If you want to be fancy, and have prime, you can use Amazon's Echo to power up the games. You'd just need to get a wifi enabled outlet adaptor.

"Alexa, turn on my games" Bam. Done. Like Tony Stark.

Google Home and Apple Homekit offer similar features.

There are remote control power strips that come with RF toggle switches that you can stick to your wall or carry them around. They have dip switches in them so you can turn on multiple strips with a single switch, or you can use 2 or 3 switches as to not have too big of a start up load drawing at once.
or
if you don't mind turning on a few games, there are also power strips that when you turn on one machine, the rest of the games on that strip will turn on automatically. So you don't have to access the strip, and still kinda cool to be turning on a few machines the old fashioned way.

Good luck.

If all 30 pins are turned on simultaneously, it could cause a brief brown out and voltage sag for the entire house? Doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Maybe if you could stagger them so that their turned on in smaller batches than all 30 at once it might be safer.

Assuming you had the proper infrastructure, you do what arcades and such used to do - buy and wire on a few contactor switches. These can handle upwards of 30amps or more, powered by a seperate 120v feed (via wall switch).

Wire all the outlet sockets through one or two, and then, when you throw the wall switch, it powers the contractors, which energize and complete wall outlet circuits, powering games.

I have a Wink Hub and Leviton Smart Outlets. I have 4 circuits and 13 pinball machines. I can turn on one group of machines or all the machines with one click. I also have Alexa and can just ask her to turn on the Arcade. Works well

You might hate it, but I love it. "Alexa, turn on the pinball". Followed by "Alexa, play classic rock everywhere" and the house lights up with pinball and music.

(For those with multiple Echos, did you see that you can setup music groups and have the same music come from all your Echos? Cool stuff.)

multiple "clappers"

I use these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQELHBS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
And these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CEJW0WQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

You could set every 10 or so games on a button, but have all on one remote. This would stop all 30 from drawing power at one time. I mounted my remote next to my light switch.

I have 6 X 20 amp circuits in my basement and I ran them to all go through switches that I ganged together in my work room. They are behind the door and a little higher up so I can get to them but they won't be mistaken as light switches during a party by someone that wanders in there and potentially kills the games during a party. So I have to technically flip 6 switches to turn on all my games, but the switches are at least in one place.

I have a lot of Alexa automation in my house but I haven't made the jump yet to put these circuits under Z Wave control. Partly because I'm worried that once someone hears me turn everything on it could become a problem with them being able to flip things on and off with their voice. Does anyone know of a way around this legitimate concern?

Funny..I try telling this to people all the time. I usually get shunned. I received a free Prime membership a while ago and probably by a few hundred a month online on average. Ironically the smart wall outlets were the closest thing to being the 'cheaper' on Amazon. But buying a 5 pack from Jet ended up being quite a bit cheaper. They thrive on pure laziness of the consumer...which is killing it for them. Ie: the link above for the Etekcity switch 5 pack...was found at $24.99 (With no tax) and free shipping in like 30 seconds.

There's a reason Jeff Bezos is darn near the richest man in the world. Somehow he gets people to pay a membership fee..to over pay for stuff.

To answer your main question. For my pins I'm using a Veredge controller with smart wall outlets. This setup can get expensive as the wall outlets (one per machines) are about $35 a piece. I only have half my pins set up on this now. You can also setup scenes that are pretty cool.

For example When I hit 'Play Pinball' on my phone. All the track lighting turns on at 100%...then the first 4 games turn on. 5 seconds later the next 4 games turn on. 5 seconds after that the next 4 games turn on. 10 seconds later the track lighting gets dimmed to 10%.

You can set up scene however ya want. You could very well do another scene called 'Play Pinball Now' that turns everything on..and set the lighting at 10%

I have a scene called 'Play turds' ..and all the Stern turn on =)

I'm still waiting on a smart 20A standard wall switch for my arcade games..I would need 4. There was a company that made them a while ago... and stopped making them. There's a ton of choices for 15A stuff. You can get a 20a relay switch that fits in a standard wall switch box. But there is no manual way to turn the games on which would suck in case of a communication failure.

Which reminds me.. I haven't checked in a while for a 20A smart wall switch

Not really sure. I also have an Echo. I haven't integrated it into my Veredge Zwave controller yet. I still prefer the phone app.

Now that summer is winding down in my area...I might mess around with the Echo a little more. I do know that every time we talk about my buddies daughter (Alexa)..the Echo starts babbling something. They have 3 year old twins the same age as my daughter.

Needless to say I bought him an Echo 'puck' for Christmas this year as kinda a gag gift

I use these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003P2UMNK

The remote comes with a wall mountable bracket. Each strip has 3 dip switches so you can easily set all the strips to use one remote. One press and every game powers on at same time. Another and they're off. I've had about 30 pins working this way with these. No power surge issues etc. I plug no more than 4 pins into one strip into 1 outlet so for 30 games you'd want 8 power strips.

So it's okay to leave the pinball machine's power switch always in the on position? This won't affect anything in the machine?

Become a ruthless dictator and then keep several peasants captive to turn on the games at your command.

Or, get some smart home devices.... whatever works...

Not sure how you think it would.. Every arcade I've been to, and worked at, and managed... leave the games on. Power is controlled remotely. (Why? Because I'm not paying a peasant $15/hour to, at opening, go around the turn on 100+ games manually.)

All the switch does is cut the 120v coming into the machine.

Some cool ideas in here. I may go for the remote control strips.

all my stuff is rigged in Batman's Shakespeare bust. Flip the head and switch on. Games will boot one by one with a 2-3 seconds delay between them. Easier to do when it's a nwe construction.

IMG_4280 (resized).JPG

I have mine integrated through Control4. Games can be turned on individually using phone/iPad, in banks or all at once with wall switches (buttons). Also integrated with Echo (with keyword Computer), so you can just walk into the main room and say "Computer, Arcade On"

IMG_9770 (resized).JPG

IMG_9808 (resized).JPG

I flip a 20a breaker to turn on 10 pins and 3 neon lights. I only have it set up that way as I can't reach the neons to turn them on as they are behind the pins.

Damn, I wish I had 30 games I needed to turn on simultaneously.

What a quandry.

No one have a setup where you have to play Bach on piano to switch on your games who also arrives one by one by hidden elevators from the roof? Man you guys kinda makes me dissapoint here.

Here's my setup.

IMG_3008 (resized).JPG

https://www.smarthome.com/

If you're cheap, you can use X-10. It's 1970's technology but works fine for this application. If you're willing to spend a bit more, Insteon is your go-to choice.

http://pensiverainstorm.tumblr.com/post/107805910341/palmerhouse-beautiful-hilton-piano-elevator

29 friends and a little practice?

I use KMC smart home plugs. I can turn them on with the phone or Alexa echo dot.

Just teach the cat to go around and paw the games on.

This is great until that day my wife is waiting for me to take out the trash or some such, and in the middle of a GC scoring run I hear her say, "Alexa, turn off my husband's pinball machines."