appearence and departure of pins at arcades

[norbert26]

back in the hey day of the arcade pins would be brought in. they would have a run of 6 months some longer. tables that did not make it or were not pleasing to the operator (too many replays or the like) would vanish overnight sometimes replaced by a new table sometimes not. Where did these tables go ? i know in some cases to another arcade that may have leased from same company but after the pin ran its time in the arcade where did they all go. there were 1000s of most pins made .

 

[Bowflex]

I imagine that a lot of the time, the machines were rented from a company (along with arcade cabinets). In that case, they would just send it back to them and the distributor would reallocate it to a place that had an order. I know more about the arcade games aspect where those machines were often converted to a new game by either a conversion kit (swap roms, decals, marquee) or gutting it and salvaging the parts that could be reused. Eventually the machines would end up getting sold or destroyed. There is a video on youtube of some place throwing pinball tables off the top of a building. Pretty horrifying.

 

[shutyertrap]

From what I understand, there was a long standing practice of taking non working tables to the dump. They were designed to survive something like 5 years and that was it. Distributors that had them on route didn't wanna deal with fixing broken pieces and mechanics gone bad. Gotta remember, no internet until mid 90's, so finding parts or selling tables was significantly more difficult if there was no interest in your region.

 

[DanBradford]

I live in London UK and am always so jealous when I hear about the thriving pinball scenes in other countries, especially the US.

I travel to The Netherlands every couple of weeks for work, and stay in a smallish town called Leiden, where I know of at least 12 pins in the city centre where I can go and play. And I read of cities like Portland or Seattle or New York, with literally hundreds of playable machines on site.

Guess how many there are in London, a city of 10 million or so? At the last count, there are about seven.

What's it like in your city?

 

[neglectoid]

What's it like in your city?

i live in colorado springs, colorado. in the late 80's thru the late 90's there were tons of machines here. id guess about 2/3rds of the bars had at least one table in them, most of them had 2 or 3. it was awesome, not only were there tables galore, they maintained them regularly. and if something major was broken on the table, there was a little card on the apron of the machine that had the vendors name and number that you could call and most of them would have the problem fixed in a couple of days. sometimes (when im real drunk) just thinking about what we had, it makes me cry, because deep down, i know our town will never care about pinball again.

but those halcyon days are gone now. other than a penny arcade that has about 30-40 em's (mostly in horrible condition) there are very few machines here. id guess we have about a dozen pins (out of a city that has nearly 500,000 population if you include the subburbs around us.) it's really pathetic and truly saddening. however denver, which is about 60 miles away has probably close to 200 machines and they for the most part regularly maintained. if i didnt love this town so much, id pick up and move there. a couple of years ago i spent a weekend in denver and did a pinball crawl in the downtown area and had the time of my life.

as far as the OP, where did they go? i have no clue, but they will still live on forever in my memory.

 

[Espy]

I live in London UK and am always so jealous when I hear about the thriving pinball scenes in other countries, especially the US.

I travel to The Netherlands every couple of weeks for work, and stay in a smallish town called Leiden, where I know of at least 12 pins in the city centre where I can go and play. And I read of cities like Portland or Seattle or New York, with literally hundreds of playable machines on site.

Guess how many there are in London, a city of 10 million or so? At the last count, there are about seven.

What's it like in your city?

You should come to Glasgow. Four hours on the train, and I can name at least 12 in the city centre alone. The HMVs here have taken to installing them (all from the same operator), so if you come to Scotland, pretty much every HMV in the country has at least two.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

I live in Needham... There were never any. Unless there was some kind of arcade back in the late 80s no one knows about there.

 

[netizen]

What's it like in your city?

According to the Pin Side map there's around 30 in and around my city. But they're in single and double scattered every where. Most of em in places that have cover charges or are way the hell out on the opposite end of town, but not really close to any other location.

The largest concentration of Pins in one spot is the airport, but only on the departure level, which makes for some interesting play for sure.

 

[norbert26]

Quote Originally Posted by DanBradford What's it like in your city?

in the 80s every mall had an arcade with at least a few tables in it. The college gameroom(s) had a couple tables in them. there was an arcade two miles up the road that had quite a few. Today theres no more arcades in the malls. You might find a table or two in a bowling alley not sure about bars as i won't go in them. a couple years ago i seen a table in a diner. Someone reported a penny arcade out in the woods in the northwest of the state. supposedly the airport not far from here had LOTR but i never had any business at the airport to go check.

 

[Bowflex]

in the 80s every mall had an arcade with at least a few tables in it. The college gameroom(s) had a couple tables in them. there was an arcade two miles up the road that had quite a few. Today theres no more arcades in the malls. You might find a table or two in a bowling alley not sure about bars as i won't go in them. a couple years ago i seen a table in a diner. Someone reported a penny arcade out in the woods in the northwest of the state. supposedly the airport not far from here had LOTR but i never had any business at the airport to go check.

I tend to find them in movie theaters and occasionaly family oriented pizzerias or restaurants. Those are always good to check. Especially if you have the pinfinder app.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

in the 80s every mall had an arcade with at least a few tables in it. The college gameroom(s) had a couple tables in them. there was an arcade two miles up the road that had quite a few. Today theres no more arcades in the malls. You might find a table or two in a bowling alley not sure about bars as i won't go in them. a couple years ago i seen a table in a diner. Someone reported a penny arcade out in the woods in the northwest of the state. supposedly the airport not far from here had LOTR but i never had any business at the airport to go check.

So I'm guessing you live in RI? Because I've probably played that LOTR at the airport, it was in pretty good shape.

 

[norbert26]

So I'm guessing you live in RI? Because I've probably played that LOTR at the airport, it was in pretty good shape.

yeap not far from that airport if i ever have business there i will check it out .

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Cool. Nice to see someone else who lives near my state besides Nightwing. And what diner is this, I'm probably going to check if they still have one.

 

[Bowflex]

I am up in Brighton mass as well. Just did a tour of new hampshire last weekend! Lots of great pins there!

 

[Matt McIrvin]

What is it about New Hampshire and pinball? The state seems inexplicably pinball-rich.

 

[SpiffyRob]

Unexpected tables in unexpected places in NH/VT. Imagine my surprise when I found a Scared Stiff in pretty solid condition (coffin was taped open, but nothing impacting gameplay) at a bowling alley in White River Junction, VT.

Headed back that way for Thanksgiving, hoping I can swing by Lui Lui in West Lebanon, NH. Many moons ago they had a BTTF and Time Machine there. Doubt they're still around, but I'd squeal like a schoolgirl if they were!

 

[Bowflex]

Funspot is ok...they have about 10 tables in mediocre condition. Great collection of arcade games. Pelham has Pinball Wizard Arcade. It is a mecca. Almost as good as Pinball HOF in Vegas but less EM games. They do have a hercules which is a novelty but cool to play one time in your life. They also have Wizard of Oz. Lanes and Games is just outside of Cambridge MA. Lots of newer pins/tech. They have all the newest Sterns and they also have the Color DMD on a couple older tables. Only have about 10 games, though. Worth the visit to play the latest Stern tables.

 

[switch3flip]

I live in a city with 120 000 people, it's the 12th largest city in Sweden. We have Medieval Madness, which broke on me last time I played, ball got stuck under troll which broke a spring or something, probably on my best start of the game ever, had all castles destroyed, was troll master and just finished a multiball with all balls activated, joust damsel and so on. On my first ball (!) with two extra balls waiting to be collected...operator comes to release the ball, but I already knew just opening the coin door to slide down the glass slam tilts the game and ends it. This was second game in a row ball got stuck the same way for me so I guess it broke the previous game. I knew I, the game and the machine were screwed. Argh! Well I could play one of the other pins on location; spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Arabian nights or Monster Bash. Or go to the movie theatre close by and play Avatar or Red and ted, or head out to the bowling alley and play World cup soccer. I was over it though, so I headed back home.

 

[norbert26]

Cool. Nice to see someone else who lives near my state besides Nightwing. And what diner is this, I'm probably going to check if they still have one.

the diner folded a few years ago it was an old hotdog place . i dont even remember what table it even was i did not have time to play and didn't have any coins on me.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Ah well.