(Topic ID: 293515)

Champions Sports Bar and Grill in Highspire PA

By JOESCHALL

2 years ago

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4 posts
3 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 2 years ago by JOESCHALL
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I don't think anyone has posted this information yet, so I will do so. It relates to both a place to play in the Harrisburg area and River City Pinball. I had the pleasant experience of playing pins yesterday at Champions Sports Bar & Grill in Highspire PA (near Harrisburg). Website here:

http://championssportsbar.us/

The current games there are the following:

JP (Stern), GNR (JJP), TMNT, T2, F-14, Elvira HOH (Stern), CFTBL

All have color displays and by appearance look to be in great shape. I only had a chance to play GNR (superb--starting a song really rocks) for $1 and Creature for 50 cents. Creature plays well (a weak left flipper but otherwise just great) but had a credit dot, and the only thing I noticed was that when I got high scores on Creature I could not enter them--the game went right to the high score menu flipper entry and as soon as I tried the first letter it exited to the welcome screen. This happened repeatedly.

Also noteworthy is the masking policy at Champions. The signage said that there is no mask requirement and that those who enter without masks will be assumed to be fully vaccinated. Since I am, it was nice to be able to play without a mask.

Also noteworthy is that the director of the River City Pinball tournaments tells me that Champions is the new location for the league (although the River City Pinball site is not yet updated). He also notes that River City Pinball is only holding small private leagues until things open back up again. So no tournaments as of yet. As far as playing at Champions, he advised to call first to make sure they don't have a private event in the room with the pinball machines. They host private events sometimes in that area, so it's best to check first.

I hope that's helpful, and it's definitely worth checking out Champions if you're in the Harrisburg area. Great food too.

IIRC, isn't the building that River City Blues is in going to eventually be demolished for the I83 widening project? I am not sure how far away the project is, but I do recall reading something about it in Pennlive at one point. I didn't have a great experience with some of the dirtbag patrons at RCB when I went there with my wife, so maybe I will try Champions next time.

Thanks for the shout out @JOESCHALL. I have to get the website updated one of these days.

We are hoping to get back to full swing in the next few months as things open back up. We are still working with Champions on alignment of our schedules as some of their weekly groups begin returning.

As for River City Blues Club, we are no long associated with that venue and will hopefully be rebranding soon to completely distance ourselves.

The operator of the machines, Capital Vending, switches up our lineup every league season, so there is typically a rotation of 1 or 2 games every 8 - 10 weeks. They normally purchase the newest games as you could probably see by the lineup. I haven't heard any word on Mandalorian yet, but haven't spoken with the owner since it was announced.

We are hoping that the summer season will be back to being open enrollment as they were before the planet exploded.

Thanks for the update Spyderturbo007--much appreciated. Looking forward to future visits.

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