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They've got the brains. They've got the tools. |
About Us:
Twigg and K love pinball, and they hate to see an old pinball machine just sit and grow old because of a few technical problems. They're serious about bringing dead machines back to life, and they're not going to let something so small as having no idea what they're doing get in their way.
So join Twigg, K and their friends as they take the bull by the horns (or flippers by the buttons, as it were) and dive head first into figuring it out along the way. This site will chronicle their adventures....
Twigg:
Project Lead, Head of Research
(AKA “Double”)
He’s thin, he’s tall, he has a background in computers, and he’s not afraid to tackle any project. Growing up in small town Utah, Twigg frequented his father’s bowling alley, fostering that adolescent love for pinball machines in the alley’s arcade. Today, he wants to help bring these American art forms back to life. Twigg knows the Internet better than he knows his sock drawer, and if you can’t find something, chances are he found it three days ago and is just waiting to wiggle it in front of you like a carrot in an effort to pursue his own amusement.
Letter K:
Team Coordinator, Acquisitions
(Everyone just calls him “K”)
Letter K is a gamer. Asking strangers for quarters in the arcade, begging for Nintendo games, forcing girlfriends to wait until he found a save spot, he has never for a moment grown tired of video games, even though his father has chastised him for it since he was thirteen. As a child, K was afraid of pinball machines and the rapidity with which they seemed to consume his quarters, but as a financially independent adult, he has found a pure love for pinball machines of all sorts.
Letter K takes all his overtime pay and turns it into pinball machines. Like Twigg, he too wants to see these American treasures returned to their original glory, with all the lights working, the ball screaming around loops and slamming into drop targets. Usually, he’ll settle for not making the machine worse.
D-Lu:
Transport, Test Lead
(Projects job security: 100%)
Growing up as Letter K’s younger brother, D-Lu never thought the two would become such close friends (each other’s best men and all that…) or that he would one day be traveling throughout California’s central valley with his lunatic brother to cart pinball machines back home to Stockton.
As long as he’s free, he’s down. All he asks for is a little gas money, the occasional lunch, and free play on the machines. D-Lu is quick to point out the flaws in a game, which makes him the perfect tester.
Jones:
Restoration, Doses of Reality
(AKA “The New York Kid”)
Very little is know about the enigmatic Jones. Some say he never sleeps and others tell tales of his ability to excite women he's never met from two houses down. His Earthly enjoyment of classic video games has never crossed into the realm of pinball, but he deigns to assist these comically inept project men. Is he bound to them by an alien honor, or by the whimsy of fate? Does he wait patiently for a violent electrocuting death to finally cut his ties? We may never know....
Jones and his realistic take on the projects can turn wild ideas into fantasy and grand schemes into reality. His unabashed delivery of these doses of reality add a much needed sobriety to the dubious ministrations of his fellows, even though like the others he is rarely sober.
Ryan:
Consultant
(A.K.A. Broke Dad, The Godfather of Pinball)
As the story goes...
As a mild-mannered electronics technician, Ryan one day found himself sipping coffee in the break room. Suddenly he found himself confronted by the serpant encrusted head of Medusa! He pleaded to be left in peace with his burned and barely palatable caffinated beverage, but alas his cries were not heard as he was frozen by the steely-balled gaze of Medusa's dark pinball magic. Hence forth, he became a minion of the great master of all things well lit and flashy...the Pinball Wizard.
Broke Dad's love of older machines and experience working with them makes him the perfect father figure to help guide the project boys in the right direction. His background in electronics will undoubtedly prove useful as Twigg and K sally forth towards endeavors that will likely get them electrocuted without the proper supervision.
Amethyst:
Web Design, Webmaster
(Actively opposes a nickname. “Am” is acceptable—if she likes you.)
Amethyst couldn’t actually care less about pinball, but she’s got free time, knows HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript, anyway, and doesn’t mind helping the boys with their web site. She’s infrequently convinced to come into the garage to play the machines, but only under optimum temperature conditions and only after a two drink minimum.
Her cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best approach to web design makes for a simultaneously frustrating yet entertaining experience for her, and a clean, simple to follow experience that the whole world can enjoy (as long as they speak English). Any and all complaints about said web design should be forwarded to hahabiteme@pinballprojects.com.