We drove by once and missed it looking for a blinking neon sign and some sort of red carpet. Pulled a quick u-turn and looked again. The GPS said we were there, where is the place? It was a Saturday night, off the main drag, it could have been any city. There are no frills here, we missed the sign because it was barely visible in the dark, a black and white poster on a nondescript building…could this really be the Pinball Hall of Fame [1610 E Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89119]?
It was. We parked and walked in, no one was there to greet us, no admission fees. The only workers we saw were in the back with headlamps on fixing machines, and not very talkative. No gimmicks here, there is no catch, this is pure unadulterated pinball. Cash your dollars into quarters, machines will charge you under a dollar for 3 balls – very affordably priced. There are rows and rows of machines take your choice, really no crowd on a Saturday night.
A few teenage kids, a family or two, some dudes, and a couple of couples. This is my kind of place, the perfect nightlife for those in Vegas who aren’t into nightlife. The machines ranged from some of the first to modern ones you would have never thought existed.
I preferred to wander the aisles trying different machines that caught my eye. I splurged a few extra quarters to try the wizard of oz machine and a creepy clown one.
Jeff found an X-Men machine and stuck with it for a large portion of the night.
It was especially neat because there was a magnet in the center which was controlled by Magneto. Although this place is mainly pinball, there are quite a few other arcade games to play. Racing games, craning, air hockey, and the Simpsons game just to name a few.
We spent a few solid hours here and didn’t spend too much money and had a whole lot of fun. Jeff wanted to come back the next night. If you are a pinball lover you must visit the hall of fame on your visit to Vegas. Take a break from slot machines for a few hours to play some pinball machines!