The Pinball Museum and Player's Club

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shabbat goy

Last night was opening night at the Pittsburgh Pinball Museum and Player's Club, so my friend and I went.

:siren:

Warning: bad cellphone pictures inbound. :siren:

This place is a nondescript warehouse 10 miles outside of Pittsburgh, with little indication that it's filled with pinball machines (and retro arcade games, and a restaurant). It's unheated and there are no overhead lights, so all the light comes from the pinball machines (hence the bad pictures).

The entrance fee was $10, which is cash only (or you can paypal him at his AOL address and tell him you did it, he doesn't check, but he is a nice guy so don't do that.) After that, all the games are rigged to let you play for free.

The newest machine is probably the Apollo 13 machine, but he has ones dating back to the 60's or 70's (I am not a pinball historian.) I took some pictures of my favorite machines.

This is Dr. Dude, and he has an eXcellent-Ray (I don't think he's a real doctor.) This machine was broken but kept making cool noises.

This was my favorite machine of the night, Banzai Run. If you hit some buttons and "challenged" another racer, then got the ball in one of the tracks, a magnet picked the ball up and brought it to that top part of the cabinet for some sort of racing minigame that I was bad at. If I were to buy a pinball machine, this would be the one.

This was an officially licensed Jurassic Park machine, and I think this is supposed to be Steven Spielberg. Also the lady next to him has real buff arms, and I liked this machine.

They also had games like foosball and air hockey. The place is BYOC (no bottles allowed, and you must have a coozy on your beer at all times.) We didn't have any coozies, so the owner gave us these as a souvenir. He is a really nice guy.

While we were playing air hockey, some kid came up to the table and said he got next. He proceeded to play my friend and I and get real intense, but he lost every time and I almost felt a little bad. After that, he disappeared and we didn't see him for the rest of the night. [Disclaimer: I say kid but he was probably 15 or 16 so it wasn't like we were walloping on a 7-year-old.]

This is a band that performed. They did a cover of "Zombie" by the Cranberries, among other songs. They were pretty good.

This is the owner of the place. He ran the soundboard and the lights for the show, and is also owner and operator of the place. He's a really nice guy and, as far as I can tell, lives a pretty sweet life. The place has a band setup because he plays the analog synth in the headlining band. Apparently when the pinball place is closed for the winter (again, unheated warehouse), he's on tour with his band. He is a real Pinball Wizard.

During the performance of the opening band, there were low-res 3D animations playing on the wall behind them. We asked the pinball wizard about the animations, and he said they were made in DOS frame-by-frame. He really likes DOS, and this was the computer he used to run the show and project the animations. I will try to get a video up later.

Sidenote: this is also the computer he uses to make his excellent website, https://www.pinballperfection.com

This machine has the best art, period. It's called Centaur, and he is half man half motorcycle. I didn't get to play this machine because some 50-year-old guy was playing it all night and probably had all the high-scores. He looked at me funny when I took this picture.

This machine was called "Class of 1812" and had some fun effects and I played it for a while, but I really liked the orange-haired dude on the back of the cabinet, so I took a picture of it.

This is an Evel Knievel machine, and was pretty fun, but I noticed that it was a trend for older pinball machines to put large-breasted women on the machine with visible nips.

See: the bumpers on the Evel Knievel machine.

This was an Elton John-themed machine called Captain Fantastic. It was also covered with busty women.

There was a dimly-lit and dead-silent room in the corner that was filled with retro arcade games, only two of which worked. The one in the middle was called Clowns, and featured clowns that jumped on a see-saw and popped balloons. While my friend and I were playing, the pinball wizard himself walked up behind us and said "Clowns. That's a great machine" and then vanished.

There are hundreds more pinball machines and other games in this place, and it is easily worth $10. It's probably my favorite place in Pittsburgh. If any of you are ever in the area, I will gladly go with you and drink beers/play pinball. It was a fun Friday night. Thanks

# ? Mar 28, 2015 14:58

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 00:02

ron color

awesome...did they have Elvis pinball? that's a great machine
did the captain fantastic one play songs from the album? Thanks

# ? Mar 28, 2015 15:17

fuck. marry. t-rex

Nice... my favorite part is the DOS lightshow and busty ladies

# ? Mar 28, 2015 15:17

shabbat goy

ron color posted:

awesome...did they have Elvis pinball? that's a great machine
did the captain fantastic one play songs from the album? Thanks

They had an Elvis pinball machine, but I don't think it was working. As far as I can tell, he has this huge collection and spends most of his time fixing the ones that break, so at any given time only around ~75% of the machines are working.

The capt. fantastic one didn't play songs from the album;, it's an analog machine and I don't think they had that capability at the time.

gently caress. marry. t-rex posted:

Nice... my favorite part is the DOS lightshow and busty ladies

Me too

# ? Mar 28, 2015 15:48

shabbat goy

Okey dokey, I uploaded the videos.

Here's the wizard showing us his posting station and giving us a demo of the animations. After this, he opened winamp and played Slipknot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nLAl7GDv9s

And here's the opening band playing a song with the animations in the background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8fEbPIVtUk

# ? Mar 28, 2015 16:25

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

hmm no twilight zone or adams family pinball op what in the goddamned hell kind of poo poo show thread you running here

# ? Mar 28, 2015 17:15

shabbat goy

those are both good machines, but he sells them in addition to maintaining a museum and they are both probably in somebody's basement :shrug:

# ? Mar 28, 2015 17:25

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

*chokes on my own vomit*

# ? Mar 28, 2015 17:27

Flying Fortress

I love pinball! The real thing is the best of course, but there are some great versions of classic machines for xbox 360 and ps3 that I also enjoy.

The laundromat I used to go to had a Dirty Harry pinball machine that loving ruled. If they weren't so expensive to buy I'd get a real machine for my house.

# ? Mar 28, 2015 18:44

GODSPEED JOHN GLENN: I put my thumb up my bum and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.

huh

# ? Mar 28, 2015 18:48

Chef Shimi

Cool

# ? Mar 28, 2015 18:48

fuck. marry. t-rex

Putting a pinball machine in a laundromat is genius

# ? Mar 28, 2015 18:56

ron color

what if there was a car wash too.......holy poo poo

# ? Mar 28, 2015 23:39

FluffieDuckie

this is really cool. thanks for sharing with us :love:

Thank you for the beautiful sig Machai!

# ? Mar 29, 2015 01:30

City of Glompton

awesome! I like pinball and I like the pinball wizard

thank you PSP for the beautiful spring sig

# ? Mar 29, 2015 03:33

dogcrash truther

Twitter Warpath posted:

Last night was opening night at the Pittsburgh Pinball Museum and Player's Club, so my friend and I went.

Warning: bad cellphone pictures inbound.

This place is a nondescript warehouse 10 miles outside of Pittsburgh, with little indication that it's filled with pinball machines (and retro arcade games, and a restaurant). It's unheated and there are no overhead lights, so all the light comes from the pinball machines (hence the bad pictures).

The entrance fee was $10, which is cash only (or you can paypal him at his AOL address and tell him you did it, he doesn't check, but he is a nice guy so don't do that.) After that, all the games are rigged to let you play for free.

The newest machine is probably the Apollo 13 machine, but he has ones dating back to the 60's or 70's (I am not a pinball historian.) I took some pictures of my favorite machines.

This is Dr. Dude, and he has an eXcellent-Ray (I don't think he's a real doctor.) This machine was broken but kept making cool noises.

This was my favorite machine of the night, Banzai Run. If you hit some buttons and "challenged" another racer, then got the ball in one of the tracks, a magnet picked the ball up and brought it to that top part of the cabinet for some sort of racing minigame that I was bad at. If I were to buy a pinball machine, this would be the one.

This was an officially licensed Jurassic Park machine, and I think this is supposed to be Steven Spielberg. Also the lady next to him has real buff arms, and I liked this machine.

They also had games like foosball and air hockey. The place is BYOC (no bottles allowed, and you must have a coozy on your beer at all times.) We didn't have any coozies, so the owner gave us these as a souvenir. He is a really nice guy.

While we were playing air hockey, some kid came up to the table and said he got next. He proceeded to play my friend and I and get real intense, but he lost every time and I almost felt a little bad. After that, he disappeared and we didn't see him for the rest of the night. [Disclaimer: I say kid but he was probably 15 or 16 so it wasn't like we were walloping on a 7-year-old.]

This is a band that performed. They did a cover of "Zombie" by the Cranberries, among other songs. They were pretty good.

This is the owner of the place. He ran the soundboard and the lights for the show, and is also owner and operator of the place. He's a really nice guy and, as far as I can tell, lives a pretty sweet life. The place has a band setup because he plays the analog synth in the headlining band. Apparently when the pinball place is closed for the winter (again, unheated warehouse), he's on tour with his band. He is a real Pinball Wizard.

During the performance of the opening band, there were low-res 3D animations playing on the wall behind them. We asked the pinball wizard about the animations, and he said they were made in DOS frame-by-frame. He really likes DOS, and this was the computer he used to run the show and project the animations. I will try to get a video up later.

Sidenote: this is also the computer he uses to make his excellent website, https://www.pinballperfection.com

This machine has the best art, period. It's called Centaur, and he is half man half motorcycle. I didn't get to play this machine because some 50-year-old guy was playing it all night and probably had all the high-scores. He looked at me funny when I took this picture.

This machine was called "Class of 1812" and had some fun effects and I played it for a while, but I really liked the orange-haired dude on the back of the cabinet, so I took a picture of it.

This is an Evel Knievel machine, and was pretty fun, but I noticed that it was a trend for older pinball machines to put large-breasted women on the machine with visible nips.

See: the bumpers on the Evel Knievel machine.

This was an Elton John-themed machine called Captain Fantastic. It was also covered with busty women.

There was a dimly-lit and dead-silent room in the corner that was filled with retro arcade games, only two of which worked. The one in the middle was called Clowns, and featured clowns that jumped on a see-saw and popped balloons. While my friend and I were playing, the pinball wizard himself walked up behind us and said "Clowns. That's a great machine" and then vanished.

There are hundreds more pinball machines and other games in this place, and it is easily worth $10. It's probably my favorite place in Pittsburgh. If any of you are ever in the area, I will gladly go with you and drink beers/play pinball. It was a fun Friday night. Thanks

cool

# ? Mar 29, 2015 03:38

dogcrash truther

i will never go to pittsburg or anywhere close to it, but i'm going to imagine that i go to that place and i'm really good at pinball

# ? Mar 29, 2015 03:38

dogcrash truther

i'm going toimagine that i show up at the same time every night with a coors big can and play a machine and im really good at it so a crowd always gthers around and the teenagers look up to me and i get them to smuggle drugs for me and im real mysterious

# ? Mar 29, 2015 03:40

shabbat goy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHt8DVu9LY

# ? Mar 29, 2015 15:44

the unabonger

Twitter Warpath posted:

Okey dokey, I uploaded the videos.

Here's the wizard showing us his posting station and giving us a demo of the animations. After this, he opened winamp and played Slipknot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nLAl7GDv9s

And here's the opening band playing a song with the animations in the background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8fEbPIVtUk

the last animation looked familiar...

# ? Mar 29, 2015 16:12

GODSPEED JOHN GLENN: I put my thumb up my bum and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.

Twitter Warpath posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHt8DVu9LY

Funky as gently caress

# ? Mar 29, 2015 18:21

ron color

bump

# ? Mar 30, 2015 04:20

Gone Fashing: KEEP POSTIN
I'M STILL LAFFIN

cool. banzai run looks rad

# ? Mar 30, 2015 04:22

shabbat goy

Sometimes when I'm in a bad mood, I look at this place's website and it cheers me up with good gifs and incomprehensible text.

This is from the restaurant's menu.

# ? Mar 30, 2015 12:35

bog pixie

i used to build flipper coils that go inside old pinball machines to fix them. we used a machine that would sometimes spin the wire so fast that pieces would fly off and get in your skin

# ? Mar 30, 2015 13:22

joke_explainer

I wish Julio was here for this...

# ? Mar 30, 2015 16:53

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 00:02

landy.

joke_explainer posted:

I wish Julio was here for this...

# ? Mar 30, 2015 16:56

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