There's no shortage of bad celebrity themed pinball machines. This time we wont rank them, instead well look at several different genres of bad celebrity tie in games:

THE BOX OFFICE BOMB THEMED MACHINE:

In 1991 Williams Pinball released a machine based on Terminator 2. It had a gun trigger to launch the ball and a ton of Arnold's catch phrases like Ill be back keyed to various game objectives. The film was a huge hit, and everything worked well together. Now the bad news: because of the success of this machine the production companies thought "Hmm. What well do is release the pinball machine simultaneously with the film."

Unfortunately, this thinking led to a number of pinball machines based on films that were absolute bombs. Some examples of this genre are machines based on The Last Action Hero, Judge Dredd and Hook. There wasnt a cooler cartoon than The Flintstones. So how do you screw up a Flintstones pinball machine? Just base the theme not on the classic Hanna Barbara cartoon, but on the horrible film starring John Goodman and Rosie ODonnell.

My all time favorite of the "bomb" themed machine has to be "Waterworld". Waterworld was released in 1995 starring Kevin Costner and quickly became the definitive big budget, no box office film replacing Michael Ciminos Heavens Gate and the Dustin Hoffman/Warren Beatty comedy Ishtar.

Playing a bomb themed pinball machine is downright surreal. The most pitiful thing is when the machine booms out a catch phrase from the film that no one is familiar with. Hearing Arnold bark out "I'll be back" is cool. Hearing him do his catchphrase from "The Last Action Hero" not so much.

THE DUBIOUSLY TIMED THEME:

This genre includes themes that would have been pretty cool, except for the fact they were released well after the subjects popularity had begun to ebb. Gilligans Island would have been great back in the mid-1960s or even in the late 70s when a new generation discovered the show in syndication. In 1991 it was just creepy since nearly half of the cast members depicted on the backglass were dead. The Six Million Dollar Man was released in the fall of 1978, just in time for the shows cancellation.

Undoubtedly the strangest machine of this genre is 1994s Mario Andretti. The backglass didn't display a picture of a young Andretti at the height of his racing career, but rather an image of grizzled old Mario Andretti. The smart move would have been to use his name, throw a bunch of race cars on the backglass and playfield and call it a day. Instead having the sixty-something race car driver on the backglass is vaguely akin to having your grandfather looking over your shoulder while you play.

ROOT,ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM:

A comment on the original celebrity theme article mentioned this genre and it is a good one. Its important to understand that the pinball industry has been based in Chicago for most of its history. Presumably for that reason there have been some machines featuring the local sports teams and stars. Chicago Cubs Triple Play isnt too bad due to the Cubbies national popularity. That's not the case with 1978s Bobby Orrs Power Play, released not long after the trade that sent Orr from Boston to Chicago. Nationally, no one outside of Boston and Chicago cared. My hunch is that it was made to scam some free season tickets out of the Blackhawks management.

THE BAD CONVERSION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET:

During the height of pinball's popularity was common practice to rebrand a perfectly good game for the International market. Sometimes it was released by the US company, other times it was licensed to a foreign operation. Youd think that there would be some creative control over the rebranded themes. Youd be wrong.

While I have a good grasp on the US pinball demographic I have no idea what sort of degenerate plays pinball internationally. Based on some of the re-themed machines its probably better I dont know. Mata Hari was a classic machine of the early 1980s. The German release was rethemed as the more foreboding Lady Death. This one at least makes sense as they had some Nazi imagery that Germans are understandably sensitive about (despite being historically inaccurate, since the real Mata Hari was executed during WW I). Less understandable is the retheming of a military themed game called Special Force in the US to the downright bizarre Special Forces Girls, featuring comely women in low cut, cleavage baring fatigues.

The New Orleans Hornets got some good news regarding injured point guard Chris Paul on Wednesday. Paul will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Thursday, and the diagnosis is favorable for a return before the playoffs. Paul suffered a partially torn meniscus in a game against Golden State last week. Preliminary diagnoses suggested that he'd be out of action one to two months.

Paul will have surgery in Pensacola, Florida with Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham, Alabama performing the procedure. Andrews is considered among the best in the world at treating sports related injuries, and is considered especially effective at treating knee and ligament injuries. Andrews has worked on a 'who's who' of professional athletes from pro wrestler Ric Flair to New England Patriots' QB Tom Brady.

Hornets' coach and GM Jeff Bower sounded relatively upbeat in discussing Paul's procedure on Wednesday:

"We are anticipating a very successful process. We look forward to his return to action at some point later on. The time frame will be determined after the surgery. I won't speculate on that.Obviously you never want to be in this position to replace a guard like Chris Paul in the middle of the season. We want to continue to take advantage of the talent and skills that Darren [Collison] and Marcus [Thornton] have shown over the course of this season. We're encouraged with the play of our current group and will continue to monitor that. We feel confident in their capabilities."

Paul originally hurt his knee in a game against Golden State last Wednesday and then re-injured it on Friday night against the Chicago Bulls. He sat out Saturday's game against Memphis. Paul averages a team-high 20.4 points and an NBA-best 11.2 assists. Darren Collison has taken over his spot in the starting lineup and has played well, including a Hornets' rookie record 18 assists to go along with 17 points in a win over Memphis this past weekend. After the victory, Collison stressed the importance of maintaining team continuity:

"It's nothing I haven't seen before. We've been jelling with Chris, and without him I don't think it's going to stop us."

New Orleans lost to Phoenix on Monday night but will play five of their next 7 games at home. It's not a particularly easy schedule, however, with visits from improving Oklahoma City as well as Boston and Utah. The two road games are against NBA East playoff bound teams in Charlotte and Orlando, so the Hornets will have the mettle of Collison and the rest of the team tested early in Paul's absence.

The video game is now a ubiquitous part of American pop culture but pinball still holds a cachet of cool. Pinball went through a few lean years during the early years of the video boom, when designers tried to cram as much stuff onto the playfield as possible, perhaps feeling the clutter was needed to replicate the video game experience. In recent years, however, designers appear to have concluded--and rightly so--that pinball cannot be a video game, nor should it want to be.

A great game of recent vintage is the 1997 Bally release "Cirqus Voltaire". The theme is sort of a 'Cirque du Soleil" on acid, and the iconography of the circus that they cram into the design and play of the game is amazing. The ultimate object of the game is to "join the cirqus", which, of course, is a classical American archetype of freedom and escape. Yet this "Cirqus" is not a Norman Rockwell vision of juvenile fun--there are a lot of sinister undertones as well, including evil ringmasters and an almost palpable feeling of sleaze.

The game play offers a lot of what we've come to expect from Williams/Bally, with sweeping ramp shots, clever uses of time-worn features (like the disappearing pop bumper, reincarnated here as a balloon. As is very common with pinball games today, the game's ultimate object is to work your way through a variety of 'modes'. Sometimes this is a confusing endeavor, but here is very easy to understand--yet still very challenging to the player.

At its nadir, pinball companies were cranking out games featuring themes and subjects that offered little, if any, synergy with game play. The low point might have been some of the celebrity tie-in games of the early eighties (which gave the world debacles like a Dolly Parton and Roy Clark tie-in). "Cirqus Voltaire" on the other hand is an almost perfect synergy of subject and gameplay experience.

The really great thing about the game is the multiple levels of contextual awareness it offers. A slack jawed yokel can play it and just think its a nice game about the circus. To a cleverer player, it alternately provides a celebration and condemnation of the circus and, deeper still, of the popular culture that spawns and embraces them.

When a relationship ends there is nothing much that you can do about it. All the hurt and sorrow needs to be put behind you so that you can move on from there. There might be several reasons why the end occurred but set them aside and march on.

You will find plenty of different ways to get solace and comfort. The first thing is to be able to deal with the breakup, and deal with it in the right way. Go on and concentrate on things that can fetch you happiness. Louis Vuitton Replica Handbags can be such a wonderful accessory to have by your side when you dress up well to feel right on top of the world. Ensure that you are your active best. Dress up and take yourself to the movies. This will take your mind off the breakup.

Do not think of the breakup all the time. Find out the reasons for the breakup and you will not be left thinking about it all the time. Give it a closure so that you can move on in life. This is one thing that will allow you to move on in life. Do not place the blame for the breakup on yourself as it takes two parties to do so.

Find out some support system in the form of good friends and family who will be non-judgmental. Dress up well, go shopping for new Louis Vuitton Replica Handbags, and share your true feelings over a cup of coffee. You will love the understanding and insight that people close to you can bring you. The more supportive of your friends will be like a balm to you. Feel confident about the way you look and the image that you portray to the world.

Make sure that you are able to maintain yourself physically and mentally to optimum levels. The more active you are the better you will feel. Do not waste time mulling over things that are long gone and over with. Go on and live life to the best of your ability by laying the past to rest.

Do not jump into another relationship right away. Give yourself ample time to heal before you do so. Do not plan revenge or become vengeful. This will not bring back your lost love crawling back to you but will rather just be an utter waste of time for you. Do not let emotions override you as that will only result in a loss of energy. If you think that your ex is going to come back to you, don't be under that illusion. Go on and find a new path.

By reading into an article such as this one, I can venture a guess that you are looking to learn a good bit about the impressive film "Saving Private Ryan" and why you might care to watch it or learn more about it. The truth is, there are several different reasons that this film is so impressive, and most of them will be brought out in the upcoming paragraphs, along with a plot synopsis.

When you see this movie, you would likely not be surprised to learn who was working behind the camera to make it look so good. This film is a masterful creation of Steven Spielberg, and this is arguably one of the best films that he has ever worked on. Considering his track record with visually stunning and passionate tales, that is quite a statement in itself.

Just by watching the first thirty minutes of the film, you will see one of the most graphic, exciting and dramatic opening sequences that might have ever been captured on film. This is meant to be a soldier's first hand view of D-Day. So you head from the boats to the other side of the beaches at Normandy along with several different soldiers and see the horror of war first hand.

After this opening sequence, you are properly introduced to the main character of the piece, Captain John H. Miller. He is given a task to take himself and his company to locate a paratrooper named Private James Ryan. In war torn Europe, this is about as simple as finding a needle in a haystack, especially since the company that Ryan is with was severely scattered from one another in a failed drop.

Why are they trying to find Private Ryan? Well, his three brothers all serve in the military and have all recently been killed in action. So Ryan is given a pass to go home and be with his grieving family and prevent his mother from losing all four of her sons to World War II. Miller's company is less than shy about telling him what they feel about looking for the Private, and if they think he deserves a free ticket home.

You get to know each and every one of the men in the company through various conversations that they have about their lives before the war, and their plans for when the war is finally over. When they reach Ryan and deliver the news, he still insists he remains at his post long enough to hold a key bridge in Allied control. He refuses to leave the company that he is with until he knows this key bridge is secure and not able to be used by the Germans.

This is a blatant representation of war. This is the full range of emotions that someone in World War II might have experienced. You will cry along with them, laugh with them, celebrate with them, and fear for them when they fear for themselves. This film is littered with incredible performances, like Matt Damon as Private Ryan, Tom Hanks as Capt. John Miller and Tom Sizemore as Sgt. Mike Horvath.

So, when you are considering "Saving Private Ryan" there is a good bit to think about and understand. This article was meant to give you an introduction to the film and encourage you to see this 1998 classic if you haven't already. This might make you thankful for the life you have, and respectful of the commitment some made to ensure that you had that life the way that you do.