Who has been to the Pinball Hall of Fame?

The Game Room
61

I saw this thread today and it inspired me to post for the first time in more than six years!

I live in the Pittsburgh area and there is a local organization called The Professional and Amateur Pinball Association which is usually abbreviated as PAPA. Every year they run a convention called Replay FX which is held at Pittsburgh’s David Lawrence Convention Center.

I go to Replay FX for the 80s-ish standup arcade machines. But their core business is pinball. There are hundreds of pinball machines and many tournaments that you can enter.

Look it up for a future visit!

PS: The Replay FX website is still showing data about the 2018 incarnation. I don’t know when it will run next year.

62

I will do that! Pittsburgh, I could drive to.

Check out my “Pinball Redux” 1 & 2 threads.

63

I now have a fantasy about opening an arcade that is about 90% pinball machines, arranged by decade, with my choice of the best machine of the decade placed center, on a platform (or maybe the best two, it there’s a tie), and the rest of the best of the decade placed in a circle facing out, and having machines from the 1950s through the present, with maybe a single demo machine or two from the 1940s.

Then, I’d have some video games from the 70s and 80s, only the best ones, that would attract players still, even if just out of curiosity, because they’d heard of them, and a concessions stand, with a small sit down area.

I might put in a 50s or 60s era juke box that played oldies, and an air hockey table, along with a coin-operated pool table.

If money were no object, I’d put in a few rides for kids-- pony rides, and the like, everything for a quarter, or a token.

I’d call it “Lost World,” after my favorite machine, and because that’s what it would be, since arcades have kind of gone the way of soda fountains and payphones.

I’d need “hooks” to stay in business, somehow. Maybe I’d need to get a liquor license, and kick out everybody under 21 at 9:30pm, then at 10, start selling alcohol, and stay open until 1am (3am on the weekends), and have lots of events. Tournaments, Halloween parties with people in costume, and a free play on all the ghost/monster/horror themed machines, costume prizes, a New Year’s party, with a cover charge that included a free drink, and some free tokens. Maybe one weekend a month with a local band playing live. Free tokens in December and May for kids who bring in report cards with As on them.

No, I haven’t given it too much thought. Why do you ask?

64

Thanks for the heads-up about this place, eh. If I ever find myself in Pittsburgh, now I know how to kill an afternoon.

It’s a dang shame they don’t have a Blaster machine. I’ve been looking for one for a few years now; I figure since I live in Paradise, it should be easy for me to get to paradise, ya know what I’m sayin’?

65

That place sounds awesome.

66

There are still arcades out there; you just have to know where to look. However, pretty much every arcade now consists entirely of redemption machines, including some that only take quarters and pay out the same way. I can think of two explanations for this:

  1. Why bother putting in quarters to play a video game when you can play who knows how many better games back at home on your XBox / PlayStation / Wii of the month?
  2. Pinball machines are (a) very expensive (new ones run at least $5000), and (b) you need to have reasonably specialized skills to fix a broken one. You show me a Star Trek: the Next Generation pinball where the shuttlecraft still work. You would think there would be more “virtual” tables available (where the playfield and the ball are just a video screen), although it could be because older people would say, “It’s just not pinball,” and newer ones would say, “Who cares?”.
67

I hate virtual tables. I don’t care that you can have 50 different tables in one.

68

I don’t “hate” them but you can’t compare a virtual table to the real thing. One of the biggest appeals of pinball is how this machinery is able to move a real ball around, it’s like comparing a well-made antique clock to a digital watch. And you don’t get the haptic feedback from a virtual table that you get with a real physical machine.

It’s like the difference between visiting an aquarium and watching a documentary on fish, or the difference between watching a sporting event on TV or going to see it in-person.

69

I’m in Las Vegas currently, and visited the Pinball Hall of Fame today.

Had a great time. I love those old EMs from the 1970s. I reached way back in my memory to remember just how to get big points on them. I must have remembered something correctly, because I got a few replays on scores.

Lots of families there today, and it was good to see kids playing pinball and loving it. There are chairs and step stools for children, so they can be tall enough to play. Interestingly, a lot of the kids were playing the older games (1960s and 1970s); but I guess that may be because those old games play slower than today’s games, can be a lot more forgiving, and the kids don’t have to be lightning quick on the flippers.

And when I wondered if it was time for me to get back to my hotel, imagine my surprise when I looked at my watch and found that I had been there for a couple of hours! All in all, I had a great time at the PHoF today. Rivkah, I’m sure that when you visit, you will too.

70

so how was the trip? oh heres a thread for ya ………https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=866724

71

Bumping the thread. I was just at the Pinball Hall of Fame last Friday, and it may have been the highlight of my trip. It’s in a new location now, along the strip close to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

I loved it. Definitely relived my childhood. They even had old non-pinball machines I’ve not seen since the 1960s, such as a couple of those baseball games where it shoots a pinball out, you bat it, and depending on where the ball goes, some little mechanical baseball players run bases. I spent way too much time there.