We have an upcoming trip to the PNW and will be spending a few days in Portland, OR.
What do you say pinheads in the PNW? Where are must see/visit places in Portland?
What do they each offer? (quality, selection, vibe, entertainment, beer?)
also, we could probably take in a tourney for 1 night in either Seattle or Protland area...
Anyone have suggestions of fun tourament formats or people to check out the last week of April/first week of may
i was going to recommend the same. went there with my sister about 2 years ago and they had a good selection of current and 90's dmd to choose from.
The must visits:
-Quarterworld on Hawthorne (My favorite) so many pins / retro games. $1 cover before 6 pm. $3 cover after 6 pm. $3 cover is still worth it.
-C Bar on Gladstone pinhead place. Do yourself a favor and get food while you are there, it's awesome. Great beer / whiskey selection.
-Apex (Hobbit, new Aerosmith, GoT pro, GB pro) Apex also has the best selection of "rare" beers if you're into that. Usually have pliny the elder on tap as well. $4-$5 for a Nitro Rasputin on tap? Sign me up.
Also great:
-Blackbird Pizza: Pin room upstairs, pizza, etc
-Ground Kontrol: Lot of pins / retro games. I do like Ground Kontrol a lot except you will practically trip over kids running around especially if you are there before 6 pm or so. I don't know when they start serving alcohol but the bar doesn't open until late. A lot of parents like to bring their kids here for that reason.
Outside of that, download pinball map on your phone. You can find pretty much any pin you want to play within probably a 15 minute drive from where you are standing anywhere in the city (except no dialed in yet).
We are spoiled by our beer selection here. Literally any place you go will have an awesome menu which is usually posted near the bar including alcohol % and IBU. There are many great non-pin drinking locations as well. If you like sour beers, try cascade brewing. They also have ping pong close by. Google bars with foosball / shuffleboard if you are into that as well.
As far as tourneys, I'm not as up on that yet. I will be looking to play tourneys soon however.
thanks!
some great info so far!
If anyone wants to suggest gluten free beer/food, my wife is a celiac so it is appreciated.
I agree with all of the PDX suggestions here, I might add that if you can possibly squeeze in a day a bit further north and check out Seattle you'll be super happy you did so. Must sees: Add-A-Ball, The 8bit, Triple Knock (Tacoma), Full Tilt (ice cream shop w 14 or so very well maintained machines) and there are many many more but each of these spots has at least 14 and most have more than 25..
Quoted from Whysnow:We have an upcoming trip to the PNW and will be spending a few days in Portland, OR.
What do you say pinheads in the PNW? Where are must see/visit places in Portland?
What do they each offer? (quality, selection, vibe, entertainment, beer?)
Check out this post on my blog:
http://pinballintrigue.blogspot.com/2016/08/portland-oregon-place-for-pinheads.html
Highly recommend a stop in Seattle if possible, the city has a lot to offer pinball and otherwise. Seattle pinball museum, Shorty's, 8-bit arcade and many many more. Micro breweries galore, ~150 wineries in Woodinville area if that's your poison. Great hiking and other outdoor activities. If you drive from Portland (about 2.5h drive) and the weather is good a detour to mount St Helens is worth it (Mt Rainier is awesome too, but will take longer)
Quoted from Kkuoppamaki:Highly recommend a stop in Seattle if possible, the city has a lot to offer pinball and otherwise. Seattle pinball museum, Shorty's, 8-bit arcade and many many more. Micro breweries galore, ~150 wineries in Woodinville area if that's your poison. Great hiking and other outdoor activities. If you drive from Portland (about 2.5h drive) and the weather is good a detour to mount St Helens is worth it (Mt Rainier is awesome too, but will take longer)
Love Seattle
Just watch out for the Road Show.
Seattle is the jumping off point for this trip and I am somewhat familiar with the pinball offerings in town. I will be for sure stopping at the pinball museum again since they had the best quality games last time and I want to play a few specific decks they have.
Was more interested in Portland suggestions since I have never been there
appreciate all the good info.
Also, if any local collectors want some visitors for a few hours, my better half and I would be happy to visit
Ground Kontrol was a bust. I HIGHLY suggest not wasting your time if you like to play pinball machines that actually function correctly or hell... Even function.
GI out, flippers stuck up, stuck balls, etc... We did not play a single game that actually functioned.
That said, the place is for people looking for atmosphere and not to actually play pinball. Cool space, but far from qulaity or worth the time or money if you want to play machines that function. Packed house on a Friday night and no real reason for them to ever worry about the games working properly. I had fun watching tomsee what casuals gravitate towards.
I'm hoping they get it back together but the last several times i've been there I would have to agree, it didn't used to be that way... They recently lost their lead pin repair tech and it certainly shows. They also just went threw a major revamp of their space and what you saw was exactly 1/2 of what they'd normally have, hope the rest of your trip goes better! Stop by the Pinball Outreach Project if you want to check out an eclectic lineup that also includes a Paragon, Embryon and a Lady Luck!
Quoted from Whysnow:Ground Kontrol was a bust. I HIGHLY suggest not wasting your time if you like to play pinball machines that actually function correctly or hell... Even function.
GI out, flippers stuck up, stuck balls, etc... We did not play a single game that actually functioned.
That said, the place is for people looking for atmosphere and not to actually play pinball. Cool space, but far from qulaity or worth the time or money if you want to play machines that function. Packed house on a Friday night and no real reason for them to ever worry about the games working properly. I had fun watching tomsee what casuals gravitate towards.
Cbar and quarterworld were great!
Nice to play on some well maintained games and variety!
Thx to whomever maintains these. We have a fun few hours playing them!
Quoted from Whysnow:Ground Kontrol was a bust. I HIGHLY suggest not wasting your time if you like to play pinball machines that actually function correctly or hell... Even function.
GI out, flippers stuck up, stuck balls, etc... We did not play a single game that actually functioned.
That said, the place is for people looking for atmosphere and not to actually play pinball. Cool space, but far from qulaity or worth the time or money if you want to play machines that function. Packed house on a Friday night and no real reason for them to ever worry about the games working properly. I had fun watching tomsee what casuals gravitate towards.
Ground Kontrol is in the middle of a big remodel. They bought a second property near their original location, and the new part just opened (which is where you played). They have closed the original space for a while to remodel it, and they had many more pins in that location. So you didn't get to see Ground Kontrol in its full glory. It's sad to hear they had problems with their machines while you were there. My wife and I are visiting Portland this weekend, and we played Twilight Zone and Theatre of Magic, and they played ok - although the ball return near the gumball machine on TZ did release the balls pretty haphazardly. Ground Kontrol did just host a huge pinball tournament (called Pinbrawl) in their original space last weekend. You may want to give them a second chance next time you're in Portland, and the remodeled original space is reopened.
The secret best pinball spot in the entire PNW is Flip Flip Ding Ding in Georgetown, which is a few minutes south of Seattle.
Quoted from trunchbull:The secret best pinball spot in the entire PNW is Flip Flip Ding Ding in Georgetown, which is a few minutes south of Seattle.
Great recommendation - Flip Flip Ding Ding has a nice selection of games! And just to clarify for those not familiar with Seattle, Georgetown is a neighborhood within the city and is a few minutes south of downtown.
Quoted from Tuna_Delight:Great recommendation - Flip Flip Ding Ding has a nice selection of games! And just to clarify for those not familiar with Seattle, Georgetown is a neighborhood within the city and is a few minutes south of downtown.
The owner keeps them like a personal collection and it totally shows, his TZ plays like it's made out of butter.
Quoted from trunchbull:The secret best pinball spot in the entire PNW is Flip Flip Ding Ding in Georgetown, which is a few minutes south of Seattle.
It is on the listalong w addaball and the museum while in seattle
Just wanted to follow up.
We spent some time exploring Seattle area and 100% it is the best pinball town around.
We went to flip flip ding ding, shortys, and add-a-ball. All 3 topped Portlands offerings (Cbar and quarterworld were cool, but theo oevrall that Seattle has ot offer was WOW).
I think my favorite was Add-A-Ball. I like the variety of games, the quality of play, and the fun atmosphere.
I would put it tied with Logans Acrade in Chicago as best places to play locaiton pinball in the US (I have more to visit but those are a high bar to top)
I just got back from my 2nd trip to Portland...awesome pinball town!!! Quarterworld is amazing - but someone needs to have a talk to whoever their "LED guy" is. Their games are all over town but they all look like total garbage with horrible LED jobs. Color bombs and colors in spotlights just make everything look dark and ugly. The most confounding thing is that they're re-LED'ing new Sterns like GBLE and B66LE...WHY!???!?! They come bright and colorful out of the box! Quarterworld replaces the spotlights with single-LED colors like red or purple, which offer ZERO brightness or light spread. They replace the nice bright clear dome GI with frosted GI, or single up-facing bulbs. Why would they take games that look great out of the box and make them look terrible?
Stop it, Quarterworld...Stop it! 
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