Cool store. That's certainly a great lineup of pins they have. They really need a better website, though.

Yes, I have been there many times. Working with the owner to try and get a tournament hosted there.

Last time I was there some of the games were not playing that well. TOTAN was resetting for instance. I'm hesitant to hold a tournament there if the games aren't playing that well.

How did they play for you?

Does this place still exist/have pinball? I'm going to be San Diego this weekend, and thought of stopping by, but it's not on the San Diego Pinball Map anymore. This is my first time in SD since getting heavy into pinball, and so far all I know for sure is I plan on checking out Nickel City Amusement.

According to this thread they have closed:

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-san-diego-pinball-thread

Also, just as an FYI I'm planning on swapping out the Avatar at Nickel City with a South Park late tonight or early tomorrow.

I just came back from a trip there. I didn't make it to PB so I can't confirm if GameOn is closed. I did stop by Mira Mesa bowl (its hidden behind the shopping center). They have a T3, AFM and TFTC. All are in decent shape, but I stayed off T3 as there was no umph to the backbox coil. Kearney Mesa Bowl has a MM, DH and another I beleive. I wasn't able to make it there. If you get hungry, Oggies just up the road from Nickle City has a TAF

Thanks for the info! I hope I get there before you, I'd much rather play Avatar than South Park.

Thanks for the info!

Something has come up, so it looks like Avatar will be there for a couple more days.

I was happy it was there. We put $2 into it and had a lot of fun. We liked Nickel City a lot, mostly, but having to put 20 nickels into a game to get the extra credit was a little odd.

They still got pinball at some Nickel City's? My old place of worship was a Nickel City arcade on Capitol Expy here in San Jose, that had a Monster Bash and Freddy pinball.

The only Nickel City left by my house (near Blossom Hill on Branham Lane), only has arcade and redemption games.

Yea, I'll agree that running pins off of nickels is far from optimum. However, most of the pins have bill validators in them and the front counter can give you dollar bills instead of nickels. (The LW3 only runs on nickels, and the validator for Avatar is out for repair)

Nickel City San Diego has 6 pins right now: Tron, Avatar (soon to be South Park), TSPP, IJ4, LW3, and Ticket-Tac-Tac. We also have a Wizard of Oz LE on order.

Each Nickel City is independently operated so the game selection can vary quite a bit from one to another. Pins don't earn well, so most Nickel City's have dropped them in favor of higher earning games.

Zack, you know I love you, but swapping Avatar for South Park?? Why not drop LW3, TSPP, or IJ4 instead?

One

One of my best customers requested it for one of his locations. It'll come back at some point in the future. It's still going to be on location in San Diego.

If anything South Park was earning because of the popularity of the show when the pinball was released. I highly doubt it will earn more than any other game at this point.

I'm speaking more on terms of game play. SP has to be one of the most boring games I've ever played. The only reason I would go to Nickel City was for Tron and Avatar, I will personally be making the trip less if it's only Tron.

Anyway, thanks for the reply kwiKi, I know responding is tough for ya.