(Topic ID: 309823)

Strangest location for a pin?

By WODKA

2 years ago


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  • 24 posts
  • 20 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by phishrace
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    #1 2 years ago

    Have you ever been to or seen a really unexpected location for a pin? Share your stories

    A few years ago a Swedish operator had put some pins in a Minigolf course - nothing strange about that huh? Well the machines were placed outside without any cover from rain or sunlight except for a cheap party tent at some time. This happened for two seasons and the games were Tales of the Arabian Nights, Scared Stiff, NBA Fast Break and Champion Pub.

    Sad stuff

    #2 2 years ago

    There is one in the gift shop at a campground very close to Devils Tower in Wyoming. Of course, it’s a Close Encounters of the Third Kind pin.

    #3 2 years ago

    Fish Tales in a river comes to mind….

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    #4 2 years ago

    There is a sopranos in my local stripclub in Amsterdam (no joke) and no I was not there to play pinball…

    #5 2 years ago

    Not a pinball, but when I was young, about 10 they had a Seawolf on top of Stone Mountain. Always thought that was the strangest place for a Submarine game....

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    #6 2 years ago

    We had some neat locations back in the early 90,s.
    Strangest was a halfway house. Usually 2 or 3 games. We got 70% income and the games would do 100-200 per week which was decent.

    Funny story: We had a Banzai run that was doing poorly in an halfway house. Replaced with Bride Of Pinbot. Installed on a Friday and made over 200 in a few days.
    The director made us pull the game right away as it was causing fights among the residents. The theme apparently was too suggestive and causing issues.
    Put a stand up raiden in and it did decent.

    #7 2 years ago
    Quoted from mrclean:

    Fish Tales in a river comes to mind….
    [quoted image]

    If there was ever a time to have a machine properly grounded…..

    I guess a few people overlooked the “for indoor use only” portion of the text throughout the machine and in the manual.

    #8 2 years ago

    Went camping in Michigan and in the picnic pavilion area there was a Spider-Man. This was probably 10-12 years ago so I don’t remember what campground or city it was, but I played it a lot that weekend

    #9 2 years ago
    Quoted from Pyromedic:

    Not a pinball, but when I was young, about 10 they had a Seawolf on top of Stone Mountain. Always thought that was the strangest place for a Submarine game....
    [quoted image]

    Well that's a pity lol...I've hiked up there twice and no pinball for me!

    #10 2 years ago

    We found a pinball machine in a little mom and pop grocery store in Salvo, NC (Outer Banks) last summer. I think it was AC/DC sitting next to the ice cream freezer.

    #11 2 years ago

    Strangest place for me was when I got sent on a service call to the local State Mental Hospital. It took 30 minutes to get through all the locked doors to the patient rec room.

    I don't recall what Pinball it was other than a Bally SS like 8 Ball or something. They left me locked in there by myself for about 30 minutes to do my repairs. It took about two minutes to find that it had battery damage and needed a new MPU among other things. I stopped right there knowing I'd need to return and spent the rest of my time enjoying the view of the woods through the wire mesh windows and checking out the foos table with bent rods and pool table with ripped felt.

    Called them a few days later with an estimate. They started talking getting approval and purchase orders. We never heard back, which didn't break my heart.

    #12 2 years ago
    Quoted from mrclean:

    Fish Tales in a river comes to mind….
    [quoted image]

    Think i've seen one with Wipeout in snow too?

    #13 2 years ago

    I lived in Hawaii from 1980-1984. Pops was a Navy guy. We used to go to Bellows Air Force Station on the other side of the island to boogie board. At Bellows there was a small snack shack with a wooden "porch" surrounding it. Out on the porch was a Williams Firepower. If you stepped 6 feet to the left, you'd be standing in sand and maybe 30-40 yards from the breaking surf.

    Then there was the time my wife got sick of Comet in the living room. "Can't we move that to the bedroom"? Hell yeah we can!

    #14 2 years ago

    Pinballs at campgrounds aren't as rare as you might think; I've seen them several times in both the US and in Europe. Lots of better campgrounds have game rooms, most with stuff other than pinball, but pinballs do pop up in a fair percentage. Sadly, many aren't properly maintained and not worth playing. Always inspect the machines at such places before dropping coins in.

    One of the strangest places I've seen pinballs was in a dark hotel basement in Switzerland during a business trip in 1996. They had playable Genesis and Comet. There was no mention of "game room" anywhere in the hotel information, they'd just put them down there for someone's amusement and guests were allowed to use them if you stumbled across them.

    I've also seen many "theme" games in suitable locations - - Fire in a Firefighters museum, Ripleys guess where, Whitewater and Waterworld in a car wash lounge, etc. At one time, there was even one in Death Valley, a Cyclone at the main hotel at Furnace Creek.

    #15 2 years ago
    Quoted from pinballplusMN:

    Funny story: We had a Banzai run that was doing poorly in an halfway house. Replaced with Bride Of Pinbot. Installed on a Friday and made over 200 in a few days.
    The director made us pull the game right away as it was causing fights among the residents. The theme apparently was too suggestive and causing issues.

    A local operator put a touch screen game in a half way house for sex offenders. It did great until they wanted it and the adult games it had out of there.

    LTG : )

    #16 2 years ago
    Quoted from WODKA:

    Think i've seen one with Wipeout in snow too?

    I've seen a whole row in the snow.

    LTG : )

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    #17 2 years ago
    Quoted from bobmathuse:

    Pinballs at campgrounds aren't as rare as you might think; I've seen them several times in both the US and in Europe. Lots of better campgrounds have game rooms, most with stuff other than pinball, but pinballs do pop up in a fair percentage. Sadly, many aren't properly maintained and not worth playing. Always inspect the machines at such places before dropping coins in.
    One of the strangest places I've seen pinballs was in a dark hotel basement in Switzerland during a business trip in 1996. They had playable Genesis and Comet. There was no mention of "game room" anywhere in the hotel information, they'd just put them down there for someone's amusement and guests were allowed to use them if you stumbled across them.
    I've also seen many "theme" games in suitable locations - - Fire in a Firefighters museum, Ripleys guess where, Whitewater and Waterworld in a car wash lounge, etc. At one time, there was even one in Death Valley, a Cyclone at the main hotel at Furnace Creek.

    This summer I found a Theatre of Magic in a campground in Sweden.
    Nonfunctional of course and even if it would have been functional it would probably be a sad and crippled machine.
    I feel sorry for them…

    #18 2 years ago

    Most of my friends are not familiar with pinballs. They always find the strangest locations for a pinball is at home.

    #19 2 years ago

    There was a Wheel of Fortune on the last cruise I took. Seemed weird to see it on a boat, but those ships are so big they don't really rock much. (Although on the first cruise I took, the weather got the ship rocking for hours in an odd circular motion somehow, and almost everyone got seasick.)

    It was set to German though, and I didn't know the game so I was rather lost, and only played it a little.

    They also had a pool table...

    #20 2 years ago
    Quoted from ViperTim:

    This summer I found a Theatre of Magic in a campground in Sweden.
    Nonfunctional of course and even if it would have been functional it would probably be a sad and crippled machine.
    I feel sorry for them…

    Do you remember what campground it was? I remember pinball machines being very common at Swedish campgrounds in the 90s/early 2000. Now? Not so much..

    #21 2 years ago

    I've seen reports that some oil platforms have pinball machines in their rec rooms.

    #22 2 years ago

    I purchased a couple of pins about 7 years ago that were in a mine. The miners played them.

    #23 2 years ago
    Quoted from WODKA:

    Do you remember what campground it was? I remember pinball machines being very common at Swedish campgrounds in the 90s/early 2000. Now? Not so much..

    Siljanbadet, Rättvik

    #24 2 years ago

    A funeral home near Chicago has pins, video games and mini golf. Great if you're attending a funeral there, not so great if the funeral is for you.

    https://urbnexplorer.com/2019/10/16/secret-spot-play-mini-golf-in-a-chicagoland-funeral-home/

    In the 2000's, when Steve Ritchie was between jobs, him and I went to San Francisco to goof off one day. We found an arcade at the end of Pier 39, which is the biggest tourist trap in the city. It had 3 or 4 pins, which were in great shape. What was unusual was that next to to pins was a giant window that looked out on the bay. You could easily see Alcatraz, GG bridge and Sausalito. Because SF is so foggy, there were no curtains or blinds on the window. Windows are typically covered in arcades to keep sunlight out, but thanks to the location of this arcade, curtains weren't needed. Elvis was $2.50 a game, but it was clean and working 100%. View was spectacular. Arcade is no longer there.

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