friends like yourselves that Project Pinball is able to grow. 

What We Do to Help Project Pinball & the Pinball Community

We raise awareness by getting out into our communities and setting up pinball machines for our Project Pinball fundraisers to help generate donations, support and to keep our charity growing. We bring the nostalgia back for those “who played when they were a kid”.  We also show people that pinball is still alive and flipping.

If you’d like to know more about Project Pinball, you can visit our website here: www.projectpinball.org.  We also have a donation page if you’d like to send a few bucks to help us along.

You can show your support on Facebook by visiting Project Pinball and “LIKE” the page: www.Facebook.com/ProjectPinball.  Every “LIKE” on Facebook helps us to show that there is a community behind Project Pinball which helps us to open doors to new hospitals.

It’s been a fantastic two years. We’ve come far, we’re still climbing and we have you to thank for it. From all of us at Project Pinball Charity Group, we sincerely thank you all for your wonderful and kind support!

[player]Steve Edwards[/player] is the newly crowned Australian champion and the winner of a brand new Avengers PRO pinball machine. The Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship culminated at the Grand Final held at Supanova Pop Culture Expo this Sunday. On the photo, Steve receives the trophy cup from an Australian actor Liam McIntyre. In his other hand is a certificate of ownership of Avengers PRO pinball machine provided by Amusement Machine Distributors. The players could qualify throughout the year at over 50 pinball locations around the country as well as at the  Supanova events. We estimate that over 2500 people were involved in this championship. The Australian Pinball League is delighted about the partnership with Timezone Australia and the Supanova Pop Culture Expo. We have exposed pinball to over 180,000 predominantly young people throughout the year and saw some new young talents succeeding extremely well in the competitions. It leaves no doubt that the future for pinball is bright.

America's Playable Arcade Museum in McLean, IL has applied for a business grant from Chase Bank to expand the museum. They must receive 250 votes by NOV 15 in order to qualify for the grant.

Please see their message below:

Simply click on this link and VOTE for my museum to receive this grant from Chase Bank:

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

That's all you have to do!

This is a contest put on by Chase to grant money to 12 different small businesses. I need 250 votes in order to qualify for the next round. But I would really, really like to overwhelm them with far more votes than that.

This grant would allow me to:

1. double the size of my museum, adding new games and genres to the offering.
2. add a party room so I can host more large group functions.
3. hire 2 more people to work at the museum.
4. increase the open hours / times from 2 days a week to 7.
5. do far more marketing / advertising / signage to promote the museum.

I already own the building next door, and I already have 1000+ more games to choose from as far as game expansion goes. I just need the money for some remodeling and operating costs to justify expanding the hours and hiring some people.

Chase will *GIVE* me the money to do this if I can win this contest.

Thank you so much for helping out with this. And thanks again to all of you who have traveled to visit the museum, made donations, sold me games, organized tournaments, spread the word, and helped in other ways.

The buzzing Supanova Pop Culture expo in Brisbane on Nov. 8 to 10 will be the centre of the universe for the best of the best pinball wizards around the country. The Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship comes to the final stage on Sunday where the best players of this country will meet at the National Grand Final to win a brand new Avengers PRO pinball machine. This most anticipated event is a result of grilling qualifying tournaments held in over 50 locations across Australia and qualifying tournaments and State Finals held at Supanova Expos earlier this year.

The Australian Pinball League and Amusement Machine Distributors are very proud and excited to team up with the Supanova Pop Culture Expo and Timezone Australia to be able to deliver one of the most social and light hearted competitions to a new generation of pinball fans.

PINBALL EVENTS AT SUPANOVA BRISBANE

Friday Nov 8, 1 pm to 7 pm

Play the world’s latest pinball machines for free (2 x Avengers Premium, 2 x Metallica, AC/DC, Start Trek)

Saturday Nov 9, 10 am to 6 pm

Win great prizes provided by Timezone Australia and Kings Comics.

Pinball vs Supanova Tournament (all ages)  – anyone can join in, all proceeds go to Mission Australia

For more info click here!

Pinball vs Supanova Tournament for Juniors (under 18)  – machines are free to play

For more info click here!

Sunday Nov 10, The Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship – GRAND FINAL

10 am to 12 pm  – Runners Up Competition

1 pm to 4 pm – National Grand Final

For more info click here!

MORE INFO

The Australian Pinball League website: www.australianpinballleague.com.au/

CONTACTS

Championship Organiser

Norbert Snicer 0403 003 966 | [email protected]

Director, Australian Pinball League

Championship Organiser

Bruce Colbourne 02 9700 9600 | [email protected]

Director, Amusement Machine Distributors

Major Sponsors

Timezone Australia

Supanova Pop Culture Expo

Qualifying for the inaugural IFPA State Championship Series now only has 2 months remaining. We currently have 28 states included in the SCS, which will all culminate in the IFPA State Championship finals. These finals will all be held simultaneously on February 8th, 2014, with 448 finalists competing for not only a State Championship title, but also a spot in the first IFPA US National Championship.

The player count currently stands at 4531 included in the various IFPA State Championship standings (view current standings HERE).

We wanted to take this opportunity to address a few frequently asked questions we've been receiving as the year winds to a close:

1) Once we close the 2013 standings (typically the first week of January), we will be sending invites out to players from each state. It is extremely important that you have an email address on file with the IFPA, so fill out an IFPA profile ASAP if you are interested in competing. If we have no way of contacting you, you will be skipped in the standings. Click HERE to edit your profile.

2) Players will have ONE WEEK to respond after the invitations are sent as to whether they are interested in competing or not. A non-response will be treated as a negative response after this one week deadline.

3) No player is allowed to compete in multiple IFPA State Championships. Players that qualify for more than one IFPA State Championship will have to make their choice during that one week period of registration.

4) We will continue going down the standings list of each state in order to fill all 16 qualifying spots. This may involve us going down to 30th, 50th or even 100th place, but we will go as far down as possible to fill the field. We will be sending alternate qualifer invites to players outside of the top 16, so please respond as soon as possible whether you are interested in competing.

Any questions about the SCS, or anything IFPA related, please contact us at [email protected]

PBS in Arizona recently published a piece on D&D Pinball in Tucson. D&D Pinball will serve as one of the hosts for the inaugural IFPA State Championship Series championship playoffs this upcoming February. Click HERE to view the video and read the article. Current standings for the IFPA Arizona State Pinball Championship can be found HERE.

The London Ontario pinball league just began in February of 2013 and just finished its regular season in October. Playoffs will be held in November. We played on a monthly basis and had anywhere from 15-20 players on average. 34 players attended the final league night and was the record by far! We had a total of 56 different players play in the league overall so we have learned quickly that the demand for pinball in London is here.

Since the league started we have really spread the pinball love well and a ton of pinball machines have been purchased from league members in the recent months including two new stern star treks and two purchase orders for Medieval Madness remake. We have personally witnessed several members go from "interested" in pinball to mildly obsessed. We had 5 different hosts in total (4 or more machines required in our league) but there are another 4-5 hosts in the making now.

The league has been an amazing opportunity to meet new like minded pinball enthusiasts, talk pinball, make many friendships and share each others collections. There are not many pins on location (in good working order) in London so many members only really get to play good pinball in each others games rooms. We even had several people travel from out of town to play in the league. There are some great collections of machines in London that we all got to experience and there are more out there.

Also since the league has formed many of us have travelled together to pinball tournaments in Canada and the USA. It is nice to have several options for travel buddies for tournaments now.

Overall the league was a great success with custom tee shirts, trophies, plaques, a website and more! A great collaborative effort from "staff" to hosts to players and guidance from many great people in the pinball community. We even had a couple media mentions so far. Cant wait for the playoffs and league in the new year.

If you don't have a league in your town then start one. It is not hard to do and if you need any help just ask any of the pinball veterans. They have been very helpful with their time and information. Start by checking out this link to the IFPA league section.

http://www.ifpapinball.com/top-menu/ifpa-leagues

Here is a recent local news clip that mentions the league.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153434152850430&set=vb.790235429&type=2&theater

Check out the LOPL Facebook page for some great photos of the league in action.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/LOPL-London-Ontario-Pinball-League/153318108164009

Below you will find the link to the LOPL website for more info on the league

http://www.incitti.com/pinball/lopl/

Rome – Daniele Acciari is the “King of Rome” of sport pinball. Finally, after three days of competition, where the players have been challenged by 6 new Stern, he won for the third time the 4th Rome Pinball Tournament, defeating in the final the Frenchman, ex European Champion Frank Bona. Cesare d'Atri ended in the third place. One game of the final was played on the brand new and long-awaited Star Trek, a pinball machine produced by Gary Stern, present at Enada to watch the tournament. A side tournament was also run on this machine, with the victory of Giacomo Sorcecchi. The tournament took place in the contest of Enada Roma, opening pinball to the public attention and to the media, that are more and more interested to this discipline. In a press conference held during the festival, Alessio Crisantemi, IFPA Italia president, had the opportunity to make few statements about it, talking about "Sports pinball in Enada: do not forget the entertainment". Alessio Crisantemi, explained what will happen in Rimini next year where the European Pinball Championship will be organized: “More than 30 lovers of all ages took part in this event in these three days of Enada Roma. They have been only a representation of a lot of players that during the year take part at the initiatives of IFPA Italia. Pinball is a fun and socialization time, for this reason we organize this tournament as part of Enada that represents the entertainment field, pure entertainment, as the pinball machine is. Sports pinball is an activity represented in 25 countries around the world with an international ranking with 20.000 players. Here we talk about it because the European Pinball Championship 2014 will be organized in partnership with Sapar that will sponsor the event. It will be held in the days of Enada Rimini, being extended up to 23 of March with an expectation of 200 players".

Why there is a pinball association related to this and connected with the publishing group Gioconews.it? "Those operators, today seen as “the evil of society”, back in the days were seen as those representing entertainment that were giving emotions to people. Well, this field still exists or, rather, resists, given that legislation in Italy is not encouraging it at all. But operators, for their part, as well as institutions,  never have to forget entertainment. And everyone in Rimini will see why. Salvation also passes through this. The invitation is to never lose sight of this field."

The winner: Daniele Acciari is 28 years old and comes from Rocca di Papa (Rome), he plays pinball since he was a kid and he works as railroad man. It has been World Champion twice. "The pinball machine – he said – is a passion, but participate to tournaments and face the competition is a passion too."

Runner up: – Frank Bona, currently number 14 in the world ranking and two times European Champion, says about himself: " I am 40 years old, I'm French but I have italian origins, from Bologna, I have been playing pinball machine at a competitive level since 23 years, and I train at least 10 – 12 hours a week. I fell in love with pinball when I saw it as a kid – he remembers – and now I like to challenge myself with high-level players and improve myself."

Now the appointment is from 21 to 23 March, 2014, in Rimini Fiera, where the European Pinball Championship EPC 2014 will be organized, in addition to the spring edition of Enada. IFPA Italia together with Tecnoplay SPA, the Italian distributor of pinball machines and video games and in addition to Rimini Fiera will promote it. The event is sponsored by Sapar. We expect over 150 players from all over Europe.

The International Flipper Pinball Association is pleased to announce the opening of the organization’s official headquarters at Modern Pinball NYC located at 362 3^rd Avenue between 26^th and 27^th Streets in the heart of the city’s Gramercy Park.

Steve Epstein, Co-Chairman and IFPA Co-Founder, and Steve Zahler have taken the wraps off their latest venture. With Mr. Epstein’s more than 35 years of experience as the owner/operator of the world famous Broadway Arcade in the heart of Manhattan and Steve Zahler’s technical and retail marketing expertise, both are ready to elevate the pinball experience within the walls of Modern Pinball NYC. As the premier interactive showroom, Modern Pinball NYC will celebrate the best machines from a variety of eras and stage special events and charity fund raisers along with pinball leagues and tournaments.

“I am incredibly excited to get back into business,” stated Mr. Epstein. “It is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time ever since we closed the doors on The Broadway Arcade, but I was never able to get the right site or the necessary support. If I had not met Steve Zahler three years ago I do not believe the dream of getting back in the game would have happened. He brings not only an immense passion for pinball, but the technical expertise of a super programmer that will transform our location into a unique pinball experience.  With the addition of Al Cihak (The Godfather of NY pinball) who makes the perfect marriage of passion and exceptional operating and Eddie Cramer who adds the dimension of a top pinball restorer, Francesco LaRocca, Alberto Santana, Kevin McHugh and Steve Bowden as Tournament Director, the team is complete. We have the whole package, operations, technical know-how, and the best in competitive experience. We are proud to represent the IFPA in all ways.”

Asked whether events will be held at the facility, Mr. Epstein replied, “There will definitely be leagues and tournaments on a regular basis but, more so, will be the outreach for special promotional programs and other events all with the express purpose of exposing pinball to a much broader and growing audience. Modern Pinball NYC will showcase the best that is pinball and to have the IFPA headquarters based here is icing on the cake.”

The International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) was created with the express purpose of encouraging, supporting and endorsing competitive pinball throughout the world. The organization provides oversight and assistance to not only establishing pinball leagues, but also tournaments (over 450 events are being held annually) and other promotional activities.

“The staggering and explosive growth of the entire worldwide community of pinball players and enthusiasts has been nothing short of remarkable since we re-launched the IFPA just a few years ago. And the future has never looked brighter for pinball with tournaments and leagues taking place around the world on an almost weekly basis,” states Roger Sharpe, Co-Chairman and IFPA Co-Founder. I could not be happier for Steve Epstein and Modern Pinball NYC because I know it is going to become the must visit place for everyone in the tri-state area.”

The World Pinball Tour of IFPA endorsed events feature over $500,000 in cash and prizes given away each year. With twenty-five international country directors, the IFPA has additionally created the first official player ranking system, which awards points based upon player performance. The World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) includes over 21,000 players from 40 different countries. And these numbers keep increasing with the revered entertainment attraction—pinball—continuing to draw in men, women, boys and girls—all looking to embrace the timeless battle of man versus machine.

To be notified of Modern Pinball NYC's grand opening day, upcoming tournaments and events, special promotions and discounts, 'Like' their Facebook page at:https://www.facebook.com/modernpinball

Following the enormous success of the Kickstarter campaign, PAPA has updated their website to coincide with the official launch of PAPA TV. As PAPA stated in their announcement, "Never before in the history of our game have more resources or competitive coverage been readily available for players, fans, and viewers.", and we couldn't agree with them more! We are moving into very exciting times for competitive pinball all across the globe, and we wish our PAPA brothers the best of luck on this launch.

Click HERE to access the PAPA site and check out all the updates, and more importantly join the IFPA staff at the next PAPA Circuit event starting this week at Pinball Expo in Chicago!