It's my store but he manages and takes care of it.

Richard here:

After going through that list, we found that Phantom, Radical, and Swords were stuck balls. All 3 were up and running in a matter of minutes. We could have had all 3 ready to play for you on your visit last night had you said something to my employee at the counter. The Whodunnit 2 ball issue is new (the flipper issue has not been repaired because it has had that issue for going on 6 months now and the game is 100% playable), and never once has Tales been mentioned to me in the store. We cannot fix games and keep them running at maximum capacity if people are not notifying us at the counter of the issues.

I was also told you turned these machines off. Turning our machines off in Rivergate is already an issue, but turning our machines off without saying why to my employee is an issue. Please do not turn our machines off or on at the Rivergate location. They are meant to be on 24/7, and if they are off, they have an out of order sign on them. For too long we have dealt with customers finding or creating issues with our machines and not telling us, only for us to find them later. Again, we cannot fix issues if we are not told about them, and also again, we could have had those 3 machines playable for you last night if you had spoke up.

Thank you.

double post or something

anyone in TN got a flintstones for sale?

I have one. I sent you a message.

Good Evening TN!

I just wanted to pop into this thread and see if anyone in the Nashville area knows of great techs or arcade service companies. We will be opening a free play barcade in Nashville likely in June. We currently have two locations in Chicago and Nashville will be our third. We offer our games on free play for everyone to enjoy with no cover charge. We are a group of guys who love arcade games and are happy to be able to share our games with the public. To get an idea of what we will be opening in Nashville you can check out our website at http://hqbeercade.com

Since we offer so many games and have them on freeplay, we are continually maintaining our games. I was hoping that some local insiders would be able to point me in the right direction for reliable and qualified individuals who would have an interest in contracting or being an employee. We offer very competitive rates for individuals who are knowledgable and qualified. I am also willing to train individuals as well. Right now my thoughts are rather open on days per week or maintenance schedules. As we get closer and talk to individuals or companies, I can work on the details with those individuals.

Outside of techs are there any local resources for monitor and pcbs repair in Nashville?

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself to this local forum thread and hope to see many of you at the bar for a beer on me. Thank you for any recommendations or suggestions in advance, your help is greatly appreciated.

Here is our Facebook page, it will give you a little info on the location.

https://www.facebook.com/Headquarters-Beercade-Nashville-426551144198429/

Thanks
Neil

Neil, just wanted to say that I've visited your Chicago locations (several times each) while on vacation and had such a great time. You have some top name machines and the fact you offer them on free play is amazing, and not to mention they are kept in great shape. Some of the bartenders told me you were opening up another location in Nashville and I wish you the best of luck!

I own two large arcades on Free Play in the Nashville area already (8 years for the initial location) The bigger companies out here are Southern Games and BNA Gaming. They have their own technicians on staff but when it comes to 80s/90s arcade and pinball repair they usually send everyone to us (Game Galaxy).

We fix our own machines (we run 300 between the two spots) and have extensive amounts of pinball machines and only run 80s/90s games and have a warehouse of games ready to go if I can ever find more room. =) We have help from a couple of individuals when we have "issues" we run into but there isn't a place locally that can service everything with monitors, pcbs, etc. You basically have to find individuals willing to do that and let me say, that's not easy.

"Repair" vs "replace" seems to be the thing and finding someone willing to go monitor chassis crazy and PCB crazy is pretty much impossible out here in Nashville. If there was someone willing to do that full time and we could drop off stuff here and there I would love it =)

In any event I have the name of a technician with 30+ years of experience who would be able to address the needs of your games. We try and help him out as much as we can. I am not sure he can do a full tie gig but definitely able to work on stuff here and there.

Thank you for checking out our locations up here. If you are ever in town again and are planning a visit drop me a pm and I may swing by to play a few games and have a few beers with you. We do our best to keep things going with great titles but sometimes with our foot traffic it is a challenge. We have 4 people dedicated to keep the games going and it is still a struggle at times.

Hey TR,
I can't wait to check out your locations. Moving into the area I have already heard your name in my market research and of course here on pinside. I was hoping to contact you directly as time got closer to meet up and get to know one another. It always pays to know the "good ole boys" in the area. I have a lot of family down in Knoxville and knowing the right people down that way means everything. I have some friends in the bar business in Nashville currently, but most of what they do does not transfer into what we offer at HQ, games even aside. Anyway, tech wise I figure it will be a challenge and a few people have already reached out with interest which is great. My largest concern is having to ship things back and forth between Nashville and Chicago for repair. I have plenty of guys in the Chicago market that can take care of boards and monitors but it seems like I am fortunate to be in this area. I generally over build the games prior to location and change everything I can preventatively so most of the time its simple on the job repair work, but you know how that goes. Something simple just becomes more and more complex or as we all know, Pinball and arcade games are made to break. What I am hoping for is a few individuals who have an interest in games and are willing to learn. Those are the guys I like to have on staff and fix the simple things as they come up and hopefully backed up by one guy who can come in once or twice a week to tackle the in depth issues. Generally that plan of attack works fairly well.

Looking forward to meeting a lot of local pinsiders, hopefully having some tournament play on site as well.

Nice, I am looking forward to getting to travel and check out the area. I am fortunate here in Chicago with so many locations to play but so far I have made it all over the country just to go to other barcades and check them out. I have traveled coast to coast and have enjoyed every location so far. Every one is so different and I am excited to check out some more. The best part is meeting new players in different areas, makes this hobby more than just a game of pinball.

I moved here from Los Angeles and Chicago awhile back. I am definitely not even close to being a native Tennessean.

The locations have a good amount of machines, the Rivergate one has a better setup and is nicer but the Antioch location has all the good machines, just a really crappy building (carpet, ceiling, etc) so it's a bit messy in there.

It always helps to have staff members who can do the basics. We have been doing that system for years. There just does not seem like there are a lot of collectors/techs in this area who have time to do any work on some of these....

As far as tournaments go, you will probably have more luck with the casuals up there, the "main" group of tournament guys out here is completely in disarray. Everyone seems to be having a lot of personal stuff coming up in their lives so our own monthlies have been on hold for awhile.

Hey guys, I finally joined the site. My forum time is usually spent on AtariAge and NintendoAge so this is new to me. I only have one pinball machine. I hope to change that. KISS will be mine at some point.

I am putting on the Expo here in Nashville in November. If you have questions about it let me know. It will be a fun weekend. I will need some help, and I will need some machines, but it will all come together. Website is www.GrandOleExpo.com

As the storm in my life calms, I'm itching for some more competitive pinball competition and would like to see us get the tournaments rolling back out again. The main issue with the tournaments in the past was when we did them. We had them on the first weekend every month but a lot of people who wanted to participate could not on those days. Aaron and I have discussed potentially doing some type of selfie league as almost everyone has a smartphone. We pick games and locations and people have a deadline to submit a picture with their score and name. This will enable people to try and compete when they have free time and can make it out to locations (either Game Galaxy Antioch, Rivergate or Flashback most likely right now) and try to put up the best score that they can. Finals would have to be done in person of course. What would you guys think about this format?

I am assuming that would be why the tournaments would be set on a specific location's game. The cheating thing is funny . I have had people joke with me about my scores being questionable when some of the guys have seen me set these silly scores in person. As far as cheating goes....i would limit the games to within visible access of each establishment ' s counter. Either way it is something to consider. Many logistics involved and who would be entering at this rate??? I count at least 4 people Mia these days because of personal life issues.

Usually the guys pick games that are tournament worthy way before this is decided.If you see issues with a game please feel free to help with them. We try and keep our games working and they are but little minor things like a switch adjustment etc...you are more than welcome to help us with that... (this goes for anyone) to make the game tournament worthy.

By no means do I want to come in as an outsider and make a tourney recommendation, but once we are opened up. We can provide you guys with a place to have tourney play. Games will be gone over day of tourney play and we will have people there that can oversee the players. Just a suggestion. Although the key to a good league is variety, so we would need a few more locations just like that.

Locations really honestly are not our problem. We have a lot of great locations with a lot of great variety and we always welcome another place to play pinball. Especially one that serves beer Our main issue is getting everyone together on a particular day and time to run a tournament. We have a lot of great local players who are enthusiastic about the tournaments but syncing everyones schedules together has always been an issue. It might be as simple as moving the tournaments from a Saturday to a Tuesday to see what that does for turnout. Actually I'd love to pick your brain on how an actual "league" is supposed to work. In the past we have done monthly tournaments but haven't truly had a league format. You being from the Chicago area, I'm sure you have seen more true leagues and how they should be ran.

Just to elaborate on what Will was mentioning re: Selfie League.

This format seems to have taken off as a response to improve tournament rankings. However, it seems like it may be a solution to our attendance issues. It works like this.

1. 4 or 5 games are chosen for the month as tournament games. I would imagine this would be at one location, but locations could rotate.
2. You play those 5 games anytime during a qualifying period. Maybe 3 weeks or so.
3. Get a high score, take a selfie with the score in the background and submit.
4. Top qualifiers play for finals. This is on a set day/time.

Questions that have been brought up.
1. Cheating - Honestly, I'm not worried about it. I certainly trust everyone in the league, and if someone is a habitual cheater its going to be pretty apparent.
2. Location - Obviously there is going to have to be some cooperation with whatever location holds the event. Generally someone to collect money and that is willing to fix a machine if it has an issue.

Lots of details to be worked out, but Will and I were discussing it and just gauging interest.

The locations now used for tournaments:

Game Galaxy Antioch- 80 pinballs
Game Galaxy Rivergate - 20 pinballs
Flashback Arcade 50 pinballs (?)

We definitely have plenty of machines and variety at the moment and I can rotate if need be (we are in the process of beginning a rotation and bringing Back to the Future back as an example)

I am still in the process of trying to get another location open (a 3rd one locally) but that is only in the planning stages now.

DreamTR that is a crazy number of pins available for you guys to play. Awesome!

I am currently in a league and we meet one saturday a month. It works great and the schedule is set up at the beginning of the season. As for the selfie league as it was named in this thread, we have one here locally as well. People head to a location, play and log their scores to qualify for the monthly tourney. So in other words they can play the titles as many times as they want to qualify for the monthly tourney and then once a month the guys get together and play. Its a regular season and works well.

Theres more to both leagues but as long as you guys have a group of people willing to get together for a few hours once a month it will work well. We are also set up as an actual ifpa league which is a nice little perk.

We need to get some more members playing in the league. We don't really have a substantial amount of regular players anymore that enter tournaments. I honestly want to say there are less than 8 at this point. This is part of the reason it has been put on hiatus for so long. This many pinballs out here and it's essentially all casual play.

Same goes for the classic arcade games out here. The guy that runs Aurcade LIVES in Nashville but we are not set up for scoring. Mainly because there really is not much interest at all.

By contrast a place like Galloping Ghost has the demographics and streaming, etc, but we just don't have the player pool to get that from.

Another example, Street Fighter V. Our opening tournament had 28 players. Great for us, but a place like Houston had well over 100 for theirs. Just not a large amount of regular gamers and the ones that do play are spread all over the place....

As most of you probably haven't noticed, I don't post here much anymore. After the Ghostbusters release party (which I'm sure will be our next "tournament"), I will probably be retiring from competitive pinball. I've honestly become disillusioned with the entire scene. I will always love pinball and arcades, but numerous events over the past year (namely my moms death and taking a second job with Nashville's equivalent of Chattanooga Pinball - BIG mistake.) have taken their toll, and it's just time to turn off the machine and call it a day.

I'll still be at Game Galaxy (unless God forbid, Jason fires me....) and I'll still play anyone on any machine if asked, and I'll still be there working on pins and I'll sit and chat with you all day about pins or arcade games. But as for tournament play.. I think Ghostbusters will be all she wrote on my end.

Most likely, this will be my last post here, so unless I happen to see you at GG, I bid everyone here adieu.

the-end_(resized).jpg

I get it. Ebbs and flows and burnout are all part of the hobby. It can certainly have it's share of drama if you let it. Hope you decide to play again whenever the tournaments get going again (and they will). Until then...

truly sorry to hear but you do what you gotta do brother.

I'll be sure to challenge you to a game or two next time I'm in.

<Tap... Tap... Is this thing on?>

I'll let Jason give all the details since he is running this one, but there will be a launch party for Ghostbusters on Saturday, April 16th at 7:00 pm in Antioch. Clear your calendars, tell a buddy, bring a friend.

Ghostbusters Stern Launch Party Tournament rules will be $10 cover, $10 entry (includes Free Play for all the games. Game of Thrones will be on Free Play permanently as soon as we get Ghostbusters) As Aaron stated, 7pm Saturday April 16. $10 entry gets you two plays in the tournament, top 4 scores play a one game playoff. Stern is providing prizes for this. 1st-50% entries, 2nd, 25%, 3rd-10%, 4th-5%. So everyone in top 4 takes home some cash!

In other news, another new Barcade is opening up in Smyrna called 82. When they open is anyone's guess but they are in the Super Target Shopping Center on Sam Ridley off exit 66. This business already has one location in Los Angeles.

Hi Neil,

I'm excited about what you guys are doing. Looking forward to coming down and checking out your place when it opens!

Actually scratch the barcade in Smyrna, looks like it is someone with too much time on their hands.

Just a heads up - looks like the tournament date for the Ghostbuster launch party may be changed per Stern's request. Stay tuned.

Stern has told us here in Bham to schedule it for late April.

Ours will be April 30 instead now at Game Galaxy in Antioch.

Yay! I can go now! I will be there. Shame about the Smyrna location.

I'll definitely be at the GB Launch. Stoked to play Ghostbusters and hopefully see some familiar faces! Will be good to chat in person amongst ourselves about what direction will be best for getting tournament play back in action again too.

Got a nice star trek pro for 4000 for local pickup in Nashville/Mount Juliet.

That's a good price Woody. I'm sure it will sell pretty quickly.

Some of you guys may not know Bryan Broyles down in Atlanta, but he runs a lot of the tournaments down there as well as being the tournament director at the Southern Fried Expo. He's holding a gofundme account to raise money for broadcast equipment so his tournament broadcasts can be improved. Multiple 60 fps cameras, camera rigs, etc.

Bryan is as solid guy and does a great job with his tournaments. If you feel it's worthwhile here's a link. Thanks.

https://www.gofundme.com/y4vwfud8

Just found this topic, I'm up near Clarksville. Was heavy into the hobby until about 8 years ago when a move caused me to downsize to just a couple of pins. Back to a full basement (needs finished out) but have steadily increased pins in last few months. Looking forward to meeting more in the group.

Welcome! Come out to the Ghostbusters launch party on April 30th at 7:00pm at Game Galaxy Antioch. Those are always a good time.

www.midtnpinball.com

Hi guys - I am down in the Atlanta area. Its great for home collectors but horrible for location play. Super jealous of what you guys have up in Nashville. I was in town recently and spent a lot of time @ Game Galaxy and Flashback. Really awesome! I am certain that a strong pinball location would be super successful here, but would need to be done right of course. I may head up for the GB launch party. Between you guys or Charlotte (about the same drive)

Welcome! Whats the location pinball like in the Clarksville area? I used to live there myself but I was kinda out of the hobby at the time. I miss The Blackhorse something awful though from time to time.

Not a single pin on location in Clarksville that I know of. On the other hand, the Blackhorse is pretty awesome. Next time you decide to head there think about saving some time to play my little collection.
Bobby

Rarely in that direction but I've toyed with the idea of making a run for a growler or two. If I do, I will take you up on your offer. Hope to see you out for Ghostbusters.

Exactly what time is the launch party anyway?

Launch party is Saturday, Apr 30, 7pm start. $10 cover, $10 entry.

Forgot to mention, we have the new Kiss code installed. We also have had Ghostbusters to play since Monday. $1 for one play, $2 for 3 plays.

There will also be a Hobbit there most likely at the very end of the month. That is going to be $1 a play regardless. We should be the only place with one for many many miles to play for now on location as far as I know when it arrives.