Tag Archives: Pinball

Pinball machines in cars

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Below is a summary of this thread at SFS – the Swedish Pinball Association. The thread is about what cars will swallow what pinballs, which is great help when you need to move some pinball machine around. Either you can spend a bunch of time going to wherever the game is, spend an hour packing it and getting it out to the car, spend another hour getting it back in and unpacking it and finally spend some more time going back home – without the machine. Or you can look it up below in advance.

Footnotes:

  • The cars and games are noted as mentioned in the thread. In many cases, more detailed data is missing. This does’nt mean that you can sue me when you’re one your way home in an empty car.
  • If nothing else is noted, it is probably safe to assume that the game was a WPC machine, and that the backbox was foldered down the usual way.
  • It is also safe to assume that all cars are the station wagon variant of the model.
  • Many cars noted as “no” will still fit a game, but only if the backbox is losened or if the tailgate is left opened, and sometimes only if the back seat is removed(!).
  • In most cars, the only problem (and sometimes the showstopper) is the combined height of the machine and the foldered backbox, which is approximately 70-75 cm.
  • WPC games are usually higher than classics games, DE/Sega/Stern games are usually higher than WPC games and Gottlieb 90′s are even higher. “Yes” below might not mean that DE/Sega/Stern/Gottlieb games will fit.
  • Some entries below contradict eachother. If you want to know why, contact the posters.
  • Volvo V70 is noted as both “yes” and “no”. This is probably because they changed the tailgate size in 2000-2001. Earlier models work fine, newer models are very tight.
  • This page might be updated. Now and then.
  • Hey, Americans: Sweden is in Europe, which is across a lot of water. American cars are rare here, so you might not find your car model below. Feel free to email me your findings though, and I’ll add them.

Last update: January 23, 2012

Brand Model Year Games Fit? Notes
Audi 80 1995 No Fits with open tailgate
Audi A4 No
Audi A6 No
Audi A6 Avant 2010 WPC No
BMW 5 1997 No
BMW 3 E46 Touring 1998-2004 WPC No Fits with losened backbox
BMW 325i E91 Touring 2007 No Not even with losened backbox
BMW 5 E34 Touring 1988-1996 WPC, Sys11 No Fits with losened backbox
BMW 525 E39 No
BMW 525 E61 2005 No Fits with open tailgate
BMW 525 Touring 2002 No
BMW E36 Compact No Fits with losened backbox
BMW X5 TMBOP Yes
Chevrolet Caprice 1977-1990 No Fits two classics with losened backboxes
Chevrolet El Camino 1972 Sys11 Yes
Chevrolet Kingswood 1971-1976 No Fits two games with losened backboxes
Chevrolet Kingswood 1971-1990 WPC No
Chevrolet Suburban 2002 Yes Will fit two games
Chevrolet Tahoe 1999 Yes Will fit two games
Chrysler PT Cruiser 2001 WPC No Fits with removed backseat
Citroën Berlingo Yes
Citroën Berlingo Family No Fits with losened backseat
Citroën BX No Fits with open tailgate
Citroën C5 2003 WPC, Stern, Sys11, DE, SMB Yes
Citroën C5 2003 Gottlieb 90′s No Fits with losened backbox
Citroën C5 2007 WPC Yes
Dodge Caliber No
Fiat Marea Weekend WPC Yes
Ford Escort 1997 Sys11 Yes 80 cm high
Ford Escort 1997 DE Yes
Ford Escort Express 1996 Yes
Ford Galaxy 2009 Yes
Ford Mondeo 1997 WPC Yes
Ford Mondeo 2004 WPC Yes
Ford Mondeo 2005 Big Guns Yes
Ford Mondeo 2004-2008 WPC Yes
Ford Mondeo 2004-2008 Capcom No
Honda CR-V Yes
Hyundai Santa Fe 2007 WPC Yes
Kia Ceed Yes
Lincoln Navigator Yes
Mazda 6 2007 WPC Yes
Mazda 626 2000 Yes
Mazda 626 2.0 1999 Sys11 Yes
Mercedes B-klasse Sys11 Yes
Mercedes E-klasse 1999 WPC Yes
Mitsubishi Space Star Stern Yes
Mitsubishi Spacewagon 1999 Yes
Opel Astra 2000 WPC Yes
Opel Astra 2005 WPC Yes
Opel Combo 2000 WPC Yes
Opel Combo 2001 Yes
Opel Combo 2004 Yes
Opel Vectra 2007 Yes
Peugeot 206 No Fits with losened backbox
Peugeot 307 WPC Yes
Peugeot 406 Yes Incl wide body
Peugeot 806 Yes
Peugeot Partner Yes
Renault Clio Wild West Yes
Renault Grand Scenic 2004-2009 Yes
Renault Kangoo Yes
Renault Megane 2008 DE No Fits with losened backbox
Renault Megane 2008 WPC Yes
Renault Megane 1999-2003 WPC Yes
SAAB 900 1980-1993 Yes
SAAB 900 1990- No Fits with open tailgate (due to the brake light).
SAAB 9-3 1999 WPC Yes
SAAB 9-3 2001 WPC Yes
SAAB 9-5 2007 Kiss Yes
SAAB 9-5 2005 Hot Shots No Fits with losened backbox
SAAB 9-5 Time Warp Yes
SAAB 9-5 WPC No Fits with losened backbox
SAAB 9-5 HGV 2000 Yes
SAAB 9000 1987 WPC Yes
SAAB 9000 1987 Star Trek (Bally) Yes
SAAB 9000 1993 WPC Yes
SAAB 9000 CC 1987 WPC Yes
SAAB 9000 CC 1989 WPC, SoF Yes
SAAB 9000 CS 1997 WPC Yes
SAAB 95 WPC Yes
Skoda Felicia No Fits with open tailgate
Skoda Octavia WPC No Fits with losened backbox
Subaru Legacy 1992 Yes
Subaru Legacy 1992 SC No Fits laying on the side
Subaru Legacy 2005 WPC No
Toyota Avensis 2003- WPC No Fits with losened backbox
Toyota Carina 1991 Spirit of ´76 Yes
Toyota Carina 1993 WPC Yes
Toyota Corolla Xli 1991 WPC Yes
Toyota Prius Stern No Fits with losened backbox
Toyota Varis Verso Yes
Volvo 245 1988 Yes
Volvo 245 Gootlieb 90′s No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo 740 1987 WPC Yes
Volvo 850 1996 Yes
Volvo 940 1992 Sys11 Yes
Volvo 945 1997 Yes
Volvo 745 1987 WPC Yes
Volvo 745 1988 Hot Shots No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo 745 WPC Yes
Volvo 945 WPC, Stern Yes
Volvo V40 1999 Kiss Yes
Volvo V40 WPC Yes
Volvo V50 WPC Yes
Volvo V50 WPC No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo V70 1998 DE Yes
Volvo V70 1998 Stern Yes
Volvo V70 1999 Sys11 Yes
Volvo V70 1999 WPC Yes 79 cm high
Volvo V70 2003 No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo V70 2008 No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo V70 No
Volvo V70 WPC Yes Tight
Volvo V70 WPC No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo V70 MY11 WPC No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo V70N 2001- WPC Yes Very tight
Volvo XC60 No Fits with losened backbox
Volvo XC90 Yes
VW Caddy 2004 WPC Yes
VW Caddy 2005 Yes
VW Caddy Life WPC Yes Fits two standard-wide WPC
VW Caddy Life WPC with gun No Not long enough
VW Golf III Gottlieb Sys1 Yes
VW Golf Variant 1993 Yes
VW Golf Variant No
VW Passat 1993 WPC Yes
VW Passat 2010 No Fits with losened backbox
VW Passat 1997-2005 Yes
VW Passat 2000- Yes
VW Passat 4WD 1991- WPC Yes Tight
VW Passat 4WD 1991- DE No Fits with losened backbox
VW Passat Variant 2009 WPC No Fits with losened backbox

The European, and the World, Pinball Championships

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It’s been a real pinball period now, with the IFPA World Pinball Championships last weekend, and the European Pinball Championships (EPC) the weekend before that. The EPC was in Northampton, a bunch of miles north of London. Me and some other Swedish players were scheduled to land on Heathrow at 13.50 local time, but since the famous English weather decided to close Gatwick down, we had to wait in the air for an hour before we could land. Oh well, we had plenty of time to get to Northampton…

Heathrow – Northampton, a 103 km drive on highways.

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…and it took plenty of time to get to Northampton. Since the weather couldn’t stop us, the UK Department for Transport did its best. Road works and accidents combined made the 1h+ drive take more than three hours. We were supposed to start playing the country tournament at 17.45, and at 17.40 we arrived to Northampton. By then our handheld GPS had run out of batteries, and we hadn’t brought the car charger. Another car with Swedish players were behind us though, and they had a working GPS, so when they arrived to Northampton, we used them as GPS by proxy, and finally arrived at the site at 18.00 sharp. The warming up that we had planned turned into an instant start of team tournament matches.

The Jochniyle Trans-Atlantic Express

The Jochniyle Trans-Atlantic Express

But despite the abrupt start all the Swedish teams did well, and when the qualifications round was over, all three Swedish teams were among the six teams that made it into the final, ending up on place 1, 2 (my team) and 5. A 50% chance of a Swedish victory! However, one of the American teams was the better players, and they won the team tournament. My own team had apparently burned all our energy in the qualifications, and we ended up on sixth place. The other two Swedish teams took the 2nd and 3rd places.

The organizers had apparently taken the warning about the tight schedule seriously, since they had done everything in their power to minimize the ball times on the games. This makes the outcome more random, and a lot of good players didn’t make it into the finals. Players like Neil Shatz, Roy Wils, Albert Nomden, Jorian Engelbrektsson and myself ended up on embarresing positions. I ended up as 89:th, which is my all time low in ANY tournament, and the first time I ever miss the finals in a big tournament (except PAPA).

Anyway, it made it possible for me to put all efforts into the Classics tournament. They had eight classic games put up, and the best score on each game would continue into the finals. I took aim for Big Fair, and had a battle against Roy Wils for the win. I finally got 3453 against his 2893, and made it into the finals.  And so did four (almost five) other Swedes! That’s domination…

Classics finalists

Classics finalists

The semifinal was played on Time Fantasy, where Jörgen Holm and I scored around 2 million points each, leaving the other two way behind. In the finals, Jörgen and I met Neil Shatz and Jim Belsito on Firepower. Belsito got over a million, giving him the victory, and I got second place with about half a million. The silver medal somewhat compensated for the catastrophy in the main division, and at least I didn’t had to go home empty-handed.

Jörgen and I had a flight booked the same evening, so we left immediately after the Classics final. We arrived at Heathrow in time to check in and return the rental car, and went for a smoke. After the smoke we headed towards security, but they wouldn’t let us in! The didn’t say why, and just directed us to a desk. At that desk they explained that there’s a new rule, saying you have to arrive at security at least 35 minutes before take-off. We looked at the time. 33 minutes to take-off. We’d been ONE minute late! She said there was a 30 minute wait at security. Heck, we were at terminal 5, there’s never more than ten minutes to wait at terminal 5 security. And BA flights to Sweden is at gate A10 or A11, which is a two minute walk from security.

If I wanted to catch a train, I’d get down to the train station, and if I’m there at least ten seconds before take-off, I’m on my train. But when flying, you have to be there hours before take-off, and go through a lot of meaningless procedures and elephantiasis security measures. And of those hours, 99% is waiting time! What the heck is wrong with the aviation business?? They really need an extreme makeover.

We rescheduled our flight and found ourselves a hotel, and all together that smoke was the most expensive one (with ordinary tobacco) of my life. Heathrow hotels really know how to get paid more for less.

Todd playing with cows

Todd playing with cows

A week later I was back in England again. This time for the IFPA World Pinball Championships in, or rather outside of, Hemel Hempstead. Nick Bennet provided his personal farm to host the tournament! Rather unusual, but all you need to host a pinball tournament is space and power, and the farm had enough of both.

The qualifications system was a lengthy (but good!) one, taking one and a half day of continious match play to complete. I started fine, parking on positions around 12-15 somewhere. Since positions 1-8 and 9-16 were seeded in later into the finals cup ladder, it was important to do good in the qualifications. After the first day I was at the 18th position, so I had to play good on day two, to get into the seeded bunch of players. But morning pinball is not my bag, so I fell down to the 24th position when the qualifications was over.

That meant I had to play all rounds of the ladder. I started up against fellow Swede Marcus Hugosson. He beat me at F-14, but then I won four games in a row. Next opponent was Krisztián Szalai, the Hungarian guy who got second at EPC the week before. It was a tough match, and it took nine games to determine the outcome, before I finally won on Road Show(!). The next match was against Neil Shatz, second at IFPA last year, second at PAPA 2005 and third after me at EPC Classics this year. I beat him playing good on Star Trek, Simpsons and Road Show (again!), and had the least lousy game on Star Gazer. 4-0!

The quarter finals was the first match on the third day, and my opponent now was noone else than Bowen Kerins, the reigning IFPA champion and multiple PAPA champion. And again, morning pinball is not my bag. I got about 50 million on Simpsons against Szalai and Shatz, and I got 2 million against Bowen. Bowen had an easy win, 4-0 without having to put any effort into it. I had really been looking forward to that Simpsons game, since we have both made fantastic scores on tournament mode Simpsons, but apparently that fantastic match wasn’t this match. :(

The last game was a tie breaker for the quarter finals losers. Once again I met Jim Belsito, and once again he beat me to it. But I beat Cayle George and Trent Augenstein, earning myself a sixth place in the tournament. I’m pleased with the outcome, even though I really wanted to give Bowen some more competition. I won $400 and a bottle of IFPA Jalapeño Sauce!

This time the return flight went fine, except for “poor” Jorian, who had to stay to play the final against Bowen. Bowen won once again, keeping the title for another year.

Now I’m home for a few weeks, before it’s time to go to PAPA to battle once again…

/P

Coincidents

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Last weekend I had some plans. Saturday, I was going to Lidköping to play Lidköping Pinball Masters Open. Monday, my beloved AIK played against GAIS in Gothenburg. In stead of driving 500 km back home and then 500 km more to Gothenburg, my plan was to bounce on Brygghuset in Fiskebäckskil (70 km north of Gothenburg) on Sunday, to eat some good food. They’ve got the best food in all of the west coast.

I had some stuff for my brother in Örebro, so on my way to Lidköping, when I was half an hour from Örebro, I called him and asked him to head for the highway. He told me he was already going to the highway, since he was loading his car for a vacation on the west coast. I met up with him at a rest stop, where he’d been waiting for less than a few minutes. He was going to Hafstens camping, 25 km from Fiskebäckskil. Same day, same time, almost the same destination.

I went playing pinball (got fifth), and stayed at a hotel for the night. The next day I went to the camping site, and spent some time with my brother and his kids. I invited them to dinner at Brygghuset, and we drove to Fiskebäckskil. The kids fished some crabs in the harbor before dinner, when someone suddenly yelled at us from a jetty. It was our old family home neighbor, who also happened to be a classmate of my brother back in elementary school.

Then my sister-in-law answered her phone. It was her parents. They were in Uddevalla. So we invited them to joins us for dinner. They accepted, took a cottage at the camping site and came to Fiskebäckskil. Instead of me eating alone, we ended up being seven people at the dinner!

I was just waiting for my mother to show up in Gothenburg, or some old friend of mine to be at the same gas station where I was filling my car, or something like that. I did meet up with some friends in Gothenburg, and of course I did meet a lot of friends at the football game, but those meet-ups where planned or at least anticipated.

A – Stockholm, B – Örebro, C – Lidköping, D – Hafsten, E – Fiskebäckskil, F – Uddevalla, G – Gothenburg

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And it’s not the first time…

Itty bitty world

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I’m in LA right now, attending the MS TechEd conference. Walking around on the premices meeting people, both new accquaintances and people I already know. Perfectly normal. The other day Knowledge Factory had a party. Jeremy Moskowitz, running GPanswers.com, is a partner of Knowledge Factory, and he was at the party. It turns out that he plays pinball, and that he met a Swedish Pinball player last year. But he can’t remember the name, but he’s got a friend back home that do, so he could text her and ask for the name. So Jeremy sits down and start to write an SMS. I look at his phone, and the to field reads “Jamie”. I realize that Jeremy is from Seattle, and I know a Jamie from Seattle, so I ask him if it’s Jamie Beth. Yup, it was Jamie Beth – My candy lady! I told Jeremy to text her that he was partying with Candyman. And of course I knew that Swedish guy very well as well – Mats Runsten. Hilarious!

If we were talking about Säffle and Bromölla or some other redneck places I wouldn’t have been that surprised, but now we’re talking about two million-headed cities, and two guys meeting at a conference with several thousand attendees in a 15 million-headed city…

A couple of days later I met up with my friend John – the shotsbricka guy – and went to the Pig’n Whistle on Hollywood Blvd. We had a beer when this guy comes up and asks if he can have some snus from my box on the table. Apparently he had lived in Sweden, and he even had a Swedish flag tattooed. He talked about an Opeth concert the next day, and I told him that I knew a former singer of Opeth. It turns out that he knows him too, and a couple of other Swedish friends of mine, both from Stockholm and from Örebro. Hilarious!

Itty bitty world.

/P

Edit: And it happened again!

Swedish Champion, again!

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After becoming the Swedish Champion yesterday (in doubles), today I became the Swedish Champion once again, this time in Classics. Two Swedish Championships gold medals in the same amount of days! This means that I have proven to be better than 9 million other Sweden not only once, but twice.

In the singels, I got beaten by my doubles partner Mats Runsten in the 1/8 final. I won the first set, and was very close to pass him on the last ball of the second set, but got beaten by a doubtful tilt. Mats won the third set without any doubt at all, and later on he got in second place.

I’m a little disappointed over the second set there. I think I would have won against the guy that Mats meat in the next game, and then I would have been in the semi finals and in worst case got in fourth place. But on the other hand, how disappointed can I be with two gold medals on the shelf?? :)

/P

Swedish Champion!

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Today me and my partner Mats Runsten won the Swedish Championships! No more “twice as good as Sven Nylander” for me! The final against Jörgen Holm and Jorian Engelbrektsson was exciting, and the first set ended with 1.458.289.870 for us and 1.459.356.330 for our opponents. The difference is less than one promille! But then we won the other two sets and won the game by 2 against 1. Swedish Pinball Doubles Champions: Patrik Bodin and Mats Runsten. Tastes good.

I finished the singles qualifications as number 14, making me end up in the top seeded group (top 16), meaning I can sleep a little longer tomorrow. I finished the classics qualifications as number 6, but there are no seeding in the classics. Tomorrow I play the finals for both the singles and the classics. Wish me luck!

http://www.flippersm.se/?s=resultat

/P

Update: I did it again!

Äntligen! (Swedish)

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Äntligen!

Hösten 2003 spred sig ett roat leende inom flippervärlden, när gamle Patrik PAL Bodin annonserade att han skulle göra comeback, efter nästan 10 år utanför rampljuset. Gubben var ju inte ens bra när det begav sig, med en sjundeplats i SM som bäst! En niondeplats i SM det året och endast några medaljplaceringar i lokala småtävlingar närmast bekräftade den allmänna meningen. Han borde ha hållt sig till Soduko.

Hösten 2004 förstod dock folk att han menade allvar, då han i stor stil tog hem det danska mästerskapet. Finalen på Lord of the Rings blev legendarisk då den tog över tre timmar att spela färdigt. Prisutdelningen klockan två på natten blev lika legendarisk, då alla i publiken redan hade gått hem och lagt sig.

Men åren efter det hände något. Gubben spelade visserligen bra i de lokala småtävlingarna och vann ett gäng av dem. Han tog också framskjutande placeringar i många stortävlingar. Men hann vann ju ingenting stort! Två SM-silver och en fjärdeplats. Tvåa (två gånger), trea och fyra i Stockholm Open. Femma i EM. Nia i VM. Förvisso ett VM-guld, men det var i lagspel. Gubben fick öknamnet “Flippervärldens Sven Nylander“, och tävlingsarrangörer började ge sina tävlingar slogans som “Vem kommer före PAL den här gången?”.

Även på hemmafronten satte de uteblivna framgångarna sina spår. PAL stod utan sponsorer, och de dyra resorna världen runt till olika flippertävlingar utan några vinster och prispengar frätte på förhållandet. “Varför vinner du inte VM istället för de lokala småtävlingarna utan prispengar?” undrade med rätta hans fru.

Nu skriver vi hösten 2008, och alla har vant sig vid att se honom förlora finaler och semifinaler på löpande band. Men i helgen spelades Borås Pinball Open i svenska Borås. Kvalet spelades i två grupper, och PAL vann sin kvalgrupp överlägset. Folk skrattade. Det hade han ju gjort förut, och han vinner väl ett par slutspelsmatcher och åker ut i semin som vanligt.

PAL vann dock även sin semi. Folk skrattade igen. Ännu en finalförlust i vardande! Jorian Engelbrektsson vann den andra semin, och skratten ökade i styrka. Inte skulle väl PAL kunna rubba JOE, det unga stjärnskottet som 2007 kom från ingenstans och sopade hem allt (VM, EM och SM)? Nej, nog skulle världsmästaren ta hem det här utan större bekymmer. Finalen började på Demolition Man. JOE spelade till sig 950 miljoner på sina tre kulor, och PAL låg på 200 miljoner med bara en kula kvar. Allting såg ut att redan vara klart.

Men då vaknade gubben! Blicken blev till is och lederna stelnade i en nästan onaturlig position framför spelet. Helt plötsligt satt vartenda skott! Det gick ett sus genom publiken när han startade multiboll efter multiboll, och när dammet hade lagt sig hade han kommit ifatt och gått om JOE! Det andra spelet i finalen, Cirqus Voltaire, blev en enkel historia där den sammanbitne PAL krossade JOE utan pardon. Något tredje och avgörande spel behövdes aldrig. PAL tog hem pokalen och prispengarna i en stortävling för första gången sedan 2004!

Stort grattis, PAL!

Twice as good as the Champion!

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The Swedish Pinball Championships just fninshed in Gothenburg, and I won twice as many medals as the champion! He got only one gold medal, but I got two silver medals, since I completed the quite complicated task of losing two finals the same day. I came second in both the main tournament and in the Classics tournament, and I really don’t know if I should be happy about it or not. I guess I’ll be happy when some water has flown under the bridges…

However, this means I’ll step up among the top-20 at the WPPR ranking, which quite frankly is where I belong. In the three latest Stockholm Opens and Swedish Championships I’ve finished fourth, third and second. Do you notice the trend here?

/P

Gränslös frihet (Swedish)

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(Originally written as a chronical for the Qbranch web site)

Hej!

Palle här. Världen krymper. Inte så att Jorden består av mindre och mindre jord, men världen krymper ändå. Mentalt. För ett par hundra år sedan visste folk inte mycket om vad som hände i länder långt bort. Visst, men kunde kanske läsa reseskildringar. Om man kunde läsa. Och om man inte hade viktigare saker för sig. Nu kan de flesta läsa. Och många är tydligen de som inte har viktigare saker för sig. Dessutom finns det enorma mängder information om precis allting på bara ett par sekunders avstånd. Alltså krymper världen. Mentalt.

Jag var i USA förra veckan. Resan dit tog väl ungefär lika lång tid som den gjorde 1974. Jag var där för att spela flipper-VM i Pittsburgh, men gjorde en avstickare till Philadelphia, landets första huvudstad. Pennsylvania, där både Pittsburgh och Philadelphia ligger, fick 1701 ganska långtgående självbestämmande rätt av britterna. 1751 beställdes en kyrkklocka till Philadelphia för att fira självbestämmanderättens 50-årsjubileum. Ironiskt nog beställdes klockan från Storbritannien. Innan klockan hade hunnit klämta färdigt så gick den emellertid sönder. En stor spricka uppstod från kanten och en halvmeter upp.

Ace of spades

Ace of spades

Jag sitter just nu hos en kund som sysslar med Internet-poker. Internet-poker är alla regeringars hemska mardröm. Utom i ett fåtal länder – de där servrarna står. Den amerikanska regeringen har som en del vet försökt göra något åt saken, trots att vare sig pokerföretagen eller servrarna finns i USA: Spelbolaget BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers blev för ett tag sen arresterad när han mellanlandade i Dallas på väg till Costa Rica. Nu sitter jag förvisso inte som CEO hos kunden, men det pirrade ändå lite extra när jag stod i kön till passkontrollen. Vem vet vilka register jag finns med i?

De har försökt laga klockan flera gånger. 1753 försökte två John, med efternamnen Pass och Stow, att täta sprickan. De lyckades inget vidare. Än idag sitter det bultar i sprickan. Philadelphia beställde också en ny klocka, men det var inte nöjda med den heller, så den trasiga klockan fick hänga kvar. Klockan kunde klämta, men det lät tydligen inte så bra. Den klämtade bland annat när den amerikanska självständighetsförklaringen lästes upp för första gången 1776.

Internetpokern är ett väldigt tydligt bevis på att världen krymper. För bara ett tjugotal år sedan var man tvungen att sitta vid samma bord som sina medspelare. Det är förvisso trevligt att sitta vid ett bord och spela kort i glada vänners lag, men uppenbarligen har människor även andra kortbehov. Idag kan man spela poker med vem som helst var som helst. Allt man behöver är en dator. Det gäller för övrigt inte bara Poker, utan de flesta former av sällskapsspel. Flipper är väl ett av få undantag.

1777 ockuperade britterna Philadelphia. Innan dess hade dock befolkningen plockat ner alla kyrkklockor och fört bort dem från staden. De ville av förklarliga skäl inte att britterna skulle göra kanoner av klockorna. Det var dock sista gången som klockan hängde på sin plats. Ställningen den skulle hängas upp i hade ruttnat och pallade inte vikten. Så nu stod de där med en trasig klocka och en rutten upphängning. 1846 klämtade den för sista gången, varvid den sprack så pass att den aldrig mer skulle klämta.

Även Italien försöker stoppa Internet-pokern. De har beordrat samtliga Internetleverantörer att filtrera bort pokersidorna ur trafiken. Som vanligt när det gäller filter så går det naturligtvis att komma runt. Och som lika vanligt gäller det dock att man vet hur man gör. De allra flesta vet inte hur man gör. Alltså är Internet-poker ganska ovanligt i Italien. Mest uppretade är dock Malteserna, eftersom Maltas Internet-förbindelser går via Italien, samtidigt som Malta är ett av länderna utan mardrömmar. D v s ett där servrarna står.

Liberty Bell

Liberty Bell

Under 1800-talet anammades klockan som symbol för anti-slaveri-rörelsen. Den fick namnet ”Liberty Bell”, och sedan dess har den agerat symbol för ett otal olika rättighetsrörelser världen över. Jag satte mig i parken utanför klockan, och tog en paus i mitt turistande. Jag plockade upp datorn, och kopplade upp mig via ett av de fria trådlösa nätverk som finns överallt i Philadelphia. De flesta pokersidor filtrerar efter arresteringen av Carruthers bort amerikaner, men efter lite pulande med proxyinställningarna satte jag mig och spelade poker en stund.

Hur det gick i VM? En irriterande 23:e-plats. Precis som förra året. Dock kan jag glädja mig med att vi slog förhandstippade USA i lagfinalen, så en guldmedalj fick jag åtminstone med mig hem!

/P