'It was a special game': Edmonton pinball player celebrates high score and shout out from game designer
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
He first started playing pinball when he was a teen.
"I remember the local fish and chip shop had a pinball machine," he said. "I would put 20 cents in and have a game."
He said it's the randomness of the game that drew him in.
"The ball has a mind of its own and you try to control it. I think that's fascinating," said Dave.
For the past four or five years, Dave and his wife Kim, can often be found playing pinball machines at the Sherbrooke Pub.
"It's our thing. It might not be for everybody but it's what we do," said Kim Formenti.
Kim & Dave Formenti play pinball at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
They were there on Easter weekend for a few games on the Foo Fighters pinball machine.
"It's fast. It's a three flipper game with multiple ramps and a very interesting code to try and complete," said Dave. "An extremely challenging game with a great soundtrack and lots of fun."
Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
It's a machine Dave has played at least 100 times over the past year. Soon into that two-player game he earned an extra ball.
"Originally it was like, 'Oh man he's got the extra ball. He's just going to keep going. I'm on my phone for a bit. This is going to be awhile before I get my turn,'" Kim joked.
She said 20 minutes later Dave was still playing.
"I'm like, 'OK, I'd better pay attention here.' We've never been this far and sometimes he looks to me to kind of cue him," said Kim.
Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
"You have to be very strategic about your gameplay and accomplishing modes in order to progress within the game," Dave said.
"The big points come from the final battle. So if you can progress through the game and get to that final battle there's massive points," he added.
Dave completed all of the modes required to finish the game – the display then rolling the end of game credits.
"It shows all of the characters from the game as it rolls through. It runs across an old movie script in black and white that shows Jack Danger's name as the credits are rolling through at the end of that game," Dave said.
"Then a little rewind icon pops up and the movie film zips back and everything resets back to the beginning and you start the game over again," he added.
"I said to my wife we want to watch this 'cause we will never see it again."
"We sat there in awe together. We were just kind of immersed in the moment and the excitement of it all," said Kim.
Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
Dave earned five extra balls during his game. He said he still had two left to play after the game reset. His entire game took about 40 minutes.
"It generated a 6.2 billion point score which I had never achieved before, not even remotely close to that," said Dave.
"I've seen him do 1.4, 1.6 but I've never seen him go that high," said Kim.
Dave Formenti's high score on the Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
"It's extremely hard," said Jason Zazula, another local pinball player.
Zazula has played for more than a decade and competitively for about nine years.
He bought his own Foo Fighters machine in August and plays it at least six times a day.
"I haven't even cracked one billion yet and Dave has done six billion," he said.
"Doing that on a game that's not in your house, where you can just take off the glass and cheat is a huge feat," he added.
Zazula posted a photo of Dave's high score on a social media page for fans and collectors of the machine.
One of the comments came from a 'Dead Flip Pinball Streaming' – a page run by Jack Danger.
"He's the chief game designer for Foo Fighters. He acknowledged that that score was a big fat WTF, literally blown away," Dave said proudly.
It's a shout-out Dave said made him feel special.
Dave Formenti playing Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)
"It was a special game. It happened once, probably never happen again but I’m terribly grateful for people acknowledging that it's something a little bit special," he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
'What have we done?' Lawyer describes shock at possible role in Trump's 2016 victory
A lawyer who negotiated a pair of hush money deals at the centre of Donald Trump's criminal trial recalled Thursday his "gallows humor" reaction to Trump's 2016 election victory and the realization that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to the win.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.
Police order B.C. woman who praised Hamas not to protest for 5 months, says her group
A pro-Palestinian activist group says its international co-ordinator, who was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation, was released with an order not to attend any protests for the next five months.
Conservative MP says Chinese hacking attack targeted his personal email
A Conservative MP is challenging claims by House of Commons administration that a China-backed hacking attempt did not impact any members of Parliament, because the attack was on his personal email.
Loblaw leaders call criticism 'misguided,' say they aren't to blame for high food prices
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.