(Topic ID: 218912)

Canobie Lake Park (Salem, NH) scouting report

By dmarston

5 years ago

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Latest reply 5 months ago by JudeRussell
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Canobie Lake Park continues to buy new pinball games, and continues to struggle with maintenance. Almost every game has a mod of some kind, including color DMDs on most DMD games. Yesterday (10 June, not far into the season) I went there and got to play quite a few, but missed out on many more. Given that it usually costs a minimum of $29.00 to get into the park, you need other reasons to justify a visit.

All the conventional pinball machines, and the five conventional (non-redemption) pitch-and-bat games are in a hall by themselves in the back of the Bear Lodge at the Eastern end of the grounds. This is convenient for the pinball fan, and the room is quieter than the other arcades as well as being air-conditioned. There are 30 operating pinballs, 5 pitch-and-bats, and a display-only Gottlieb Bronco that has been given the "visible pinball" treatment. It has a clear plastic outer cabinet, and it looks like it could work once they hook up the switches that mount on the door.

The pinball games are: Batman 66 Premium, AC/DC, Wizard of Oz, Stern Star Trek, Start Trek: the Next Generation, Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World, Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball, Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man, Ghostbusters, Data East Star Wars, Stern Spider-Man, Shrek, Stern Pirates of the Caribbean, NASCAR, Elvis, Lord of the Rings, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Revenge from Mars, Twilight Zone, Jurassic Park, the Addams Family, Monster Bash, Whirlwind, F-14, High Speed, Space Invaders pinball, Jungle Princess, Strange Science, and Monopoly. P&Bs are: Little League, Williams Line Drive, Upper Deck, Fast Ball, and Slugfest. All pricing is based on quarters (25c to $1.00) and is similar to pricing elsewhere in the region.

Elsewhere in the park, you can find an Exhibit Hi-Ball and unplugged Sega Gun Fight in the Shutter Shack. The Hi-Ball can be played with your bare fist or using a Whac-A-Mole hammer, whichever you prefer. P&B fans should note the rare ICE Line Drive in the Boathouse Casino and the Andamiro Baseball Pro in the Palace Arcade. There are other types of coin-ops scattered around the place that I won't mention here.
.................David Marston

My kids just went there a week ago. I asked them to take a picture for me since I haven't been there since last summer. I received the following.

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Canobie's collection, for the 20-30 games that it is, probably is one of more well-rounded collections that you'll ever come across. It does a great job capturing modern Sterns, WPC, System 11's, EM's, and even Pitch & Bats, obviously with a favoritism toward modern Sterns . Only the early SS era gets ignored I think (wait, they do have a Hercules out in the concourse...).

Though Canobie has done wonders with their pinball collection, location, appearance, and all that, they're severely lacking in the training and service department.

I think it's partly because my GF used to work locally to Canobie at a pinball arcade as an actual Pinball technician so we know how proper arcades CAN function, but this Canobie arcade is staffed with the regular high school kids on summer break. The only training given to them is basically how to exchange dollars for quarters. That means they can't retrieve a lost ball because they're actually NOT PERMITTED to take off the glass! They work strictly with pinball machines, yet can't do anything of value to said machines.

We had two issues on two different days - a stuck ball and a broken VUK. One employee just looked at the stuck ball and turned off the game (ok, I get it, that's you're only course of action if you're not allowed to even open the coin door) and refunded our money. The other time, the other employee just looked at us like "I can't do anything about that" and I said "well we payed for the game" and the kid looked puzzled as what to do next (with a quarter dispenser on the kid's hip!)

You can add all the coloDMD's on the shiniest A-tier titles you want... but if you can't get an F'ing ball unstuck, you're not a real pinball arcade, you're a pinball showroom.

I didn't see a Hercules on my visit, and I was looking for coin-ops everywhere.

The Pinball Parlor is now staffed by an attendant. I was there on a Sunday, and the attendant was empowered to open up the game and give refunds. I can't attest to whether they could address stuck balls.
.................David Marston

FWIW, I ended up there this summer with family and the transparent Bronco (display only, same spot as the picture here) and the Hercules (playable) are still there.

I did not see much in the way of older games and I was just in the area for lunch, so no assessment of play-ability or maintenance.

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