Features Editor:
Lisa Toth
lisatoth@dailyemerald.com
Monday, October 22,2001
Not just for wizards anymore
■Though the popularity
of Pinball’s has fallen over
the last decade, it’s still
a daily distraction for some
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
President of Stern Pinball Inc.,
Gary Stern said pinball is an
American icon, and like our
country’s economy, pinball is
n’t in the best shape.
In October 1999, Williams Elec
tronic Games Inc. left the pinball
market, making Stern Pinball the
sole manufacturer of pinball ma
chines in the world. Stern said the
pinball market has bottomed out,
and it won’t ever return to the level
of success achieved in 1992. In that
year, Stern said 100,000 machines
were made. In 2001, Stern Pinball
will have produced 10,000 ma
chines, at most.
Stern said his company is com
mitted to releasing at least three
games a year that have been de
signed in-house. Designing a game
takes anywhere from nine months
to a year, he said. Stern’s upcoming
release, Monopoly, was designed
in-house with the help of outside
designer Pat Lawlor.
Lawlor is a celebrity in the pin
ball industry, having designed
many successful machines, includ
ing “The Addams Family,” which
is the biggest seller of the modern
era games, according to Stern.
Jerry Johnston’s company,
Amusement Unlimited, distributes
pinball machines and other games
to The Break in the EMU. Five of
the company’s 70 pinball machines
are at the University, which is more
units than at any other location, but
pinball is only 10 percent of the
company’s business, Johnston said.
Though pinball may be an Amer
ican icon, it has international ap
peal. Stern Pinball does 40 percent
of its business in exporting ma
chines around the world, primarily
to Western Europe. Stern said good
pinball is self-teaching in a Pavlov
ian way: People respond to the me
chanical stimuli before visually rec
ognizing it — thus language
barriers are less important.
“We need to have enough in the
game for the better player, but first
we need to create fun for the casu
al player,” Stern said.
University student Jason Lewis
is not a casual player. For 11 years,
he has perfected his skills at pin
ball into a fine art. Lewis said he
spends a dollar a day for pinball
on average (mostly in The Break),
with an average playing time of an
hour and a half. But that varies.
"I have had to rearrange my gro
cery budget (because of excessive
playing) — not by intention,
though,” he said.
Lewis establishes a direct con
nection between pinball expendi
tures and his classes in any given
term.
“Playing pinball is a wonderful
diversion from my classes not be
cause it is a mental diversion; it
ranks among the only times that
my mind is actually stimulated,”
he said.
Where the average pinball
player doesn’t know all the subtle
nuances of a pinball machine,
Lewis has memorized most as
pects of his favorite machine,
“Medieval Madness.” One of his
hints is activating multiball play
before raising the trolls so that
there are more balls on the table
with which to hit the trolls.
Based on his criteria for good
pinball games, Lewis said he is not
hopeful for the Monopoly pinball
machine.
“They found the right medium
for that, which is the board game.
Pinball machines are manic.
They’re relentless, and they’re fast
paced. Monopoly is slow,” he said.
Pinball distributor Johnston said
that he would likely buy a few Mo
nopoly machines and has already
bought two Austin Powers games,
one of which is in The Break.
Lewis keeps an eye on new
games, such as “South Park,” but
for the most part he is focused on
beating “Medieval Madness” and
getting more free games to perpet
uate game play. To date, his record
of free games, which is how he
measures pinball success, is eight.
Lewis was present when his older
brother beat “Attack from Mars”
in the EMU. He described it as “a
spiritual experience,” vicarious
though it was.
“He is the ruler of the universe,”
Lewis said.
That title isn’t simply Lewis be
ing boastful — the game bestows
the honor after the victory.
Though the industry may not be
booming, players such as Lewis
will consider pinball indispensa
ble.
“I still use the phrase, ‘Let’s go
play video games,’ but it means
pinball,” he said.
Mason West is the senior Pulse reporter
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be
reached at masonwest@dailyemerald.com.
Adam Amato Emerald
The Austin Powers game, pictured here in The Break on the first floor of the EMU, is one
of many machines owned by pinball distributor Jerry Johnston.
Bestseller ‘Bridget Jones’s Diarv’ is a daily delight
■The humorous incidents
related in this popular volume
will ring true for many readers
Helen Fielding
‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
She sits at home on Saturday
nights indulging in Bloody Marys,
waiting for the phone to ring and
watching television reruns to cure
her loneliness. At one point or an
other, many readers have been in
the shoes of Miss Bridget Jones.
This sometimes clueless, 30-ish
working “singleton” seeking Mr.
Right is the primary character of
Bridget Jones’s Diary, a novel by
Helen Fielding.
But this witty and poignant book
is more than just an average daily
chronicle of events. It’s filled with
the day-to-day inner workings of
the female mind.
The release of this No. 1 na
tional bestseller-turned-major
motion picture has given women
everywhere something to laugh
about and discuss. Fielding based
this book on her columns in the
British newspaper The Indepen
dent.
The 12 chapters of this creative
daily record represent each month
of the year. The first chapter begins
with Bridget’s long list of New
Year’s resolutions, and the final
chapter ends after Christmas the
following season.
A few of her resolutions in
clude forming a “functional rela
tionship” with a responsible
adult and reducing the “circum
ference of thighs by 3 inches (i.e.
1 1/2 inches each), using anticel
lulite diet.”
Bridget embarks on an intense
quest to find Prince Charming
and improve herself inside and
out. But it is quickly evident that
like Alice falling through the rab
bit hole, Bridget can’t seem to
maintain control in her life. Each
chapter begins by documenting
her daily successes and failures
with the amount of calories and
units of alcohol she has con
siimed, fags (British for cigarettes)
smoked and lottery tickets pur
chased.
What makes the beginning of
each chapter amusing is that Brid
get is the concentrated version of
all the stupid neuroses of the fe
male species.
For example, on Thursday, Feb.
23, she writes:
125 lbs. (if only could stay un
der 126 lbs. and not keep bobbing
up and down like drowning
corpse — drowning in fat), alco
hol units 2, cigarettes 17 (pre
shag nerves — understandable),
calories 775 (last-ditch attempt to
get down to 119 lbs. before tomor
row).
Readers can’t help but relate
their own experiences to those that
Bridget encounters — whether it
be the flirtations that lead to shag
ging her boss or her frustration in
learning to program the VCR.
On Monday, June 12, she writes
about fumbling with the VCR in a
frantic attempt to tape a television
show:
10:33 p.m. Yesss, vesss. RECORD
ING CURRENT PROGRAM. Have
done it!
Aaargh. All going mad. Cassette
w
has started rewinding and now
stopped and ejected. Why? Shit.
Shit. Realize in excitement have
sat on remote control.
It also becomes evident as the
novel progresses that Bridget un
apologetically enjoys sex. Her
scandalous frolics with younger
men or “twenty-somethings” and
the miniskirts and revealing outfits
she wears to work further prove
that point. But her desperation for
male attention also leads to heart
break or what she refers to as
“emotional fuckwittage.”
At times, Fielding overplays
Bridget’s female insecurities, such
as her constant need to lose 20
pounds and desire to find a steady
boyfriend. This pounding repeti
tion in almost every chapter be
comes annoying.
But Bridget’s focus on achieving
happiness through such superfi
cial means, as well as her flakiness
and ineptitude, are what make it
evident that romance and the per
fect weight aren’t the keys to lead
ing a satisfying life.
Whenever Bridget feels as
though she is losing it, she mur
murs phrases to herself such “in
Turn to Book review, page 6
007505
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