Sapph's Adventures in Game Land

Some of you may know that I got my love of gaming from my dad. I wouldn't be anywhere NEAR the nerd girl I am now if it weren't for him, and he exposed me to all sorts of different types of games, not just video games. A couple if times a year we would go to a local pinball and arcade auction that was really a gamers dream come true. Bring your own extension cord and play all the arcade games and pinball machines you wanted for free. Of course the idea for most people was to sell machines they no longer wanted, and we did occasionally buy one or two, but for us it was about playing games for free.

It was one of these trips that left me with a classic late 80's pinball machine called Bad Girls when my dad passed away.

80's Tastic right there, but it was a fun machine and it followed me across the country when we moved. Until I started feeling guilty that we'd bought her to be played and loved and that I couldn't remember the last time I'd even plugged it in. So I sold her to a local shop who refurbished her a bit and I found out today that she found her way into the home of a female doctor who chose it because "I'm a bad girl too." I think dad would be pleased to know that it's now in the home of someone who will love and play it.

But the story doesn't end there. Of course this place has all sorts of new machines as well as old ones. I'm sure most people who aren't into pinball machines don't even know that Bally and Stern actually stopped making pinball machines for a very long time. Eventually Bally decided to get out of the business leaving Stern to it and in the past few years they've been making new pinball machines again.

It's amazing what a leap forward in technology can do for them but the pinball machines still have that great old arcade feel to them. We went to the place I sold my Bad Girls to, thinking we'd maybe get to see her all cleaned up and in all her glory to hear the story of how she sold already, but while we wandering around this lovely machine catches my eye.

Of course the first thing I see on that side panel? Emma Frost. So I HAD to play her.

Stern X-Men Pinball Machine

I will say it's an incredibly fun machine and I had the opportunity to play the limited edition Magneto version that has a special moving ramp. I didn't get into anywhere NEAR all of the modes that the machine has, but it was a great way to kill about 20 minutes. I would have been there all night but after finding out it was a $9000 machine I kind of lost my desire to keep playing it. Funny how hearing that something is that expensive makes your brain go "Run away!"

I do have one complaint about it though and that's the playfield artwork. It's not consistent. It features all these classic X-Men characters but the style of artwork used for them isn't all the same. Characters like Gambit, Rogue and Cyclops are in the traditional heavy outlined comic book style:

While other characters like Phoenix, Emma, and Mystique are a more modern, digitally painted style:

 

Mystique's image from the bumper is this one, just flipped so she's facing the other way to fit on the plastics.

If I could ever get past that I think I could really like the machine, but the whole $9000 price tag kind of kills it for me more than the inconsistent art. 
There you have it, I fell in love with a new pinball and found out my old one went to someone who will care for her, and you found out there's more layers to this gaming nerd girl than you though.