Where Do You Play Real World Pinball Tables?

[stevevt]

I have one table (Getaway) that is a 5 min drive away at a bar.

Great machine.

And 4 more that are 50 miles away at an arcade. A couple good ones though!

I see: Spiderman, Addams Family. Revenge from Mars, and ?????


I'm in Burlington Vermont, and there are only a couple machines on location here: Spiderman and one bar and Tron at another. However, I have a friend with the following:
Addams Family, Scared Stiff, Mata Hari, World Cup Soccer 94, Getaway, and Lord of the Rings
And I get to play them on a regular basis.

I also personally own an Attack from Mars and a Dirty Harry.

I'm about 3 hours from the Pinball Wizard Arcade, and I've been there a bunch of times. I also play at Lanes and Games in Cambridge Mass as often as I can.

 

[goforthewall]

I see: Spiderman, Addams Family. Revenge from Mars, and ?????

????? = Johnny Mnemonic is what I would guess from the backglass =)

 

[Brandon Debes]

It seems unlikely that there are any other Louisvillains here apart from me, but on the off chance:

• louisvillepinball.com

Is a great site for finding tables around the metro and keeping tabs on maintenance states over time.

 

[Mike]

Now that we've found Blainbrook here in Minnesota, we've been hitting it every weekend. 50+ tables. They have tournaments but until I get my chops up I'm gonna wait lol. I really stunk it up last weekend heheh

 

[IdontHave50cents]

When I lived in Colorado Springs the Manitou Springs penny arcade was a favored haunt of mine for pinball machines of various ages. If you ever find yourself in the area, check it out. You can play for hours with pocket change on the older machines. It's a good place to actually play the history of pinball.

Thanks for the tip on that. I'm moving to CO in June. Any other CO places anyone can recommend?

 

[stevevt]

Thanks for the tip on that. I'm moving to CO in June. Any other CO places anyone can recommend?

http://www.lyonspinball.com/

 

[Pinballfan69]

There's a place called Castles & Coasters in Arizona that's supposed to have a good amount of pinball machines. I have not played many since the early 90's. Will have to check out some of more popular ones and play the day one release tables that TBA has if they are there of course.

Anyone that has been to C&C in AZ know if there are a good amount pinball games? I saw a post here that mentioned there are lots of them. Will have to check them out Tuesday when I'm that area.

 

[Arnies]

For anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area there are a plethora of options.

First and foremost the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda http://pacificpinball.org/

For those that are in the city proper and not in the mood for heading to Alameda there is a great community driven map at http://www.sfpinballflippers.com/ however a lot of the bar tables are really beat up.

 

[Adam]

I live in Philadelphia and go to this place called the Pinball Parlour nearby. Middle of nowhere but the guy has a floor filled with some of the best, including my favorites like Creature from the Black Lagoon, Addams Family, Theatre of Magic, Cirqus Voltaire, Pin*Bot, Taxi, Whirlwind...the list goes on. On top of that, there are a bunch of old school arcade games on the bottom floor. Amazing place anyone should pay a visit to if you're in the area. http://www.pinball-parlour.com/

Otherwise, the bowling alley across the street from the place has a reasonable selection of Stern tables + NBA Fastbreak and I usually stop there if I didn't get my fill before Pinball Parlour closes for the day Also, University Pinball in the city has a few good ones.

 

[Adam]

Thought I'd start a thread so we can all share where we play real world pinball tables. Who knows, maybe we'll all find out about pinball arcades we didn't know about and might want to visit in the future. Here's where I play pinball here in Austin, Tx :

Check out their website HERE

ENJOY!

Oh my God, I just realized from the YouTube screenshot that there is a Baby Pac-Man machine right there...that one is a true rarity and I really wish I could play it again.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

If you find yourself near St. Louis with the silverball fever: CP Pinball - http://www.cppinball.com

Was just there tonight...they have about 70 pinballs in glorious condition. Had a great time finding out just how rusty I am at actual physical pinball. As in, my TPA scores are about 10 times what I can do on the real tables. So sad, considering ToM was my "let's bet this sucker he can't beat me" table a few years ago. It's so much easier to nudge an analog stick on an Xbox controller half a centimeter than to nudge a 250-lb table with a not-so-liberal tilt bob...all these years of video pinball have spoiled me!

Still...it's so refreshing to be able to play MM, AFM, T2, TZ, ST:TNG, LOTR, et al, "in the flesh" again...

 

[HOW]

Wow! I wish
Did manage to play:

-today. A great Stern/PLD table IMHO.
In a cinema here in NZ-All they FGs I've played here NEVER have the language turned down LOL.

 

[superballs]

I'm in Windsor Ontario Canada.

Not many places that have pinballs concentrated.
We had a theater that closed recently that had T2, Johnny Mnemonic, World Cup 94, Star Wars and ToM

I was in heaven until they closed.
I'm going to have to go on a search again.

 

[Moon Jump]

This is my good friend Jon's place in the East Village in NYC. I live on Long Island and I have to go into the city to play some good games of pinball. A local bar near me has a Terminator 3, but I doubt they maintain it. There's also a couple of bars were some guys run routes have some good tables.

Since what I do for a hobby is going around looking for arcade games and pinball I found a couple of great sites to help aid you in your search. Check out these two sites.

Arcade Fly

Aurcade

With both sites you can go in and edit places with what they have and even grade the place and let other players know how well they maintain their games. It's really cool and worth checking out. I often hear people complain how they have NOTHING near them, but just go and check these sites out. You might be surprised by what you can find.

 

[superballs]

Very true. I can't really complain.

BTW, for those looking for local machines, here's a good place to search:
http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/locationsearchform.php

I just had the sad duty of updating that site and removing one of the best pinball hotspots in my location due to it closing down...but the rest i'm going to cruise by and update.

 

[Moon Jump]

I just updated one as well. There's an indoor Go-Kart place near me that on their website showed they had arcade games, one being a NASCAR Pinball. While not the best it's still pinball. I went and it didn't exist. I asked and they said they got rid of it a while ago. I also checked where I thought that have a T3 and it turns out they used to have Shadow and they didn't keep it running good, so I don't have hope for that T3. I'll just play Jon's at his skate shop when he gets the backglass fixed.

 

[Chris Dunman]

Used to be great places in the UK, from south London all the way to Brighton and beyond to Sandown in the Isle of Wight. These days I really fear I'm gonna have to fly stateside, which would be very cool, but expensive.

Anyone know of any 10 machine plus arcades in the Southern UK?

Is interest in these wondrous machines from our youth really that niche, or is the popularity of games like this going to spread into the business community and generate a real resurgence.... Surely better for the youth of today with cash to spend and unfortunately, little to keep them off the streets...

 

[c-dub]

Anyone know of any 10 machine plus arcades in the Southern UK?

10 machine plus? I'd be happy if I found somewhere in London with 2 working machines! Where should I be looking?

 

[superballs]

This thread actually is what incited me to start the blog in my signature, while it will have some random pinball topics, my last post here made me so sad that I decided i was going to be a Windsor Ontario Pinball Hunter.

So far, thanks to some responses to a Kijiji ad i put out, i've found an Attack from Mars, a Big Buck Hunter and a Twilight Zone (both reported in excellent condition) and a couple other places that i need to confirm the tables.

 

[brakel]

Williams pinball hall of fame inspired my wife, daughter and I to take a trip to Las Vegas last year and spend some time at the pinball hall of fame. They have about 200 tables running and most of them are a quarter to play. We all played Medieval Madness, Fire power, Funhouse, Arabian Nights, Taxi, and of course many others that were not in the Williams collection. I highly recommend going there to pinball fans!