Cameron

The problem with something like this is that is that it lowers the value of the US dollar even more. You can't just print money and give it away ... the government has to actually get up off it's backside and fix the economy, rather than just pay everyone off to look the other way. Sigh.. Cameron.

Wow .. You always hear about rides being re-tracked, is this the first time a ride has been re-structured?! Pretty interesting project, thanks for the photos. Cameron.

My, what a big CAI you have.. All the better to ingest water and hyro-lock the engine with, my dear.

I quite like Safari, but until it implements the "keyword" feature of Firefox then I will never be tempted to switch. Cameron.

Great photos! I was there in June 2007 and had a fabulous time, I really want to go back. Seeing the park all decked out with lights was really cool, thanks. Cameron.

If I were one to care about coaster counts and milestones and such, then I'd be excited that Steel Hawg will more than likely be my 200th coaster! I'll be there on May 3rd .. even if the new ride isn't running yet, I'll STILL be there on may 3rd Seriously - this could be pretty cool, I can't wait to ride it. Cameron.

Indiana Beach - sleeping after a great season..

I'm in agreement with you Elissa - The Screaming Squirrels leave me totally flaccid. However I do trust Indy Beach, and I read somewhere that these new Screaming Squirrels are supposed to be more like a Euro-Fighter; maybe it won't be so bad? After all, this is a park with a Galaxi that kicks-bottom! Cameron ("Number 1 Indy Beach Fanboy") Silver.

Matt if you need someone to stand behind you and pummel you with a baseball bat, I only live down the road! Cameron.

Ugh .. only 5?! OK - while it's tempting to fill the garage with Lambos and Ferrari's, I will select cars that I would actually drive around.. Cameron. PS: Colin, car talk is never boring! OK .. so ONE Ferrari - a Testarossa. Yeah - Porsche's make me horny, at least I can admit that! But I mean come on .. look at that thing - it's freaking beautiful. Of course an RS4 - probably in that colour too. Next would be a VW Thing ... The awesomeness of these cannot be underestimated! First up is the car I already own - A 2004 VW .:R32

Totally awesome pictures, Guy. Dollywood is so great, I can't believe I have only been there once. Hopefully next year .. Thanks for the photos! Cameron.

^ MMm .. Whitewater is one of my all-time favorite games too, and is the only game I own that I didn't work on (it was also the first game I owned). As for "Hello Cameron, I've been expecting you", I have a flipper code in all of my games that will bring up that display. Cameron ("Get the extra ball, yer weiner!") Silver.

One important thing to consider when getting a degree, is don't go for anything super-specific. We often get resumes from kids who have "game design" degrees, and most of these kids are borderline useless. The "game colleges" are too focused, and the grads end up without the right skills for the game industry, while also not being able to do anything else. For example - if you want to do video game (or movie) art, then get a good general art degree. Learn how to draw and paint and become a good artist, then learn the computer tools. Sitting down in front of 3D Studio Max won't make you a good artist any more than me picking up a paint brush. Same for the programmers - knowing what a "Z Buffer" is is useless if you don't have a handle on basic programming concepts. Get a great Computer Science degree and then any game company would love to hire you. Of course the other great benefit of a more general degree is that while you're waiting for your dream job, you will still be able to find other work to keep you fed and clothed. I'm also a firm believer of doing what you like, rather than what pays well (within reason, obviously!). Ask anyone in the game industry about their salary, and they will inevitably respond: "No-one gets rich in the game business!". It's true; but I love what I do, I'm good at it, and I'm super happy. And with that, I will go back to work Cameron.

A few months ago a good friend of mine asked me if I'd talk at a career night being held at their school district middle-school. Well I jumped at the chance - partly because I actually like speaking in front of people, but mostly because I love what I do and want to get other people excited by it too. Well I talked a little over a week ago, and it was really fun. However I was genuinely surprised by the questions the kids asked, and (in some cases) the mis-conceptions they had about what I do (I'm a programmer in the game industry). I enjoyed talking to the kids, and answering their questions etc, but it got me thinking. There are a lot of kids on TPR, and also a lot of adults who work in a whole range of different and interesting fields. So I was thinking it might be interesting to have a place for people (kids) to ask us (adults) about different careers, and we (adults) will answer you (kids) honestly about stuff. Jobs in the 'real world' are often not what you expect (doesn't mean they're not as good .. just different!), so it might be worth talking about stuff. But not just the kids either .. I love hearing about Jeff Johnson's postal stories, and the adventures of Mel and Rich as teachers - both of those are jobs I'm interested in. So .. don't be shy. The coaster season is over, and another year is drawing to a close. The young ones are closer to entering the work force, and the really young ones are reaching a point where they need to start thinking about future careers. Cameron. PS: I initially thought about resurrecting this thread, but that seemed too general and less advice oriented. However, feel free to merge the two if necessary.

What fantastic photos! The food over there really interests me, which is odd because I'm actually quite a fussy eater. Although I do love sushi Thanks for posting, I can't wait for mini-Tokyo next year. Cameron.

Hey everyone, Thanks so much for the comments - I'm glad you liked the photos! I have been thinking of having a small TPR pinball party at my place .. anyone interested? Of course, I only have 4 machines .. but still! Cameron.

I swam 2-3 times a week for three years, and yeah it is awesome exercise - but it's also claw-your-own-eyes-out boring. I'm sure I'll get back into swimming again in a few years, but I don't think anyone considers it 'fun'. What about cycling, Robb? Can you ride to work? Cameron.

OK .. Final set of photos now The highlight of the evening at Lymans was "no limits pinball". We all had several hundred dollars worth of chips, and formed groups of four. Before playing each game we'd ante, and then play ball 1. Before playing ball 2 each person would check, raise, call or fold. If you fold, you're out of the game and go join another group. If you don't, then you continue and play ball 2. The process repeats for ball three. This is the pot I would have won ($300!) had I not totally tanked on Star Trek Next Generation. Note the "World Cup Soccer" game in this picture - this is the game at the very top of my list for when I have some space. It's a fabulous game! Lyman also has a terrific basement, full of probably close to 20 great games, in totally fantastic condition. Seriously, his games are without peer.. After dinner we all went back to Lyman's house. Lyman is a good friend of mine, still works at Stern (programmed/designed Spiderman), and is very, VERY good at pinball. Here are just some of the trophies he has won... (He is also an amazingly great guy.) After packing up on Sunday evening, a huge group of us went out for dinner. I got this amazing parking spot right out front! No, no the Lambo - how obnoxious do you think I am? My car is the Porsche! The internals of a 1975 Gottlieb "Fast Draw" game, owned by a friend of mine. Now I have no problem dealing with computers and electronics, and software holds no mystery to me. However the EM (electro-mechanical) games are total black magic to me - I can't fathom how complex rules and logic is implemented using only relays, switches and one motor. It's amazing! Of course even at Expo, games will break down. Now these machines can *easily* handle 600 plays in one weekend, but the players at expo are very fussy, so any small fault is instantly fixed. Here I am signing posters for a charity auction. I tried to warn Jim that my scrawl is likely to reduce the price of the posters, but he just wouldn't listen. Actually another popular event at Expo is the Autograph Session - were ex-and-current industry folk sit around signing stuff for people. I always *hated* that. Fortunately I have been out of the industry long enough that I can skip the autograph session, however I will still happily sign stuff for people who like my games. Well, have you?! But remember, I was there to work too! I had Ticket Tac Toe to babysit - and here I am refilling the gumball dispenser. It's all set now, and ready to roll... Nearly every recent game (and I say "recent" going back to the 80s!) come with give-away plastics. These are usually printed on free space on the plastic sheet, and are most often designed to be key-fobs. Many people collect these, and many are on sale at Expo. Artwork faded on your game? Stick some new art over it! These decals look surprisingly great - they are excellent reproductions. This booth is run by a great guy named Jim Shird who was in charge of the prototype build-up lab at Williams. He still works for WMS, and always shows up with a trunk-load of brand new, hard to find parts. At Williams we loved hanging out in his lab, chatting and going through tubs of parts and stuff. In his booth at expo we get a chance to re-live that When it's time to take a break from pinball and let your fingers stop bleeding, it's nice to go for a walk around the vendors. There is a thriving industry re-manufacturing parts for late model Williams games. These beautiful new ramps are always so tempting (particularly for my White Water). Maybe next year. This is a fantastic old Williams EM from 1976, that a few people in my Pinball League own. The key is the spinners, and it's really fun to just nail them (especially when they are well adjusted - they just spin for *days*!). Some playfield detail of Jolly Park. Not the bumper-car jet-bumper caps .. there's also a shooting gallery (bank of stand-up targets), and Mystery House (too bizarre to describe). I don't know if I'd ever want to own one of these, but I do always laugh a lot while playing! Jolly Park - WOO! Ok this machine was made by some goofy Spanish company, and it's actually themed around amusement parks. The programming is really poor, but gee it's a fun game. "New Ticket!"

Stage two - the actual Expo. There hall is divided into two halves; one half for free-play machines, and the other for vendors. The factory tour takes place on Thursday, and then the hall opens Thursday and stays open all night. All day Friday are seminars presented by all sorts of people (ex-industry, current industry, collectors, players, etc - some are really cool). Then the hall opens Friday evening and stays open until Saturday evening (yes, all-night again). On Saturday evening the hall closes for a big Expo-sponsored dinner that I always skip (did I mention that the organizer is an a$$?!), but then re-opens at 10pm and stays open all night. Now do you see why I slept so little? I spent a wonderful evening hanging out with some friends from Michigan, eating pizza and watching Top Gear. Fun Fun! As for the Gumball Dispenser? Well it performed extremely well! Over the course of the show the machine had over 500 plays, and gave out over 300 gumballs. It only jammed once, but recovered on its own; in fact the only problem is that occasionally an extra gumball would slip out (and those weren't audited in the "over 300 gumball dispensed" comment I made above). I actually anticipated this problem, but decided to risk it because I was worried the solution would cause more jams. I have since come up with a better solution that I'll have to try at some point. OK - On to the Expo photos, since I know that's all anyone is interested in! One more installment will follow this one... This game was BRILLIANT! A super old Gottlieb EM called Universe. Note the two space ships printed on the clear plastic disc in the backbox; the disc rotates as you make shots on the playfield, and the space-ships appear to be flying around the world. You get credit for the more trips the ships make. SO FREAKING COOL! Or this amazing old vending machine. I'd LOVE one of these in my game-room one day ... Actually, I'd love a real game-room one day! Like I said earlier, you often find rare and/or unusual games at expo - like this ancient bowling machine. Even the crappy one .. You see, my games EXPECT me to come up and say Hello to them! When I'm at any pinball show, or coin-op arcade, it's imperative that I go and say Hello to my games. Aside from Pinbrawl (which is really a "tournament for the people!"), is the official Expo "Flipout" tournament. In the past it is run on the latest Stern pinball, however this year the contestants (who may enter as often as they like) could choose between Pirate Of The Caribbean, Family Guy, and Spiderman. "Pinbrawl" is one of two tournaments that took place at Expo this year, and it is just brutal. Contestants compete in teams of 4, the tourny runs 11 hours (with no lunch breaks!!), and in the end they could win one of these. These first place trophies are solid aluminium, and would be a great implement for Colonel Mustard in the Library! Expo isn't all about current (or recent) games, it's also a great place to buy, trade or repair old EM (electro-mechanical) games. You can see many here (not setup), but also a whole load of old parts. I'd love to get some EMs one day. Steve Kordek stands next the last machine (of *many*) he ever designed. I am apparently adjusting my wooden leg, while Duncan plays Gumball Tack Toe 2.0. Remember that Duncan was the one who helped me build the original gumball dispenser, and he was very impressed with the new version. And here is my baby! Rush picked up this BetaBrite sign that we programmed full of goofy, pinball-related sayings (most of which centering around gumballs). Such gems as "keep the gumball, I have a whole bucketful"; "take your gumballs of me, all four of them"; and of course "who will win the poison gumball?". I know, I know, we're total nerds .. Back in the vendor hall now (2am Thursday or Friday night), and wondering around is Ken Fedesna - who was one of the executive officers of Williams back in the pinball day. And no, it wasn't his decision to shut us down. Another row of games in the free-play hall at 2am. Overall there were about 5 or 6 rows of free-play games. One photo of the free-play hall, also at 2am Friday morning. Surprisingly it didn't get much more busy than this. There was pretty much a 1 or 2 game wait for every machine, and people were usually good about stepping aside after finishing a game. Overall it was very good. This photo is of the "vendor hall" at about 2am on Friday morning. Yup, it's still busy .. in fact most of the vendors are still open! This is just before I stepped out for a delicious meal at Steak And Shake .. Mmmmm.

Hi Kids! Since Ted's PAPA report was so well received, I figured it was my duty to cover Pinball Expo. Expo is a yearly show which has taken place in Chicago in October since the 80s. The show this year took place in "beautiful" Rosemont from October 25th - 28th. Four days of pinball, partying, drinking, and no-where near enough sleep (probably 3-4 hours each night). Expo is always a fun weekend (even though it's run by a total and complete a$$), as it gives me a chance to catch up with friends from all over the country, not to mention people I used to work with. Now there are many pinball shows all over the world, but the big draw for Expo is the fact that it takes place in Chicago - which has always been the home of pinball. As a result, Expo boasts things like factory tours, prototype machines, and general weirdities and one-offs that you don't find anywhere else. Even though the organizer is a complete a$$. Having been in the industry, I like to try and bring something 'special' to expo every year. In the past I have brought prototype versions of games I've worked on (hardware and software). Back in 2003 (or maybe 2004) I brought Ticket Tac Toe, which is actually the first game I worked on when I moved to Chicago. This Williams machine uses all pinball hardware (and software), however the game is extremely simple and it dispenses tickets. There were only about 90 of these machines made (despite the fact that it earned obscene amounts of money), and it was designed by the uber-legendary Steve Kordek. Now obviously it's pointless to bring a ticket dispensing game to Expo, since there's nothing to redeem the tickets for. So a good friend of mine (Duncan - also ex-pinball) decided to fit it with a gumball dispenser instead. Everyone loves gumballs! Unfortunately this idea didn't occur to Duncan and I until about 2 weeks before Expo, so the dispenser really didn't perform very well. It was a fun experiment, and well received, but we just didn't have time to design it well. Over the years many people asked me to bring Ticket Tac Toe back to Expo, but I was always hesitant to do so with the crappy gumball dispenser. So something had to be done! I actually had a "real" design for a gumball mech drawn out (actually I'd built it out of foam-core), it was just very ambitious and I needed help to build it. That's where my friend Rush comes in! Rush is in the pinball league that I play in, and he was thrilled to help out .. so we set off! The first installment of this report contains photos of building the real gumball dispenser. We started in August 2007... Here it is installed in the machine. I designed the whole thing so that it slides into the same place where the ticket dispenser would live. In fact, it even plugs into the same connector! I even put lights inside the cabinet so you can see the whole thing working (it's all clear plastic, remember). The pin-geeks were very impressed. Long view of the completed gumball dispenser. The clear plastic makes it tough to see all the parts, but it does work. (And no, we didn't put the test gumballs back into the box for Expo!) The complete gumball dispenser! We started this project in August and (working on Saturdays) had it complete the weekend before Expo. The backside of the motor/wheel assembly. As the wheel turns, the gumballs fall into the holes in the wheel and then drop into the chute as the hole lines up. The green wires are attached to the motor, and the yellow ones are attached to the optical switch that detects when a gumball is dispensed. Here is the completed motor/wheel assembly. I went through several revisions before I was happy with the sturdiness and reliability of the device. In the end it worked well (too well, actually!) Adding the wires to the actual dispenser. Looks quite "mad scientist", it was fun Now that the physical dispenser is complete, it was time to wire up the machine. It didn't need much, just power for the motor, and an optical switch (called an "opto") to detect dispensed gumballs. This is actually easy to interface with a pinball machine as they are common devices. I added those two boards and made up the wiring harnesses. The physically complete gumball dispenser! All the plastic parts are covered in protective film, which is why they appear blue; however they are actually all clear. We applied power, and it worked surprisingly well. The wheel mounted on a 4 RPM motor. I bought the motor (and hub) from a robot hobbyist website. This is the very heart of the gumball dispenser, and was "salvaged" from an old coin hopper that a friend of mine had laying around. The gumballs will fall into these holes, and drop into a chute as the motor turns. The holes are 1-inch, so I bought some .89-inch gumballs. The main body of the gumball dispenser, the sides and base. The gumballs will eventually fill this tub and be fed (by gravity!) to the left side of the photo, which is where the actual dispensing machinery be installed.

This is what you need .. 1991 16v VW GTI

Interesting that Vu and Splashwater are both being removed this winter with (presumably) nothing to replace them. That's going to be a pretty dead section of the park. Of course it does raise the question about what goodies might be waiting in the wings for 2009. A coaster would be good, some flat rides would be great .. Time will tell. Cameron.

thefitness, Sorry I didn't mean to imply that you were reckless .. but you are inexperienced. Driving is all about thinking several moves ahead of everyone else around you, and that doesn't become sub-conscience until you've been behind the wheel for several years. No-one is saying that you're definitely going to crash the car, but it is extremely likely that something will happen. Most likely it'll be something really minor, but still. And I hate to say it, but a little accident or two is actually part of the learning process as well .. just like blowing a tyre at 80MPH, running over a cat, changing a headlight bulb, getting pulled over, or any any one of the other zillion of little things that go along with car ownership. It's great fun though! I love driving, and have put about 35,000 miles on my car in the last 18 months. I'm a big believe in getting a car you like and will enjoy driving, and I also think the Smarts are awesome. However I'd just hate to see something happen to it too soon, and possibly taint your experience. Cameron.

I have to agree with Ed, the Smarts are great. Curiously enough I was also going to post the very same link that Ed did. Now it's not the car for me, but I do think they are amazing. At least it's not a Hybrid! Personally I'd much rather be in a car that can avoid an accident, rather than in a giant, unpredictable, slow bolder (SUV) that just destroys everything in its path. SUVs are not safer, they kill anything they hit. A friend of mine used to have an Excursion - it was so wobbly and squirly that it actually made me sea-sick! That said, I do agree with the people who suggest a small beater car as your first. You will most likely damage it, and it's far cheaper to repair some POS Ford, or bore-me-to-tears Toyota - plus you won't feel as guilty about it (especially if your parents are buying it for you). Cameron.

Ted, I had no idea you were going to PAPA! Many of my friends were there (obvious), and I would have gone too but I am frantically trying to get ready for Pinball Expo (which is in Chicago in a week and a half). I was lucky enough to be at both PAPA 3 and 4 (back in the early 90s) when they were held in New York City. It's a terrifically fun event, and each year I think about doing a combined PAPA and Kennywood trip. Cameron ("Memory Is The First To Go") Silver.