wxforecaster
Member
I was in Vegas this past week for the first time for a work related convention, and was fortunate enough to have an ex co-worker and fellow pin collector drive up from Phoenix to meet me for a couple days. Both of us had been looking forward for the past two months to visit the Pinball HoF, not only for a chance to play all the games we either hadn't seen or played in eons, but also to narrow our respective lists of "must own" machines.
When we walked in, we were pleasantly greeted by the sights and sounds of long rows of pinball machines and some classic arcades, but the fun really stopped there.
Folks, this place is in rough shape and dear I say the end is nigh if the owners can't hire some technicians who are passionate and trained. Of the 20+ machines we played, 19 had credit dots. Just surveying the displays (some of which themselves were either dead, flaking out, etc...), over 90% of the games had credit dots. The playfields were in a word -- disgusting (even a new AC/DC looked absolutely trashed). On almost every game we played, the flippers weren't even close to alignment as if they were eyeballed by a blind man. Many of the games had been retrofitted with very poor LED lighting. I love LEDs, but when you use the wrong color bulbs, the inserts look horrible. Worse still, some of the games had bright LEDs placed in the headlamps which were pointed upwards instead of down onto the playfield. This focused a blinding light into your eyes -- game over. Numerous games had missing backbox and playfield GI.
Yes, I get it, these are played machines, but they fall well short of anything that should qualify for the Pinball Hall of Fame. Not a single game was marked out of order despite having broken features that crippled play. The one tech I saw stumbling around looked like the older Biff from Back to the Future 2 with a headlamp. He was staring blankly at a non-working coil on whatever was next to the Twighlight Zone we were playing. I immediately noticed that only one lug had a wire attached with the other connection dangling freely several feet below eye level. After a couple minutes of watching him, I casually made the observation that he might want to grab the soldering iron since the problem was likely the missing wire on the 2nd lug. That got us the look of death. I knew right then and there we were pretty much done. Mark and I both wished we had a couple months to attempt to bail the owners out, repairing and cleaning one machine at a time.
The positives: there was a fair amount of business going on (but we also overhead a number of complaints from like-minded pinheads). It was also nice to see some kids playing.
The ugly: A limited edition Lord of the Rings was in the doorway and could not be played due to excessive glare from the direct late morning sun. Worst of all, it's directly in the line of fire from UV fade. Someone please recuse this gorgeous machine. The other thing that really irked me was a modified Ms. Pac Man running a 60-1 iCade in it. I always was under the impression that it was illegal to charge $$ to play these since they are not licensed. I have a coin door in my iCade Ms Pac Cocktail too, but it's for the effect of hearing the coin drop. I provide all my own quarters to my guests.
Would I go back? I would LOVE to go back, but I give the Pinball HoF an initial grade of D, sadly in line with many recent online reviews. I would love to see the owners take the incoming money and reinvest it into a few skilled pinhead techs that can steadily get these machines fully functional and cleaned up over a period of a few months, which would surely bring exponentially greater business in.
Comments, flaming, etc... all appreciated.
Evan
When we walked in, we were pleasantly greeted by the sights and sounds of long rows of pinball machines and some classic arcades, but the fun really stopped there.
Folks, this place is in rough shape and dear I say the end is nigh if the owners can't hire some technicians who are passionate and trained. Of the 20+ machines we played, 19 had credit dots. Just surveying the displays (some of which themselves were either dead, flaking out, etc...), over 90% of the games had credit dots. The playfields were in a word -- disgusting (even a new AC/DC looked absolutely trashed). On almost every game we played, the flippers weren't even close to alignment as if they were eyeballed by a blind man. Many of the games had been retrofitted with very poor LED lighting. I love LEDs, but when you use the wrong color bulbs, the inserts look horrible. Worse still, some of the games had bright LEDs placed in the headlamps which were pointed upwards instead of down onto the playfield. This focused a blinding light into your eyes -- game over. Numerous games had missing backbox and playfield GI.
Yes, I get it, these are played machines, but they fall well short of anything that should qualify for the Pinball Hall of Fame. Not a single game was marked out of order despite having broken features that crippled play. The one tech I saw stumbling around looked like the older Biff from Back to the Future 2 with a headlamp. He was staring blankly at a non-working coil on whatever was next to the Twighlight Zone we were playing. I immediately noticed that only one lug had a wire attached with the other connection dangling freely several feet below eye level. After a couple minutes of watching him, I casually made the observation that he might want to grab the soldering iron since the problem was likely the missing wire on the 2nd lug. That got us the look of death. I knew right then and there we were pretty much done. Mark and I both wished we had a couple months to attempt to bail the owners out, repairing and cleaning one machine at a time.
The positives: there was a fair amount of business going on (but we also overhead a number of complaints from like-minded pinheads). It was also nice to see some kids playing.
The ugly: A limited edition Lord of the Rings was in the doorway and could not be played due to excessive glare from the direct late morning sun. Worst of all, it's directly in the line of fire from UV fade. Someone please recuse this gorgeous machine. The other thing that really irked me was a modified Ms. Pac Man running a 60-1 iCade in it. I always was under the impression that it was illegal to charge $$ to play these since they are not licensed. I have a coin door in my iCade Ms Pac Cocktail too, but it's for the effect of hearing the coin drop. I provide all my own quarters to my guests.
Would I go back? I would LOVE to go back, but I give the Pinball HoF an initial grade of D, sadly in line with many recent online reviews. I would love to see the owners take the incoming money and reinvest it into a few skilled pinhead techs that can steadily get these machines fully functional and cleaned up over a period of a few months, which would surely bring exponentially greater business in.
Comments, flaming, etc... all appreciated.
Evan
