http://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/

The largest arcade in the world. 450 games. Nine pins.

Brixie's across the street from Galloping Ghost is a bar with 4 or 5 very nice pins.

all ages, no bar, just an arcade, $15 for a day pass, come and go as you want.

http://undergroundretrocade.com/

West Dundee, IL

Over 100 classic arcade games.
11 pinball machines.

Similar to Galloping Ghost in that it costs $15 for a day pass, everything is on free play, come and go as needed.

10 mins away from Hampshire http://undergroundretrocade.com/ more vids than pins but I think they have 7 or more

The ghost is good too cant go wrong with either

guess i type too slow chad

Galloping Ghost has the most games, but it gets busy and, at least the last time I was there, didn't really have a place to sitdown and rest. Underground Retrocade is a quieter more peaceful place and has lots of games and places to sit and rest (wife/kids love that).

Can't go wrong with either.

Level 257 recently opened in Schaumburg, attached to Woodfield Mall.

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/2/23/8090077/level-257-eater-inside-opening#4675498

Looks like they have Black Knight, Gorgar, TAF, Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man, and TZ.

Dave and Busters has no pins FYI.

I purchased my RFM from Kurt at Hemisphere Amusements. Nice guy, knows his stuff, and I got the game for a decent price for a retailer.

When I was there a year ago, the "showroom" had an industrial park warehouse vibe.

I have recently been to both Galloping Ghost and the Underground Retrocade. Here is what I thought of the machines at both:

GG -

Freddy: Nightmare on Elm Street - out of order

Pinbot - out of order

Black Knight - upper left flipper is out of order

F14 and TZ - both players condition, playable

Gorgar and Space Invaders - both games basically set to zero incline. Ball rolls so slow you literally get bored. Could play forever, so I guess that's "good" news.

Funhouse and Creature - two most popular machines there. Creature is missing, literally, as in when you light up a letter in "FILM", he doesn't appear. Doesn't effect gameplay. Funhouse is also playable, but Rudy is cross-eyed!

As for The Underground, here were their machines:

Black Knight - flippers aren't powerful enough to get the ball to the upper playfield. Unplayable without that if you ask me.

Dungeons and Dragons - impossible to get it up to the dragon's lair on either side. could be a fun game if it worked 100%.

Space Shuttle - again, flippers don't have enough juice to get the ball up the center ramp.

Johnny Mnemonic - best game there. Everything worked 100%, even the glove!

Bugs Bunny - solid game. Fun. The flipper in the lower playfield was all jacked up, but was okay I guess.

Fire! - I played this one a lot because it was fun, bit it also suffered from weak flippers. I was only able to get the ball over the jump and into the window once. The other ramps were also difficult to traverse, but I still enjoyed it.

Comet, Eight Ball, Xenon, Blackout, and Laser Cue - not my style, so I didn't play them that much.

In summation: More does not always equal better. These games need a thorough work over by an actual technician. Both places cost $15 for all day access. Not worth it if all you want to do is play pinball, in my opinion.

Round 1 at stratford square mall in Bloomingdale has The walking dead, metallica, and mustang. All in new working order. It's a great joint that has bowling, pool, arcade, and more.

$1 per game, 3 credits for $2

http://www.round1usa.com/

Ditto, Dave and Busters has no pins.

Gameworks in Schaumburg located streets of Woodfield has maybe 4 or 5 pins upstairs also there's a Legoland a few doors down.

Woodfield Mall has a new place next to Sears that has games and some pins from what I have heard.

Hey Dirtbag - Man your handle makes it sound like I'm calling names! Thanks for the constructive feedback. Actually ChadH and I are the ones who maintain the pins at The Retrocade. We try to keep the games running 100%. Imagine your private collection being played 10 hours a day every day without you being there for 6 days. Stuff gets out of whack and it's hard to know what to look at without feedback.

We've been going over your list and addressing problems you listed.

Black Knight needed an EOS adjustment on the flippers so they would stay full power through 98% of the stroke. After that adjustment we can make all of the ramp shots and it plays well.

Space Shuttle had a cracked flipper grommet on the right flipper which was causing some play in the flipper, resulting in a loss of power. That grommet was replaced, the EOS was adjusted, and I think you'll find that there isn't a shot you can't make due to flipper power.

We looked at Fire and couldn't find anything wrong. We were able to make all of the shots and the flipper strength is as good as it was when it was in Chad's personal collection. We did clean it up and check the flippers.

Bugs Bunny: There was a problem in the past, I don't recall when we fixed that problem, it may have been after your visit.

We will be going through D&D very soon.

We treat this collection as our own, it's a labor of love for us. We don't put games on the floor that we know are not working correctly. If something isn't right, it's something that happens between our (usually) weekly visits. If you come to play at UR and something isn't right with a pin. Let them know at the front desk and we'll address it as quickly as possible.

Welp, turns out that Round1 at Statford Mall in bloomingdale yanked their pinballs...

Depressing, that was a good location for me.

Last time I was at gameworks in schaumburg they had about a dozen pins downstairs all in one line. They must have taken some out. Bummer. I thought they might have because I used to see a lot about tournaments there but not seeing anything about that for a while.

Tom

Just want to back up Mike (dkpinball) here. It's tough keeping pins fully functioning on location. Especially a place like Underground Retrocade where all the games are on free-play. These games get a LOT of plays. The owner tells us that the pinball machines are the most played games in the whole place. This weekend there is a whole troop of Boy Scouts coming in with their parents... you can only imagine the amount of flipper button slamming that will be happening doing that time on all the games.

Also, we do this all for free. Just out of the love of having pinball on location near us. We don't see a single dime. One of the games on location (Fire) is from my personal collection, lending it to the arcade at no charge.

Like Mike mentioned... please let the owner know of any issues. He will attempt to fix them or he will communicate it to us if it's beyond his skill level.

How often do you get new pins? Would love to come back now that you've fixed some of the games up.