[FSPA] Happy 30th Birthday, FSPA!
Stephen Jonke
sjonke at gmail.com
Sat May 31 20:57:52 EDT 2025
Lots of good memories at Howies and VBH and really all the FSPA locations I played at over the years. Howies will remain my favorite, but maybe just because that’s where it started. FSPA came about as a result of Usenet’s rec.games.pinball. Does Usenet still exist? Maybe some people are keeping it alive like the people who are keeping Gopher alive (did you know that)?
Steve
On May 31, 2025 at 10:02 AM -0400, denirostyl--- via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>, wrote:
> Happy birthday FSPA!
>
> In 1998 I was a junior at UMCP, and even though my family has been in this biz my whole life, I was kind of on a hiatus from pinball. Was more into consoles/fighters at the time. But I was getting the itch to play pins again.
>
> Diving down the wormhole of procrastination at some computer lab on campus, I found some geocities website describing this beautiful, fun looking game that was coming soon, Cirqus Voltaire. WOW! This is what they’re doing with pinball now!
>
> The next day, I’m walking through the student union after lunch, and I see Bob Barnett’s truck outside (the game vendor), so I peek in the arcade…. And lo and behold, there’s a brand new Cirqus Voltaire!
>
> “Little Gene! I gotta keep the new stuff in here so you guys don’t snipe my account!” He laughs as he shakes my hand. “You can have the first game.” He hits the service credit button.
>
> I was hooked again.
>
> I go back to my dorm, and look up places to play pinball. Find this xmission.com website cobbled together by John gantert, with a list of places to play pinball, by county. Holy shit! There’s a place right around the corner that has like 14 pinballs!
>
> The next day, after my accounting class in van munching hall (which if you know umcp is all the way on the south side of the campus, so I’m already over that way lol). Hit up Marathon deli (still my favorite spot down there) for lunch…. And then I roll north a little into Howies.
>
> Howies was a place that served the worst food…. But man you could happily kill an afternoon in there. All the Williams (now) classics…. AFM, Medieval, Addams, breakshot! Some really rare vids (trog, rampart!!! Space invaders 2, assault, pigskin)…. the list went on.
>
>
> Later that day, I get back to my dorm hall. Ethernet lines had just been installed the year before in ellicott hall, and my hallmate had a 486 hooked into it that was so much faster than my newer pentium 2 at my parents house on dial up (intel inside!) that it blew my mind. Any way… I get back on the FSPA site, and…. There’s a pinball league? At this place called volleyball house in Columbia. Hmmm… that’s kinda far. Columbia Gateway Dr…. Where the fuck in Columbia is that?
>
> Oh… season 2 starts tomorrow. Hmmmm ok nothing going on. Road trip!
>
> I drive over like an hour before to check the place out. It’s this steel building echo chamber that smells like astroturf and soft pretzels in a locker room…. with 7 pins in it. Shadow, World Cup…. Oh look, a standup crazy taxi?
>
> I pump 50 cents into baywatch, and start flipping. I’m playing really well on a game I’ve never played before. After a while I feel this guy looking at me in a “who tf is this guy blowing up baywatch” type stare (I put up 1.9 billion lol)
>
>
>
> “Hi, I’m Bernie”
>
> “Hi I’m Mike. I’m here to check out this league you guys are having?”
>
> “Oh cool! Well we’re just about to get started, come over here”
>
> I meet for the first time
> Deb, Jonke, Serg, Schober, Kim (wow some of these guys work for AOL? wtf?!), Lee Van Doren, Dave Stewart
>
> Scott Sidley
>
> And so here we are on our phones 27 years later talking about all the great places we can do this stuff
>
> Anyway, Happy 30th birthday FSPA. Life would have been really boring without you. Love to the people. Love to the game.
>
>
> Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
>
> On Saturday, May 31, 2025, 2:09 AM, Joe P. Said via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
> > Amazing ❤️
> >
> > On Fri, May 30, 2025 at 11:43 PM Joe Schober via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
> > > As May comes to a close, and Summer leagues are starting, I just wanted to take a moment to say...
> > >
> > > 🎂 HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, FSPA! 🎂
> > >
> > > The first official FSPA season played week #1 exactly 30 years ago today, on May 30, 1995. (There was some FSPA play prior to that, but I guess it wasn't worthy of being considered an "official" season while the format was developed -- I dunno, that was before my time here!) I'm guessing few people then would've bet that the FSPA would still be flipping 30 years later, never mind imagining the growth and popularity of leagues, tournaments, locations, manufacturers, and games that we all enjoy today.
> > >
> > > Hope everyone has a great Summer season!
> > >
> > > --Joe
> > >
> > >
> > > From: Keith Johnson <keefer at sma.com>
> > > Subject: FSPA: results: 05/30/95
> > > Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 23:37:31 -0400 (EDT)
> > >
> > > OK, here we go, just in time for week 2. ;)
> > >
> > > Player and machine results are lifetime. Overall standings, obviously,
> > > are for the current season, now 1 week long.
> > >
> > > keith
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------
> > >
> > >
> > > FSPA UPDATE -- STATS AS OF PLAY DATE 05/30/95
> > > *********************************************
> > >
> > >
> > > RESULTS
> > > *******
> > >
> > >
> > > Flintstones Group Player Score Grp Scr Overall
> > > =========== ----- ------- -------------- ------- -------
> > > 1 Keith 667,493,000 4 9
> > > Jay 416,405,000 2 6
> > > Chris 149,983,000 0 0
> > > 2 Sergio 680,039,000 3 10
> > > Lee V 600,480,000 2 8
> > > Steve K 419,500,000 1 7
> > > 3 Steve J 1,483,879,000 4 12
> > > Jessica 295,962,000 2 3
> > > Bernie 269,877,000 0 2
> > > 4 George 1,149,295,000 4 11
> > > Adlai 386,371,000 2 5
> > > Brad 369,537,000 1 4
> > > Dave 230,979,000 1 1
> > >
> > > Maverick Group Player Score Grp Scr Overall
> > > ======== ----- ------- -------------- ------- -------
> > > 1 Keith 721,577,000 3 6
> > > Jay 562,920,000 2 2
> > > Chris 274,428,000 1 0
> > > 2 Steve K 980,811,000 3 10
> > > Sergio 972,828,000 2 9
> > > Lee V 654,764,000 1 4
> > > 3 Steve J 1,490,516,000 4 12
> > > Bernie 891,882,000 2 8
> > > Jessica 453,561,000 0 1
> > > 4 Adlai 1,441,623,000 3 11
> > > George 822,101,000 2 7
> > > Dave 674,098,000 2 5
> > > Brad 567,940,000 1 3
> > >
> > > Stargate Group Player Score Grp Scr Overall
> > > ======== ----- ------- -------------- ------- -------
> > > 1 Keith 3,337,410,000 4 12
> > > Chris 232,038,000 2 4
> > > Jay 201,956,000 0 2
> > > 2 Sergio 495,843,000 4 9
> > > Lee V 182,254,000 2 1
> > > Steve K 114,730,000 0 0
> > > 3 Steve J 907,947,000 4 11
> > > Jessica 456,246,000 2 8
> > > Bernie 349,851,000 0 7
> > > 4 George 734,381,000 4 10
> > > Dave 344,767,000 2 6
> > > Brad 302,764,000 1 5
> > > Adlai 217,888,000 1 3
> > >
> > > STTNG Group Player Score Grp Scr Overall
> > > ===== ----- ------- -------------- ------- -------
> > > 1 Keith 3,018,237,000 4 12
> > > Chris 398,211,000 2 7
> > > Jay 373,985,000 0 6
> > > 2 Sergio 517,906,000 4 9
> > > Steve K 263,824,000 2 3
> > > Lee V 185,304,000 0 0
> > > 3 Jessica 354,386,000 3 5
> > > Bernie 209,429,000 2 2
> > > Steve J 199,117,000 1 1
> > > 4 George 1,050,587,000 3 11
> > > Dave 755,139,000 2 10
> > > Adlai 512,348,000 2 8
> > > Brad 310,893,000 1 4
> > >
> > >
> > > Player Group Overall Normal
> > > ------- ----- ------- -------
> > > Keith 15 39 0.81250
> > > George 13 39 0.81250
> > > Sergio 13 37 0.77083
> > > Steve J 13 36 0.75000
> > > Adlai 8 27 0.56250
> > > Dave 7 22 0.45833
> > > Jessica 7 17 0.35417
> > > Steve K 6 20 0.41667
> > > Lee V 5 13 0.27083
> > > Chris 5 11 0.22917
> > > Bernie 4 19 0.39583
> > > Jay 4 16 0.33333
> > > Brad 4 16 0.33333
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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