No crowds played all day. Going to have to update my wish list. Awesome day. 
(Topic ID: 22207)
Wentzville, MO
Its all weekend, but only if you are playing in tournaments. If you went to play different machines, like myself, its come and go as you please. Just got back myself. Went for 2 days to try everything out. Lots of pins!
So many games played hard to account . Banzai run was different . Got to play cactus canyon it was OK.
Thursday was actually more busy tournament wise then any other PAPA I can remember. So far today they had a total of 421 players who are competing.
Quoted from Joshmx19:Screw it im heading out in the AM and checking it out!
Saturday is last day to qualify! http://papa.org/papa15/schedule.php
Quoted from Prkchpsndwiches:Saturday is last day to qualify! http://papa.org/papa15/schedule.php
Well I ended up going for Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast! I decided to get some tokens and play a few games before I made the decision to compete and I was playing like CRAP so maybe next year on the competing! Still I burned through about $60 in tokens in 2 days and had a lot of fun! I would say everyone needs to do this if you live near it. I am going to practice up and if im not working ill go to Pinburgh but next summer again for sure!
Quoted from Joshmx19:Well I ended up going for Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast! I decided to get some tokens and play a few games before I made the decision to compete and I was playing like CRAP so maybe next year on the competing! Still I burned through about $60 in tokens in 2 days and had a lot of fun! I would say everyone needs to do this if you live near it. I am going to practice up and if im not working ill go to Pinburgh but next summer again for sure!
I thought they were all on free for papa
AC/DC was .75, and I payed that and played a lot, I think my total on tokens spent was 120.00
I understand I would save more money with Pinburgh, so to save money I'll be going to both next year. Extra hotel, extra trip to Pittsburgh, more pinball? surely that will save money in the long run.
Man, I thought someone said they were free.
Well with a buck a game, I'm curious where their replays are set at. Are they small, medium or large.....IM 3m, 7.2m, 12m? You know? I'm guessing PAPA's got them up there a bit for everyone-getting-to-play's sake.
Or are they all over the board?
I think they were set at the defaults thurs on replays, then as people played them they advanced, sort of like how my NF originally had a 900 mil replay by default, but now its 2.3 bil for a replay, its in the wms menu's for them to advance, I don't know about sterns or DE.
If you want to play pinball, nothing beats the PAPA facility. Best selection of games in good working order with basically no wait to play 99%.
Its not a show with events and presenters and no buying and selling of games. Just pure pinball playtime. If you stink like me, bring some friends to stage your own competition.
No entrance fee to play games but most are .25 for EMs,.50 for most SS and DMDs and a few newer Sterns at .75 or 1.00. Those offer 3 credits for $2.00.
Mark your calendars for the twice a year opportunity.
Quoted from Blakesell:I think they were set at the defaults thurs on replays, then as people played them they advanced, sort of like how my NF originally had a 900 mil replay by default, but now its 2.3 bil for a replay, its in the wms menu's for them to advance, I don't know about sterns or DE.
Right, I know a replay rises in free play, but from what I've seen in a bar your replay goes up until you finally lose without a replay and it gets set back to default.
I'm just curious. I'd go if it wasn't a 15 hour drive and happily pay for all.
My memory is fuzzy, but I recall a staff member mentioning at some point that they had sold close to 20,000 rolls of tokens that weekend. That's some serious pinball playing!
Another thing that's cool is they have some A-listers on free play for the kiddos.
Werribee
nice video. I'm upset you took it without me in it tho. 
Actually looks like you took this in the morning. I didn't get up till noon each day.
Quoted from Pinballrus:Seems like kind of a waste to only have these available to the public 2 weekends a year.
PAPA is Kevin Martin's private collection, not an arcade like Pinball Hall of Fame. How many days a year is your private collection open to the public?
Quoted from jonnyo:PAPA is Kevin Martin's private collection, not an arcade like Pinball Hall of Fame. How many days a year is your private collection open to the public?
No need to get snarky, that is why I was asking who owned it. It doesn't come across as a private collection, seeing as PAPA markets itself as an organization. And if I did have a collection like that, it would be open to the public a lot!
Quoted from jonnyo:PAPA is Kevin Martin's private collection, not an arcade like Pinball Hall of Fame. How many days a year is your private collection open to the public?
I'm thankful that Kevin Martin even opens this building once a year to the general public, let alone two times a year. I don't compete. I just go to buy tokens & experience machines that I would otherwise never have the chance to. It gives me something to look forward to planning my work vacations around, and it makes me appreciate it all that much more when the time comes.
plus, the human society is greatful of Kevins contributions. Have to generate lots of revenue for them as well.
Quoted from CaptainNeo:plus, the human society is greatful of Kevins contributions. Have to generate lots of revenue for them as well.
Hey, I'm part of that society.
Haven't seen a dime yet.
Right now Kevin can't have PAPA open all the time. He wants to do that, but he can't, due to the town of Carnegie's policies. They require a $50/game/year license fee. It's not affordable when you have 400+ games there. So instead he's open about 7 days a year, and the town pro-rates the license fees. This is the only way Kevin can afford to be open as much as he is.
Quoted from cfh:Right now Kevin can't have PAPA open all the time. He wants to do that, but he can't, due to the town of Carnegie's policies. They require a $50/game/year license fee. It's not affordable when you have 400+ games there. So instead he's open about 7 days a year, and the town pro-rates the license fees. This is the only way Kevin can afford to be open as much as he is.
That makes sense, thanks for the answer. Doesn't seem like a bad idea for the town to cover the fees for more usage, as it would be a great tourist attraction. I do hope to visit one day, and do think it is awesome that such a collection has been amassed / maintained. Especially after the flood, what a depressing sight that must have been!
I really got to plan on making this in the future. Used to do lots of work in Pittsburgh before I came to my ways to recognize this wonderful hobby.
PAPA is a simply amazing place. Forget all the pinball shows, all the museums, all other venues. It's simply the best place for pinball anywhere in the WORLD. Over 400 games under one roof. The only downside is they are weak on EMs. Their EM selection title list is barely OK, but you can tell the guys doing the work there aren't EM type dudes (their EMs don't play especially well.) The Pinball Hall of Fame or PPE is better for EMs, if that's your focus. But for solidstate games, PAPA simply can't be beat. The only downside to the solidstate games is there's sometimes 2 or 3 or even 4 examples of any particular title. That's good for the large crowds that want to play Attack from Mars, but it means there's less space for say more good EM titles.
But the facility itself is top notch. Wide aisles, nice bathrooms, lots of place to sit down. And the play areas are mostly carpet, so it's nice on your feet. Also the building is well lit and properly air conditioned. It's very comfortable. (For example, I have a similar facility with about 1/4 the games of PAPA, but in 1/8 the space! This means my aisles are more narrow, with less places to sit, and I can't afford to air condition like PAPA. It really makes me want to be a millionaire!)
Here's a video I shoot of PAPA 2012:
What is the story behind the owner of the PAPA collection? Is he super-rich and this is what he chooses to spend his money on, or does the PAPA events cover a lot of the costs to operate and maintain the place like PHOF?
LOL, he made his money doing web hosting? You can't do that now with companies like GoDaddy who have taken over the market.
Kamloops, BC
Quoted from MrWizzo:Anyone know what table was used for the division A final match?
Dan
PAPA was amazing I only wish that the volume of the games was higher. I'm sure thats impossible since it would be a cascading wall of noise as more and more people started playing but what a wonderful way to go deaf!
Allegheny County actually has a license fee of $250 per game, not $50. So it would be even more expensive than you think 
Quoted from ninjadoug:Allegheny County actually has a license fee of $250 per game, not $50. So it would be even more expensive than you think
Ok, let's do the math on this...
If PAPA has 400 games and a license fee of $250/yr that's $100,000/year on the games to operate them. But if that fee is pro-rated based on being open 7 days a year, that would come down to about $5 per machine, or a $2000 fee to operate the games. About $286 per day in fees to have the doors open.
I wonder if it's possible for us enthusiasts to lobby for some change to the law allowing "vintage coin-op" places to operate with more practical license fees? Does anybody know if any municipality has changed the law to make older machine license fees more reasonable?
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