(Click here for the 2013 review)
Pedro Díaz is a pinball fan who invited us last year’s to his Majorcan tournament. This time I could not break my word to go, and I’m glad I did because the experience was great.
The first thing that stands out is the place. It’s a beautiful “pagesia” (some kind of farm) glued to the Son Sant Joan airport runway in the equally beautiful village, although it took me a bit to find it because the entrance was not obvious. You may say that the aircrafts noise would be a problem, but it seems they greatly reduce throtle while landing, and we attendants almost made more fuss, so it wasn’t annoying at all.
I’ve never been fond of these slot machines but on Saturday August 4 I was able to appreciate the art that hides behind its restoration, maintenance and enjoyment. Even better, there was no obligation to pay for the games. Facilities are provided by AENA and attendance is free.
I found interesting that at least one of the pinballs had music instruments that were familiar, very similar to the FM-PAC (Yamaha YM2413) of the MSX 2+ and Turbo-R computers, if they were not the same sound chip. Other more modern machines had already digitized effects.
Locomosxca, known MSX user of Mallorca, is already a regular at this event and beat us with a good article and video.
An interesting anecdote is the one Pedro told us about the U.S. imported pinballs to Spain, which were more difficult to play because the players here showed more skills and the company was making less money.
Pedro Díaz (Drator) and the trophies
We enjoyed a sumptuous barbecue in good company
Gracias por la mención, a ver si el año que viene os animais a participar, yo desde que lo hice la primera vez no puedo dejar de asisitir.
Curioso me ha parecido lo comentado de los chips y es que muchas maquinas arcade de los 80 usaban chips muy parecidos a los de los MSX, pero de los pinballs ni idea.
Un saludo.