The Pinball Hall of Fame - Las Vegas, NV
It’s taken me a while to get to this post. There was so much to see and play at the PHOF that it’s difficult to choose which pictures to post and what to write about. After this and a few more posts, you’ll get to see nearly everything I have. To be fair, I didn’t take pics of everything, I was too busy playing!
First off, there’s a lot more here than just a bunch of pins. So if you’re more of a vid fan or a fan of the older electromechanical stuff, there’s definitely something for you, likely that you’ve never seen before. But we’ll get to that in another post.
So here’s a selection of pics I took of various pins while I was there. This is FAR from everything there, but there are a handful of key gems to point out that you may have not seen or played before. Most notably Goin’ Nuts and The Pinball Circus. I won’t attempt to write a history on either but instead link to what are already good write ups:
Arcade Holy Grail: The Pinball Circus Goin' Nuts at the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame
I made sure to play both and I’m not much of a pin guy to be perfectly honest, so my take aways are pretty generic. Fair warning: Again, I am NOT a pin guy and I’m sure those of you who are would love to point a bunch of stuff or correct me on something. That’s fine, I don’t mind, just don’t take what I say too seriously, is all :)
Goin’ Nuts was interesting with the consistent multi-ball feature. That said, I didn’t find the game itself terribly fun, albeit a bit intense sometimes. The playfield seems pretty plain and sparse of anything terribly interesting. But again, there could be way more to it than it is in my ability to see. Regardless, you definitely need to check it out while there - you’ll likely never get another chance unless you go back and it’s working. I probably should have given it another shot but I was already low on quarters by the time I got to it.
The Pinball Circus was far more interesting, if only for for the fact that it’s almost like a weird vertical pinball game, if such as thing can exist. In other words, you make more use of the vertical space in what is basically a fairly standard upright arcade cabinet, as opposed to the horizontal space of the playfield. That space, I suppose, could be compared to Baby Pac-Man, in the sense that there’s very little of it, making the required reaction time needed very quick sometimes - you’ll need to learn pretty fast what to expect from each shot you make and what happens when the ball returns to the playfield from the upper levels. Additionally, while I didn’t attempt to tilt the machine at all, I suspect it would be fairly difficult to do so in a way, quickly, that would benefit you from losing a ball. I did not make it all the way up to the clown, but I did make it to level three and managed to activate the Mystery Wheel a few times. I almost made it out of the third level, but I couldn’t get quite the right angle to do so. All-in-all I’d say this is definitely worth playing and I quite enjoyed it - probably more than most pins, likely just because of how different it is. Don’t expect to have this in your home game room anytime soon, though, as there were apparently only two ever produced, one of them being at the PHOF.
Other than those key attractions, there was a pretty good selection of both early classic pins and well as more modern stuff. The highlight should definitely be the stuff you can’t play many other places but I must say those were mostly left alone by everyone there while I was visiting. I feel like this is a natural reaction by most, especially the younger generation, but if any of you head out that way, you should really pick a few and try them out if you haven’t played the older pins before. They may not be as bright and flashy as what you’re used to, but they do represent a wonderful precursor to what you’ve come to enjoy. Besides, the old bells and sounds of those pins are absolute nostalgia (though I guess not for everyone). The classics deserve your affection, too!
For those curious, there is no entry fee, but the pins do take quarters. I believe most were set to 50 cents to $1, though some were just a quarter. That said, I went through about $20 within an hour or so. I’d say it was well worth it.