Welcome to my corner of the pinball hobby. My career is in Research and Development for American Pinball, including Game Design, Rules Design, Game Code, QA & Game Testing, Marketing, and Sales. Opinions expressed by myself or others on the Fun With Bonus website, and other Fun With Bonus Internet presences, do not necessarily represent the opinions of American Pinball. Disclosure will be noted where appropriate.
You will most often find posts about other activities produced by pinball enthusiasts. That will include original content such as:
The New Pinball Dictionary | The unofficial jargon of pinball
Pinball Pros(e) | Extended articles about a pinball topic
Fun With Bonus Remix | Pinball music remixes
In my former life as an Educational Technology Administrator and a public school Mathematics/Computer Science teacher, I incorporated aspects of pinball and video games into my lessons to demonstrate to my students how these educational subjects can also be useful and relevant to them outside of school. My Instructional Technology Master’s Degree thesis was also based on ways to use educational gaming to reinforce classroom instruction.
Article and Media Coverage Links:
Chad the Bird gets lit at Logan Arcade!
Galactic Tank Force Field Guide Video: Would you like to know more?
Hot Wheels Livestream with turbografx7 and Buffalo Pinball!
Hot Wheels Tutorial and Gameplay Livestream
Legends of Valhalla Tutorial and Gameplay Livestream
San Antonio Express-News Feature Article
Slam Tilt Podcast: Save the Ice Cream!
Through this website, my goal is to encourage pinball’s resurgence. I share updates about pinball media created by the community and promote the events, competitions, and players that make pinball unique and special.
In addition, I have taken part in the organization and operation of pinball events and have provided commentary for pinball tournaments which you will also see posted on this website.
Favorite quote:
“Ride that beast! Ride that Perfectly Normal Beast, Sandwich Maker!” –H2G2
Second favorite quote:
“Play a real game! Play pinball!”
Favorite pinball callout:
“You FOOLS! I told you to use the Atomic Blaster!” –Medieval Madness
First pinball game:
Space Shuttle
First console and video game:
Intellivision Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack
This game helped me to learn math when I was very young. Although, I remember that my 2-year-old self initially found it difficult to understand these two things while playing blackjack: First, why ‘J’, ‘Q’, and ‘K’ were the same as the number 10. Second, why, when I chose double down, sometimes I would have a whole lot of money, and other times I would lose a crapload.
Soundcloud:
World Pinball Player Ranking Profile (WPPR)
Video gaming tendencies:
I can pretty much have fun with anything except simulation sports games (sorry Madden, NBA, NHL, and MLB insert number here). I’m always behind the current trends because I will not pay full price just so I can say I had the game “day one”. I’ll get most of my games as cheaply as possible, usually in bunches that end up unplayed for a long time. My backlog is embarrassing because arcade pinball competitions and tournaments take up most of the time I would devote to videogames.
Why is this website named Fun With Bonus:
“Fun With Bonus” is what happens when you lose your ball and the pinball game gives you whatever bonus you have earned. However, most pinball games don’t just give you the bonus. Some games will give you some base points, then put a multiplier to it, then add some more points from bonus modes, and then count up the bonus for you with quirky sound effects like it’s some sort of telethon. The game is having fun with your bonus. This is where the pinball jargon “Fun With Bonus” comes from.
“Fun With Bonus” moments happen in video games as well. For example: shmups go through a fun with bonus mode usually at the end of stages to tell how well you did. Players receive mountainous amounts of bonus points after the game calculates the number of medals, combos, and other skillful things they did during the stage. Maybe that is part of the reason why I like shmups even though I am not very good at them.
