Pinball Map Open Thread

I use UberPrints for short runs and one offs. They look pretty good and do actually hold up pretty well. Prices are comparable or better than some of the short run competition. Unfortuantely, being one of those average or below pinball guys with moobs and a pot belly he likes to hide, I do tend to stick to darker colors, so haven’t tried them for white.

Huh… never would have guessed. :grin:

The league shirt I mentioned above came from FGW. Not sure whose idea it was, but the front has the normal league logo (black shirt) and the back has a playfield resembling Space Cadet pinball in purple, teal and yellow colors. Another league logo below the playfield. Only the FGW folks could make Space Cadet look awesome. Shirt is 100% cotton although I don’t recall the brand.

Put me down for one of those shirts with pentagrams down the arms. Nothing says pinball quite like pentagrams. d;^)

Hey, I never got a free shirt! :wink:

Are you a large, perchance? I have a couple larges left.

According to my records, you may have become an admin after our t-shirt giveaway. Think that’s right? We never did a second round of it. Sorry! If you’re not a large, you’ll get one of the next ones.

It’s ok, I’m just giving you a hard time. :slight_smile:
I suspect I did just miss it. I’d be happy to purchase one when they’re available anyway. I’d be an XL, fwiw, but thanks!

We released an update to the iOS app! Version 4.0.2.

chlog:

  • Display the Location Description (we inadvertently removed this in the last update)
  • Region list - include sort by alpha
  • Add option for location services “when app is running”
  • When no Operator at a location, say “Tap to Edit”
  • Locations say “last update: June 03, 2016 by” blank 4.0.2 – bug fix
  • Minor comment issue - words can span two lines – bug fix
  • Location submissions often come in twice – bug fix (this is for Admins)
  • Reformat list of machines in location submissions (this is for Admins)

See what’s up with the next update here.

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Unfortunately, that sort of mindset is depressingly common. People get these machines without realizing they have to be maintained, and when the time actually comes that they’ve gotten busted up enough that it’s clear something is wrong even for non-fans, they have no clue how to repair them or are too frustrated to go any further. I don’t think there’s that much of the “cutting out the middle man,” as that would imply they know about it in the first place. Rather, I think most of these owners who never ever maintain their machines obtained them without being aware of their maintenance needs until it’s too late.

Most often, what I see happen next is that they sell off the machines (at a loss if needed) and leave pinball forever. It’s a real shame, and there really isn’t a way to get through to these operators except one by one as they’re not part of any pinball-related groups.

Regarding that, I’d like to make a suggestion: Notifications can work if the user picks specific locations, such as their favorite places or the places closest to where they live.

The Lonely Planet wrote a little article about us. Pretty cool!

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Android?

One more iOS update, then we’ll work on the next Android update. Scott has momentum with iOS, and so we’ve been sticking to that for a minute. One more issue to complete for the next update, then it will be out.

With that last Android update, we got stuck on an issue related to newer versions of the Android API. Hopefully there is now better documentation for how to fix it :sweat:

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Lonely Planet is the publication that talks about interesting and strange locations around the world, is it? That’s still pretty cool they talked about Pinball Map.

It talks about pretty much every location! “Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book publisher in the world.” -wikipedia

Stern posted a link to this article on their Facebook page and someone posted a comment saying the pinside map is more accurate.

I’ve never had an issue with accuracy with the pinball map app but I thought I’d check out the pinside map just to see how comparable it was. I checked two random locations in Portland where I know the lineups and they were both terribly out of date on pinside. The Hawthorne Hideaway shows on pinside as having 6 machines when in reality they scaled back their lineup over a year ago to just 2 games (neither of which are on the pinside map). Last update for that location on pinside was over 3 years ago. The current lineup is correct on Pinball Map and was last updated in June.

The second location I checked was The Know. Pinside says they have 5 machines, when in reality they only have 4, and only one of them is correct on the pinside map. Additionally, The Know moved from their previous location over 6 months ago and the pinside map still has the old location on their map. If someone tried to go to The Know to play pinball based off the pinside map they would be disappointed to say the least. Last update on Pinside was 2015. Pinball Map has this bar at it’s current location and the lineup is correct. Last update 8/29.

These are literally the first two locations I checked. Maybe for other cities the accuracy is better, but for now I’m going to stick with Pinball Map :+1:

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That’s pathetic. Someone needs to straighten those folks out. Unbelievable that Stern’s social media guy has no clue that the pinball map is way, way more accurate than pinside. I remember seeing him and Jody on a video telling the world how big of location rats they were. Yeah, sure you are,

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Trolls!
How could pinside’s map compete with the PBM Army!?

To be fair that was just some guy commenting on Stern’s post. Stern was very positive regarding the app!

Pinsiders gotta pinside.

Thanks for the defense!

I did a quick check of Los Angeles a few weeks ago, comparing the two. And yes, Pinside was vastly out of date (and missing lots of spots).

But yeah, I’m sure accuracy varies per area. A few of our maps aren’t used all that much.

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I just checked my area (south SF bay) and it was not even close. Before pinside and the pinball map, there were other locators. I’m sure many here remember using Pinball Rebel, which still has it’s locator (also not even close). I updated Pinball Rebel regularly back then. Tried to keep that the most accurate locator.

Anyone remember Dave Land? If not, take a trip down memory lane:

http://www.daveland.com/pinball/index2.html

Entries back to the early 2000’s.

I hadn’t seen Dave Land before, but just seeing the webring container sent me down memory lane. I love webrings. To me, they represent a more egalitarian, diverse web.

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Yeah, love that web ring! Takes me back to the days of weird fan sites.