[FSPA] Happy 30th Birthday, FSPA!
Stephen Jonke
sjonke at gmail.com
Sat May 31 21:06:57 EDT 2025
Also, I want to say that Stargate is a fun game. One of the better Premier
games.
Steve
On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 8:57 PM Stephen Jonke <sjonke at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
> <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aol-news-email-weather-video/id646100661>
>
> 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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