I'm doing a few sidewalk pinball events to spread the word about a new pinball arcade opening up sometime in the next 7-9 months here in Huntsville. We had our first event last night. It was well attended and everybody had a blast.

http://www.waff.com/clip/11671378/pinball-pops-up-in-downtown-huntsville

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yup, on free play with t-shirts, hats, and pint classes from local breweries as prizes. $100 gift certificate to a local restaurant for the final 2 hour tournament. I had 100% utilization last night 6-10, games were played constantly. HUGE success and it will be done for a total of 4 nights over two weekends.

The machines will be the same for next weekend. Too much hassle to move. And the sun is no issue as by the time I take them out they are shaded. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing it at this time of the year.

The good news is that this will likely be a quarterly event and there's a new bar/arcade going in in downtown Huntsville (Pints and Pixels) that may support the next one. Also, I've had collectors that have shown up willing to volunteer games for future events.

And there's free beer. Now we just need a pizza sponsor.

Last night's early action.

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Its all about awareness of pinball. So many people that I've talked to at this event don't even know they they are still manufactured not to mention making a comeback. I consider this more public outreach than arcade marketing.

I've got pinball skates so at the end of each night we just roll them into the Downtown Huntsville Inc office and stash them for the next day. It would just be a "haul to and haul back once" scenario. I'd love to have some community participation. Feel free to ping me when then next one gets announced if you think you might be up for it.

So I guess I should have already plugged my future arcade already. It will be called Ronnie Raygun's and will be at the new Campus 805 development in Huntsville. A developer bought an old middle school and two breweries, a banquet/event space, and a bar are going into it. All places will have music venues and there will be another brewery right down the street.

http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2015/06/ronnie_rayguns_meshes_arcade_g.html

http://photos.al.com/4558/gallery/campus_no_805_takes_over_forme/index.html#/0

It will be part of the Straight to Ale brewery taproom complex. Plans are to have 15+ pins initially on location with some vids and miscl (TBD) other games. The vids will likely be on free play since they won't make enough money to pay for their licenses. Hopes are to be in operation next spring. Hopefully before then there will be a new bar/arcade called Pints and Pixels opening in downtown Huntsville. I'm not associated with that one but I know the collector who is and there should be 15+ machines there as well.

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When interviewed for the local news one comment I had was "I love to give away free pinball games...because then I got'em".

Some pics from the last night. This was a ton of fun and exposed a lot of people to modern pinballs that "used to play back in the day" but had no idea pinball is making a comeback. No to mention younger players.

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http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/pinball-machines-pop-up-in-downtown-huntsville/article_49f3554c-2dc1-11e5-812d-133a2af3c9c4.html

Just to necro this thread......... another Downtown Huntsville pinball event is here.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pincrawl-downtown-huntsville-al-may-20-21