Where Do You Play Real World Pinball Tables?

[mrgamesmaster]

Well, for me, it's been pizza places, arcades and even college at one point. I'm Southern California born and bred. Back in my hometown of Encinitas, I got to play Addams Family at the local Round Table. There was also an arcade called Pinball Plus--closed now --which had Mario Bros and some other tables. Been too long, so it's harder to remember.

During my early years of college, they had a gameroom which included Revenge from Mars (perfect condition) and Twilight Zone (great condition). That's how TZ became my favorite. Kept playing it, made LITZ and could keep playing for hours. Those were the days. ;p

Other places I've been to include Boomers! (then known as the Family Fun Center) in Vista where I now live which had Big Hurt and Jack*Bot from what I can remember. It's been a long time since I've been there. Thanks to TPA, I can say that I've played all the Pin*Bot tables now. That place is still open and I do want to see if they have any tables around now, so I'll be going back soon.

More recently, I went to the Vista Entertainment Center and they have a PotC pinball table which was the first table I played w/my fiance. Most recently, I found a Tilt in the Plaza Camino Real in Carlsbad which is where I got to play 5 ball Centaur . The flippers do stick a little bit, but it's very fun all the same and got me hyped when I heard TPA got it. They also have the old school table King of Diamonds. I gotta admit that table is difficult. Crazy how small they made those flippers back in the 60s. I do have pictures of those two I can add later on. I also got my fiance into these ones. She's not as skilled at pinball as I am yet, but is learning pretty quick, so I could have a challenge on my hands soon. ;p I'm glad to say I just found a group on Meetup for the San Diego Pinball Club, so I'm very much looking forward to returning to my roots again.

 

[Redrazorback64]

Anyone know of some good places to play pinball in the DFW area?

Also, if anyone lives around the Portland area, I have friends there who love Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade. They have almost 30 pinball machines and tons of arcade cabinets. http://groundkontrol.com/arcade/

 

[Kolchak357]

I will be heading to the Pinball Parlour in Earlington PA this Thusday to play some pins. I'm going with a friend from work and maybe my wife (she's still not sure if she wants to go). If anyone else is going to be there, please say hi. I wear glasses and will have a yellow baseball cap on.

 

[MontanaFrank]

Anyone know of some good places to play pinball in the DFW area?

Also, if anyone lives around the Portland area, I have friends there who love Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade. They have almost 30 pinball machines and tons of arcade cabinets. http://groundkontrol.com/arcade/

Ground Kontrol is a great place to play pinball. I went there a couple of weeks ago and played CPub for the first time. Another great place to play is the C-Bar here in Portland - http://rosecitypinball.com/c-bar/. It has some great older machines. I went there for the first time last Wednesday and got to play most of their games. My favorite was a SeaWitch that had been newly refurbished about a month ago. What a great looking table.

 

[Clawhammer]

Ground Kontrol is a great place to play pinball. I went there a couple of weeks ago and played CPub for the first time. Another great place to play is the C-Bar here in Portland - http://rosecitypinball.com/c-bar/. It has some great older machines. I went there for the first time last Wednesday and got to play most of their games. My favorite was a SeaWitch that had been newly refurbished about a month ago. What a great looking table.

Yup, GK and C-Bar are great. I miss Portland pinball.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

The main place I go to play pinball is Pinball Wizard in Pelham, NH, mentioned frequently here.

But it's worth mentioning that the last time I went to Canobie Lake Park, they seemed to have actually had someone come in and fix some of the pinballs in the main arcade! For years, all but the newest two or three machines there were completely unplayable, with weak flippers and most switches broken; I doubt they'd been serviced at all in a very long time. But now even the Star Trek:TNG and Monster Bash are in OK shape (Star Trek had one ball cannon non-operational, but Battle Simulation etc. just used the other one), and the ones that aren't are actually turned off or marked out of order. It's an encouraging development, and I hope they keep maintaining these pins.

Also, all the Canobie pins have gone down to 25 cents a play (though you have to pay park admission to get to them, of course).

 

[Vyrastas]

There's plenty of tables in my area (CA Bay Area)... I've been using pinside.com to find and update them. Was in San Francisco yesterday and there are a bunch there too.

Hey if anyone is at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk there are quite a bit of tables to play and all of them were pretty much open to play. I took some train ride over there and was surprised to see so many of them.

Yeah there are a lot there... next time I go down I'll be spending some time at the Boardwalk.

 

[sotie]

There's plenty of tables in my area (CA Bay Area)... I've been using pinside.com to find and update them. Was in San Francisco yesterday and there are a bunch there too.



Yeah there are a lot there... next time I go down I'll be spending some time at the Boardwalk.

I think I'm taking the kids there next week.

 

[Vyrastas]

I think I'm taking the kids there next week.

Santa Cruz? Nice... I'll probably won't go back until the off-season, when it's not so crowded.

 

[Redrazorback64]

Ground Kontrol is a great place to play pinball. I went there a couple of weeks ago and played CPub for the first time. Another great place to play is the C-Bar here in Portland - http://rosecitypinball.com/c-bar/. It has some great older machines. I went there for the first time last Wednesday and got to play most of their games. My favorite was a SeaWitch that had been newly refurbished about a month ago. What a great looking table.

Wow, that's a nice line up. I'll recommend to my friends.

So I've been to Nickelrama, an arcade in Garland, 3 times in the last month. They have 8 of the newer Stern machines. All of them are in decent condition. That's the best I've found for DFW so far.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Went to buy a new controller for PS3 (white one) since my other 3 are broken in one way or another and after stopped in the juice shack in the same parking lot to play NASCAR pin and there was a credit waiting for me! nobody else was in there, I got a replay off of it then missed the next replay value dropped in my $.50 cents got 2 more replays so I got 5 games for $.50 cents. The sounds are kinda cheesy to me as a NASCAR fan but I like the flow and the table was in great shape.

 

[Heretic]

What the **** do you do with yer controllers

 

[Punisher]

Since I live in New Jersey, and by the shore to boot, there's a boardwalk with four arcades, three of them having pins. One has LotR and South Park, another has Family Guy, Sega Star Wars, Stern Indiana Jones, Data East Batman, and a Spiderman. There's one more, which I haven't been to, recently, but it houses MM, ToM, Junkyard, and from what I read, even a WOZ. I gotta check that one out. It's been a while.

 

[atlantis1982]

I got two locations:

A comic book shop that is roughly twenty-five minutes away from home. Got quite a bit of machines over there.
Second is one of the movie theaters nearby, but it only has two though its Rolling Stones (Stern) and Tron Legacy.

 

[dirtslinger]

I doubt anyone is around in my area but in Somerset, KY there are three tables at the Cinemas 8. They are Addams Family, Goldeneye 007, and Elvis. They all are in great shape. Also at the Somersplash Waterpark they have a Lethal Weapon 3. The sad thing with that machine is though the left flipper needs a rebuild I think as it sticks all the time. Also it is kinda slow cause it really needs too be cleaned. I just heard there was a Guns N Roses in town but I have not confirmed that one yet.

 

[Vyrastas]

Hey if anyone is at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk there are quite a bit of tables to play and all of them were pretty much open to play. I took some train ride over there and was surprised to see so many of them.

So I was down in Santa Cruz today... most of the pins there suck (Neptune's Kingdom and Casino Arcade). A number are out of order and many others were in very poor condition, making a few unplayable (broken/stuck flippers). Very disappointing.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Currently 10 miles away at a friends house, he has TFTC, FH, SM, IJ and soon MMPM.

 

[Captain Chris]

Great thread! Any recommendations for Upstate NY? Lake George is good, some machines could use some work. but I wasn't sure if there were other places I didn't know of that are good as well. Thanks!

 

[timmyD]

I suggest everyone check out Pinside

You can locate many places, and I update when I see more pins.

For Me it's Pinball Wizard, Funspot and Weirs Boardwalk all in NH. Soon I'm going to hit up Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts, I hear there are 20 more tables there and they are open year-round!

 

[Captain Chris]

I suggest everyone check out Pinside

You can locate many places, and I update when I see more pins.

For Me it's Pinball Wizard, Funspot and Weirs Boardwalk all in NH. Soon I'm going to hit up Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts, I hear there are 20 more tables there and they are open year-round!

Yeah I like Pinside, but most of the places on there in my area were places I listed. I feel like Tom Hanks' character in the movie Big trying to find the Zoltar machine, lmao, even to the point where I contacted the amusement company for this area to see if they knew any other places..