OP I think you can mark this as resolved- the consensus is in!! Summary:

Get a variety of pins and manufacturers but different eras with different themes and not certain manufacturers or themes or eras.

Get some classic 90s themes like baywatch, but don’t get baywatch cause it’s a dog on location.

Get all music pins, but don’t get any music pins cause you might not be able to hear them and people won’t play them.

Get a few jjp, stern, and wms games but don’t get any jjp games, get all modern games and have a good line up of classic wms games.

Make it kid friendly but get more adult themes cause kids and adults will be playing.

Also make sure you put in a bunch of the shittiest pinballs (from pinheads perspective) like south park, Mario and street fighter to bring in the cash but don’t put any of those in cause you wanna attract players.

Def put in a an IM cause players and casuals will both like it except people’s children will shit their pants when they see it and everyone will then leave the bar.

Clear as mud????? Lol

Hahahaha well said. Pure science

I'm shocked no one has suggested TAF yet. It's still a big earner, and it's very "familiar" to most of a certain age, where other games may not be.

I would suggest avoiding band themed games entirely. They are love/hate. If you like the band, you might like the pin. If you don't like the band, there's almost nothing that could redeem the game, no matter how good the layout and ruleset may be.

I am a big fan of the layout at Wonderland and think it is a good example of how a Brewery can incorporate it into their space. This brewery mentioned above is one of the best to go to in the area if you have a little one running around while you play. Every time we are there my 4 year old wants to play super mario multiple times

This (FFS).

AND ... because it's a fun pin too!

OKTOBERFEST

I would go with stern pros mostly because they are reliable and cheaper. If I wanted to put in a classic Bally/Williams maybe I would do one of the remakes. Sure Octoberfest or one of the JJP pins would be cool but they are expensive and may require more maintenance.

Deadpool Pro
Star Wars Pro
Maybe one of the music pins like AC/DC Pro, Met Pro or AS Pro
And maybe an older stern like POTC for the kids.
And lastly maybe AFMr or MBr

The advice to run with a few reliable themed stern pros is spot on. Nix investing in premium titles until you know the traffic.
Good luck spreading the pinball love and making a few coins.
Bottoms up!
9125666C-00DC-4842-ACCE-207A16150496 (resized).jpeg

I have two breweries in my town that bring in a crap ton of people and have also been thinking about possibly throwing a game on route. Dumb question I'm sure, but never bought NIB, do distributors offer financing?

Oktoberfest would be amazing on location but it is not going to outpace the extra expense vs. a stern pro. That said sometimes you just have to do something for yourself. I got a BKSoR for my brewery location knowing it wouldn't outperform a used deadpool or starwars but I really wanted one in the area and it was a good excuse. It's doing well but there were surely better options if I were only worried about dollar signs.

See also: me trying to make excuses to get a star wars premium instead of a pro.

...what themes are cool to most pinsiders, may not be so cool to them.

I still want to know the name of the Brewery near Manchester that has free play machines. I live in the next town and we have 5 microbreweries. Been to most but I’ve never seen a machine other than at Pipe Dream which the op talks about 2 beat EM’s.

Help us out in southern NH.

i was playing wood-rail non flipper pinball before you even knew what pinball was.

:: turns nose up at modern Sterns ::

Yeah I want to know as well! My parents live in Derry so id love to bring them to a brewery so that they can drink and I can play free pinball

I took my father-in-law (who doesn’t play any games and hasn’t played pinball in years) and the first machine he went to was Stern SW pro. Drained quickly and moved on to Octoberfest. Played 2 games on that one and then moved onto Kiss, Addams Family and then finished off on GOTG. Not at all what I would have chosen, but I purely mentioned as an experience of seeing someone’s choices of who doesn’t play.

I was playing short flipper EMs when Batman and Munsters were a thing
:: puts dark sunglasses on ::

Sapranos,
"Gimme my fucking money!"

Turn up the sound, wait for the cash to roll in.

Maybe. It seems like TAF doesn't get all that much play at the two locations I most often go to. Don't know that it has the same appeal to the younger set today as it did to 80s/90s kids like me.

I get the point about the band games but you could say the same about any theme. Band, superhero, movie, you name it. Really the biggest problem with the new Sterns as I see it is the deeper rulesets that are really more geared to the home collector vs. casual location play. Too many shots that don't seem to do much unless you're in some mode.

MBr and AFMr (I don't really like the feel of MMr and I love the original) are good choices too. What makes those games work is you can still walk up, shoot, make shots and every one advances something.

Variety is always the spice. If it was up to me I'd stock PROVEN earners. As said earlier TAF is a proven winner over and over. Maybe call a couple local operators and ask then what's their biggest earners have been and maybe work out a deal with them. No money out of your pocket that way.... pure profit And get a cocktail ms pacman. Everyone gravitates towards that gem especially women. And a word of advice, try to have every game have a bill collector. Put a 60-1 close to the bar. People waiting will plunk money to burn time. Ensure a bill collector on that as well. People dont carry change, dont want to lose place in line to get change and dropping a buck is no big deal.

I think that would be a great idea, but they can be tough to find since they didnt make a lot.

Certainly Oktoberfest shoukd be there.

It depends on the crowd...but a metallica or ac/dc would be good as long as the music/sounds could actually be heard.

Games that would appeal to brwery-goers could include back to the future, mario, jurassic park, lord of the rings, maybe even elvira

For the non-pinball crowd, South Park seems to be a really good bang for your buck.

I was going to ask. You planning on getting a change machine, bill acceptors or just using the bartender.

I ask because I’ve been to a couple breweries that had pins but no change machine so you had to get change at the bar and the bartenders were frequently less than helpful. They made no money off getting you quarters and could care less if they ran out of change. I went to one bar where they said they had run out of quarters weeks ago and didn’t have any. That operator wasn’t making much on those machines (and it included some nice machines like MMr Addams Family and Creature). Just wanted to see what your plan for quarters was?

*seems*

I can assure you that this is not true. That said, I’d rather buy a Fish Tales and a World Cup Soccer in place of TAF if I were putting games in a bar.

I've seen PayRange do pretty well at the local brewery I play pins at. Little bit of a learning curve for people but if somebody just explains it to them they start to get it and after that it becomes pretty easy. Bonus if the operator setup any sort of 'play x amount of games and get a free game' type of deals.

Then you can just watch them swipe their money away!

So I guess Baywatch then?

Yeah, just do that.

"Seems" is indeed the operative term there as I never did ask how TAF fares relative to the other 20-30 pins in these two locations, both "barcades" where the games are the attraction and not just a thing in the corner somewhere. To be sure, this is not the same deal. But at these places I can often park on TAF and play to my heart's content if and when I want.

Funny you mention FT because there's probably the best playing location example of that game I've ever come across right next to Addams right now at one of these places. On the other side is a House of the Dead video game that gets a lot of action and always has people standing too close to the TAF table, which is annoying and probably makes people choose another pin as they're certainly available.

The gist really is, if anything, that no two locations are alike.

People bring their kids to breweries?

Usually can in Canada until 6 or 8pm or the like. Lots of them have good food also

They might say that, but will it really work out that easy? I feel like a dick getting 10 singles at a bar for pinball, and worse at the one place where I basically bought a roll of quarters. I try to come prepared with plenty of singles and ones, but obviously casuals won't.

We've got all kinds around here. Brewery 1 is all new sterns with DBVs and no change machine. Brewery #2 ( Chalkey 's) Has DBVs on most everything and a change machine. Brewery #3 which bills itself as a mini barcade just went from tokens to swipe cards, and #4 is the real barcade that has tokens for games that you can purchase at the desk or change machine.

My 2(5) cents

Flash Gordon apparently changed the whole vibe in one local brewery. In a good way.

Skip the bill acceptors and use the $ to buy a change machine. Alot of newbs don't even know that games have a bill acceptor installed. When the brewery is busy no one is going to want to wait in line to go get change. Banks get pissy about giving out large amount of quarter rolls also, if the breweries til runs out of quarters you get no coin drop.

Pabst Can Crusher

Ol' time beer themed family fun that non-pinheads and drunks can still enjoy!

Hell ... even o-din!

Are you still trying to sell that thing? haha!

Coz - best of luck to you buddy!

Theme Theme Theme and lay off the JJPs. I hate to say it but they're super expensive, have issues when played a TON and wherever I go, they seem to be the least played. They belong in the collectors home IMO.

I would hit up stern pros ALL DAY. JP, GB, SW, etc.

Good luck!

A lot of these hipsters (and I don't use that word negatively) at the local breweries do not want shiny new versions of themes from the past. They want to play the actual games from the past. If you think somebody born in the 90s needs to be introduced to pinball like they've never seen it, you are fooling yourselves.

Who the hell else is going to be the designated driver???!!!

Totally agree

My Hobbit did really well on location, BUUUUT the drop target springs became a nightmare! There are a lot of them and they would break pretty often. Some of those suckers are tedious to fix and it only takes one not working to really throw a wrench in that game.

I have had ZERO issues with CGC games on location. I've put AFMrLE, MMRLE, and now MBrLE. No issues and they earn well.

Yeah you have no idea man. sometimes I'm at the bar and a herd of children scurry by me, and I wonder if I'm in a brewery or a chucky cheese

lol

Long gone, but not forgotten.

DO NOT count on people getting change from the bar staff. You absolutely must have an automatic way for people to convert paper money into pinball currency. You need people to be able to play impulsively and with maximum convenience. If they have to wait in line or interact with unenthusiastic bartenders, they would rather just not play. You also don't want the staff to be annoyed by the machines. It's important the establishment feels like the machines are drawing new customers in, or causing current customers to stay longer and drink more beer. As soon as they have to sit there and dish out change instead of pouring drinks and earning tips, you'll be on their shitlist. If you do a split that can keep the proprietor happy, but you want the wait staff to feel like the machines are a good thing so they can report problems, clean the glass and maybe if you're lucky even play the machines. I always chat up the staff when I'm in playing or servicing the machines and ask them specifically if the machine are causing them any problems. I also hook them up with free credits and tip very generously, this all gets paid forward.

Change machines are great, especially if they accept large bills, but they take up space and when they run out and people are counting on them you're in trouble. They work great in arcades where coin drop is the business and someone is always there when they run out to fill it up. You won't always be there and if that thing runs out in the middle of a busy weekend night your earnings will take a serious hit. I have zero interest in stopping in and checking change levels on a machine multiple times a week and making constant trips to the bank for change. One of my breweries asked specifically for a change machine even though every table has a DBV. I bought them one under the condition that they keep it full and all the money inside of it is theirs. I don't even have a key to it, so they are soley responsible for keeping it stocked. If it runs out, I don't care because the games all take bills.

My recommendation, put a bill validator on every single game. If it doesn't have a slot for one, it's too old for location use. Even if you bulletproof an old game and get it reliable, you can't charge as much per play and they just don't make enough money on route.

Love having pinball machines at breweries.

I hope this is a huge success for you!

I said it before but check out PayRange. There is an upfront cost but once its setup and people understand how it works its absolutely seamless and completely plays into the 'i'm not actually spending money' mentality that comes with physical dollars or quarters. No need for change machines, dollar validators (which are still a solid option i'll admit) or bothering bartenders for change.

Personally I think you are polling the wrong audience. I picked new stern, not because that would draw me there, but I suspect that is what people will want to play, and will probably have the least amount of work needed to keep them running.

Now if was something to draw me to play, I’d say a little bit of everything, EMs, solid states, Williams and Bally, early 2000 sterns, JJP, some of the remakes that are flowing through... personally, anything BUT Raven will bring me to a place to play pinball