Zines and Pins (Patreon)

A few years ago some friends and I put out a zine called Yokoi Kids Annual Vol. 1. It ended up more than a zine at 90 pages covering 25 games. My friend Rick is a zine whiz and put together a great layout complimented by a lot of awesome art submissions. It sold well, profits went to charity, and we wanted to go forward with another the following year.

Well, time certainly got away from us, but we’re wrapping up Yokoi Kids Annual Vol. 2. It’s covering 24 games this time including classics like Kirby’s Pinball Land and Donkey Kong. I’ll be spending the rest of today finishing entries for Double Dragon and Battle Unit Zeoth. I’ve also done entries for Lock n’ Chase and Alley Way. I like doing the zine exclusive entries because it’s a good reason to go back to a game and see how my opinion might have changed from my initial impression.

Anyway, I’m excited. If you picked up the first volume and enjoyed it, this will be printed in the same format, which many* folks said was “super nice”.

I’ve been playing pinball on a regular basis again. I’ve been spending too much time around the apartment. I’m working on a giant project at my day job and afterwards I’m ready to mentally check out so I’ve been trying to jump into something fun immediately after work to keep my brain engaged and pinball works. I’m enjoying both of Stern’s recent releases more than I thought I would. I knew JAWS had a solid chance at being great because it’s a Kieth Elwin design, but I’m not a big fan of the franchise. It’s still a lot of fun and I love the blues all over the playfield. It’s rare to see tables with cooler tones. I like John Wick so far, but I’m holding out final judgment for a couple of things, namely a more complete ruleset. The table is blazingly fast and fun to shoot, but I don’t feel particularly well informed on what’s happening. At the moment I generally work on the multiball modes. The machine itself doesn’t feel like it uses the theme very well, which has upset some people, but I’m not too bothered by that. I’m still holding out hope that someone in the San Diego area puts a Labyrinth machine on location. I’m dying to get more time on that, but I don’t see many folks buying one and then wanting to put it out in public. Bummer!  

*citation needed   

-Ian