Really excited about playing in my first tournament next Saturday. My objective is to not finish last

Looking forward to having you join us, and looking forward to making it back up there myself! For those of you who haven't seen that Firepower yet, it is in amazing shape.

We'll be updating the Star Trek Stern code on Monday at Rivergate.

Black Rose in Antioch FINALLY has the cannon moving. We have been waiting on a $300 part (ouch) for a year and it finally was restocked.

Super Mario Bros Pinball has rebuilt flippers...

Glad you liked the place...it requires a lot of upkeep and we had some issues with stuff being down in the first month that we have addressed now.

What were the two machines that were down if you don't mind me asking?

The only game that should have been down is nothing. =)

Last Action Hero we know about, and that has some switch issues as well. One of the kickers in Stargate is acting up as well.

Thanks Andrew for the pictures! Nice reporting job.

Jason, this is a very impressive place. So clean and lots of room. Great looking atmosphere.

I plan on visiting there sometime soon. I sure hope this is profitable for you and you can keep it going.
Hang in there!!!

Mike in Bowling Green, KY

Thanks Mike, it's definitely a bit different than Antioch which is basically like a dirty warehouse slop fest, but it has the best selection of arcade games to play within 3-4 states though =)

Game Galaxy is a much catchier name than "Dirty Warehouse Slop Fest".

Reminder, tournament this weekend, 2pm at Antioch. Iron Man, Rolling Stones, Monopoly, Firepower.

That might be why we don't have a sign up yet on the outside of the Antioch store. People keep telling me that "Dirty Warehouse Slop Fest" will not work. What do they know though????

I'll tell Mike about changing the rubbers on Monopoly for the slings and cleaning part of it today. Unless he sees it here first.

See it's not the location that's the problem but the game quality I think. You just need a few more A list titles in the Antioch location. Perhaps, oh I don't know, an Attack From Mars or a Lord of the Rings. If only we knew somewhere we could aquire these titles.

It's true, the Antioch location is lacking in game titles. Those new Sterns don't cut it, and who needs that Cirqus Voltaire, Twilight Zone, and Scared Stiff anyway? It's probably time to toss Iron Man and AC/DC into the street.

On another note the new Star Trek Stern code is pretty neat. They actually added a kickback without a physical kickback. =)

The place isn't the same since you got rid of Phantom of the Opera.

Aaron, you can always play Phantom of the Opera in Rivergate. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

Well you do what you have to do. Just so long as you don't remove my all time favorite pin Wizard of Oz.

I played it acouple of weeks ago when I was there. I got to admit, it was kind of fun.

I love Phantom of the Opera. Spooky game, great music. Not easy by any means. One of my first 10 pins I owned. Bought it here locally in Columbia. It had hair ties for rubbers on some of the stuff. No joke.

Nice turnout for the tournament today. I pulled off a win, Joe Farnsworth came in second, and Will Krusa came in third. Complete results are at http://www.midtnpinball.com. Also, hello and welcome to Chris who found out about our league from pinside and had a nice showing. Nice to meet you, and hope you make it out to another tourney.

Speaking of which, our next event will be Saturday, October 11 at Game Galaxy Antioch.

For any of you that enjoy watching video of the tournaments, the PAPA crew is doing a live PAPA.TV broadcast tomorrow night starting at 6pm central. One of the games they're covering is Firepower, which may be of some interest since it was just in the last tournament. They usually get these on YouTube in a few days after the event.

http://www.twitch.tv/papatvpinball

Archived videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/PAPApinball

Yes, for once the big business falls.

I honestly believe they are the reason CBL ended up selling Rivergate Mall to Hendon Properties. They were even lending money to Incredible Dave's to get the place open in the first place. What a debacle that place was.

Fascinating. I was unaware of the general history of Game Galaxy. I guess that's what happens when you try to mess with pure capitalism.

So I am thinking of putting Attack from Mars with color DMD on the floor. HOWEVER, the options would be as follows in order for us to do so:

$1 a play
OR
All day rates go up to $12

To put that in perspective our rates are REALLY low for the amount of pinballs in the place, especially since only X-Men Magneto runs on quarters...

I will post this on our website too. Would like to hear feedback.

I could handle $12.00. Go for it! You deserve it!!!
Mike in Kentucky

What a great story, Andrew! I didn't know you were also a journalist besides being an electronics expert!!! I was VERY impressed with your writing. As a former teacher of Journalism, this sure gets an "A+". I couldn't find any glaring mistakes! Great job.

Mike

It all depends on your business goals/philosophy's. If it was me I would raise the price as your business model revolves around a flat rate to play as much as you want. When people get in and find out it's a flat rate except for some select A titles they might feel a little jaded by that. So a vote for raising the price and no quarters required from me. Or you could sell the ATM to me and not have to deal with this dilemma : )

jgentry: I have a lot of pinballs not in the arcade that I don't plan to bring ever because I don't want them trashed. Most of them Mike Chestnut shopped and went through and it is not worth it to bring them in. However Attack from Mars is a possibility just because so many things are available for it in case of anything.

I do think raising the price probably makes more sense and if I do that I will probably have to raise it even more if I put X-Men on Free Play, but I think the $12 price point is a small enough increase at the moment where people don't flip out. It's still significantly cheaper than anywhere else but we have got to find a way to get more people in on weekdays. Weds/Thurs are killing us right now. We may have to run a half off special once a month on them but we already have a $7 Tuesday.

Maybe 2 tiered pricing were you keep a few of your most highly desired pins grouped together? $10 to play everything else onsite as much as you want. $15 if you want access to the grail pins. If AFM was $1 per play I would easily spend $5 playing it on top of the $10 to get in anyway. I think most people that know anything about pinball will understand the pricing as many of these games are 8K or more and not easily or cheaply repaired or replaced. People that are not concerned about top rated expensive games still have a nearly endless amount of games to try.

If you think back to when there were arcades $10 wouldn't last you anytime, much less a full day of playing if you wanted it. I'm scared to think about what a full day in the arcade in the early 90's.

Just a thought. Good luck with whatever direction you decide. I'm going to try to make it down for either the next tournament or TWD launch party.

It would be too confusing with premium pricing for separate pins. We did that before when we had the $12 all day including pinball and video side....we just decided to make it one set pricing to alleviate problems.

Yes. 12 or maybe 15. Xmen would be off quarters. However with walking dead coming in this creates an issue.

Just an early heads up to all the Nashville folks. They'll be a Walking Dead launch party on Saturday, November 1st at 7pm at Game Galaxy Antioch. It will be a different, more casual format that our usual league event. Similar to the Star Trek Launch party if you were there. It is on the IFPA calendar and will be worth points.

The Star Trek launch was by far the largest turnout we've had and a ton of fun as there are more than just our usual pinball group there. If you have a friend that you are wanting to bring to Game Galaxy this would be a great event to bring them to.

More details at http://www.midtnpinball.com. Really looking forward to this one.

Looking forward to the release party. Is Walking Dead coming to the arcade going to be a LE or Pro? As far as the rate increases go, I'd be ok with either method. I'd imagine it would be easier though to simply increase your rate to either $12 or $15 and say everything is free play as opposed to saying yeah $10 gets you everything except these pins and explaining to new people why that is.

Pro. I don't mess with LEs. X-Men was an exception because of a specific gameplay feature in it that I felt was integral and the cabinet looked completely different enough to where it made sense.

Rates would probably be $5, $8, $12 so the all day fee is still the better deal but with Walking Dead, X-Men, and Attack from Mars being on Free Play we would have to run it to $15 and that would cause the other rates to go up to $6 and $9.

As of right now it will be X-Men 50 cents when Walking Dead arrives, which will be $1 per play. There will be a correct replay option instead of the standard Extra Ball we give for replays.

I am paid up on Walking Dead. I sure didn't make it back on Star Trek or X-Men. =)

Oh and since you guys love to look for games for me (ha ha!)

I am looking for the following:
BMX Pinball
Black Belt Pinball
Warlok
Sorcerer
Last Action Hero
Defender
Waterworld
Fathom

We've sold 5 machines in the past week and a half, and I still need to sell High Roller Casino and Viper looks like it will be traded for Party Zone....

nashville.craigslist.org link

If this listing is real someone is getting a steal. Can't imagine that it's legit though. NIB metallica premium for 5K.

I don't see why it would not be legit. Probably a return just like the AC/DC Premium one, and there is a 615 area code

The day Crash sells me a pinball....watch out =P

I should make this interesting. I am picking up 8 pinballs tomorrow. I have been told they are all late 70s all SS Williams games.

I know for sure the names of 3 of them:
007 James Bond, but this is a Gottlieb!
Flash Gordon
Mata Hari

The other 5 are mysteries. 2 of them "might" be Gorgar and Space Invaders.

Whoever can guess the most out of the 3 remaining pins will get a FULL FREE DAY ARCADE PASS at either Game Galaxy. I had to put it in caps to emphasize how I want people to play this mystery trivia game!

So basically, guess the other 3 pins. Assume 1976 (Hot Tip/Night Rider to 1984 or so)

Lost World, Silverball Mania, Dolly Parton!

You know I love the solid states, so my wish would be

Eight Ball Deluxe
Fathom
Chicago Cubs Triple Play (just so I could buy it from you)

But I think it will be
Meteor (which is awesome)
A blown out Flash
Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man

I also knew of two Ali's floating around, so put me down for that as well.

Everyone was wrong. Aaron was the closest since he guessed "one" of them technically.

Will also guessed Ali, lol...some of these were not Williams, or Bally, but Gottlieb and Stern

Games were:
Flash (WORKING)
Devil's Dare
Big Game
Bow and Arrow EM
James Bond 007

We sold Space Invaders, Mata Hari, and Playboy (that was one of the unknowns) to Jim who helped us load em up.

Aaron gets the FREE DAY WOOOOOOOOOOO..all for guessing Flash. lol

Big Game seems interesting. Saw one in the classics tournament at Louisville Expo this year.