Yeah, pinside is a great resource. Surprisingly, the pinside map was created four years after pinball map (source: wayback machine; disclosure: I'm a pinball map dev).
Pinballz on 183 in Austin also has both DDR and of course pinball machines. I can’t remember if the other locations in Austin and Buda also have DDR but I know that one does for sure.
There's a municipal airport less than an hour drive from me that has a pinball machine from 1975. I'll have to check that out next time I drive through there.
One of my favorite aspects of pinball is finding and playing those odd machines tucked away here and there, thanks to some enthusiast at a local business, or because it’s always been there. Fond memories of an old laundromat in CNY that had a machine of similar vintage..and an equally old coke vending machine.
I played on the ones in Maui just before they were lost in the fires. Not a great tragedy in the grand scheme of things, but still a pity. Star Wars was a delight.
Our locations are sourced from Pinball Map; scores can be tagged with locations which allows us to maintain leaderboards for specific machines (in addition to global/social/event leaderboards).
What amazed me on my trip to Seattle was just how many pinball machines are available to play there. And not only that but just how insanely well maintained 50 year old machines are. These are machines getting played on a daily basis. Where are they finding parts for these machines? It's just crazy to think about.
Seattle is great for pinball, most of the bars with 8+ machines host a team or two that play in the Monday night league. Ton of parts available at https://www.marcospecialties.com
Yeah AFAIK Seattle is the top pinball spot in the world for some reason. You would think Chicago since that's where it started and where most of the big companies are based. But Seattle has the most machines I'm pretty sure.
Pinball map is brilliant, I use it everytime I travel. So many new pinball machines coming out. The latest one I've been searching for is Labyrinth. Only in LA at the moment, but looks super fun.
Once you create an account you can make a note if the machines aren't working well and the owners will usually get someone in quick to fix too.
Jaws just came out too and I've had fun checking Pinball map every day to see it spread out from Chicago (Stern's HQ) and populate more and more of the country.
I am super curious about getting data from Stern since they have added Stern Insider. They record all your scores and give you little icons for achievements etc. I don't know what other data they store, but it would be pretty rad to do some stats on it and look at the time of day when balls get drained, and multiball run times against a population. So curious to see if any outside factors influence gameplay. Outside of proper leveling, operation etc.
They collect a lot of information, but make very little of it available. What is available isn't exposed in a particularly friendly way. Some of the extra data they gathered makes it into the Year in Review stats they make available at the start of the year. https://social.bdash.net.nz/@mrowe/111779120066480793 shows an example of this.
I'd love to be able to see a moving average of my score on a particular game so I can see how I'm improving (or not) over time. Beyond that, I'm not sure what data would be useful other than as a curiosity.
I really like pinballmap. I try to add gigs and machines all the time. But another app that has way more pinballs is Pin my balls (at least in France).
Regarding pinballs I recently built a self-hosted app to track scores between friends.
If you're ever in Vegas, I highly recommend a trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame museum south of the Strip across from the Mandalay Bay convention center. My family put it on the list as just some rando thing to do between the "real" Vegas events, but our expectations were very much exceeded!
Pinball Hall of Fame is the only place in Vegas I've found The Addams Family, and it is the only place on this site with that game. The problem with the Pinball Hall of Fame is not only do they have the rear studs at max height, they put blocks of wood under the back feet. It just isn't fun.
I do only see the one listed in Vegas which is strange since it's one of the most popular tables made. The webpage returns 483 Addams Family machines in other places though.
Vegas doesn't have a lot of arcades. Outside of the PHoF there's two in reasonable driving distance and neither of them focus on pinball machines. One is pretty much only rhythm games.
Yes, as a fan of arcades Vegas is disappointing. You'd think casinos might be interested in people who put money in machines without expecting a payout. The rows and rows of fancy slot machines with HD monitors do nothing for me.
As a fan of arcades, Vegas is better than most other cities.
The one rhythm place has all the Bemani stuff that I like and I can spend a day getting Drum Mania out of my system.
Then the other one has a 2 screen Darius, Bishi Bashi Champ and other goodies and then PHoF has me covered for the rest.
Maintaining old arcade machines is a pain in the ass and CRT (especially those that can sync down to 15Hz) days are numbered. 25 more years and you won't find any classic cabinets anywhere if I'm honest.
Oh man, we have a place nearby that has easily 40 machines, and some serious classics (they had the Elton John machine with the recalled artwork). They've been around for a few years -- simple setup: $20 gets you a wrist band and you can play for 4 hours[0]. And I think that's the crux of it: I am unwilling to pay a buck a play for pinball only to -- often -- find out that it has multiple mechanical imperfections (like a side bumper being dead) that make it nearly impossible to play.
There is a bowling alley nearby that bills itself as a Pinball Museum (with 20 or so machines) but they're all quarter driven. I went once, dropped $15, got annoyed and never returned. My kids and I go to the other place every other month or so.
[0] Except for one machine -- they have this giant thing that uses a pool cue as a ball -- it's a Sega game ... Mammoth or something, and apparently very rare
It’s a terrible game, very slow and boring, but you must play it once. I really appreciate the dedication of any collector who brings that behemoth to pinball shows and keeps it running.
I keep seeing these little niche sites, like "map of pinball machines", which is for some reason not just a filter or data layer or set of metadata tags on some larger mapping infrastructure.
Likewise, there's the "internet movie firearms database", and the "internet movie cars database", and several others, which are not just object classes in some larger internet movie attribute database.
Presumably because the `larger mapping infrastructure` doesn't deem a filterable list of pinball machines to make monetary sense, or fit into their overall product without adding clutter.
I presume the same is true for the IMDB. They have their own list of things they are interested in, and firearms or cars may not be on that list.
It's almost like different people/organizations have different interests and priorities.
because the pinball map serves a purpose that would not fit well in a larger mapping thing. people want to know what pinball machines are nearby them so they can go there and play them. very different in scope than a movie gun/car database. they also don't share the same playerbase that a more general arcade machine app might have; people like pinball and will seek that out in a different way that people who like arcade machines will not do the same.
Is there an internet movie song database? I'd like to look up a song and see what movies and tv shows that song has been in. I thought I saw something like that many years ago... but wasn't exactly what I wanted.
It's easier to build a community when you're running your own site. Also, it's just easier to get started. You don't have to figure out someone else's data format and object classes if you just start from 0, and most people working on these kinds of niche hobby sites don't always care what an object class is anyway
If you are ever in Portland, Next Level Pinball Museum is bonkers with over 500 machines. About half of them are pinball machines and all are in top notch condition. Portland in general has a huge pinball scene with several large arcades in and around it.
I've had the rare privilege to meet the Pinball map creator (or at least one of them), an awesome person that has been maintaining this project for a long time. Definitely give them some support if you're a Pinball fan.
Portland was the original base location and then IIRC they expanded to other cities. Portland's reputation as the pinball capital of the world is well founded.
It was for manufacturing. It's not as great as one would hope for actually playing. The city has an ordnance that says that you need a special "public place of amusement" license if you have more than 3 machines and are open to the public, and it can be rather expensive. So places to play are generally limited to a relatively small number of barcade-type venues that tend to be loud and crowded.
I prefer the pinball scene in Milwaukee. Seemingly every neighborhood has at least a few relaxed, cozy bars with a decent number of machines in the back room, and there are also a few decent venues that are open to minors.
I don't know Portland as well, but based on what little time I've spent there it seemed like the situation was more similar to what it's like in Milwaukee. I've stumbled across some great old classic machines when I was there.
Seattle is like this too. There seems to be one or two machines in a lot of bars, particularity the sleepy ones. There are a few dedicated pinball bars as well which are always fun to kill an hour or two in.
One of the APIs powering the Pinball Map is the excellent Open Pinball Database (opdb.org).
OPDB came about because an older site IPDB doesn’t have an API (and doesn’t want to have an API) in order for various pinball software to communicate with each other. I'm in some pinball leagues with the developer, Andreas Haugstrup, who also makes matchplay.events, pintips.net, and other sites that serve the pinball community.
What is the best way for an amateur to synthesize a similar site? I have used Google My Maps for a much smaller, manually updated map of air hockey tables.
Most cities have at least one pinball bar with a weekly tournament. The same sorts of people go every week, and there are always beginners joining. If you're in a new place and need some social exposure, look for a pinball bar.
I've met people at pinball tournaments who have found the confidence to move because they knew they'd meet new friends at the pinball tournament in wherever they're moving to.
It would be great if you could find the machine that is closest to 2 or more different locations, like if I want to challenge several friends across the country to post our high scores in a group message, and we needed to know what the shortest drive each of us would need to take in order to play the same make and model machine. Maybe it’s in the app, or I missed it.
Worth noting the performance characterizations of an individual machine can depend on how it’s maintained and how the operator chooses to set it up - so this may not be a completely level playing field.
On the other hand, if you’ve figured out which Medieval Madness in your city you play best at, you can leverage that information to your advantage :)
there’s an api you can use to get machines near a gps location and then you can look through that for machines that are the same. not a feature of the website proper but something you can do if you know a little scripting
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 187 ms ] threadhttps://ddrfinder.andrew67.com
https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/arcades.php
Logan Arcade in Chicago has it. One of the best arcades period.
I played on the ones in Maui just before they were lost in the fires. Not a great tragedy in the grand scheme of things, but still a pity. Star Wars was a delight.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pindigo-social-pinball-scores/...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ascrewaske...
Also interestingly, one of the founders also founded Equinix, Rev3, Digg, Opsmatic, and a handful of other companies...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Adelson
Our locations are sourced from Pinball Map; scores can be tagged with locations which allows us to maintain leaderboards for specific machines (in addition to global/social/event leaderboards).
https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=SNalvo1ydJU
never knew what the hell a "pinball map" could be despite playing many versions of pinball, now i know
Once you create an account you can make a note if the machines aren't working well and the owners will usually get someone in quick to fix too.
I'd love to be able to see a moving average of my score on a particular game so I can see how I'm improving (or not) over time. Beyond that, I'm not sure what data would be useful other than as a curiosity.
Regarding pinballs I recently built a self-hosted app to track scores between friends.
https://demo.pinball-friends.com/
The one rhythm place has all the Bemani stuff that I like and I can spend a day getting Drum Mania out of my system.
Then the other one has a 2 screen Darius, Bishi Bashi Champ and other goodies and then PHoF has me covered for the rest.
Maintaining old arcade machines is a pain in the ass and CRT (especially those that can sync down to 15Hz) days are numbered. 25 more years and you won't find any classic cabinets anywhere if I'm honest.
There is a bowling alley nearby that bills itself as a Pinball Museum (with 20 or so machines) but they're all quarter driven. I went once, dropped $15, got annoyed and never returned. My kids and I go to the other place every other month or so.
[0] Except for one machine -- they have this giant thing that uses a pool cue as a ball -- it's a Sega game ... Mammoth or something, and apparently very rare
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/1dkoox/this...
Likewise, there's the "internet movie firearms database", and the "internet movie cars database", and several others, which are not just object classes in some larger internet movie attribute database.
Why?
I presume the same is true for the IMDB. They have their own list of things they are interested in, and firearms or cars may not be on that list.
It's almost like different people/organizations have different interests and priorities.
Portland was the original base location and then IIRC they expanded to other cities. Portland's reputation as the pinball capital of the world is well founded.
I prefer the pinball scene in Milwaukee. Seemingly every neighborhood has at least a few relaxed, cozy bars with a decent number of machines in the back room, and there are also a few decent venues that are open to minors.
I don't know Portland as well, but based on what little time I've spent there it seemed like the situation was more similar to what it's like in Milwaukee. I've stumbled across some great old classic machines when I was there.
OPDB came about because an older site IPDB doesn’t have an API (and doesn’t want to have an API) in order for various pinball software to communicate with each other. I'm in some pinball leagues with the developer, Andreas Haugstrup, who also makes matchplay.events, pintips.net, and other sites that serve the pinball community.
You pay an admission fee and get to play unlimited pinball from machines across the ages, even the old wooden units.
Most cities have at least one pinball bar with a weekly tournament. The same sorts of people go every week, and there are always beginners joining. If you're in a new place and need some social exposure, look for a pinball bar.
I've met people at pinball tournaments who have found the confidence to move because they knew they'd meet new friends at the pinball tournament in wherever they're moving to.
On the other hand, if you’ve figured out which Medieval Madness in your city you play best at, you can leverage that information to your advantage :)