vacation to Chicago. Good arcades? especially pinball

beerorkid

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vacation to Chicago. Good arcades? especially pinball

The googles are failing me. Figured since it is the womb of pinball they should have something cool.

Prob head there around september for 3-4 days and The wife has agreed that we can spend 1/2 a day playing pinball if I go to some museum or something.
 
Honestly there isn't a huge, single destination in Chicago. The best pins and vids are in private collections. If you can push your visit back to October you could hit the Pinball Expo...that would be worth your time for sure. Other than that its just D&B's, or start combing VAPS and invite yourself over!
 
I second Star Worlds, especially if you like both classic games and pins. I've been there a few times and enjoyed it each time. The owner Pat is a good guy too. It's about an hour west of Chicago on I-88 in DeKalb.
 
hrmmm....

Looks like they have some cool games there. Might check it out. If only that big lake was not between the touristy part of Chicago and Pinball Pete's >.<

Would settle for a decent brewpub or bar with a pin or two.

It is like going to Boise and them not having potatoes, Sheyboygan and not being able to find cheese curds, Omaha and not being able to find a decent steak.

Thanks for the tips though.
 
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"Sheboygan and not being able to find cheese curds". You clearly know Sheboygan. :D
 
Also, if you don't mind a couple hour drive, there's a place in Gobles MI that has a bunch of classic vids and pins. They're about 20 miles west of Kalamazoo, 10 miles north of Paw Paw (which is exit 60 on I-94). Kevin, the owner, is a KLOV member and a great guy :) Here's their website:
http://www.klassicarcade.com
 
That place looks awesome.

We are not planning on renting a car on this trip so we pretty much stuck in the touristy areas of Chicago on foot or public transport / cabs. I might see if I can visit STERN and the wife would be down with that. She is cool and not a bad pin player, but she only plays when she is with me and I am playing somewhere. She is cute as hell when playing. She hits both flippers at the same time in a panic.

If nothing else I will check each bar I pass and ask staff when checking bars for places with pinball. She is very used to that on our vacations. Hit 13 brewpubs in Colorado last visit. I go see touristy crap with her and she lets me run around and play pinball and drink fine craft brews. It is a win win.

I tried registering on a Chicago music message board to ask those who play bars and such, but the captcha there is not playing nice.

Thanks ahain KLOV for your assistance.
 
Not many arcade in Chicago area,most arcade has no pinball.
A lot collectors have more pinball than arcade.
You maybe better off find a collector let you play his pinballs .
 
if you head out to the rockford area you could check out my house cade...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ContributorID=29084047

theres a fellow names joe magiera ( screenname also joe magiera) near chicago in evanston... youll have to email him as he has pms shut off but he has a KICK A$$ collection of stuff. youll krap yourself. Lets see ted(seawolf) has a nice basementcade with a ton of stuff. In the same town michael ( zud) also has a nice collection.

wu has an insane ammount of stuff.. nice guy too. chris moore(cnlmoore) has a sweet arcade in his basement... hell most of the chi fellas do.
 
if you head out to the rockford area you could check out my house cade...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ContributorID=29084047

theres a fellow names joe magiera ( screenname also joe magiera) near chicago in evanston... youll have to email him as he has pms shut off but he has a KICK A$$ collection of stuff. youll krap yourself. Lets see ted(seawolf) has a nice basementcade with a ton of stuff. In the same town michael ( zud) also has a nice collection.

wu has an insane ammount of stuff.. nice guy too. chris moore(cnlmoore) has a sweet arcade in his basement... hell most of the chi fellas do.

Niiiice

I remember the flood pics. Gah... Seems Rockford is a bit away but am very appreciative of the invite. Nice setup you have.
 
im trying to think too.. if you go to the big mall there (woodfield mall) in the burbs.. theres a big arcade there too its like two or three stories but its all newer stuff.. i think its called gameworks iirc theres a dave and busters somewhere in chicago proper as well.
 
gameworks looks cool. The floor plan looks like it might have some pins.

The D&B up in Omaha was pretty much their ticket games with a few others. The food was meh... I would figure one in a bigger city would be cooler.

Will check both out if we go to Chicago.

Still trying to get her to go to vegas. We are still in the early planning stages of our vacation, but we can fly out of Omaha to Chicago insanely cheap since it is such a major hub. She leaning that way. Plus we have been to vegas sooooo many times. It is a give and take. She is awesome and we dutch everything. So I could get a good 1/2 day at the PBHOF in Vegas no prob and she thought it would be fun too.

Heading to Omaha tomorrow and they have a cool pizza place with an arcade. http://www.benepizzaandpasta.com/arcade_001.php

I am hoping the guy will sell his Super Mario to me sometime. he flips games like crazy.
 
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