Last visit to Karvia?

3.8.2003:

As this announcement tells (in Finnish only, sorry), Kauko's pinball cave is needed for other purposes, and now his games are available for the last time during annual Karvia-days.

Of course we had to see the games one last time. Antti and Sampo came already on Friday evening to Tampere, they were palnning to participate on Bus Day at Mobilia museum on Sunday. Also APz was supposed to join us on Saturday morning from Kouvola.



Next stop: Mobilia

Friday night went by as we played pinball, even if not all my games are in top shape. When even the youngest game is more than 20 years old, it sure takes some time and work, not mentioning lots of spare parts to keep these games running. There are now 12 games in my gameroom, and hopefully more will be coming soon...



Sampo takes some photographs. Maybe this Alien Poker gets to be Pinball of the Month someday?
On the back wall, smiling pres. Kekkonen, the protector of all pinball arcades.

The bus was left in Tampere, and when APz sent an SMS saying he had some unexpected troubles with the train tickets, we loaded the filled-up refrigerator box into my VW, got Antti and Sampo onboard and the three of us started to Karvia.



A sticker everybody should have.

We arrived in Karvia a little before official opening time at 12, but Kauko let us in.



Kauko is welcoming Sampo.



The games were still being cleaned.

From last time, Kauko's collection has grown by one game. Dealer's Choice formerly owned by Pekka, has ended in Kauko's cave still in good shape.



Dealer's Choice (Williams 1974)



Playfield looks nice after former owner.



Antti takes a test game on DC.



3 fine Williamses



Some more Williams games.



Bally makes THE pinballs! Everybody would be happy to get Wizard or Capt. Fantastic.



Also Gottliebs are found here.

Old games have a new inflation-revised price: Kauko sold tokens at 50 cent a piece. But still there was plenty of people in the cave.





Sampo concentrates hard on Jacks Open.



This Bronco has already given all it can, but is still a good landmark to show people the way to Kauko's cave.

Sunny weather and some advertising managed to lure many people to play. Old pinballs seem to interest quite many. It is a pity that Kauko has to move his games out of the cave. They are of course meant to be admired and played by people, and not just stand dismantled in some warehouse. Let's hope Kauko finds dry and warm storage space for his games, otherwise for these fine machines it is Game Over for good.



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