Global Pinball Map

[Bearded_Warrior]

Try this:

http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/searchlocationresult.php?country=United+Kingdom&showmap=yes

[Crazy Bonus]

The good thing about virtual tables is that they are in pristine shape, finding tables in real life and finding them in great shape well that can be challenging all in itself. They are out there though, one day I would love to go to The Church Of The Silver Ball in Mississauga (Canada's Only Hands-on Pinball Machine Museum) about a 1 and a half hour drive from me.

[Peridot Weapon]

Try this:

http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/...om&showmap=yes

You just HAD to post that, didn't you?

I've "talked the talk" about how I should motivate to track down a local arcade and play me some pinball for awhile now.

But I must have been living under a rock (or more accurately I've been a "casual fan" of Pinball until Zen and TPA ramped up my interest over the last year), because I never realized I was only about three hours away from http://www.pinballwizardarcade.com/

[SoulZedge]

Try this:

http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/...om&showmap=yes

Handy page, Thank you can you believe I am 10+ miles from my nearest machine? madness... it makes me a little sad really .
Still London seems like an OK place to crawl about for some pinball machines 35+ miles away but by train that's not so bad I would have to make a day of it though and have a plan to maximize the amount of machines I can try (most places seem to only have 1 or 2) still very cool.

You just HAD to post that, didn't you?

I've "talked the talk" about how I should motivate to track down a local arcade and play me some pinball for awhile now.

But I must have been living under a rock (or more accurately I've been a "casual fan" of Pinball until Zen and TPA ramped up my interest over the last year), because I never realized I was only about three hours away from http://www.pinballwizardarcade.com/

Wow just wow, that place would have me screaming like a school girl, a very hairy 27 year old stubbled school girl. If not for the pinball for the sheer amount of retro games there.. I am in awe, my cousins live in Toronto, If I visit I wonder if I can convince them to do the 10 hour drive there :P then the 10 hours back lol.

[Peridot Weapon]

Wow just wow, that place would have me screaming like a school girl, a very hairy 27 year old stubbled school girl. If not for the pinball for the sheer amount of retro games there.. I am in awe, my cousins live in Toronto, If I visit I wonder if I can convince them to do the 10 hour drive there :P then the 10 hours back lol.

Heh. I just can't imagine the sheer cacophany of SOUND that must be in that place when all the games and tables do their "boot-up sound tests" at the beginning of each day. Definitely not a place you'd go to if you were trying to get high scores unless you're VERY good at tuning out all the other sounds around you.

I still miss the era of the arcade, because that's what I grew up with. You had your NES/SNES/Genesis at home, but if you wanted the TRUE gaming experience you drove to your local arcade/mini-golf combo and got 24 tokens for $5.00.

I suppose arcade games from the 80s shows just how far technology has come in thirty years, though. Something like Pac-Man, which was once constructed in a giant custom cabinet and shipped across the country has been reduced to its core parts - a playable file that's under 50 KB in size.

There's still nothing like playing on a real cabinet, though, arcade or pinball game. Even if you discover the cabinet has a joystick that doesn't want to move left - or only the 2-Player Start button works so you HAD to put in two coins and play two games at once. Ah, the sheer apathy that some places had towards maintaining their equipment ...

[Metalzoic]

I ran across a Monster Bash pinball machine today while I was out.
The thing looked like it was brand spanking new too, seemed like it was very well maintained.

I didn't have time to play it today, but it's at a place that I drive past several times per week so
I'll probably start stopping by to play it.

I own an original Mario Bros arcade machine and a NEO-GEO arcade machine, but I would really like to
pick up a pinball table to add to them.

[Bearded_Warrior]

Handy page, Thank you can you believe I am 10+ miles from my nearest machine? madness... it makes me a little sad really .
Still London seems like an OK place to crawl about for some pinball machines 35+ miles away but by train that's not so bad I would have to make a day of it though and have a plan to maximize the amount of machines I can try (most places seem to only have 1 or 2) still very cool.

Unfortunately, there aren't many pinball machines near me either. I did happen to find a Creature From the Black Lagoon table at a bowling alley though. I was fortunate enough to find an arcade with some back in July when I went on vacation to Florida. They had about five machines that included: Ripley's Believe It or Not, Batman: The Dark Night, ACDC, Harley-Davidson, and High Roller Casino.

[skyway73]

It's so hard, especially in the UK, to find a real pinball machine anywhere nowadays. I grew up in the South East of England during the 80s and 90s and the arcades always had a choice of machines to play. I'm always on the look out for a hidden table to play on when I'm out and about, when you do spot one it feels like you've found treasure... Trouble is, more often than not, the machines have been neglected and are almost a waste of time to play with broken mechanics and weak flippers etc.

I use www.pinformer.co.uk which keeps me up to date of any tables and their condition, I've even added a few on there I have spotted. The best one currently nearest me is a lovely new AC DC Pro on the pier at Walton, Essex (about half hours drive from me)

Real pinball is much harder than any video or virtual pinball. But when you get to have a go on a decent machine I'm sure you'll be like me and mesmerised by just the feel of it and all the flashing lights and sound effects.

I used to play Dragon's Fury on the Megadrive too (is that the one you mean?), it was a great game in it's day.

Let us know if you get to play on a real pinball table mate.

[SoulZedge]

Skyway, you just made my day, there are 2 tables within half hours walking distance from me, one in a tattoo parlor of all things, It will feel odd walking in and saying " ahem, I'm here for the pinball" as for dragons revenge, it was dragons fury's sequel and quite an improvement in many ways, the main table was similar but there was many mini boss tables at least 7 could only ever do around 5.. I will definitely let you guys / gals? know how my adventure in the tattoo parlor goes

[Bearded_Warrior]

Skyway, you just made my day, there are 2 tables within half hours walking distance from me, one in a tattoo parlor of all things, It will feel odd walking in and saying " ahem, I'm here for the pinball" as for dragons revenge, it was dragons fury's sequel and quite an improvement in many ways, the main table was similar but there was many mini boss tables at least 7 could only ever do around 5.. I will definitely let you guys / gals? know how my adventure in the tattoo parlor goes

Maybe you could get pinball related tattoo while you're there. You know, like maybe a shiny silver ball on your bicep or something Or you could get an entire table tattooed on your back. That could be interesting.

[s-carnegie]

My fav from late 70's to early 80's was a table called Paragon. There was only a couple in my area, bowling alley and downtown arcade. Then soon after Ms pacman flooded the arcades along with many box style video games, the classic pinball tables slowly faded away. When I do run into any machine now its like christmas.

[BarbieBobomb]

Great thread! I'm going to move this to general discussions and combine it with the thread I started a while back about where to find real machines There are lots of links to help you on your quest to find REAL pinball machines!

[SoulZedge]

I went to the tattoo parlor, and it was closed, I think for good (news papered windows) slightly annoying but it was near the town center, so it was not a wasted journey I am hoping the other machine (a Flintstones machine 30 minutes the other way in a cafe) is still there kinda feel a mite down hearted, still it all else fails get this guy to build your own :P http://benheck.com/03-16-2010/bill-paxton-pinball :P not sure if he takes request though. I will keep you all up to date in my quest, if you can call it that. Oh a little off topic but I also checked out Pinball arcade,as recommended by Metalzoic, its highly enjoyable admittedly in a different way to zen at the moment its trying to get the greenlight on steam (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...86&searchtext=) as this is my preferred platform I hope it gets through with enough votes. Take care y'all wish me luck with that cafe... maybe I can pick up a chip butty while I am there?

[surf1der]

Hey Barbie,

You mentioned you were in the bay area. I highly recommend the Pacific Pinball Museum. They usually have around 70-80 pins there with many more in storage that they I believe they regularly rotate through the museum. I went there a few times when I was living in San Ramon a few years ago. http://www.pacificpinball.org

[golflounge]

Great information Barbie Bobomb!