Once again Sam Lapian has arranged the annual pinball competition in the Netherlands (for the 4th year in a row), here follows his report of the event.

PC-Pinball Competition 2003

Day 1 Saturday the 10th of May 2003

My Crew: Otto Serpara (left) and Theo Lapian (in the buss)
with Gerard Heijmen (inventor Simulatorbox).

This year we have a Sponsor, to move our computers and equipments to the city of Leusden (The Netherlands) for the 4th PC-Pinball Competion! We have now only 9 computers to play with 6 highscreens of 21-inch, with some laptops and a large and huge loudspeaker, 4 big nes and 2 super-speakers with a total sounds of 6000 Watt (!). My Crew, Otto and Theo, arrived at the eventhall "De Korf" in Leusden with their apparatus and most heavy equipments were coming from Theo (our Technical-man). At 15.00 hour we have installed all our computers and we were testing our Digital Ultra Sounds-system for the pinballgames... what a sound!

About 18.00 hour the people can play or train on the computers with some nice games and this time they also may play the Visual Pinball-games on the big screen and believe me, it's just a great feeling to see Pinball on such a screen with a full digital sound! This year we have the "PC-Pinball Simulatorbox" from the inventor of this unique pinballbox, Gerard Heijmen (Den Haag), with his CD-Rom of the Visual Pinball-games and with 296 games on it, like "Medieval Madness, Addams Family, Terminator, Judge Dredd, Star Wars, Fishtales, NBA, Corvette, Indiana Jones, Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel, Attack from Mars, Dracula" and many many more! A lot of people have seen these games on a big screen and play them with the simulatorbox, a new dimension has been born in the pinballworld of The Netherlands! At 20.00 hour you can hear the loudness of the sound by the game "Jurassic Parc", it's a new soundsystem, because you can feel the shock-effects by the wave-sounds and thrill-effects, just a great and unique soundsystem! Near our PC-Pinballstand you can buy the Visual Pinball softwares and Simulatorbox from Gerard Heijmen, he also has presented his invention on his laptop! A lot of people was playing on the computers to manage the game for tomorrow, because on Sunday they have to play the real competitions. About 22.30 hour my Crew put of the computers and soundsystem, because we have to close our PC-Pinball stand! Tonight we went to our hotel "De Schimmel" in Woudenberg a little village 9 km near Leusden, because we have to wake up very early to have our break-fast on eight o'clock in the morning! And tomorrow is D-day... "Mothersday"! The light was put out at 1 o'clock in our bedroom, and I was dreaming what I have to give my wife on her Mothersday, flowers or maybe a Visual Pinball-game so I can play together with her on the computer, also a present for father maybe?

Day 2 Sunday the 11th of May 2003

Our PC-Pinballstand, with one of our competitors in action
and Nathalie (our referee) is watching his highscore.

Today on Mothersday, we have a nice breakfast in the restaurant and after it we went to the eventhall De Korf in Leusden. About 10.00 hour we put on all the computers and soundsystem and we we've been testing the beamer with several games of Visual Pinball, mostly from Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel with the Dolby-C Surrounds soundsystem! We have put the big screen on a table, so the crowd can see what's been happening on our PC-Pinballstand! But the loudness of our music-equipment with a power of more than 6000 Watt (!) was just impressed by the people in the big hall! We are now ready to prove the world about the real PC-Pinball together with the newest software of Visual Pinball of Gerard Heijmen.

At 11.30 hour I've officially presented the Crew (Theo, Otto and Nathalie) and Gerard Heijmen with his unique PC-Pinball Simulatorbox. And this year we have just only 15 announcements, I think that Mothersday is debt on it! So the games for to play on this fourth PC-Pinball Competition are this time:

• The Avengers (GT-productions)
• World Rally Fever (Addiction Pinball)
• Captain Hero (Pinball 97)

So first the category "PC-Kids" were started with these games, and again Giorgio Lapian (Arnhem) have show'n to be the best behind Mickey Hollander (Duiven) and Josuah Serpara (Westervoort). On the game The Avengers the champ put a score from 147.649.530 points the best score from all categories!

By the "Lady Pentium" only one lady has played this competition, Sampurna de Oude (Utrecht), but she's still the one with a lot of PC-Pinball experience and on "Captain Hero" she scored the best from all categories: 6.657.500 points! I really think, because of Mothersday, all the pretty women were at home and hugged by their husband and children! Where are the real "Die-hards" by the Lady Pentium?

By the "PC-Pinball Expert" oldy Henk Brakels (Emmen) was superior with all the games against his opponent mr. de Bruijn (Utrecht) and on "World Rally Fever" Henk put a giant score of 315.810.150 points, the highest score of all scores! So we have here a real champion, he was allready the number one of year 2000, and he was now eager to get his second title this year... and that's a real power-mind!

It's now 14.45 hour, and we have allready the names of our finalists, but only two because by the Lady Pentium mrs. Sampurna de Oude allready went home! So the finalists Giorgio Lapian (PC-Kids) and Henk Brakels (PC-Pinball Expert) were be having a "warming up" on the finalgame "Thrillride". This game has a lot of rooms and unique special-effects with lots of multiballs level, just a game for the real champion! And "Thrillride" will be played on the big screen with the Digital Surround Sounds System with the unique "Shock-effects" powered by a music-systeem about more than 6000 Watt (!). But Giorgio and Henk are real experts of several PC-Pinballgames, so this Final will be first competed by young and old!

At 15.15 hour we started officially with the Final, after first presented our two finalists Giorgio and Henk to the present audience, with a loud applause! First Giorgio may fullfil his 30 minutes on "Thrillride", he just played great and after 15 minutes he took, after his multiballs, the score of 15.000.000 points and came to the special room after rewarding by a great firework-show on the big screen! Everybody said that he will be the winner, because he had a lot of multiballs to end his highscore with more than 17.000.000 points right in time, wowwwww!!!
That's a difficult job for Henk to come over this score, but after seeing Henk behind the computer, everyone has to believe that he's the real champ! Just cool, and relax he's getting allready a highscore from 50.000.000 points, after visiting some new rooms of "Thrillride" and also get a reward with a firework-show! And just within a half an hour he ended his score about 97.000.000 points, a new highscore! A very big applause and congratulations by the people was also his rewarding, his second title again and you surely may say a World Champion on PC-Pinball... All Category Winner. And Giorgio (13 years), also from the crowd a big compliment, you are also our big champ on this Mothersday! We've ended our Final right on time, because at 16.30 hour the prices were distributed on the big DPO (Dutch Pinball Open) hall, and ofcourse I have to give the medal to the "All Category Winner" of the year 2003 to Henk Brakels (Emmen)... great Henk!

For next year it will the 5th PC-Pinball Competition, a celebration, with a lot of surprises, sensations and playing the final-game Timeshock! on a big screen! So World, please come to play "Timeshock!" against these PC-Pinball Experts and show your talent to a crowd! I'm eager to meet people outside Europe here!!!

Sam Lapian/Organizer PC-Pinball © Photos Copyright Robin van Mourik / Pinside.com

Results

PC-Kids

1. Giorgio Lapian (Arnhem)	262.345.730 points
2. Mickey Hollander (Duiven)	141.422.000 points
3. Josuah Serpara (Westervoort)	139.786.760 points

Lady Pentium

1. Sampurna de Oude (Utrecht)

53.298.930 points

PC-Pinball Expert

1. Henk Brakels (Emmen)	333.404.400 points (and "Winner All Category")
2. Mr. de Bruijn (Utrecht)	187.427.390 points

The "All Category Winner" PC-Pinball 2003:
Henk Brakels (Emmen-The Netherlands)

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