Actually, Space Jam WASN'T working... heh heh.

I feel stupidly fortunate to live where I do. I'm half a mile from a total of 39 machines. Sucks that the machines are all '80s-'90s, but at least there are some good ones and they mostly work very well.

I have a Groupon left for two more wristbands to The Arcade and I have no idea when I'd want to go back. It's hard to warrant the hour drive just to play a few machines in a sweaty hot building. It's too bad the owner's more concerned with lining his pockets than providing a quality experience. If you aren't passionate about that, then give up -- well, it seems he already has. If he keeps going at this pace, The Arcade ought to be closing within a year. I can't imagine many people returning to this place the way it is right now.

I'd say the Ann Arbor Pinball Pete's has The Arcade beat lately.

PP has all the latest pins:

KISS LE
WNBJM (did you ever imagine you'd see that on route?)
WWE LE
Mustang LE
TRON LE
Walking Dead LE
Star Trek LE
Spiderman
Xmen LE

And all the top classic pins at .50 cents:

MM
AFM
MB
TAF
Funhouse
STTNG
LOTR............

vid1900: Thanks for the list. Are the machines in Ann Arbor working pretty well? May make a trip over there soon.

It's pinball, so some of the games will always be broken when you go.

I think the only broken ones last trip were TFTC and Stratoflight was stuck on player 1 but otherwise still playable.

Not to mention the AA Pinball Pete's has a lot of great vids, including some really great light gun games.

Great to hear... I'll have to see my way down there. Pinside's Pinball Pete's page makes it sound like 80% of the machines are in "really rough" condition. Sounds like it may be in need of an update.

petes is way way hot in there too with no AC and machines besides newest sterns need work and have issues. not trying to down a location, but be honest upfront about it so people dont make the trip then write bad reviews on that as well.

They've gotten better as of late, but it's still dicey. Luckily they've really been buying a lot of new games (LEs no less) like the old days, so those are good. There are still a bunch working at various levels of acceptable-ness, and still a few that have been turned off for years.

You can always tell the people brand new to pinball because they expect that every game should have a CPR playfield, a HEP clearcoat, Titan colored rubbers, and a bunch of mods.

The older games at PP have been on route for 35 years, 14 hours a day, in a busy college town.

Yes, there will be some playfield wear on some games.

Yes, there will be some lights burned out in hard to reach areas.

Yes, there is a repaired ramp on one of the games.

That's what route games looked like for 99% of pinball's existence. It was not until a few years ago that people started doing high end restorations for even the crappiest games ever made.

Look at what the new Pinheads always write about the PHOF. "I went all the way to Vegas and MM was turned off!!!! WTF???" , " PHOF had terrible LED jobs on most games. I like to see all blue or red GI, so the games look fresh. Thumbs down!!!!" , "My AFM looked 1,000,000 times better than the one at PHOF. Even my wife commented. There was wear around the Stroke of Luck hole!!!! You can tell no one cares about pinball there. ." , " Out of 270 games, 14 were totally turned off (yes, I counted)!. All that money and they can't keep their games working. They need to hire some help, or I'm never going back...."

There's a difference between cosmetic wear, and, for instance, the upper flipper not working on STTNG. If the SOL hole is blown out on AFM, it doesnt matter as much as if the switch isnt working and you have to wait for a ball search every time. Its that kind of stuff that gets to me.

Yes, obviously.

If you notice a broken pin, report it!

The attendant will credit you up on another game, and turn off the broken one.

Once the Spiderman shooterlane was completely filled with balls (I believe this was at PP, but I may be remembering wrong). So many balls that the launcher could not clear it.

The attendant let us lift the game up to clear the balls, but the game promptly did the same thing again. The attendant would not let me pull the glass and fix it, so it just got turned off.

It would be stupid to expect a flawless arcade with perfectly working machines all over the place, but I don't think I expected all too much from The Arcade. The pictures looked great, but when I went, almost none of those machines were even there. A bunch of them were off, and I think three that were on had flippers that did not work.

I mean, it's not often you're going to see a JY play as well as the one there, or see a refurb as sexy as one of their PB machines.

They do not have keys to the machines @ PP.

That's what he told me.

I told him I could pic that lock in 15 seconds, but he said there were cameras everywhere, lol.

I wouldn't want the poor kid to get fired over pinball

I can't keep all 47 of my games working 100% of the time, and I pretend to know a bit about fixing them.

There used to be a place in OH that had a clipboard next to the change machine where you could write down, in detail, any game problems -- best idea ever.

How about that Pinbot??? Sex on 4 legs.

good idea on a game prob bulletin board or something similar...

Pinball Pete employee has such a list behind the counter and they should be writing the things down you tell them, to be serviced and taken off the list by a manager. At least, that's the way we used to do it.

Runs in the family

Lol, true.

me and the law get together on wednesdays to beat each other silly at another brighton location...
still bitching about that who dunnit fiasco!

Yeah, but aren't all the games broken there?

When I get done playing them usually

This is how Main Street amusements in Lafayette IN works. That place is extremely well run.

That's the way its still done today...
Anybody that has a problem with a game PLEASE have the attendant write it down!
As the current manager of the Ann Arbor location, I have a monumental task ahead, please understand that it will take time. There are about 175 other games there besides the pins, that unfortunately often take priority...

I would like to take this opportunity to invite anyone here to stop by and introduce yourself, I always enjoy meeting people in the community and talking/playing pinball!

those small girl hands can't break nothing!

Sarge is back in charge!

snap your F*&^ing neck they will.

i'm pretty sure you couldn't get those baby spankers around much of anything! hahaha!!
(see you tonight for more abuse.)

I miss Shark Club. In my opinion, The Arcade was a huge step backwards. Im sure the owner has reasons for the move.

I miss shark club too! Used to drive 1 1/2 hours with wife. Just to drink 3 beers and play 30 game plays...lil food too. I was perfect. I was kinda brought up in bars, love them! Have not gone to arcade. Not our style at all. Due to the reviews it seems like why bother anyway. We will just play our 19 pins or travel to New Baltimore Mi for Rosie's or the bowling alley pins. Only 20 minute drive anyway. Wish the arcade good luck and prosperity though!

Shark Club was awesome. Dozens of top-shelf pins, good food, amazing beer selection, even poker! Definitely seemed too good to be true, and it was.

What happened with Shark Club, fill me in!

Don't forget the friendly, attentive and gorgeous waitstaff.

They even had a clipboard to report game problems on top of the change machine.

The place was ridiculous. I'll tell people about it and they assume i'm being hyperbolic.

Yep, Shark Club was an all around great venue to play pinball in and get your eat/drink on at the same time. It is missed.

The sharks club was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I remember going in there on many occasions and I was the only person in the whole lower level of the establishment. He closed the place down, moved all the games to Brighton arcade, and then reopened it as a brewpub. It is now called block brewery. My understanding is that he's doing much much better financially with this business model. Apparently the shark club just wasn't making a lot of money. Also he was having problems with the poker end of it, as the state was trying to shut down all poker rooms.

I think initially the Brighton arcade was just as good as the sharks club except for the friendly waitstaff, and the food, and a drink. Now the games get more play, largely because they are in Brighton, a more populated area, and things started to suffer in repair. Mike came to the realization that operating pinball machines, especially older ones, wasn't really a good idea. He just had to have too many people involved to service them. He has mostly newer pinballs at the arcade now, and he's much happier in regards to how they run and how much maintenance they need or don't need.

Also Mike does not really like running a bar atmosphere. He likes the idea of the brewpub because it is more upscale. The sharks club was more of a drunkards paradise, and this created problems that Mike did not enjoy. Frankly I can't blame him for what he did.

You think he's doing better financially with The Arcade...? Jeez, I can't imagine how poorly he was doing with Shark's Club then.

I think it was meant he is doing better with the brew pub as opposed to the old Shark club.

yes correct.
but he is doing better at the arcade in terms of coin collected for games. he switched to pay one price, all free play, and mike has really liked the results. add to that some Groupon action, and mike sez he's doing OK. He also says that the pinball side isn't generating much money, that it's the video games that bring far more people to the place. another reason he has sold off a lot of pinballs, in addition to video-versus-pinball in terms of maintenance.

Thanks for sharing the "behind the scenes" info you have cfh! You sure can't fault a business owner making business decisions that he/she must do. Maybe I'll try the arcade out anyway. At least once so I can have my own direct opinion. One game I was fond of big time (along with my best friend Greg) was RipOff. It was a blast for 2 person co op play. My bud and I would play for hours...till the last quarter was gone. That was about 36 years ago...miss that game and the fun for sure. If they have it my wife and I can give it some turns

Bummer, but whatever makes money for him. I guess I'll need to stick to Chesterfield, and M-Brew and Marvin's when I want newer machines and am around that area.

Mike has also found that selling pinballs is better than operating them. i really think he enjoys that aspect. he gets new games all the time, and they do seem to fly out of there quickly. so he can operate a game for a bit, and then someone wants to buy it, and it's gone. Good rotation for the place, as long as he can keep finding games! I don't think he ever imagined his arcade would turn into a pinball and video game shop, but to some degree, that's what has happened. It puts less emphasis on the operating side, which seems to be more profitable and more fun for Mike. Mike is a good guy too, he tries to do well by people. And in the game business, that's a rare thing.

My brother and I haven't' been to The Arcade in quite a few months; mainly because they changed the hours (I believe they are only open Fri-Sun now?). I think the last time, we drove there and found them closed, then went to Marvin's, which is almost always open.

The last time we were there, most all the pins were operational; however it sounds like that has changed (with less pins). Unfortunately, I think the posts within the last week or so epitomizes the struggle Pinball has in the world of arcades even given the current uptick of interest in pins.

I WILL say, if you're looking for some classic vid action; The Arcade is the place to be. My brother and I constantly found ourselves saying, "I remember that one!" Or saying, "I've never seen that one!"

I was at the PHOF earlier this year (June). I will say I was bothered by the issues that plagued a few of the newer modern games. AFM was pretty rough; a lot of switches didn't trigger. I think TRON LE; the slings didn't work. AC/DC, the pops didn't work. In retrospect, I probably should've reported these issues, but I guess I felt that with SO many problems on so many machines, that maybe the owner/operator didn't care (yup, I realize that's a bad opinion to take). With that being said, I wouldn't want the burden owners/operators have with pins (especially in the PHOF). I know; I realize the task these people have in front of them, and realize it is not an easy one.

I live in a smaller MI town, outside of a small MI town. In Downtown Three Rivers, retail space is relatively cheap. I often think how cool it would be to open an arcade. To open a place all of us would reminisce about the old days of pins and vids; to show younger generations what games were like when we were kids... But I always come to one conclusion: It really could only be done if you didn't need to turn a profit.

I salute all the owners and operators that have arcades or have games in arcades; it's not easy, but we thank you for doing it.

Chris

Ahwe man the shark club was awesome! I only got down there 1-2 times a month but normally spent 4-5 hours there playin, drinkin, and getting down on some awesome pizza. Prolly my favorite place ever. Always had the game on the tv, and the wait staff was friendly and easy on the eyes. Good times

I live in Sturgis and would come often to any arcade in the area. I have my own stuff.....but playing in the wild is much more fun.

I haven't been to The Arcade since last fall, has anyone been recently that has a list of working games? Looks like most of the stuff I use to play is sold off now. On the video game side I hope they have Bubbles up and running.

Well, this week The Arcade put a whole bunch of new pictures up on their Facebook page, and it doesn't look good for pinheads. The entire right-hand side of the lower level, which used to house five full rows of pins with more on the side, is now completely video games. From what I can see in the picture, what's left is:

Pin-Bot
Space Jam
Super Mario Brothers
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Flintstones
KISS
Metallica
Iron Man
Spider-Man Black Suit
Lord of the Rings
Ripley's Believe It or Not
Junk Yard
Another Pin-Bot
Red and Ted's Roadshow
Meteor
Pinball Champ
Big Guns

I don't mean to be melodramatic, but it's hard for me to be completely sold on pinball's comeback when something like this happens. Over a couple year period, The Arcade went from well over 50 games to under 20. I imagine something similar must have happened in the early 80s and late 90s on a larger scale. I can't tell if it was the location being kind of remote, or the owner changing priorities or the older games not being enough of a draw, but it has been a long slog. Watching the vids take over bit by bit has been disheartening. I've been trying to convince myself to go, because with over a dozen machines and some A-list titles, it is still one of the better locations near me. It's just that I have no interest in video games, so it's hard to justify the hour drive, though the $15 entry fee isn't too bad.

Was there this past Friday and they even have less pins than what you listed. Take off super Mario, space jam, junk yard, big guns, Lord of the Rings, and red and ted, then your list is current. Also have to mention that a couple of the pins weren't working enough worth playing. Sorry, but just look elsewhere for pinball.

The arcade is buying and selling games constantly. Being open only 3 days a week likely has something to do with that. Also no pinball league this season due to the unknown inventory and condition of the pins. Of course that could change. Lets hope so.

They would simply not be open after you drove hours to get there (nothing on their facebook about them not being open that day).

They would start shutting down rows of pins a hour before the posted closing time.

They started charging $15 to play the games, whether you were there for a 1/2 hour or all day - who is going to just pop in after work or on their lunch hour for $15?

At least Pinball Pete's is only 1/2 hour away, and stays open until 2am.

Haven't been there since they started charging a flat entry fee (not a big fan of that system) and with even less machines there than ever before I can't see going back anytime soon.
A bummer as I use to go there a few times a month a year ago or so.

Aren't flat fees setup to avoid coin drop tax stickers?

Michigan doens't have that garbage as fair as I've ever heard