Fincastle, VA
Hey guys. I help out at the Roanoke Pinball Museum in Roanoke, VA. We've added some new machines. I was there yesterday and took pictures and thought I'd share. Enjoy!
(Topic ID: 153077)
I'm sorry you had that experience. While it is true some machines have issues most of the games are functioning well and very playable. I can't say any of the machines are 100% functional when you consider even one lightbulb out making a game not 100% functional. Paragon, for example, had weak flippers. This wasn't reported to staff. While I was there yesterday I did a test game on it and found the issue. I did the repair and now all flippers are working properly. While in it I tested all the switches and solenoids and everything worked fine. However the bonus lights were not coming on. I checked the bulbs and they are fine. For the amount of time I had to spend on Paragon I had to leave that and reported the issue so it can be escalated and repaired.
Believe me we are aware there are issues. This has been a learning experience for the museum. Yesterday we put together a committee that will better organize on how to handle issues with the games including categorizing the types of issues into whether it can be fixed on the floor or pulled from service to be worked on by in house technicians or be taken off site to an independent technician. We are also going to be making changes in how we purchase new machines so we can make sure the games we are getting in aren't basket cases to begin with.
Things are getting better. The main thing is we are providing a way to help keep pinball alive by exposing the community and more importantly the younger crowd to this awesome culture us older folks already enjoy. Without places like Roanoke Pinball Museum awareness is virtually not a reality.
Thanks for coming by. I suggest if you are making a long trip and want to know a particular machine is on the floor and playing give us a call be fore you make the trip and ask.
Thanks for posting those pics, and I am sure that's not all of em either.!
I saw alot of machines in the pics that I have not played before.!
Can't wait to stop by and play these games, and thanks for helping out up there knowing
your volunteering your time, with your regular job and big family as well.! 
Keep up the great work.!
Have they got a website or facebook?
Well, I found this - https://www.facebook.com/roanokepinballmuseum/
I made a 2.5hr trip to the museum with some friends two months ago.I could not find one game that worked fully.The museum was busy all day with casual players and family's.The bottom line is this.Anyone who knows and understands pinball would have been disappointed with there visit.The main problem was the weak flippers.The upper left flipper on FH made it almost impossible to hit Rudy.Paragon's right flipper couldn't make it up to the 5x saucer.Some flippers didn't work at all.Ij had a constant multiball which someone said it was like that last year.I spent all my time on a beautiful Kiss which bank targets never would come back up.I finally beat the high score and got my initials on the black board.There where many people there who knew nothing about how the games where suppose to play and seemed to have a good time.Im glad to hear there is more effort going to keep this games working.With the amount of play they are getting it might turn out to be a full time job.If I lived closer I would volunteer to help out."If it ain't broke it ain't pinball".
From my experience, pretty much any place with a large amount of machines isn't likely to have all their games fully working. Even Flippers in NC has plenty of games with weak flippers, broken solenoids, or just out of order. Wish it wasn't the case, but with that many games I can understand. I'm glad to hear you guys are trying hard though, I've thought about coming down there for a quite a while, would enjoy it if even just a handful of the more modern games were fully functional.
To be fair about 20-25% of the games did not work at all.
It is a wonderful building with a great staff and lots of cool games.
I truly wish them the best!
Just got to get those games going.
Quoted from Euchrid:Awesome to see places like this! I've just got to know - do people really put money into El Toro?
$10 entry and all on free play. I agree though, El Toro = El Nono. But its all pinball.
Quoted from wolftownjeff:To be fair about 20-25% of the games did not work at all.
It is a wonderful building with a great staff and lots of cool games.
I truly wish them the best!
Just got to get those games going.
Thanks for the compliments and best wishes. We are working hard on getting more organized in our repair cue. Hey, we even have a repair cue now!
Quoted from mystman12:From my experience, pretty much any place with a large amount of machines isn't likely to have all their games fully working.
This place is pretty good about having about 100% of the pinball machines operating at 100%. Breakdowns usually repaired in a few minutes. Granted sometimes an hour or so....
There were about 250 pins last year and there should be 300 this year. The annex, shown during the final minute of the video, has been expanded. Missing from the video is the "VIP room". All are invited.
Also see: www.vfwpinball.com
1 year later
maestro et al, I went to the Roanoke Pinball Museum today for a quick and had lunch at the Mexican restaurant down the street. Couldn't stay long since it was just a quick stop on our way from DC area to to the Smokey Mountains for Spring break, but I have to say that to me the machines seemed in very good "health". The lively street scene - even on a Sunday - combined with the few games of pinball I got in really hit the spot!
Anyone traveling I-81 should try to time their trip to stop in! It was only 5 minutes off the highway (down the I-581 spur) and the lunch options were better than anything along the highway at least 50 miles either direction.
-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync combiner kit
I was there last week for the first time and I was quite impressed. There was all of one machine down. To be sure these were not collector quality machines, and I can complain a little about the flipper strength on some, dim playfield lighting on a few, and a few backglasses had seen better days. But your average user coming thru will be highly entertained. I played some games I haven't tried in years. They have great signage, they have a great sampling of pins across all eras, the machines all work, I love the RBION. Definitely highly recommended to stop in if in that neck of the woods.
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