It makes sense from a nostalgia view and this article is interesting. But is it true where you live? Do you see local pinball or Frogger tournaments?
Here in Olympia we had a “pinball museum” open just before the pandemic which unfortunately didn’t survive, but we just had a new arcade open just a few blocks away with some of their stock. I know of arcades in Portland, Tacoma, and Renton all of which have a sizable stock of pinball games along with vintage video games and modern games, and Seattle has a pinball museum of its own, as does Vegas. There’s definitely a market at least for the nostalgia value, and it’s relatively inexpensive to drop $10 or $20 and spend a couple hours playing Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat or the classic Star Wars game with vector graphics alongside pinball tables for The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or all three generations of Black Knight.
A lot of the new wave of arcades also serve beer and finger foods like pizza and tacos, so you can have a snack and a sip while playing, and the latest trend has been replacing the coinslots on the machines with readers that you tap with a prepaid card to load a credit.
I was a volunteer tech at the Museum of Pinball in Banning, CA. We had the largest publicly accessible pinball collection in the world (600+ pinball machines and 500+ arcade games). It was all auctioned off during the pandemic at prices about double the going rate in 2019. New pins by Stern, Jersey Jack, Dutch Pinball, and Spooky are coming out all the time. I’m on a waiting list for this one;
I don’t know about “coming back” in the sense of every grocery store, movie theater, convenience store, having coin-op games, or there being arcades all over the place like there were in say… 1988.
But, there is a sort of resurgence in the idea of an arcade combined with some other amenities- food, beer, etc… along with some combination of retro games, modern games, and the ticket-paying sort of games.
I can think of one that uses nickels & has lots of ticket-paying games, I can think of one chain that’s a bar/arcade combination that specializes in retro games, and I can think of several Dave & Busters sorts of places- there’s D&B of course, but there’s also one that’s basically a bowling alley with an arcade and restaurant, and another that’s a combination bowling alley, movie theater, laser-tag, arcade, bar, and restaurant.
Most of these have pinball machines, but not as many as the standup video games.
I think it’s both neat and weird at the same time that my children seem to LOVE the whole arcade experience, despite getting regular PC video game time at home. I have to admit that I never really looked back once PC games drew parallel with coin-op games.
There’s a retro-arcade in the greater Little Rock area and one in Fayetteville, Arkansas. But now that you mention it, a new bowling alley/arcade/game place opened up in Little Rock earlier this year. I suppose that’d be evidence? The last arcade I can remember was in a local mall, and as I was in my 30s I felt too old to be in it, but I can’t remember when it went out of business.
I like pinball. The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Addams Family are two of my favorites. But Addams Family will set me back at least $10,000, so I’m unlikely to purchase it unless I want the more expensive divorce that follows.
There’s a place nearby that has me itching to go. They have a bunch of pinball machines and you can go in and play any you want all day for $10. I used to go to arcades and play some machines all day for 25¢, but to try all of them could easily cost $2.50 or more. That was a mere half century ago, so look what inflation has done since then.
There’s one near here that’s doing good enough business to have survived the pandemic, in fairly expensive real estate.
OTTOMH Barcade in Philly and somewhere in NJ, Silverball Museum in NJ, Flynn’s in FL. And I’m sure Round 1 has some retro and pinball machines.
I have an emulator and many arcade roms. There’s something special about playing on an arcade machine though.
One of my treasures is: I have a brand new, in-box, playfield and back glass for my Black Knight 2000.
It’s something my wife is likely to throw away when I croak, so I should probably write “Valuable” on it…
Don’t forget about the professional pinball players who make a lot of money at pinball tournaments all around the U.S. – and maybe elsewhere, too, I don’t know.
I’ve played in a lot of pinball tournaments and have never seen a purse worth more than four figures. I’ve rubbed elbows with some of the top ranked players in the world and never got the impression anyone made a living doing it.
I just travelled from Seattle, WA to Madison, WI. Both have many more arcades than they did ten years ago. And a new-ish bar in Seattle has a second floor with arcade games and pinball machines (and you get free plays on Tuesdays!).
Arcade/bars are all over the place here in Dallas.
I kind of want to go, but I also get the sense that I would get bored really quickly. I don’t think the nostalgia sticks with you for very long.
At least that’s what has happened when I’ve bought retro consoles for the house.
I went to one in Fayetteville, Arkansas back in 2019. I paid my 5 or 10 bucks and spent a little over an hour there. I would have stayed a bit longer, but I dragged a coworker with me and she was pretty much done by the time we left. I don’t think I would have played there for much longer than two hours on my own. But it was worth it just to play Discs of Tron again.
Nevermind
I’ve got some older Williams pinballs, and they are some of the best investments I’ve ever made.
if I ever win the lottery im going to track down all 3 or 4 versions of the star wars pinball games …(the data east one was the best in my opinion although the recent stern one is great too )
It’s almost impossible to lose money buying a used (or even a new) pinball machine as long as you’re buying from other collectors and find one close enough that you don’t pay for shipping. Go here!.
The two machines I bought used are worth twice what I paid 5 or 6 years ago. The Batman ‘66 machine I bought new in 2018 for $6800 goes for around $9K now. The problem is, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to sell them no matter what they would fetch.
I’m not seeing pinball machinee in my locality - then again, i don’t go to places where they might be featured, like Dave & Buster’s or the few pubs/arcade places that offer them. Supposedly the big theater complex at the Fayette (KY) mall has pinball.
I was a pinball devotee back in college in the early to mid '70s. I probably spent more time playing pinball than studying at one point, which hardly helped my grades (a fellow enthusiast dropped out of school).
I had crazy flipper fingers.
I don’t see evidence of a long term comeback.
The barcades have it in the name - there’s often alcohol on site and the venues are marketed at adults. Video game arcades themselves mainly had a 2-3 (?) decade lifespan in the US. And the kids who grew up with them through their entire childhoods are now in their 30s-50s, right? So, people who are now largely established in life with good earning power and a hankering for a piece of their youth.
They clearly also have a shelf life. In another few decades they’ll likely be gone as well, but that’s still a good run for a business.
Not to say younger kids wouldn’t also enjoy them, but they’re not going to be flocking to them vs playing at home - where they can also be on Discord or stream on YouTube or Twitch at the same time.