JJP, my actual initials in use since 1982. Only recently did I start having the high score on pinball machines right out of the box.
Fred just has this uncanny knack to put up 4th place. Weâd encounter so many machines across Portland with FHF (Fredâs actual initials) sitting in 4th place. So a bunch of us started entering FHF when we got 4th. Plus, it doesnât look great CFF has a bunch of 4th place scores - better to pretend it was someone else.
They get fined! No, I donât know. If theyâre in the Bay Area (so⌠itâs ASN), then Iâm guessing their sense of camaraderie might be fading a bit. When in Portland, itâs fun to see other CFF scores. It makes you feel a part of this silent force dominating the landscape (I havenât lived in Portland in over 6 years, so I dunno what itâs like now). If youâre the only person in a city using those initials, then itâs probably not as fun.
Someone should start a DSD chapter. Our shirts are cooler
BOO. Because my name is Bo anyway, and BOO is one letter better.
Ten letter games always get some kind of pun. Iâve been enjoying putting C3PBO and BOBO FETT up on Star Wars.
Letâs see it!
For the front we ripped off the Powell Peralta bones logo lol
The back is supposed to be a death saved ball and the grim reaper feeling like he got robbed Mors Solum Initium translates to âDeath is the beginningâ
I want one!
Pretty cool! I used to live next to the artist who did that logo for Powell. Interesting guy.
PTY.
I was a paperboy, and would take my tips to a bar to play Burgertime. When I got a high score, I would put in PPH. But my step-father saw the initials and yelled at me for being in a bar as an underage kid. But I couldnât resist the lore of burger making. And he wouldnât be wise enough to figure out that PTY was me,.
The Tale of The ELK - âyou do not choose your initialsâ
(My apologies - I was encouraged to do the long version).
My original initials were WIZ. Growing up in Denmark just north of Copenhagen next to the worlds oldest amusement park (âDyrehavsbakkenâ) getting your initials right was a part of any natural childhood development. As kids we would break away and bike the five minutes through the woods to the wonderful machines whenever we could. I remember a discussion with my peers (age of 9 or 10) on weather you needed three quarters in your pocket to defend going - or if you could go with only two quarters. I knew from the start that a TAG with just the initials of my name (Mads Kristensen) was too boring and after playing around with MUM and RIP the choice was WIZ also to display the love for pinball - vs. the computer game kids.
In 2010 I moved to Berkeley, San Francisco with my family. I got to play with the wonderful bunch of people at The Bay Area Pinball Association. Andrei Massenkoff, Tim Hansen, Walter Hurwitz, John Olkowski and many more. In this company the tag WIZ just did not seem right. I was two time Danish Champion upon arrival in the US, but during BAPA league nights I was just an average player. At locations I would some times run into Marc Conant or Neil Shatz - realizing that there was real pinball wizards in the world. It became clear that I had to get new initials.
During that year Neil Shatz enrolled me in the School of Shatz. He introduced me to players, places, machines and playing strategies in what naturally became my best pinball time ever. It was also NES that introduced me to The Radio Bar in Oakland. The Radio Bar was home to The Pinball Union (battling the legendary Pinball Mafia - playing out of The Stork Club). And those Union guys had some kind of deal with Stern to always get the newest Stern machines as one of the first locations in the US.
I turned out that this time, I was not to choose my initials. They would be given to me. Or somehow come to me. Like an Indian name. And it would happen in that Radio Bar in Oakland.
A brand new Big Buck Hunter had arrived and while AMN and NES would exchange punches to determine Grand Champ - I got in there early - eager to get my initials on the board. In the middle of a great game âwhat must not happenâ happens. On this crispy new machine I manage to shoot of the toy elk. And it just lies there. In the middle of the playfield. Dead. Long was the steps up to tell the bartender (and Pinball Union Member) to tell that I had broken the new game.
A couple of days later I came back to the Radio Bar. I sneak to the game, relived to see that it has been fixed. But before I get my first quarter in, the bartender (another Union member) stops me and asks: âAre you the man that shot the elk?â And I answer âYes. I am the man that shot the elk.â
And that was how I got my new name. âThe man that shot the elkâ. Or just ELK.
(I ended up with a good relationship to the Pinball Union people. They kept calling me by my new name. Eventually I had to leave the Bay Area. Returned to Denmark (and also got my third Danish Championship title) but never considered being anything else than ELK - no wizard - just a grateful pinball Indian).
What a great story - was a lot of fun to read!!
Ah so thatâs why there is an elk on the t-shirt from that last tournament you were here for a few years ago at PPM when Mikkel also came!
ASS , someone had to do it lol
Did you ever encounter a person with your same initials? and by what means did you have them murdered?
Just asking for a friendâŚ
Until recently, Adam Keisler probably claimed many high scores that werenât his
(Now that Aaron has achieved a high score on a pinball machine, heâs earned his own initials and Iâm back to using BEK âŚ)
I use the initials BIB, most people assume itâs Back in Black but it really stands for âBest in the Bidnetâ
Yes itâs spelled correctly and pronounced like itâs written.
Not just same initials. There is a player in same area as me who enters Wayne J - the same as me.
Without wanting to sound too arrogant, (on second thoughts - anything that follows will sound arrogant)
Just start putting in OG Wayne J
JPF - my real name initials, which I used pretty much all the time. Straight and to the point.
I saw you using BEK this weekend and was wondering why you stopped using your sons. That a great reason why! Glad to hear.