Had a ball in Melbourne.. was good to catch up with Nino and put a face to the name. For some reason i had Nino pictured as a large guy, but i couldnt have been further from the truth!
Nino picked me up from the casino, took me home and gave me free run of his pins... he had removed a wire gate from Paragon so i couldnt beat his high score and the left flipper on Break Shot had a delay in it.. once again so i couldnt beat his high score.
Despite this, i was made to feel very welcome and a big thanks to Nino, his very friendly boy and of course Mrs Nino.

Now then..... Melbourne... well yes i can see why this place should hold Expo.. its a great city and this was the frist time i had been there in the 16 years ive lived in Aus... moving about is easy and finding real good food at great prices is a real bonus!

On Sat night we went to st kilda to eat.. then i had to go into Luna Park... what a let down this place is.. the outside facade is the only good bit!.. We got absolutely ripped off taking the kids on the carousel. despite this i went into the arcade area and found 2 pins at $2 a play.

First game was on Addams family... game has been pimped out with LED's and the playfield colours look real good... problem is though that the PF flashers have been replaced with high power LEDs and every time it flashed i lost sight of my ball... so it was a very quick game and i didnt return to it. I lost all 3 balls between the flippers when the flasher went off... LEDs aint a good idea on PF flashers me thinks.

Next to it is a Stern Grand Prix... so my next $2 went into this game instead. Game has some cool features... the ball loop all round the PF is a great feature.. it speeds up with each loop and multiball is very cool with this. Typical Stern problems though.... Pf parts wobbling as i play it makes it feel kinda cheap... but worst is something that ive found on all later Stern games.. when the ball hits a staionary target the bloody ball bounces high and right over any wire guides and down the gurgler... i lost 2 out of 3 balls this way and left thinking that yes its a pinball but it just aint done quite right... such simple faults that could be ironed out easily are ignored in production... real shame.

These were the only pinballs we found.. but i will add that at Docklands is a pretty good arcade.. the kids had a ball here as did dad!

Final night was dinner on the Colonial Tram car restaurant.... this is just fantastic! 5 awesome courses in beautiful surroundings and all the wine you can drink... if any of you melbourne guys havent taken your wives on this yet then do so... its brilliant value and the food is just unreal.


Had a great time in melbourne and will be back... just loved it