The place looks incredible.

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Just wanted to say how much fun tonight was. It was so awesome to finally see that place lit up and loud, all the games going and people in all the rooms. You guys gotta realize, since the day they moved into the place this has never happened. How surreal it must have been for Gideon, Aaron, Steve and the team to see so many people and hear so much noise in their quite business in the first time... ever. Ed even did a mini-big-smoke outside, Craig Hassell's son won a $1000 slot machine, and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. There was more beer than anyone was willing to drink, which was pretty awesome.

Even the ninja turtles made a surprise appearance to take pictures with the kids!

Steve said to me at one point "Wow, I guess we should do stuff like this more often".

Yes Steve... yes you should.

Congrats to my boy.
He took first place in both the Metallica Pro tournament with a score of 300 million & the Twilight Zone Tournament with 400 million. He won the slot machine.

Thank you Steve and crew for throwing this event. It was a blast.image-902.jpg

Guess they were running the code update, eh? I was wondering about that. Kind of wanted to go, but didn't get an ansswer on if they were "full up" or not and I know I asked late..we have decision issues lol. Settled for a quiet dinner out.

Man, looks a LOT nicer in there with all the lights and games on for a change...

Turtles, pizza, pinball.

Yep: smells like a party to me!!!!image-219.jpg

That's me on Cactus Canyon up there! Had no idea I was being captured, but so glad. Very cool to have a pic of me playing my favorite pin I will likely never own, absent, of course, a well-made remake

It was nice meeting a lot of DFW club members for the first time. Brian, good work on Tales from the Crypt. Nice meeting you. Great event and hope they do more of these!

Well done Steve! Well done.

Marcus

That's awesome Steve! Shelley and I had a great time. Thanks for having everyone out and supplying all the food & refreshments. Looking foward to doing it again. Maybe next time I can keep the grand champion score on Metallica. Completely unrelated but I'm not sure you should let that Hassell kid in to the next one. I think he's nothing but trouble, I'm pretty sure I saw him pull a knife on Bill Morrison and take his wallet.

No....I got "shanked" at your house. Thanks Steve for the great time.

By the way. My kids complained about the Hassell kid taking their money.....I busted a gut...and called the police.

I would just like to say I am not in the "scene" in DFW pinball and no one knows who I am including FUN and I bought a machine from them over 2yrs ago and have visited the store on 5 different occasions and they have always open up and let me play whatever I wanted... Especially Gideon and a woman there.. I did not over pay IMO I bought a dredd for 1500 including delivery.. Yes their prices as late have been high but they are willing to wheel and deal...again this comes from an ordinary joe... Now I do pull up in my Mercedes so I don't know if that influences anything..LOL but still never turned me away in fact encouraged me to play...

I could go so many different ways with the last few posts on this thread I don't even know where to begin...lmao. I'm going to let all of it hang just out of respect for what Steve did. Awesome, and I hope we can make it out next time.

Kudos to Steve and FUN! for the fantastic event! That plays makes a great arcade when you add people, music and some beer... Im just saying...

Very cool, Steve. I couldn't make it this time... Hope you do it again!

Jared, How did you feel about the event ? having problems reading you............

I have no intention of being less than crystal clear folks.

I have been listening to the DFW pinball owners for 17 months now. They want a big, nice place to go and play pinball. The Pinballz of the north. The Pinball Hall of Fame of Dallas. They want a massive selection... on location... somewhere.

There have been many ideas... theories... dreamers... and dreams... but as of today we still have no such place.

What I am suggesting is that of any of us... Steve Nordseth is the #1 prospect to make this dream a reality for North Texas. He has the space... the machines... and the business know how to make it possible. If he wanted to, he could do it in a matter of days.

So yeah... him having the open house... seeing the positive effects... seeing how much everyone enjoyed it (himself included) is the... baby steps... towards this becoming a reality that all of us may be able to enjoy...

Maybe.

There's others that could also do this. Steve is one of some others.

There are some pretty awesome collections in North Texas that you have not seen or heard of.

Are they in a commercial location next to fast food facing a busy street?

No doubt you are correct. I've heard rumors of such collections, and missed opportunities to view at least two of them.

When I called steve the "#1 prospect" here is why. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

-His place is already built. The machines are already in, the location exists, it had the power and Ac system , the parking, the access and the inventory. With the flip of a switch, with very little change on his part, steve could turn his showroom into a functional, accessible, available pinball arcade. He just did, for 4 hours , and it was glorious.

-He is in the business of selling games. Getting new people in the door is always a focus and a goal. Having the arcade inside could be the ultimate bait, converting casual players into buyers and home owners. Steve is already setup, in fact, the machines already have price tags.

-He has run large arcades before. Steve has been in the business for decades. He had the experience and know how to manage a profitable business (which is why he remains in business) and has also managed many arcades in the past. For decades now , one way or another , he has been involved in commercial coin op. This is not a man with an expensive hobby, this is a man who does this for a living.

***

For sure, many startup a pinball arcade on their own. Maybe someone will, I hope they do truly. I've heard the conversation come up from many in 17 short months , in sure it's been going for far longer than I've been around...

In my opinion , the person who could do this "the quickest and easiest" would be steve. And maybe I'm wrong.

In any case, more pinball is a good thing for everyone, so even if steve stays as is with his operation, hopefully he will have more events like the one this thread was created to promote .

***

PS: Invite me to come see some collection action!

I travel to Rockwall and Greenville about 6 times a year for business and it would be fantastic if there was a nice place to play. I have not found anywhere convenient in Dallas to play - even worse than LA.

A matter of days is alittle over spoken considering you have to meet fire code, wheel chair space access (Parking, Aisle, Restroom), tax implications, insurance, occupancy tax, claiming income, different LLC then Fun!, etc. For a coin op venue. Not saying it cannot be done, but there are some logistics that Steve is probably well aware of; that would have to be looked at and over come. Does Steve want to mess with this is the question.?

Just like the crowd tilt stuff because you had some income of $80k plus for your party that I think the IRS is gonna be interested in here in the future. You have to have the profit / loss statements , receipts and account for everything. Same thing here. Is it worth it.?

Maybe not, since the many whom are capable/equipped to do so have abstained all of these years.

Possible... sure! Quick and Easy? Proably not. With its own challenges, drama and things to deal with? For sure.

And perhaps for the reason you have just spoken, the dream remains distant.

***

My simple question would be "If it works in other cities: why not Dallas?"

Its a question I like to ask... but have no clue how to answer.

How do you know it's "working"? Last I heard, Pinballz hasn't turned a profit yet. Nobody's going to confrim or deny that except Darren of course, and I don't think he's going to magically show up and offer up his profit and loss statements.

I guess there's a few places that are probably doing okay, but let's face it....between me, you, and Classic, surely we know a large percentage of people in the area that would participate and attend a location for pinball. And the vast majority of people I have met locally are......either broke, not very well off, or spending all their money on buying and fixing machines. There's some outliers, sure, but the majority is what you'd need to make it successful. As one of the "currently broke" people, I'm going to say outright that even if there was a 'Pinballz Dallas', I would hardly ever go there, because Pinballz games are ridiculously expensive compared to Cinemark or Nickelrama. It's not worth paying double the price to me for the 'atmosphere', or 'selection' or however you want to look at it.

That's the real issue with Dallas, IMO. There's too many people like me. Dallas is probably one of the very few places where it seems like poor people have more pins than the rich guys...but man, the "rich guys" sure do rock some awesome collections here.

Well spoken.

We have a unique situation here to say the least.