I heard the same thing. They bought my friend's nice Jurassic Park, and were looking at but didn't buy one or two of his others.

I can't give any Creedence to the rumor, but I did visit this Summer and u was impressed with their .25 pinball offerings.
I'd like to see what they have in mind.
If they did offer a walk around pass I'd make it their more often.
Thanks for the post.

Ok, had to search this thread out. Major changes at Canobie for pinball this year! All rumors above were true as I was there with my son on Saturday.

First we went to the normal $0.25/credit arcade near the Tea Cups & Round-Up. All the pins were gone and replaced with more HDTV redemption games. Minor panic attack. But like 2 posts mentions above, I was also at the VT seller's place a few months ago and he told me he sold his JP to Canobie so I didn't fully freak out.

We needed a restroom break, so we went into the Big Bear Lodge (North end of park near the new coaster and the antique cars). In the back there was that BS arcade which was designed to look like a casino. That "casino" is no more. It's now a giant pinball-only arcade!

Last year I wrote Canobie a lengthy letter. Not that I was mad, but more disappointed. With their lineup of top tier games (WOZ, MB, TZ, TAF, SM, LOTR, ACDC, TSPP, WW, RFM...etc) the last thing you want to see is NONE of them working properly and all in need of service. It looks like they took this type of feedback to heart. Here were some of the changes I noticed...

1) Tons of new games - around a half dozen Pitch & Bat games, some EM games, random games like Pacman and BBBB, and some welcome new additions like the JP I knew they had, and GHOSTBUSTERS Pro!
2) Many of the games I noticed had shop jobs (I was with my son so I couldn't go check out each game). LEDs added in many games.
3) They went COLOR on a bunch of the displays.
4) Full-time attendant!
5) Unfortunately not all the games are $0.25/credit anymore... but if that's the price for functioning games, so be it.

This was a great thing to see from Canobie. This was obviously no small effort and hopefully it brings more people in the hobby (except until they play Hercules as they turn to leave and see it in the dark corner, drop a quarter, and then hate pinball forever).

Here are some pics. Lineup is too long to list but I think you'll be able to identify most.
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Nice!

awesome do they still have the hercules?

You can see the side of it in the last panorama pic.

I live in Salem and they make us residents pay full price. They do offer a "discount" one day a year, rain or shine.
I have mentioned to management there many times since they sold the park that if they offered a yearly pass, I would go there often to play games and buy dinner etc. I don't even ride the rides!

I asked a similar question years ago in college when my ex worked there part time. We never got a full answer, but my interpretation was that if they had a season-pass that was cheap enough, it would basically serve as the unofficial day care for everyone within a 10-mile radius. When I think about costs of daycare and/or summer camps for my son it begins to make sense. Canobie would have to charge like $2000 for a season ticket to deter 1000 kids from getting dropped off at the gate each morning. I think it's just easier not to offer it.

I now want to ask if they can make a "pinball only" pass or something. Let us outcasts in through a special entrance or something so customers don't see random single guys walking in to an amusement park alone. I'd totally go w/o my son just to play pinball... if it wasn't $30-40 to get in plus coin drop on top of that.

The "day care" argument is a load of crap.... Six Flags has reasonably priced season passes (less than $70) and I don't think they have that problem. If Canobie sold season passes I would buy them for my family every year. With what they charge for admission now, we are reluctant to go at all. And we live about 15 minutes away. We didn't go at all last year. With a season pass, I could see us popping over there on several evenings to eat, maybe go on a couple rides, and play games. I think they're missing out on a big opportunity.

That was just the impression I had from talks years ago.

Six Flags and Canobie probably have different approaches for pricing. There must be a reason Canobie doesn't offer season passes while Six Flags charges like 30 cents more than a single day ticket. My special needs brother has always lived within 20min of Canobie and loves when I take him there. If it were an option, he'd have a season pass every year under the X-mas tree from me. And I'd just get one for myself for the pinball lineup.

They know there's money left on the table with season passes. But by seeing how they expanded the parking lot last year w/o season passes, I don't think capacity is a concern right now.

But it's worth giving the place a shot once or twice. Go on a discount day (i.e. father's day), get the McDonalds coupons, or go after 5pm. I did a game count from my pics above, and it looks like it's about 35 games (33 unique, because 2 pitch & bats are duplicate titles).

I used to work at Canobie in the 80's. I don't think the owners are the same anymore.
I agree with Matt about the day care thing.
They would make money every day from meals alone.
I know in Florida parks like Universal and Disney have Florida discounts, so why not at least open the seasonal pass to Salem and Windham residents only. I picture id will stop false residences.

Sorry to get off topic. I have this love / hate relationship with Canobie because I want to go there to play. Its 2 miles from my house, but its too expensive. (Yes, I know the Pinball Wizard is in Pelham). $38 is too rich for me.

I'm there now! Got my first play on Ghostbusters!

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Whoa, not 1 but 2 Midway Little League machines... those are very, very rare.

The owners of canobie lake are into pins... I've tried to buy from them a few times over the years... They will always have pins... Nice to see them upkeep them finally

Went there yesterday by chance, I had no idea they had a pinball arcade. It was awesome! Every game was in great condition (Hercules was ooo). The pitch and bat machines are awesome. Love the colordmd on a large percentage of the games.
Git to play a bunch of games I have only read about before.
Ghostbusters' flippers are too small, hahahaha.
My son now wants a STTNG.
The huge chalkboard wall with the high scores from every game was a nice touch (lots of "kef" on the board too, should be easy for some of you to beat and become famous).

I tried to update the map but because I just created a user name I do not have the "street cred" to save what I tried to enter. I as at the park this past weekend for a company outing and this is what I did not see include on pin map.

Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball
Super Mario Bro's
Star Wars (Data East)
Jurassic Park
Star Trek (New)
Wizard of Oz
Ghostbusters

Hope that helps at least.