Swinks - you think THAT was a nice room - just prepare yourself for the rest of the joint - ready ...................
I have no idea how to start to portray the night and day that we have just had......
Firstly let me say that
I have absolute permission from these GREAT guys to post any image I want to on our forums, I would NEVER do that without their personal OK to do so.
I had organised to come to a collectors 'home' in Newport LA before we left, he and I had thrown numerous emails back and forth and he had asked if on our night at his home if we would enjoy meeting some local SO-CAL pinballers, Clearly I said YEP, thinking that around a dozen or so would be there.
There was 70++ !
Ok - this gentleman , and I mean that SO literally , was THE nicest and most generous person that I have EVER had the pleasure of meeting - and BOY does he have a GREAT place and a FANTASTIC 'arcade' with unbelievable games.
His name is Steve - and here we are with him , and our pizza utensils ( more on that later )
We entered the private estate where he lives, parked the rental ( a nice VW Passat with the WORST navigator EVER built in - no not Bert , the inboard navman )......and had we not already been blown away by the house(s) in the area and Steves place - we entered into this....
Looking back at the stairs you will see the entrance to his 'theatre' - and I MEAN 'theatre - more on that later too
Please note the effort already gone to on the theatre entry
The lower level of this section of the home is one MASSIVE party area - Steve had a bloke there cook pizza's all night long for all the guests in his own pizzeria area....
If you were still hungry , walk through to the FULL bar and eat some of the endless food on offer or grab a drink from the bar- nearly anything you want was there, he asked if I wanted Dr Pepper, I said I didnt like that drink and he said ....."I get the original recipe custom made, try it , its different" - and it was much better, and 'on tap'
Arrrrr - what else could Steve have done for the night - he got a young band in to play live, the place had a full set up with 'riser' and stage lighting etc - simply amazing
I bet your impressed and havent even seen a pinball yet !
OK - so firstly - this is the game I had referred to earlier - Wizard Blocks , Steve bought this from Gene Cunningham and had people get the game working and effectively finished ! - He only did this very recently , so out little legged buddy who is trying to steal BERTS thunder as being the first Aussie to play this game can just go back into your silly string spraying shed OK :p
The good news for you all is that I got my arse kicked on this game - by a GIRL - and Bert filmed it - GREAT stuff :rolleyes
He also has Playboy - unfinished obviously - but there to 'bash a ball around on'
Now - here are some shots of the main ( insane ) arcade.
I think ALL of Steves games are prototypes and unique one off, one only made machines - the collection is incredible obviously.
Apart from all the pinball's he has numerous arcade games in the main room as well - Bert and I got a little hooked on the twin 3 screen car racing game.
On top of this Steve just 'opened his home up' - anyone could just wander anywhere - he is an AMAZINGLY generous and trusting guy and a delight to chat with.
We were later taken into the theater ( awaiting professional images to be emailed to me ) - it is indescribably - it is around a 20 seat full blown miniature theater decked out in a classic ( maybe ) 30's style - you HAVE to sit in it to believe it - it has a DBox system which has the seats rumbling and tilting along with the movie ( we watched the crash scene from Flight of the Phoenix - great for a scared flyer like me ! ).
All night we were treated as the guests of honour and met MANY MANY fantastic LA pinballers, some driving 2 hours from San Diego to visit with us on the night - it was absolutely the most magnificent pinball night I have ever experienced overall.
Today we went to Petersens Auto Museum in the centre of LA city - I will try and get some shots up soon but the days are LONG and its 11.30pm already.....WHAT an amazing motor museum - here is a teaser. After this we hit Guitar Centre in Hollywood , a very cool and MASSIVE music store with heaps of rock stars handprints on the entry, had lunch at the classic Mels Diner on Sunset Strip and finished the arvo and night off at Randy Pecks awesome private pinball collection in LA - a MASSIVE couple of days and I will get more info up when I next get a chance.
