Attention All Deaf, Dumb And Blind Kids...

I make it to Las Vegas, the one in Nevada, a couple of times a year on business and while I am there I always enjoy seeing my Dad. Once in a while we will take in a local attraction but it's hard to keep up with all the tourist sites as infrequently as I am there. I still haven't been to the Liberace Museum, the Clown Factory, or the Neon Museum for instance.

Add another one to the list. I just found out about the Pinball Hall Of Fame at 3330 E. Tropicana, at the corner of Pecos.

Hundreds of pinball machines, from the 1950s to the 1990s are all available to play in the 4500 square feet museum. Here is something else fascinating about the place, from their website.

"The PHoF is run by Tim Arnold, a veteran arcade operator who made it big in the 1970s and 1980s during the Pacman era. In 1976 Tim and his brother opened Pinball Pete's in Lansing, Michigan, and it quickly became a gamer's mecca. At the height of their success, the Arnold brothers weren't counting coins, they were counting shovelfuls of coins.

When Arnold sold his part of the business and moved to Las Vegas in 1990, he picked up the phone and started talking to the Salvation Army. Midge Arthur, the administrative assistant of the Las Vegas branch of the Salvation Army says, 'I got a telephone call from Tim about 15 years ago, and he said, 'If I had money to give, what would you do with it?' We had a long discussion about our different rehabilitation programs. He was, I think, kind of skeptical of all organizations. He wanted to make sure the money was going to help people.' Not long after that conversation, Midge Arthur started receiving checks for thousands of dollars from the man she says is, 'one of my strangest, out-of-the-ordinary donors we have ever had....'"




Me now: How cool is that?

My interest in playing games ran out very soon after the pinball machine's popularity started to wane in the 1980s. The last video game I ever played was probably Ms. Pacman - no kidding. I've never played Wii or Playstation or Nintendo or anything else in the modern vein.   

Question though: As fondly as I think I recall playing the ol' silver ball back in the day I do not remember anything about the differences between the machines. Was the game strategy the same if you were playing the KISS machine versus, say, the Charlie's Angels one? Was there anything to make some pinball machines more challenging to play other than where the flippers and bumpers were positioned? I don't remember. Do you?

Comments

[Stacey]

My favorite pinball machine was in the barroom of the veteran's organization that my dad belonged to (I know, no one under 21 allowed in the bar, but it happened all the time, and hardly anyone raised an eyebrow back then).

I don't recall the name of it or what its theme was, but I do remember that it had four flippers, two tunnels that were worth a boatload of points if you could get the ball to go through them, and three of those pits where the ball sits there for a few seconds before it gets spit out of the pit, straight toward the open spot between the bottom flippers.

The most challenging part was that it was right next to the pool tables, and if there was a game of pool going on (which I also occasionally played), chances were pretty good that at some point, I was going to get poked in the ribs by a cue stick just as the silver ball was getting to the bottom.

Good times.

[Greg Lynch]

I loved pinball. I especially liked the Addams Family game. Each game did different thingss. Some had more bumpers. Others had strange ramps you had to finesse the ball into. The one strange thing about the Adams Family was you could have multiple balls in play at the same time.

[Kings Fan]

I was just in Vegas last weekend and I had no idea this place existed. But now I have something to look forward to the next time I go back. Thanks for that info, Bean!

I never really took any kind of methodical approach to pinball games. I just smashed the ball and drooled at all the lights and sounds. The best place to play is definitely at a pizza parlor.

[Phil]

I remember fondly the Black Knight pinball machine. I don't recall if there were any differences to how the machines played, other than the occasional positioning of flippers up in the game. What did it for me were the machines like the B.K., where the ball would travel around various ramps all through the machine. Too cool that there is a hall of fame!!

[Jennifer]

Seriously, you have to go to the Liberace Museum. I was on the worst road trip ever with my girlfriends and we were at each others throats. We stopped at the museum, just to get out of the car and had the best time! The costumes, pianos and car collection are the most fabulous I have ever seen. Coincidentally, my mother's ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in the same space where Liberace is and I smile every time I see his monument and think of how he saved me from stabbing my friend in throat with a spoon that day.

A little education:

There are 5 current game systems.
Nintendo Wii
Sony Playstation 3
Microsoft Xbox 360
Nintendo DS (handheld system)
Sony Playstation Portable (PSP, handheld system).

While there was a "Nintendo", that typically refers to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which is maybe what you were refering to but if so that came across poorly.

As for not having played any of these, perhaps you should give it a try? There are many types of games, and almost certainly one will appeal to you.

[Brian]

My parents live in Vegas and we're going to visit them later this month. Was going to take our 10-year-old to check it out, but my dad cautioned that it's not in the best neighborhood...But we'll see if we can make it...

[steven]

I live in Las Vegas, and I here-by challange you to a game of pinball at the Pinball Hall of Fame the next time you're in town.

[Johnny Socko]

In an otherwise unremarkable childhood, there was one aspect that, in and of itself, made me unbelievably cool: When I was in fifth grade, my dad bought about 25 pinball machines, put the five best ones in our garage, and stored the rest for eventual resale.

I already liked pinball, so this was the late '70's equivalent of a "Halo" fan getting his very own platoon of space marines. I got to be pretty good at pinball, but I was never able to beat my dad, the "Wizard" that Elton John referred to in that song.

Now I'm an enthusiastic video gamer, but I still play pinball on the very rare occasions when I come across a machine. Best pinball game of all time? "Addams Family", definitely.