Awesome news. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the news. Best wishes to all parties!

Nice to see they have a strong future !

LTG : )

I sure hope things will be business as usual for the tournaments.

How does one man accumulate 450+ pinball machines?

Oh wait googled around. Kevin Martin owns pair networks? Well I guess I understand now. Have used them on and off for hosting over the years.

Nice, best of luck to them. One day plan on making the trip to Pittsburgh.

This could be the beginning of something nice. If the rumor I been hearing is true we are in for a treat in the near future.

Twice. Don't forget the flood.

Kevin's done a lot for pinball and now providing for the future.

LTG : )

Totaly agreee with you Lloyd!

Awesome news...

Does that mean it will be open more often?

No.

LTG : )

Thats great news , will be heading there for the first time for Pinburgh

Nice Try Thou all those pins just sitting for us to come twice a year well atleast they wouldnt get sick for all those countless plays on it if it was open for the public all year long..

but yes i feel it is great news for all of us.. and i wonder what the earlier mentioned 'treat' will be then

i feel the PAPA facility opened up twice a year for the public is an huge treat allready IMHO

I'm assuming its some local legal issue with why its not open more??

You assumed right.

LTG : )

What do you know? I always wondered why only twice a year.

PAPA posted on RGP some years ago that they couldn't do more than a couple things a year. Though I don't recall if it was a zoning issue or licenses.

LTG : )

I recall it being serious licensing fees, which would make it financially untenable. (along with the huge increase in maintenance to keep all the games playing great!)

That's my stupid-ass state for you. ..... Eye roll..

I drove my bike past PAPA a few weeks ago. No signs, nothing. You'd never guess anything was in that building. It's on the site of where an old steel mill used to be in Carnegie PA called Superior Steel.

All the rumors you have heard are all totally false

But seriously, it will be business as usual for the PAPA facility. Next stop, Pinburgh!

Standing ovation for Kevin!

If you haven't seen this outstanding collection of machines, here's a video walk-through I shot at the PAPA facility in August:

wow - how did you film that if the joint is only open twice a year for competitions?

I'm guessing there was a benefit to create the foundation and then 'donate' the machines. That was pretty much Kevin's and PAPA's deal anyway

Maybe being listed officially as a non-profit organization will allow them to open more than twice a year without legal issues?

I remember the first time I dealt with Mark from PAPAs..he was interested in a game I had for sale and wanted to do a trade...I had no idea who 'PAPA' was.

His email went something like..I have 450 machines and only have 1 (of the game you have for sale) but I have 8 of this game I would trade ya.

Needless to say I almost didn't answer the email.. sounded like your tyipcal Scam

No.

LTG : )

kudos to Kevin for giving the biggest present to pinballers, by giving away his personnal collection to keep it available for everyone.

Wish I'd live in the USA to be able to get to this wonderful place.

I don't know how this will really change anything, but I'm sure there are good reasons & might make things easier in the future.

I make it to the warehouse at least in august & I'm always tempted to hit the other dates after winter.
I live in the area a couple hours away, so its pretty easy for me to get there (though not like the guy above who rides his bike past it).

This place blew my mind, & even more so because I first found out about the place pretty much when the flood hit, then my 1st year going was the 1st year after the flood. Keep in mind I wasn't expecting much. I went just based on I heard there was a good amount of machines for public play I could play & get some pictures of. But knowing they were recovering from a flood, I wouldn't let my expectations get too high.

When I finally walked into the place I almost had to pinch myself. In an old plain looking building, that from the entrance side doesn't even look like its gonna be as big as it is. So the true scope of the place & everything in it doesn't really hit you until you step into the doors.
Then even more impressive than the # of games is the titles. They don't fill half the place with cheap crap games, though they can certainly be found. You can tell there is an emphasis on quality games. For example, there are 4 TZ's. & as we know, those aren't exactly cheap, but since that is such an important game to pinball, a couple can go out of order & there are still 2 there for everybody to play. I feel like if any number of other people were running that collection, there might be 4 Robocop's & 1 TZ.

I'd like to see the place in a few more years because I still think they are recovering in some ways from the flood, in terms of optimizing the collection. I see it every year that there are a few, perhaps crappier titles that get removed (or just OK titles that they might have 2+ of, now cut down) in favor of a better game.

I really have no problem with them only being open, what, 6 or 7 days a year (if that). Imagine being open many days during the winter, what the heating bill would be in that place, or what the AC bill is in the summer just after a few days. Some parts of that space have insanely high ceilings. It would just be like flushing money down the toilet.

You have to run some heat in the winter, and some air in the summer for humidity.

And if all those games are on giving off heat and a lot of people, it wouldn't take much to heat it in the winter.

LTG : )

well i dont live in the USA, like u in europe.. but still im attending it

love that place, its like pinball candyland

Bravo to Kevin.

What a generous gift to the pinball community! I nominate Kevin for man of the year.

well the pinball hall of fame got out some of the coin op licenses by being non-profit.

The PAPA facility bought my Goldeneye, " the first one" ...

Mark and his wife came up to the house to pick it up...

No hassle deal, and just great people...

Glad you guys will be a ble to enjoy the game there in PA....

Different city/county/state. Different rules and regulations.

And we don't know what PHOF or PAPA all worked out with the city before they opened. They may have had to make concessions or agreements as to what and how they would operate.

And at the time PAPA maybe had no intention of operating a 450 pin arcade, so agreeing to be open only a couple times a year made sense.

But only PAPA knows all the details.

LTG : )

I wonder about the carbon footprint these machines are giving off. LOL

Just ordered me a nice hat from the papa.org website to support the cause a little...

Just caught this thread and figured I would chime in. PAPA will continue to function as it always does with regard to tournaments and then some. The Replay Foundation is a way to ensure the collection will stick around in the future, as Kevin was quoted as saying in the press release, and that is probably the most important aspect of this transition. In addition to that, however, the "outreach" efforts that are mentioned in the release will definitely help pinball beyond even what PAPA does currently, which is quite a bit, both in public and behind the scenes of many projects. The facility will be open to the public more often depending on what events are taking place, but it will never be run as a traditional arcade due to some of the reasons already mentioned here. Already on the schedule: Koz from MPE and Josh from IFPA will be running a Pinbrawl event prior to PAPA 16 at the facility, the Elwin's will be visiting later this week to get a jumpstart on Pinball 102 (if you're not familiar, they're the best instructional videos available), the Pittsburgh Pinball League just hosted a league night that was 60 strong this past Friday, and our own Circuit Final will be running Thursday prior to this upcoming Pinburgh in April. None of these events were on the PAPA schedule as recently as a few years ago, and its only a smattering of what is being planned. The Replay Foundation gives our situation new latitude when it comes to helping pinball grow. Good things are on the way, and thank you all for your support!