Guns, Cleavage, Drugs, Hercules, Nolan Bushnell And 2 Truisms About Me .......
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Artist:
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Album:The Classic Aaron Neville: My Greatest Gift
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Track:
The first truism is I will never pass up the opportunity to play a classic pinball game. I am talking 1990 and later.
The second is I don't shirk from riding new roller coasters. I am always game to try out a new coaster. If it beats me up the first time I simply won't go on it again ... much.
Rather then jump to the story about guns, cleavage, and drugs I will start with what ever is left. I promise you it will make sense in the end.
This is called 'leading the reader' an effect that forces someone to read through a story to get to the facts that are more 'titillating', for lack of a better word.
I recently got back from a day trip to Hersheypark. What an amazing amusement park. Much bigger than I remember from my time living there every summer while I attended Milton Hershey School. Every time I go there I am fifteen again and Shannon and I are trying to break the record for the 'Zodiac'. I remember stuff that only someone who spent a good amount of time there will be able to testify to.
Since 1977 Hersheypark has kicked ass with the first inverted coaster on the East Coast. 'Revolution' (1976) at Magic Mountain in Valencia Falls was the first, in case your wondering, and the 'Looper' was built by the same company, 'Anton Schwarkopf'.
Interest in this classic ride has waned over the years because of it's single loop. Many people think it's boring because of this fact. I for one was happy nobody wanted to ride the 'Looper'. It meant no lines and a lowering of the height requirement to allow smaller riders on. The 'Looper' was my daughter Lindsay's first upside down coaster and she loved it. "Scared bliss" was all I saw in her eyes. She is another adrenalin junkie in the making.
Side note: The wooden roller coaster 'Hercules' at Dorney Park had the record of the longest drop in the world. I actually got to be one of the first riders of this coaster. Weird coincidence for this story.
I digress so much I can't remember where I was.
That's right 'Hercules'! In 1979 Atari Corp. put out a pinball game on steroids called 'Hercules'. To this day it has the record for being the largest mass produced pinball machine. These rigs are massive, but by being so big it compromises game play. You can't trap the ball very well which shuts me out. I am always holding the ball to make those 'special' shots. Plus it was made before the million point multipliers became the rage. A good score topped 250,000 not 25,000,000. I know because I got to play it in Hersheypark upper arcade.
Hersheypark has one of the best places to get your 'game on' (my fave is 'Flipper Mccoys' in Virginia Beach). Their arcade has alot of classic video games and a wall of pinball that would make a pinball junkie swoon. The great thing is they are all .25 cents. 5 bucks in quarters and my family lost me for an hour. Folks I am talking 'Pinbot' for about half that time.
That's all I can stand writing for now, I guess next up will be Nolan Bushnell and how he recently complicated my life.
I can't remember the last time I posted for Funky Friday. Enjoy an excellent track and some video.
On this next one play anyway, the vid is available.
Comments (13)
alright, I'm intrigued.
Also, I hate wooden coasters and Hercules is the one that made me realize it! but Hershey is still pretty great :)
Hercules beat the crap out of me. I hated it and refused to go on it for the last 3 years it was up. Hershey rocks solid.
You should get on the Comet. Built in '46 it is still a fairly smooth ride. I was surprised. We rode in the Mork train.
We had a good time.
I'll have to try it. my relationship with coasters is kinda funny. I hadn't even tried any major rollercoasters, out of fear and because I thought i wouldn't like it, until last summer at six flags. Now i'm still terrified, but I go anyway and love it.
1. i was surprised to see Aaron Neville as the artist after reading that headline
2. i'm also a big pinball nut, pre-1990 sounds good to me..
3. i LOVE Hersheypark! and roller coasters!
i.e. love this post. thanks for letting me live vicariously thru you...
Dude
Where's the cleavage?
:-)
Are you getting randy?
Take a cold shower, that's my wife your talking about.
Molli, your welcome. We must be cut from the same cloth.
linking pinkys
I'm here for the cleavage and drugs. I feel baited and switched. Maybe that's why you're the avatar you are, you big heart you.
See, I knew I wasn't the only one!
In good time Jonh, in good time.
I too love a good pinball machine. I'll pass on any kind of rollercoaster, though. I would love to own one. Infinitely more playable than a video game (though I love those as well). I remember when scores were only moderately high in those games, not astronomically like they are now! But they do find new ways to make it interesting.
25 cent video games?! I didn't know you could still find 'em. I'd go to HP just for that. I haven't been there in probably over 20 years (not counting a Phish concert in the 90's).
Good memories. What nothing on Wild Water Kingdom?
promises, promises....you religious icons are all alike.
love a good pinball game myself, spent many a day in the mid-seventies learning to make my $35/wk unemployment last and last. Don't remember seeing, let alone playing Hercules.
Great post, and like you I am a sucker for a good game of pinball. Here in Minnesota, at our state fair I used to go every year just to hit up the stellar arcade they had on the fair grounds. I say stellar because they kept a lot of the old games that had gone away long ago. Inside they had an incredible selection of pinball machines, including the Hercules one and I always spent a good amount of money playing all of them. This last year I went to the fair and was almost reduced to tears when I got to the arcade. Half of it had been transformed into a butterfly exhibit, but the other seemed to still be an arcade. When I went in I almost cried, gone were all the classics, only to be replaced with DDR machines. It was a sad day for me, and I dont know if there is anywhere else in the twin cities area that has a "classic" arcade anymore.
Adrenaline junkie here as well. Lift me HIGH up, bring me down with the greatest of speed, shake me round and round, turn me upside down, throw me around, and I'm happy. And alone, 'cause none of my friends wants to go with me to the rides I fancy.
Pinball machines bring out my violent self. Be scared, be very scared.