Pinball Hall of Fame

Quote: Gialmere

With the warehouse setup, they could easily add a mezzanine level and practically double the floor space (if needed).

I thought that as well when I saw the size of the building, so I asked the owner about this, and I think he said something along the lines of, it was a combination of (a) it would have taken too long to build a second-story floor (remember, they had to be out of their previous location by April), and (b) air conditioning concerns.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

I thought that as well when I saw the size of the building, so I asked the owner about this, and I think he said something along the lines of, it was a combination of (a) it would have taken too long to build a second-story floor (remember, they had to be out of their previous location by April), and (b) air conditioning concerns.

Yeah, I was wondering about heating and cooling in the new building. I guess I'll find out in the blazing Vegas heat of August. Adding a customizable, warehouse style mezzanine is at least a future option to consider, although they'd probably need to shell out for an elevator to accommodate handicap visitors. Anyways, there appears to be plenty of space for now.

I'm at the HoF and they're saying the surveyor is taking all responsibility. His insurer is negotiating a payout to the hotel owners. Lawyers might still be brought in but the HoF has its own lawyers standing by just in case.

It appears that money will solve the problem. Paradise law seems to be in their favor.The HoF will not have to saw 8 feet off its building. Indeed, it's looking like they'll get the land gratis.

Quote: Gialmere

I'm at the HoF and they're saying the surveyor is taking all responsibility. His insurer is negotiating a payout to the hotel owners. Lawyers might still be brought in but the HoF has its own lawyers standing by just in case.

It appears that money will solve the problem. Paradise law seems to be in their favor.The HoF will not have to saw 8 feet off its building. Indeed, it's looking like they'll get the land gratis.

Thanks for the update. Are you having fun, and what machine is eating your quarters?

Quote: Keeneone

Thanks for the update. Are you having fun, and what machine is eating your quarters?

My two daughters and future son-in-law (officially we're in town looking at sites for next year's nuptials) are the biggest expense. I grew up playing pinball and early video games and have actually won a few free games here. To them, however, coin-op games are alien devices. They know nothing of ball control or sequential targets and so have been burning through quarters fast.

I'm at the Wynn now (looking at a rehearsal dinner restaurant). I was hoping to play Pai Gow Tiles but the minimum is $100. Too rich for my blood.

Did you try the baseball game where a ball bearing is released and you "swing" the bat ? It's one of my favorites there. You can play for a fairly long time. Love seeing the little tin men "run" the bases.

Thanks for the PHOF update, Gialmere! I'm curious if you got to play any Dragon's Lair? I never played it as a kid -- 50c was a significant portion of my allowance back then! Plus, I knew I wouldn't last very long.

I visited an arcade a few years back in Ashville, NC. It is smaller than the old PHOF on Tropicana, and I'd imagine much smaller than their new location. They had about half pinball machines and half old video games, one of which was Dragons Lair. They also have their pricing set up differently in that you pay an admission upon entry, and then get to play unlimited games without putting any quarters in.

So, I finally got to play DL, and just as I figured in my youth, I died very quickly. I probably played 5 times and maybe made it through 2 scenes! They even had a sign up next to it saying how difficult the game is and to not get upset when it is over very quickly.

Quote: Gialmere

My two daughters and future son-in-law (officially we're in town looking at sites for next year's nuptials) are the biggest expense. I grew up playing pinball and early video games and have actually won a few free games here. To them, however, coin-op games are alien devices. They know nothing of ball control or sequential targets and so have been burning through quarters fast.

I'm at the Wynn now (looking at a rehearsal dinner restaurant). I was hoping to play Pai Gow Tiles but the minimum is $100. Too rich for my blood.

Wedding planning...Congrats. Paying for that is gonna be more expensive than quarters spent @ PBHOF.

PBHOF and EL Cortez are places I need to visit soon. The sounds and dirty fingers from the coins are a fond memory for me.
https://elcortezhotelcasino.com/gaming/slots/

Quote: JohnnyQ

Did you try the baseball game where a ball bearing is released and you "swing" the bat ? It's one of my favorites there. You can play for a fairly long time. Love seeing the little tin men "run" the bases.

When I was growing up, the arcade on Disneyland's Main Street had a row of something like ten of these type of baseball "pitch-and-hit" games.

Quote: JohnnyQ

Did you try the baseball game where a ball bearing is released and you "swing" the bat ? It's one of my favorites there. You can play for a fairly long time. Love seeing the little tin men "run" the bases.

Yes. A must play from childhood. They have three different versions from various years. It took a few quarters but I found the sweet spot for hitting the home run target.

Quote: Joeman

Thanks for the PHOF update, Gialmere! I'm curious if you got to play any Dragon's Lair? I never played it as a kid -- 50c was a significant portion of my allowance back then! Plus, I knew I wouldn't last very long.

Dragon"s Lair was one of the games I mastered as a kid, occasionally drawing a crowd. And yes, I spent the GDP of a small country to do it.

They do have a DL machine but it's not an original. It's a remake combined with its sister game Space Ace. I think all the laserdiscs on the original cabinets wore out decades ago. I didn't play this computerized version. It just wouldn't be the same.

Quote: Keeneone

Wedding planning...Congrats. Paying for that is gonna be more expensive than quarters spent @ PBHOF.

PBHOF and EL Cortez are places I need to visit soon. The sounds and dirty fingers from the coins are a fond memory for me.
https://elcortezhotelcasino.com/gaming/slots/

I checked out El Cortez to see the Le Pair'e table game. It's gone. They do, however, have a vintage grand roulette table, the type with two wings off a central wheel. Sadly it was closed. I was impressed until I entered Circa and saw they had two of them, both full of players.

Yeah. The wedding is in the $12k to $15k range. Not bad, I suppose, considering the sky's the limit in this town.
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Ah well, I had better luck at the arcade than the casinos. I lost a little at Pai Gow Tiles, broke even at UTH and just lost at MS. With a $2k bank roll I'll be leaving town with $1200. As we ploppy rec players say: Well ... I had fun.

Quote: Gialmere

Yes. A must play from childhood. They have three different versions from various years. It took a few quarters but I found the sweet spot for hitting the home run target.

I played with my brothers this summer, and after they had left town I was back there and ran up the score to 15.

Of course, I took a picture to send to my younger brother who had the previous family high score of 11.

He asked how many quarters that took. I told him "all of them".

Quote: Gialmere

Dragon"s Lair was one of the games I mastered as a kid, occasionally drawing a crowd.

If you ever played at Fair Lanes bowling center in Palm Springs, FL, I was part of that crowd! :)

I never did see anyone beat it, but I did see a guy get within 1 move (according to him, I wouldn't know) of slaying the dragon before getting killed. But yeah, that game did draw quite a crowd if the player was doing well.

Gialmere mentioned 4 million BC. Our bowling alley had this and the match feature was stuck on 90...so we could play forever on one quarter, just had to get your score to end in 90 on the fifth ball :)

Quote: Gialmere

Dragon"s Lair was one of the games I mastered as a kid, occasionally drawing a crowd. And yes, I spent the GDP of a small country to do it.

Did you ever play Dragon's Lair at different arcades and find that it was set to different difficulties? Most operators just put the game out there on its default settings.

Quote: Joeman

If you ever played at Fair Lanes bowling center in Palm Springs, FL, I was part of that crowd! :)

I never did see anyone beat it, but I did see a guy get within 1 move (according to him, I wouldn't know) of slaying the dragon before getting killed. But yeah, that game did draw quite a crowd if the player was doing well.

When it first came out, I saw a lot of people playing it with "cheat sheets" telling them what moves to take, at least up to a certain point. I also saw one player who had won the game enough times to know when the final move was (throwing the sword into the dragon's neck, I think) as he walked away right after doing the move, even though the game goes on for another minute or so. The arcade even changed a setting so that if you won, the game went back to the middle of the game and continued.

Any "Space Ace" players out there? (At the time, it got everybody's vote for the most annoying attract screen sounds in history.)

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Any "Space Ace" players out there? (At the time, it got everybody's vote for the most annoying attract screen sounds in history.)

My vote, too.

"EARTHLINGS MUST SURRENDER TO ME!"

I never played Space Ace, either. Also, it didn't seem to get nearly as much action as DL did, at least at my favorite haunts back in the day.

ETA: Holy crap! I never realized it until now, but Borf bears a striking resemblance to the Genie from Aladin!

Quote: Gialmere

I'm at the HoF and they're saying the surveyor is taking all responsibility. His insurer is negotiating a payout to the hotel owners. Lawyers might still be brought in but the HoF has its own lawyers standing by just in case.

It appears that money will solve the problem. Paradise law seems to be in their favor.The HoF will not have to saw 8 feet off its building. Indeed, it's looking like they'll get the land gratis.

so the surveyor's insurance company is buying the 8' parcel of land from the hotel and giving it to the HoF?

whats paradise law?

did the hotel want to sell?
are they being forced to sell?

Quote: Joeman

If you ever played at Fair Lanes bowling center in Palm Springs, FL, I was part of that crowd! :)

I never did see anyone beat it, but I did see a guy get within 1 move (according to him, I wouldn't know) of slaying the dragon before getting killed. But yeah, that game did draw quite a crowd if the player was doing well.

One of the places I played was at was an arcade near Cal State Fullerton. They had a new games room and had hooked up Dragons Lair to an overhead, large screen projection TV. The room was empty, when I sat down (on a provided stool) and played the game from start to finish. When I made the last move (sword button to slay dragon) I turned around and saw twenty people all gazing at the overhead screen. Kind of cool.

If anyone's interested, I once wrote about games (including DL) from the Golden Age of the video arcade at VideoGameGeek.

Quote: Johnzimbo

Gialmere mentioned 4 million BC. Our bowling alley had this and the match feature was stuck on 90...so we could play forever on one quarter, just had to get your score to end in 90 on the fifth ball :)

To my surprise, the 4 million BC game (which I looked for first) only gave 3 balls for a quarter. I first thought maybe all the machines had been set that way but no, some of the older machines gave the traditional 5 balls while others allowed only the newer standard of 3.

I should mention that the tilt mechanisms for the HoF tables are set very tight. Apart from a gentle nudge to dislodge a stuck ball you can't really get away with any machine manipulation. Fair enough considering the point of the HoF is to restore and maintain the games for future generations. They don't need people pounding on the glass et al in frustration like it's a smoke filled 1970's arcade where free games and high scores were the currency of the realm.

Oddly enough, the one game you can get away with manipulating is the very rare Pinball Circus machine. They mounted the cabinet on wheels so you can smoothly glide the ball onto a flipper if need be.

Quote: smoothgrh

Did you ever play Dragon's Lair at different arcades and find that it was set to different difficulties? Most operators just put the game out there on its default settings.

Yes. The window you had to make a decision could be narrowed to increase the difficulty. This wasn't a big deal if you got good and knew the precise moment. Another issue was the quirks between machines. You might learn on a game that was in good shape but, at another arcade, find a machine where the joystick was beaten to hell and you'd have to learn how to manipulate it to insure the contactors connected.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

When it first came out, I saw a lot of people playing it with "cheat sheets" telling them what moves to take, at least up to a certain point. I also saw one player who had won the game enough times to know when the final move was (throwing the sword into the dragon's neck, I think) as he walked away right after doing the move, even though the game goes on for another minute or so. The arcade even changed a setting so that if you won, the game went back to the middle of the game and continued.

Any "Space Ace" players out there? (At the time, it got everybody's vote for the most annoying attract screen sounds in history.)

I never got into Space Ace. Perhaps because I had spent (wasted?) so much time on Dragon's Lair that the thought of memorizing a whole new game was too tedious. It also never seemed to catch on with players in my area. Friends who got into it would have to beg us to come watch them play. For whatever reason, Dragon's Lair seemed to be the beginning, the pinnacle and the end of the arcade laserdisc game.

One thing that was neat about it was that at higher difficulties you'd get new scenes and challenges that lower levels never saw.

Quote: 100xOdds

so the surveyor's insurance company is buying the 8' parcel of land from the hotel and giving it to the HoF?

whats paradise law?

did the hotel want to sell?
are they being forced to sell?

Sadly, I don't know. I was merely asking about the status of the situation while purchasing a t-shirt at the front counter. All I can say is they are pleased with the current way the situation is playing out with the surveyor accepting responsibility. Obviously there's a lot of money involved so maybe "cautiously optimistic" would be a better way to phrase it.

What I wonder (and I wished I had asked) is if a surveyor draws some property lines, do not the adjacent land owners have to sign off on the lines? Do they not, at the very least, have a window to challenge the lines with their own survey? Since it's unimproved land, would not such a challenge have to made before the (in this case) PHoF begins building in good faith based on the agreed to property lines? I have absolutely no idea if this is the case but it would explain why the HoF lawyers seem secure in their position.

Perhaps a user experienced in these issues might chime in.

It’s been bugging me for weeks. I finally researched and found it.

There was an episode of The Jetsons, from 1963 that dealt in this very issue.

It’s called “Private Property”. Season 1, episode 22. I couldn’t find it on YouTube, but it's available on HBO Max.

In the early 1980s, my town of Mineola took over an old movie theatre and its parking lot to build a five story parking structure. When it was half built, it was determined that one side of it was three or four feet over the property line of an elderly woman's lot. The town offered her a very small settlement and she hired a real loud mouthed attorney who turned it into as much of a media circus as he could. He got a stop work order, which put tremendous pressure on the town and the county and state started to get involved.
They finally reached an agreement where the town bought the house, but then gave the woman a free lifetime lease, a monthly stipend and they would make a payment to her estate when the house was vacated upon her death. I guess it worked out well enough for her.

Here's a month old Vital Vegas story on the property line blunder. It doesn't bring anything new to the table.

PBHOF video recently posted to YT.
-There is a "Pinball Wizard" game @ 2:27 in the video. :)
-A Dragon's Lair labeled cabinet can be seen @ 8:59 in the video (the actual game on the machine is Root Beer Tapper).
-Nevada Jack (YT poster) was looking forward to playing Black Knight.

I believe there’s a problem with the WoV forum database.

I was gonna make a snarky comment about this post:

Quote: Gialmere

Here's a month old Vital Vegas story on the property line blunder. It doesn't bring anything new to the table.

My snark would have been along the lines of, you’re complaining about a lack of new info in Vital Vegas’ initial report - the same report that got this part of the conversation started?

Then I started looking thru this thread.

On page 6, there are no posts after 6/21. And no mention of the property line issue.

The next post, on 8/11, was this, which is obviously in response to the missing conversation.

Quote: Gialmere

I'm at the HoF and they're saying the surveyor is taking all responsibility. His insurer is negotiating a payout to the hotel owners. Lawyers might still be brought in but the HoF has its own lawyers standing by just in case.

It appears that money will solve the problem. Paradise law seems to be in their favor.The HoF will not have to saw 8 feet off its building. Indeed, it's looking like they'll get the land gratis.

Seems there are 2 threads with recent discussion of the PBHOF:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-attractions/other/36113-pinball-hof-new-site-is-open/

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-attractions/other/34703-pinball-hall-of-fame/

Quote: Keeneone

Seems there are 2 threads with recent discussion of the PBHOF:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-attractions/other/36113-pinball-hof-new-site-is-open/

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-attractions/other/34703-pinball-hall-of-fame/

Yep. That explains it.

That first thread you mentioned started on 6/26. The 12th and last post was 7/10 which is why it fell off my radar. And it has several posts talking about the screw up.

Ok. No database problem. 👍

But it kinda goes to show why there is a rule discouraging multiple threads for the same topic. 🤬

Someone posted that the Pinball Museum isnt doing well with lots of machines broken.
(Cant find that post)

Japan old school pinball arcade (2024):
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1595961711129268

Quote: 100xOdds

Someone posted that the Pinball Museum isnt doing well with lots of machines broken.
(Cant find that post)

Japan old school pinball arcade (2024):
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1595961711129268
link to original post

My nephew is huge on pinball
Owns several machines
He couldn't believe what a mess the place is
Maintenance of machines extremely poor
The most important and rare pinball machine in their collection is always down
Pinball circus

For pinball machines, maintenance is the key. 6 years ago, when they first opened, I spent 2 hours enjoying myself for a mere $10. Yes, $10 for 2 hours in Vegas. I will be there, hopefully, to relive my fond memory in a few days.

Quote: speedycrap

For pinball machines, maintenance is the key. 6 years ago, when they first opened, I spent 2 hours enjoying myself for a mere $10. Yes, $10 for 2 hours in Vegas. I will be there, hopefully, to relive my fond memory in a few days.
link to original post

They were doing well in their old location.
Why the downfall in their new location?

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: speedycrap

For pinball machines, maintenance is the key. 6 years ago, when they first opened, I spent 2 hours enjoying myself for a mere $10. Yes, $10 for 2 hours in Vegas. I will be there, hopefully, to relive my fond memory in a few days.
link to original post

They were doing well in their old location.
Why the downfall in their new location?
link to original post

How involved is Tim Arnold currently? He used to handle a lot of the maintenance in the old days. He used to have a party at his house in the old days where he would set up a bunch of the pinball machines in one of his out buildings and have friends and family over to play them. I'm wondering if he is more "retired" now?

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: speedycrap

For pinball machines, maintenance is the key. 6 years ago, when they first opened, I spent 2 hours enjoying myself for a mere $10. Yes, $10 for 2 hours in Vegas. I will be there, hopefully, to relive my fond memory in a few days.
link to original post

They were doing well in their old location.
Why the downfall in their new location?
link to original post

Their overhead must have increased tremendously.

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: speedycrap

For pinball machines, maintenance is the key. 6 years ago, when they first opened, I spent 2 hours enjoying myself for a mere $10. Yes, $10 for 2 hours in Vegas. I will be there, hopefully, to relive my fond memory in a few days.
link to original post

They were doing well in their old location.
Why the downfall in their new location?
link to original post

It's far bigger, and there are far more machines than in the previous locations. Note that the broken machines tend to be the older ones that nobody usually plays anyway.

Supposedly, in the past, Tim did not want anyone else working on the machines - after all, they are all his machines, from his collection - but I have heard that he has been getting help repairing them lately. I am assuming they are concentrating on keeping the popular games, which bring in far more money, especially at $1 per play as opposed to the older ones at 25c per play, running.