![]() The sweet smell of success doesn’t linger. “When I beat Jesse…” he says, gobsmacked. His score of 41 million trounces Baker’s 36 mil. One more shove of the machine and it tilts: Game over. Now he’s in multi-ball again! This time he’s flipping furiously, just trying to keep from draining. When he passes 22 million points, the machine knocks-a short, loud sound designed to let everyone in the place know he’s crushing it. He saves another from the drain with a quick left/ right slap to the sides of the cabinet. With hip and hand, he nudges an outlane-bound ball into an in-lane. Masterson traps and cradles them in the flippers so he can deploy them, one at a time, to execute a strategic sequence of moves. He shoots the ball up a ramp lit by neon-like fiber optics, and it disappears into a scoop-a hole that locks the ball and then, after releasing it, activates multi-ball, sending steel spheres raining down. Masterson pulls the plunger ever so gently to knock off a skill shot (a specific first target after the ball release for extra points). Masterson, 43, is trailing Jesse Baker, also 43, who is Cincinnati’s top-ranked pinball player and the arcade’s owner. Jesse Baker, Cincinnati’s top-ranked pinball player, is photographed at his Arcade Legacy in Newport. It’s got futuristic motorcycles on its sides and a play field pulsating blue, yellow, and orange lights to the electro beat of Daft Punk. Justin Masterson steps up to Tron: Legacy, a pinball machine based on the sequel to the cult 1980s sci-fi movie. It’s a muggy summer evening at Arcade Legacy Newport, a cavern of electronic amusements in a shopping center between Supercuts and Crunch Fitness.
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