I started a Discord primarily to be able to receive round notifications during tournaments through https://app.matchplay.events/. I also created some skeleton topic channels on there too in case people end up joining it.

If you're playing pinball tournaments that use Matchplay, you can sign-in and if you create an account on this Discord, you can link it together to be able to hit notifications on the tournament page.

Invite link: https://discord.gg/CtAM5gmtng

Starting a thread for my ownership log of this KK Premium. I picked up this machine from a seller in Fredricksberg, VA. The upgrades to this machine at time of sale are:

• Violet "fractured" Powder coat for rails, hinges, lock-down bar, and coin door.

• Game blades
• Stern Shaker
• Stern Speaker lights, LE version.
• Upgraded speakers, 5 1/4" back box and Boom Boom Bass Speaker
• KK Train Mod. Prevents balls from coming out of the back of train during multi-ball.
• KK chains mod

The powder coating is a nice touch that blends with the color theming very well. I think the only things missing from completing an LE look-alike are the translite and speaker grilles.

This is my first Spike platform game. Just opening it and up studying it a bit was pretty fun since my only former frame of reference is WPC(-95) and Whitestar platforms with their expansive electronics and wiring looms.

I was excited to get KK too after having played probably 30ish games on it during tournaments. The theme is evergreen and Stern's take on it in this iteration is well done. The layout has enough variety to keep it interesting and the multi-ball is challenging to get a good run on with the need for a lot of upper playfield interaction to light jackpots.

This will likely be a long-term keeper. I'm currently at 3 machines but am planning on expanding to around 8-10.

Flippers is a coastal gas-station with a huge game room and laser tag. It has a very unassuming exterior. You'd be hard pressed to find this place by accident. They run a pretty well-known tournament in the area in November where approximately 100 or more people will file in for the weekend. I'm looking forward to attending this year.

The games themselves have a great range, nearly all the newer machines from Stern and JJP are there plus some from Spooky and a few EMs and a lot of early digital and dot-matrix as well. Prices are extremely reasonable ranging from $1 down to $0.25. Digital payment cards work on newer machines and some older, the rest will take quarters from the change machine.

I visited in the middle of summer. It was kept cold but virtually no one was there when I was early on Saturday afternoon. By the time I left, it was starting to get warmer in there. I can imagine what it might be like when its packed.

If you're visiting coastal NC, it's a must visit.

On a work trip, I stumbled across some location machines at a popular taproom/bar. It was Friday and there were tons of people but nobody at the coin-ops. Besides the pins, they had a small selection of video games. Machines used tap-to-pay cards. The pins interestingly had slightly different values between them, 5 or 6 credits.

The pins were not well kept. Dirty playfields and dry, worn rubbers. T2 had a cracked flipper. Sad to see them in this shape including an original Medieval Madness. The only Stern machine with an Insider reader was Foo Fighters.

Amusingly, each machine had the business card of the owner Greg Creech, "Pinball Guy Extraordinaire". Not something I'd broadcast given the state of the machines.

Come here for the beer, I'd skip the pinball.

This is pretty close to where I grew up. Visiting later this year, I’ll have to make it a point to get over to this.

Going out on a limb and say no. MM is not the best of all time. Great pin but not the best. Personally I rate Cirqus Voltaire higher.

I haven't been to Little Rey but I'd like to check this out.

A handful of us Raleigh players took a drive over to the coast which is about 1.5 hours away to the newly relocated Coastal Hemp Co and Backyard Arcade for their monthly tournament. A nicely run event that featured some free snacks and pizza and all the beer or THC products you could want, along with some random draws between rounds.

Machines are impeccably clean and about 14 in total with a great mix of Stern, Williams/CGC, and a Pulp Fiction. I had a lot of fun and placed 5th out of 25 players. This is one I'll make the pilgrimage out for again.

They tout themselves as the second largest arcade in the world at 27,000 square feet. It’s definitely the best one I’ve ever been to. Beyond being an impeccable collection of digital machines, the whole place is well decorated wall to wall to ceiling with memorabilia like movie posters, lunchboxes, figures and more.

Pinballs are positioned on coasters for ease nudges. There’s team of people performing constant maintenance and cleaning. I didn’t witness a single out of order machine amongst the hundreds there.

I’m not shocked my favorites are all here. They also group them by make and include the line ups of smaller makers Jersey Jack, American and Spooky Pinballs.

Admission is $22 and machines are on free play across the board except for redemption machines. Nearly all machines have info cards with year, description and production numbers if available. They also serve as a distributor for in-production games.

Nice place. Multiple rooms, multiple levels. Probably a close to 50/50 mix of pins and arcades. Arcades are probably 66/33 mix of old and new.

Many classics pins have ColorDMDs. Decently maintained, few machines out of order. Everything is on a pretty fair and extremely fast reading NFC card credit system. New machines are 30 credits and old machines are 20.

Going to check out the tournament there tomorrow.