Underneath the streets of Old Town Fort Collins, an arcade bursting with retro and modern pinball machines is making adults feel like kids again.

IF YOU GO

What: PinBall Jones is a fully loaded pinball arcade with old and new models.

Where: 107 Linden St. in Old Town

Fort Collins, Colo. Look for the sign pointing toward the steps to the entrance.

Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m.; Friday, 4-10 p.m.; Saturday, 3-11 p.m. and Sunday 3-6 p.m.

Online: www.pinballjones.com

Phone: 970-224-0725

By Josh Rhoten 
jrhoten@wyomingnews.com

Kim Jones’ head is buried in the guts of an ancient looking pinball machine. One finger is following the pulse of a power cord around the underside of flashing lights while her other hand balances the board atop her head.

She finally pulls her head out, lowers the board into place and slides the glass back over the top. After twisting a key to lock it, she gently rubbed her hands on her shorts to remove the dust.

The machine begins beeping and humming behind her, ready again to swallow quarters and make a racket.

“I’m no expert on this stuff, but there is a great community out there -- online and here in the city -- of people who love them and want to keep them going,” she said. “That really helps.”

Jones is the owner of PinBall Jones, an arcade tucked under the main stretch of Old Town Fort Collins. Twenty-two machines chime and buzz at the bottom of a few flights of steps, representing an impressive cross-section of old school and modern pinball tables.

Jones worked in an arcade in her youth and fell back in love with pinball again when her friend bought one. She started with a few machines around Fort Collins before opening the downtown location, which has been active for about two years.

She said business has been good, mostly because people either have great memories of coming to parlors when they were young or want to see an actual machine in person.

“A lot of people have played on their phones or something, but there is nothing that compares to being on a table and seeing the ball move,” Jones said.

Tables in the parlor are constantly being rotated in and out. Jones purchases, trades and sells them as she goes more so with the eye of a player than a collector. Some have value based on their age, others because of rarity. But her main criteria is it must be something she wants to play.

Right now, “Medieval Madness” is the prize of her collection. A fast-paced game with lots of humor, it features voice acting from “Saturday Night Live” alum Tina Fey and is built around a castle that explodes with each hit of the ball. Released in 1997, only about 4,000 of these kitschy machines exist in the world. Jones brought hers in from Europe and added a new board to make sure it plays well.

“I always talk that one up because it is so fun and hard to find,” she said. “We probably won’t be selling that one for awhile.”

Pinball Jones also hosts leagues regularly and tournaments throughout the month. Players can come down and try to post high scores on various machines, playing for cash prizes and bragging rights.

More and more arcades like Pinball Jones are popping up in urban cities across the U.S. Jones said she was excited to be a part of that trend, helping to expose younger children to the game of pinball which was once so popular.

“The kids we get in here are great and I just love seeing their faces light up when they start to play,” she said. “I know they are getting hooked.”

Partial list of games available at PinBall Jones 
“The Addams Family” 
“AC/DC” 
“Attack From Mars” 
“Creature From the Black Lagoon” 
“Evel Knievel” 
“Lord of the Rings” 
“Medieval Madness” 
“The Sopranos” 
“Twilight Zone” 
“White Water”


Via wyomingnews.com

The next time someone tells you Tucson (and particularly the downtown area) isn't on the upswing, that things aren't improving, tell them a pinball place is opening in September.

Located at 331 E. 7th St., right off Fourth Avenue, D&D Pinball is hosting 30 machines, including the world's most popular game, The Addams Family.

From D&D's website:



D & D Pinball is the vision of Jane Decker and Gary Dillahunty to bring pinball to the Arizona pinball community, people that have not played pinball in years and to introduce pinball to a new generation that has not yet discovered the lure of the silver ball.

As it says in our title, we are truly dedicated to the Art, Sport and Preservation of Pinball. More than even playing, we love sharing the art and history of pinball and D & D Pinball is our way of promoting pinball to keep it part of the American landscape. Although pinball has been fading away little by little over the years, it is definitely doing its best to make a resurgence and we want to do our part so that as many people as possible can enjoy pinball as much as we do.

More info to come, mostly because I'm going to stalk this place waiting for it to open.


Via tucsonweekly.com

Pinball wizards, rejoice! You no longer need to feel restricted to the one or two machines at your local theater. Nestled between dim sum restaurants in the International District rests the Seattle Pinball Museum, a fully playable exhibit home to more than 50 coin-operated machines.

Don’t worry about having to waste laundry money, though. For a flat rate of $13, students can play any number of the machines for as long as the store is open.

“You come in, and you play until your arms fall off, the cops raid the place, or aliens land and everyone runs for the hills,” co-owner Charlie Martin said.


Martin and his wife Cindy opened the museum Aug. 29, 2010, after being selected to participate in StoreFront Seattle, a neighborhood support program which gives three months of rent-free store space to local artists and creative businesses.

“Three months turned into nine months … so we just decided we should run a business,” Cindy Martin said.

The Martins originally turned to pinball after getting bored of watching television after work. They bought their first machine, a 1976 model called Aztec, to play in their garage. That one machine soon spawned an obsession.

“We bought one pinball machine and it broke,” Charlie Martin said. “Got another one to play with while we fixed the first one, and next thing you know we had seven or eight and we ran out of room in the house.”

The museum features rows of different pinball machines arranged in chronological order, including a 1963 Gottlieb “Swing Along” model, a dance-themed game (the first to incorporate spinning targets,) and a 2011 Tron machine, which bathes a player’s face in the movie’s signature blue and yellow neon lights.

The progression allows participants to appreciate the differences in technology and craftsmanship from year to year while also providing a glimpse into society at the time. Many of the machines feature themes from pop-culture such as Metallica, The Lord of the Rings, and The Simpsons.

Other machines tackle more serious issues. For example, S.A.M.I. (Surface to Air Missile Interceptor), one of the few non-pinball arcade games in the museum, was built during the Cold War. The premise of the game is to defend the country from an airstrike, reflecting America’s Cold War attitude.

The artwork on the machines is nice to look at, and the history behind each is easy to appreciate. But the true point of the pinball museum is to relax and have fun, which is where the Martins truly succeed. As an added bonus for those over 21 looking to reclaim their childhood, the museum also serves craft beer for $5 a bottle.

The Seattle Pinball Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday. To get there, take the 71, 72, or 73 buss to the International District Station, then walk along South Weller Street to Maynard Avenue South.

Via dailyuw.com

In May of 1976 in New York City, Roger Sharpe watched nervously as city council members piled into a Manhattan courtroom. Reporters and camera operators had already begun setting up, eagerly anticipating the proceedings ahead. Roger, a young magazine writer for GQ and theNew York Times among others, did not expect this kind of attention. He knew lots of people, from bowling-alley-hanging teens to the Music & Amusement Association, were depending on him, but didn’t realize the whole country would be watching. Roger had been selected for this particular task not only for his knowledge and expertise, but for his legendary hand-eye coordination. He was there to prove that this was a game of skill, not chance. He was there to overturn the ban. He was there to save the game of pinball.

On January 16th, 1920, the 18th amendment officially went into effect, making the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol illegal in the United States. With that act of moral legislating, gambling became the next target. Coin-operated machines, usually associated with slot machines and betting horses, came under scrutiny. Pinball machines, with their recently-fitted coin mechanisms, became bright, and easy examples of “games of chance.” Politicians took to their pulpit to denounce pinball. Police raided parlors, bowling alleys, and bars that housed these machines. Politicians, literally wielding hammers, smashed these games to smithereens in a public show to illustrate that they too were “moral.” On January 21st, 1942, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia officially banned pinball in New York City and many other American cities soon followed suit.


Read more via gizmodo.com

Have plans for Friday night? Wanna go have a few drinks and play some pinball? How's that for a pickup line, huh? Well, better than that - don't worry ladies, I'm not hitting on you - the HQ Beercade is actually holding a pinball tournament this Friday to show off their newest machine! Check out the following press release and catch up with me at the bottom of the post for a chance to win a prize: Let Headquarters Beercade be your master of puppets next Friday night! Teaming up with Stern Pinball (the world’s leading maker of pinball consoles), HQ will be hosting an exclusive debut of the Metallica Premium Pinball console with a party and tournament on Friday, August 16th from 7-10pm! Since its launch in May, this machine has gained a massive fan following! And, it’s about to get even more pinteresting… HQ is rolling in three consoles set on free play for fans to riff on.

ALAMEDA, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ — NEWS: The Pacific Pinball Museum is excited to announce the opening of a new art show celebrating the America’s Cup Race with a collection of pinball machines and art featuring sailing and yachting: “Sailing Through Pinball.”

One of the more popular, yet relatively unrecognized themes that recurs in pinball art is sailing, yachting and racing boats. Sailing embodies the freedom, speed and skill of the sporty, carefree lifestyle of growing middle and upper classes. With the silk-screened art on the backglass, playfield and cabinet the standard format of pop bumpers, flippers, rollover buttons and targets were high-lighted and more appealing.

The show was curated by PPM artist and board member, Dan Fontes. “We are incredibly fortunate to be able to put together this rare collection of art with actual games from the early years of pinball,” said Fontes. “Many collectors have come together to make this show possible.”

Since the 1930s, pinball machines, a uniquely American invention and art form, were principally manufactured in Chicago and shipped to all corners of the world. Pinball was imbued with an optimistic, vibrant energy of adventure, excitement and escapism.

Some of the pinball artists and their bosses had sailboats or yachts to navigate Lake Michigan that were the inspiration for many designs.

This exhibition of sailing-related pinball art includes nine pinball machines, six back glasses and more than 30 photographs of pinball art and advertising with commentary. Beginning with early pinball in 1932, most of the exhibits date from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s and ends with one machine from the ’80s. After its two-month run at the PPM the exhibit will be available for lease to other museums.

The backglass art combines picturesque seascapes with the competitive thrill and majesty of the gorgeous ships from the 1930s through 1980s. The show offers historical, aesthetic, and informative narrative with input from noted solo sailor Bruce Schwab.

With the America’s Cup being held in the San Francisco Bay and teams based right here in Alameda, the show took on a personal meaning when tragedy struck. The museum houses most of their collection in a hangar across the road from Artemis, the Swedish contenders’ headquarters. After seeing the team practice throughout the year, PPM staff personally felt the loss of Artemis teammate Andrew “Bart” Simpson. The tragedy inspired PPM staff to highlight this incredible sport.

“The PPM wants to show support of the America’s Cup Race and promote Alameda and our museum,” said PPM director Michael Schiess. “This show, sprung from a tragic event, brings the fun, beauty and skill of sailing to the forefront in tribute to the America’s Cup competitors.”

More Information on Sailing through Pinball:The Pacific Pinball Museum is located at 1510 Webster St. in Alameda, California. “Sailing through Pinball” is on display during regular museum hours: Tuesdays through Thursdays 2 to 9 p.m., Fridays 2 p.m. to midnight, Saturdays 11 a.m. to midnight and Sundays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. PDT. The Pacific Pinball Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

For more information visit http://www.pacificpinball.org/ .

This version of news story is Copr. © 2013 eNewsChannels™ and the Neotrope® News Network – all commercial and reprint rights reserved.

http://enewschannels.com/2013/08/12/enc19236_160533.php

There are sounds that dwell, deep and vivid, in human memory.

A baby’s surprised laugh, a mother’s soothing lullaby, a rattlesnake’s blood-chilling call to back off, the pulse-quickening cacophony of ball hitting bumper in a vintage pinball machine ...

What, too much?

Maybe. But for men (and women) of a certain age who remember a time when PlayStations and Xboxes would have been considered fanciful voodoo, the carnival sounds and flashing lights of a pinball machine are audiovisual boarding passes to youthful summers past.

In Las Vegas, fans of classic pinball games will find both revelation and cause for celebration in an otherwise nondescript area between the casino and food court of the Riviera. There, they’ll find the Riviera annex of Las Vegas’ Pinball Hall of Fame and about 50 pinball machines, video games and penny arcade attractions awaiting 24/7 play by anyone with a quarter or two to burn.

Tim Arnold, founder of the Pinball Hall of Fame, says the games at the Riviera date from the mid-’60s on. Among the most striking games are the vintage mechanical pinball games that feature flipping score counters, rather than digital counters, and bear the lush art and idiosyncratic titles — “Bank Shot,” “PlayMates,” “Pro Pool,” “Hurdy Gurdy” — of their time.

Younger fans, or players who prefer newer technology, will see electronic pinball games, some of them based on TV series and movies — including “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” — while veterans of the late ’70s/early ’80s video game boom can relive moments of misspent youth by playing “Centipede,” “Frogger” or “Donkey Kong.”

The Riviera hall of fame is a satellite of the main Pinball Hall of Fame (www.pinballmuseum.org), 1610 E. Tropicana Ave., where visitors can play vintage pinball games from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Arnold opened the original Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in 2006. Two years ago, Arnold opened the Riviera location after a Riviera executive approached him about putting a few games there, too.

“They were specifically interested in old games because they wanted something unique, something fun in their hotel,” Arnold says.

Arnold pointed out that pinball machines weren’t likely to be “a maximum revenue thing. He said, ‘We’re not really interested in maximum revenue. We’re interested in making the hotel stand out with something different.’ ”

There are no admission charges at either the main hall of fame or the Riviera hall, and the only coin visitors will drop is the quarters they pump into the machines.

Granted, the Riviera is home to a mere fraction of the 250 or so games players can enjoy at the main hall of fame. But, Arnold says, tourists “who don’t want to hop a cab to go to the main location can just come here, and it’s 24 hours a day that they can play pinball.”

Sherry Seegert of Felton, Minn., who spent a summer afternoon testing her pinball skills at the Riviera with son Brady, says she and Brady made it a point to stop by after learning about the attraction on the Riviera’s website (http://rivierahotel.com/resort-amenities/pinball-hall-of-fame).

Brady, 13, is familiar with video game iterations of pinball but never had played on an real pinball machine. His verdict: “It doesn’t feel like the same thing. The noises are louder.”

But Sherry remembers playing pinball when she was younger. “I didn’t play all the time. Just when we were out,” she says. “I’m not that great. But it’s entertaining.”

Brady, meanwhile, was beginning to experience the unique sort of helpless frustration that comes when, fancy flipperwork and body English notwithstanding, the ball “either goes through the exit or straight down.”

That, Arnold notes later, is what distinguishes pinball from video games.

“The reason it’s called a GameBoy is because it’s a little boy’s game,” he says, making no effort to conceal his distaste. “It’s literally the same move — up, down, left, right, up, down, left, right, kick, punch, kick, punch, left, right, up, down. It’s stupid.

“Pinball, on the other hand, is real. It exists in the real world. The ball is absolutely unpredictable. You can’t memorize the pattern of a pinball machine and get through the same level. The ball could decide, ‘I’m going down the drain. Ha, ha. You lose.’ That’s frustrating, but, also, the mark of a good game is it’s challenging and you can’t beat it every time.”

Arnold operated game arcades in Michigan before retiring, moving to Las Vegas and creating the Pinball Hall of Fame to showcase and share his collection and to preserve the art form of the pinball machine.

“We’re actually kind of an odd duck as far as the way we run business,” he says. “It’s a nonprofit social club, and none of us gets paid, including myself.”

Arnold — who jokes that his own title is “director of stuff and things” — says he doesn’t track, and couldn’t care less about knowing, which of his machines are most popular among players (although he does concede that, at the Riviera, air hockey “pays the freight”). He doesn’t feature violent games or any other game that he doesn’t, for whatever reason, like.

What he does care about is keeping the games in good repair — a challenge, he adds, since the typical pinball game was built to last about five years and that some of his now are 20, 30 or even 50 years old — and making sure pinball lovers have a good time playing them.

“I’ve made very few compromises with the Pinball Hall of Fame,” Arnold says. “We put in a few video games because women and children play video games. Real men play pinball. Other than that, I could put in all kinds of stuff and make more money. I’m not going to do it because I simply don’t care.”

Oh, and there’s another idiosyncratic thing about the Pinball Hall of Fame, something that will take the sting out of wasting a quarter on a not-so-good round of “Vegas” or “PlayMates.”

According to Arnold, the money players at the Riviera and the main hall of fame pump into the games “all goes into a common checking account. We pay whatever expenses we have, and whatever we have left over goes to local charities.”

The Salvation Army of Southern Nevada is one of Arnold’s favorite charities. In 2011, the Pinball Hall of Fame’s donations to the Salvation Army included a year-end donation of $400,000, on top of about $100,000 that had been donated earlier in the year.

Leslee Rogers, The Salvation Army’s public relations officer, calls Arnold’s support of the organization cool and wonderful and amazing. Particularly neat, she adds, is that contributions — which Rogers says the Salvation Army uses mostly for infrastructure repairs and other projects that will result in long-term savings in future years — are raised “one quarter at a time.”

For Arnold, the Pinball Hall of Fame at the Riviera offers Las Vegas and its visitors “something unique and different on an avenue that tends to be the same.”

“I mean, there’s a lot of sameness on the Strip now,” he says, “and to have something this wild and something this quirky is way cool.”

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.

Photo / BILL HUGHES/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Via http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/pinball-hall-fame-annex-offers-vintage-arcade-experience

On a rainy Wednesday night in Novi, a select few of Clay Harrell’s friends are ensconced in some of his more than 100 pinball machines dating as far back as the 1930s.

Nearby, Eric VanDommelen is eagerly repairing and polishing a 1995 “Jack Bot” pinball machine.

The identical scene will soon play out in Green Oak Township, where Harrell next month will start moving his massive pinball collection to the vacant Hamburg Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, which he recently purchased.

His project is labeled a “private museum” for local zoning purposes — it is located in a residential district — but will basically be a self-funded hangout for Harrell and his friends willing to pony up a small donation to help offset costs of running the place.

“Nobody’s paid, especially me,” Harrell, 52, said at his Novi rental space.

“A lot of guys buy like ’70s, ’80s cars and they fix them up, or even ’60s cars. This is all a much cleaner hobby,” he added.

At his Novi rental space, whizzing, whirring and ringing sounds, along with the snap of wrist-fueled pinball shots, bounce off the walls.

Harrell occupied the roughly 3,000-square-foot storage area two years ago. It is about half the size of the 6,600-square-foot VFW building in Green Oak, which is located on 10 acres just west of U.S. 23 and south of Winans Lake Road.



Read the rest of the story here

David Silverman and his National Pinball Museum can't get a break.

Less than six months after leaving his Inner Harbor location in the face of a proposed rent increase, Silverman and 350 of his machines are about to again find themselves without a home.

Since moving out of the old Chocolate Factory building in March, Silverman has been storing the bulk of his collection at an abandoned shopping mall in Carroll County. But now the owner of the site, which will soon be home to a Walmart, has said he has until mid-September to get out.

"I'm on the verge of just wiping my hands of everything," says Silverman, who is being forced to move his collection for the third time in less than two years. In September 2011, the museum was forced out of a building on M Street in Georgetown after developers decided to rehab the structure.

With just over a month to find a new space, Silverman says he sees only two options. He's still hoping that the finances will come together to make his vision of a permanent museum possible. However, he says, he can no longer afford to maintain the collection -- or move it yet again -- himself.

Without investors coming to the rescue, or at the least someone offering storage space and a reasonable long-term lease, Silverman says he'll have to sell off his collection. He's already met with one Pennsylvania auction house.

"This is a very emotional thing for me," he says. "But I can't go through this again, because of how many times I've done it and the toll this has taken on me and my family."

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimore-insider-blog/bal-pinball-museum-bounced-again-20130807,0,1327587.story#ixzz2bP4080zr