A virtual day with 750 pinball and arcade games, no quarters needed

A visit to Southern California's largest arcade expo in photos.

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[kurt-o]

Was the Michael Jackson moonwalker arcade game there?

That was an all-time favorite of mine. Overall neat stuff man. I'd love to show my kids something like this.

 

[THavoc]

Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

 

[Iron Clad Burrito]

*sigh*

I'm in love. Thanks for the pix.

 

[xsvtoys]

THavoc[/url]":3e09kcy0]Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

Me too, I'm even closer, I plan to go next time if I can.

All-Time-Mancave-Win

 

[Deleted member 192806]

We need an "envy" tag.

 

[David Gileadi]

Better yet, why not classic Tron and Discos of Tron together?

Before DDR there was Discos of Tron

 

[Houdani]

"Discos of Tron"

Yeah, baby! Neon afros and hip huggers. I'd pay to see that.

ninja'd by a fellow great mind

 

[THavoc]

xsvtoys[/url]":2tlu9hfb]

THavoc[/url]":2tlu9hfb]Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

Me too, I'm even closer, I plan to go next time if I can.

All-Time-Mancave-Win

I'll definitely have to keep tabs on this. I think that'd be quite fun to go to.

 

[Drizzt321]

THavoc[/url]":2le8rkvy]

xsvtoys[/url]":2le8rkvy]

THavoc[/url]":2le8rkvy]Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

Me too, I'm even closer, I plan to go next time if I can.

All-Time-Mancave-Win

I'll definitely have to keep tabs on this. I think that'd be quite fun to go to.

Yea, had no clue this was happening. We should put together an Ars meet for the next time it happens.

 

[donlo]

THavoc[/url]":1azu6wqg]Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

I was only one hour away and would have loved to go!! Damnit Ars why didn't you tell me beforehand like the Sony Expo?

 

[slugabed]

No Fireball? *sniff*

 

[Dark Pumpkin]

That many pinball machines lined up like that is quite a sight to behold!

 

[BloodyCactus]

shame banning is in a dead zone area. no life at all. some great photos Aurich. how was your experience there? I've heard Nates on coast to coast pinball podcast, be interesting to hear another perspective if it jives with his or not.

 

[kperrier]

What does that guy do to have the money to (a) own them all and (b) pay for that space?

 

[zee_jay]

OK. this is awesome, and I would definitely consider rigging a trip around this.

But at the same time, it's also heartbreaking, as - for me - this event used to be known as "Saturday."

OK, maybe they didn't have 700 machines at the local arcade, but it seemed like it. I wish I had the disposable income to buy some tables... but at the same time, the joy for me was always in the variety. Buying one would not bring me sufficient joy ROI. I'd need at least 6 good ones. At least.

 

[Netguru]

I remember when Spyhunter was brand new. I spent many a quarter in that damn machine. Damn I am getting old... Great memories with these pics. Thx.

 

[eric123]

i thought this new Star Wars arcade game looked amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1 ... 6Rws3rOF-4

made me wish an arcade was nearby.

 

[chrisnehren]

I just want to say that I think it's awesome that there's a place called "Banning". The part of me that runs online communities is very pleased by this.

 

[xsvtoys]

yakumo[/url]":167jmeik]shame banning is in a dead zone area. no life at all.

but,but... Morongo...and the Outlet Mall....

 

[pjladyfox]

For those in the Northern California area do not forget that California Extreme, http://www.caextreme.org, is coming up July 18 & 19. And for those of you in Southern California feel free to come up and enjoy our take on a old-style arcade. May not be as big as this one but it's been going for the past 17 years and still going strong. My spouse and I have been going on and off since the very beginning, and can even remember when it was held in a shopping center where Santana Row currently stands, and enjoyed ourselves each time. And hey if there are any Ars readers planning a meet up at CAX this year please be sure to post it!

 

[JamesHulsmann]

eric123[/url]":10lmx0yf]i thought this new Star Wars arcade game looked amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1 ... 6Rws3rOF-4

made me wish an arcade was nearby.

I know most will think "Occulus"/VR - but I am thinking Hololens/AR - in that the virtual hologram replaces the real life dome screen, so you can look around and its like you have that "arcade machine" in your house. I guess you would need to buy a flight control stick or something too, but then, you would need for VR as well...

Actually, I want both of those things to come true! Some will prefer one over the other!

 

[JamesHulsmann]

That image of the baby and father, with baby on machine, is awesome - my favorite image of the entire set!

 

[Aurich]

BINARYGOD[/url]":27k83zty]That image of the baby and father, with baby on machine, is awesome - my favorite image of the entire set!

Bill's a great guy, he's in my pinball league, just played at his house last month. Really nice collection.

 

[Aurich]

David Gileadi[/url]":n6e2mpct]

Better yet, why not classic Tron and Discos of Tron together?

Before DDR there was Discos of Tron

I'm not even gonna fix that typo now!

 

[Aurich]

xsvtoys[/url]":2op20kvt]

THavoc[/url]":2op20kvt]Well damn it!

Wish I had known about this ahead of time.

I'm only 4 hours by freeway away and I could have gone.

Me too, I'm even closer, I plan to go next time if I can.

All-Time-Mancave-Win

Well now that we've covered it and it's a Topic of Ars Interest I'll try and remember to promote the October show before it starts. A lot of people came down from Northern California for it even, and it was worth the trip.

 

[Aurich]

yakumo[/url]":2b0t2o7g]shame banning is in a dead zone area. no life at all. some great photos Aurich. how was your experience there? I've heard Nates on coast to coast pinball podcast, be interesting to hear another perspective if it jives with his or not.

Haha yeah, Banning ... I was invited out several time before the show and I'll be honest, as much as it would have been cool to see the machines, I just didn't want to drag my ass to Banning. It's about a 2 hour drive, not that brutal, but a bit of a commitment. Maybe 1.5 hours if everything goes well and I'm driving, I have a lead foot.

The show was awesome. It had first time jitters, they really struggled to get all the games shopped out before the show and working. But even with the machines that were out of service there was still a huge selection.

October should be even better I hope, they'll have a lot more time to plan and work on games. I know John really wants this to become a long term project.

I definitely encourage anyone who's interested to come out in October, it's an amazing space, and you're going to be hard pressed to find a collection like it anywhere else. The arcade stuff is great, but the pinball collection is incredible. I really only scratched the surface with this gallery, it just wasn't possible to document it all.

 

[rm0659]

i wonder if john weeks knows about the national pinball museum? it was mostly one guy's collection of machines - housed in dc for a while, then moved to baltimore and fell upon hard times. last i heard trying to run it drove the poor guy into the poorhouse & he was selling off the collection.

it'd be cool if weeks bought him out and set up an east coast branch office... (hint hint!)

ps: fun fact - almost all the art for all pinball machines for almost 40 years was created by only two or three guys.

 

[fedward]

There's also the Pinball Hall of Fame (this other site also claims to be official) in Las Vegas. It contains one of two known prototypes of a crazy vertical machine called The Pinball Circus.

 

[Tamaaya]

I love that Stern are still around, making pinball tables. It's... comforting, somehow.

 

[Aurich]

fedward[/url]":1lv7ld7a]There's also the Pinball Hall of Fame (this other site also claims to be official) in Las Vegas. It contains one of two known prototypes of a crazy vertical machine called The Pinball Circus.

There's a group of people attempting to remake Pinball Circus right now actually, as a tribute to the designer, Python, who passed away not too long ago from brain cancer. I saw the prototype last year at Pinball Expo out in Illinois. Totally crazy game.

StorminNorman[/url]":1lv7ld7a]I love that Stern are still around, making pinball tables. It's... comforting, somehow.

Pinball is alive an well! Stern is doing great, they're moving to a new factory shortly. Jersey Jack is preparing to ship their second game after Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, and there are a lot of boutique companies trying to get into the game, as well as the Planetary Pinball led efforts to remake older titles like Medieval Madness.

Right now the only truly shipping boutique company is Spooky ( http://www.spookypinball.com ) and their original title America's Most Haunted, which is a campy spin off the reality ghost hunting shows.

 

[Aurich]

rm0659[/url]":246jqwgx]i wonder if john weeks knows about the national pinball museum? it was mostly one guy's collection of machines - housed in dc for a while, then moved to baltimore and fell upon hard times. last i heard trying to run it drove the poor guy into the poorhouse & he was selling off the collection.

The collection already went up for sale at auction. I have no idea if John purchased any of it though. Of the 750+ games at the Arcade Expo I believe at least 500 of them are pinball.

 

[xsvtoys]

fedward[/url]":bx6bogux]There's also the Pinball Hall of Fame (this other site also claims to be official) in Las Vegas. It contains one of two known prototypes of a crazy vertical machine called The Pinball Circus.

Yep been there, its cool. Weird location in a dumpy strip mall. But chock fulla pinball machines. One of those nice side-trips to get away from the madness that is the strip.

 

[True North]

Sigh....
How i miss playing pinball,last time any arcade was open near me the "popular" pins were Harlem Globetrotters and Mata Hari ,back then there was no such thing as "deep tables" with dem ramp thingy`s an such
BUT i do need to find out though,there was this one pin that "claimed" to be the worlds largest,it was (if i remember correctly) 5ft wide,and 8ft long,the flippers were about 6 to 8 inches long, and a cue ball (yes a pool table ball!) for a pinball,does anyone remember the name??

Also as a side note, that arcade did have ,for a limited time, Going Nuts ,i literally just found out it`s production run was 40 tables,so i guess in my youth i was privileged to play it.

 

[Aurich]

True North[/url]":15v3glas]BUT i do need to find out though,there was this one pin that "claimed" to be the worlds largest,it was (if i remember correctly) 5ft wide,and 8ft long,the flippers were about 6 to 8 inches long, and a cue ball (yes a pool table ball!) for a pinball,does anyone remember the name??

That would be Hercules.

Incidentally if you were at the Arcade Expo you could have played one!

 

[True North]

Much thanks Aurich!! have a picture by chance?
Unfortunately being in the Northern part of Canada (hence my username) there would be no way i could go to Arcade Expo,BUT the up most respect/kudo`s to you! Keep the pin articles/picture`s comming, they warm this old mans soul!

 

[Aurich]

True North[/url]":91abcrxs]Much thanks Aurich!! have a picture by chance?
Unfortunately being in the Northern part of Canada (hence my username) there would be no way i could go to Arcade Expo,BUT the up most respect/kudo`s to you! Keep the pin articles/picture`s comming, they warm this old mans soul!

I didn't take a pic at this event, but I did at Pinball Expo in 2013, and I did a photo gallery for Ars then:

http://meincmagazine.com/gaming/2013/10/t ... expo-2013/

If you scroll through those (I can't link to a specific photo) there's a shot of a little girl playing Hercules towards the end.

 

[True North]

Firstly,Aurich thanks for the link!
Secondly,i was wandering,if you know when Gottleb came up with the "sub table" ,was it with Haunted House first,OR was it Black Hole? Google seems to have differing "opinions"

 

[PsionEdge]

I would have gone here if I had known. Also, how do you get into a pinball league? That sounds awesome.

 

[radio_jaos]

Thanks for the story, Aurich! Looks like it was an awesome event, I really wish I'd known about it in advance. I'll definitely be there in October.

I'd love to hear more about Weeks and his collection. Any chance of an Ars story about him?