Why I’ve Transitioned to Arcades and Pinballs

[dashv]

I’ve been struggling to stay onboard this console generation.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great games this generation and the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are impressive pieces of kit. But the now dominance of digital, delisting of top selling games, half done nature of most releases, and scarcity of new product due to underproducing has honestly taken most of the fun out of it for me.

I’m NOT abandoning video gaming, collecting, or anything like that. But I am certainly getting a stronger by the day feeling that there’s no point collecting for this generation and beyond. Most of these discs will be incomplete coasters 10 years from now.

At the same time I’ve been finding some good deals (some locally!) on arcade/pinball machines.

I think I appreciate most that the games are finished.

I also like that I can tinker with the hardware and craftsmanship a bit. Installing a software patch is kind of blah. But taking in a cabinet that’s had some mild abuse and restoring it to its glory days appearance is pretty fun.

Finding the right parts for a good price reminds me of searching for games on my wishlist.

Troubleshooting technical issues takes me down surprise researching rabbit holes where I learn some gaming history or some electronic/software stuff I never knew.

It’s been a fascinating experience.

Not saying it’s for everyone. But a few folks that follow me on twitter and Facebook have been wondering what the heck is going on with me so I figured I would share.

Anyone else on here collect Pinballs/Arcadess?

[tripredacus]

I've been involved in the arcade community for some years now. I do not own any machines, but I was once one day away from buying an R-Type. I had to cancel the buy because my car died the morning I was supposed to make the buy. Alas, I doubt I will ever find such a deal again. I currently play in two pinball leagues and the place I go to play pinball has over 70 machines!

They have some arcade games there, modern ones like TWD, Monster Eye and Jurassic Park, BBHD and some sit down twin racer. For old arcade games they have a multi-pac (or some equivalent multiboard with Pac-Man and Galaga at least) and a House of the Dead. I remember when I was a kid, I never cared for pinball and always played arcade games. I have barely any memories of pinball so I do not think I had played it much, if at all. My first real memory of playing a pinball game was maybe 8 or 9 years ago, and since then I never looked back. One side effect seems to have been that I totally stopped being interested in arcade games, not sure why.

I have one spot in my house where I could put a pinball machine and hope to get one some day.

[bikingjahuty]

Arcade cabinets and especially pinball are sort of the last frontier for me in terms of collecting. I'd love to get into both, but unfortunately I lack the space to own any. At this point I probably could have had a decent sized home arcade, but sadly I've had to bite my lip on some incredible deals and pass on them. Probably the most infamous example of this was when I long running family fun center place similar to Chucky Cheese or Dave and Busters went out of business in 2015. They had tons of arcade cabinets, but oddly only a few pinball machines, most of which went out the door for under a hundred bucks. That really hurt seeing some of those go for what they did.


But anyhow, assuming someday I can actually have a home large enough to house some arcade cabinets I fully plan on getting some. Same with Pinball machines, but unfortunately pinball is insanely expensive, especially for the 90s Williams machines which are the best imo. On top of that the area I live in is ultra competitive for both arcade and pinball due to there being many barcades in my area as well as a handful of pretty prolific arcade collectors that are always on the lookout for cabinets, even ones they already own. Still I'd love to get into the hobby someday if I'm able to.

[mark1982]

Should check out Last Gamer's Youtube channel if you haven't yet.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLastGamertube/videos

The guy probably has the most insane collection I have ever seen. ( I believe he is the Guinness world record holder for video game collecting from the last I saw - Console and Arcade  )

He has some interesting videos on arcade cabinet restoring - from the motorized mechanisms to the decal artwork.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV3aemF8j2g

[oldgamerz]

speaking of pinball there is a pinball collection for the 6th console generation, but the PS2 version is the blue disc type of video game.

"Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection" also for PS1 there is some more

1: Pro Pinball: Big Race USA (1999)
2: Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey (2000)

I like the console version of pinball, but I used to have a Pinball mini arcade machine growing up

[Flashback2012]

speaking of pinball there is a pinball collection for the 6th console generation, but the PS2 version is the blue disc type of video game.

"Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection" also for PS1 there is some more

1: Pro Pinball: Big Race USA (1999)
2: Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey (2000)

I like the console version of pinball, but I used to have a Pinball mini arcade machine growing up

I know there's at least 4 Pro Pinball games on PS1. There's also digital pinball games based on KISS, Austin Powers and the Power Rangers. There's one called Patriotic Pinball and another called Extreme Pinball. PS2/PS3 is when they started doing the compilations like Gottlieb and Williams/Bally. Pinball Arcade/Farsight had and lost the license to Williams/Bally tables to Zen/Pinball FX.

Had I won that Mega Millions/Powerball jackpot, one of the things I would have done is bought a nice patch of land to put up a super sturdy building on to house my ManCave/Arcade in. There would have definitely been a pinball wall with a pair of Addams Family machines acting as bookends. 

[dashv]

While I appreciate The Pinball Arcade bringing me my favorite real pins in digital first, I am not surprised that they lost the license.

I bought and was never able to satisfactorily play PBA on PS3. This was mind blowing given how well the same tables played on my iPhone 5s.

The lag on PS3 was ridiculous. The excuses for why it could not be fixed even more ridiculous. Their work around? Change the maximum resolution of my PS3 to 720p every time I want to play pba then change it back when done.

As for their problems on Xbox I have a bit of sympathy for them there. I’ve heard from a few devs that xbox is a tough platform to deal with licensing/dev support wise. PBA had the misfortune of having a publisher go bankrupt and hold their Xbox platform rights hostage in the process. Not entirely their fault.

All that said, out of the gate Zen is firing on all cylinders with updated play modes and such. Really excited they got the licenses. We’re getting both the Pinball simulations we deserve as well as the ones we need right now. They also have the money, experience, and dev muscle to give these games the attention they deserve across all platforms.

[tripredacus]

I never liked TPA on PS3. The disc only game was so much better. I only play TPA on PC.

[undertakerprime]

Had I won that Mega Millions/Powerball jackpot, one of the things I would have done is bought a nice patch of land to put up a super sturdy building on to house my ManCave/Arcade in. There would have definitely been a pinball wall with a pair of Addams Family machines acting as bookends. 

Great minds think alike
If I had won that much money, I’d create my own arcade filled with classic games and pinballs.

When my parents remodeled their basement almost 20 years ago, they asked for my recommendation on a pinball machine, and I immediately suggested Theatre of Magic. Over the ensuing years, I’ve maintained it and fixed a few things; replaced the trunk, cleaned the playfield, and replaced the bulbs with LEDs. It’s actually kind of fun. They also bought a Star Wars Episode I pinball (one of the 2 Pinball 2000 machines Williams put out) but that one was brand new and hasn’t needed the same level of maintenance.

Anyway, if I could find a place to play pinball around Indianapolis, I would. There are a couple places, but I think they only have one or two tables and I’m not sure it’s worth my time.

[tripredacus]

Anyway, if I could find a place to play pinball around Indianapolis, I would. There are a couple places, but I think they only have one or two tables and I’m not sure it’s worth my time.

https://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play?searchterm=Indianapolis%2C+IN#results

Game lists may not be up to date.

[turf]

I wondered down that road a few years ago. It started with a PlayChoice-10, then it blossomed into buying several games, tinkering with several games, selling a couple of games.

It’s a cool thing to get into. I just wish I had more time.

[undertakerprime]

Anyway, if I could find a place to play pinball around Indianapolis, I would. There are a couple places, but I think they only have one or two tables and I’m not sure it’s worth my time.

https://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play?searchterm=Indianapolis%2C+IN#results

Game lists may not be up to date.

Thanks a lot for the link. There’s one great place listed there that never came up in google searches.

[dashv]

Had I won that Mega Millions/Powerball jackpot, one of the things I would have done is bought a nice patch of land to put up a super sturdy building on to house my ManCave/Arcade in. There would have definitely been a pinball wall with a pair of Addams Family machines acting as bookends. 

Great minds think alike
If I had won that much money, I’d create my own arcade filled with classic games and pinballs.

When my parents remodeled their basement almost 20 years ago, they asked for my recommendation on a pinball machine, and I immediately suggested Theatre of Magic. Over the ensuing years, I’ve maintained it and fixed a few things; replaced the trunk, cleaned the playfield, and replaced the bulbs with LEDs. It’s actually kind of fun. They also bought a Star Wars Episode I pinball (one of the 2 Pinball 2000 machines Williams put out) but that one was brand new and hasn’t needed the same level of maintenance.

Anyway, if I could find a place to play pinball around Indianapolis, I would. There are a couple places, but I think they only have one or two tables and I’m not sure it’s worth my time.

Theatre of Magic is a great pin. You made an excellent choice.

[undertakerprime]

Had I won that Mega Millions/Powerball jackpot, one of the things I would have done is bought a nice patch of land to put up a super sturdy building on to house my ManCave/Arcade in. There would have definitely been a pinball wall with a pair of Addams Family machines acting as bookends. 

Great minds think alike
If I had won that much money, I’d create my own arcade filled with classic games and pinballs.

When my parents remodeled their basement almost 20 years ago, they asked for my recommendation on a pinball machine, and I immediately suggested Theatre of Magic. Over the ensuing years, I’ve maintained it and fixed a few things; replaced the trunk, cleaned the playfield, and replaced the bulbs with LEDs. It’s actually kind of fun. They also bought a Star Wars Episode I pinball (one of the 2 Pinball 2000 machines Williams put out) but that one was brand new and hasn’t needed the same level of maintenance.

Anyway, if I could find a place to play pinball around Indianapolis, I would. There are a couple places, but I think they only have one or two tables and I’m not sure it’s worth my time.

Theatre of Magic is a great pin. You made an excellent choice.

Thanks. Yeah, it was the one I played the most at my local mall arcade. It’s a lot of fun and easy to pick up, but hard to master. I was very fortunate that the mall arcade usually kept 4-5 pins available, among them some of the most popular and highly-rated ones: ToM, Twilight Zone, Addams Family, Attack From Mars, Junkyard, Champion Pub...

I bought all of those on my PS3 via Pinball Arcade. Although it’s great that Farsight recreated these tables so meticulously, video pinball is just not the same as the real thing.

[dashv]

Theatre of Magic is a great pin. You made an excellent choice.

Thanks. Yeah, it was the one I played the most at my local mall arcade. It’s a lot of fun and easy to pick up, but hard to master. I was very fortunate that the mall arcade usually kept 4-5 pins available, among them some of the most popular and highly-rated ones: ToM, Twilight Zone, Addams Family, Attack From Mars, Junkyard, Champion Pub...

I bought all of those on my PS3 via Pinball Arcade. Although it’s great that Farsight recreated these tables so meticulously, video pinball is just not the same as the real thing.

I completely understand. TPA tried to scratch the itch for me but in the end I just wanted an Attack From Mars table even more.