Long before Feb. 9, 2004, I had made up my mind that I would do whatever it would take to play a real Big Bang Bar and Kingpin pinball machine.
Having spent thousands of hours reverse engineering the Capcom pinball hardware for PinMAME, my desire to see these two incredibly rare and awesome games
had reached critical mass. That's when I hit Google hard to find out who were the lucky few who actually owned these amazing machines.
Luck was on my side, as it turned out, I came across someone who happened to have BOTH machines in their possession.
The best part of all, it turned out to be Lloyd Olson, owner of SS Billiards, and world famous poster on RGP.
This was surely great luck, since I knew Lloyd was a terrific guy from all the help he had given me and others on RGP over the years.
I emailed Lloyd, and sure enough, he was very friendly, and extended an invitation to come visit him anytime.
Back in Dec. of 2003, I came across some really cheap air fare to Minneapolis, and I knew my dream would soon become a reality.
Needless to say, the 3 days I spent hanging out with Lloyd, snapping pics, chatting, and of course playing lots of pinball were days I will never forget.
Lloyd is even nicer in person than I could have imagined, and was willing to let me keep taking pictures of his machines until we both couldn't keep our
eyes open anymore. Unlike many other owners of rare machines, Lloyd was more than happy to let me take the glass off and snap pictures to my heart's delight.
I also got to meet a bunch of other great pinball fans while I was there, which really added a lot to the fun of it all.
I cannot say thank you to Lloyd enough for his friendship and eagerness to make my trip so much fun.
I've put up this site so that everyone who isn't as lucky as I am to see Lloyd in person, can still get a taste of the fun I had these past few days.
Thank you Lloyd!!
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