Nostalgic for playing pinball in Detroit

http://tinyurl.com/yff9gtm

I shot this video feature for the Detroit Free Press on a guy from Northville who repairs pinball games at his home and makes housecalls. Seeing all his games and playing a bunch of them made me nostalgic for pinball.

Too bad there aren't many places around here anymore unless you know of places that have several machines.

Aside from Marvelous Marvin's [[which use to be Tally Hall) in West Bloomfield and Crazy Carl's Movie House [[which has over 15 pinball games) in Walled Lake, there is not much left :[[

The pinball repair man, Clay Harrell formed a Detroit pinball club and has a website http://www.pinrepair.com/emclub/ and they meet once a month.

My video of Clay is here;
http://tinyurl.com/yff9gtm

Thanks for the pinball video. I've always hoped there would be vignettes of the cultural nuances and characters that inhabit our town. Your video is a perfect example.

I went to Las Vegas this past December and I must confess, the highlight of my trip was this http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ All the games were playable and still only .25. If ever in Vegas you must check it out

I used to have a pachinko machine. They have more balls. :D

Pachinko Machine [[Bells)

Vintage Pachinko machine basics shows more about the complex electromechanics. Trying to reverse engineer one of these things is a humbling education. I never caught it jamming up. Not once.

There were a lot of refurbished ones on the market in the 1980s.

that pinball museum in Vegas looks like something I'll have to check out in the summer when I go there. Thanks for that info,

Tobusto, how do you contribute to Freep?

Are you staff?

yeah I'm a staff photographer there and have been since 1999.

love DetroitYES and I'm on here all the time reading up on things and searching for story ideas. That's how I found the Ernie's Market story I posted last week.

great work Torb... as well as the Ernie piece. Are you in the market for hard news tips, or features?

Thanks Gnome!! I'm always looking for news and feature ideas especially those that have great stories and great visuals.

I would love to have a Williams' Fireball pinball machine, from the mid-'70's.
Nothing super-fancy; just my favorite from the "old days" between HS graduation & Life as an Adult. [[Married, kids, etc.)
To complete the package of nostalgia, I suppose that a nice fat bag of fresh Columbian would be nice, and-- unlike in those days-- it would last for many, many months, maybe even a few years.

There was a party store on McNichols that always rotated nice games. The owner never carded us when we bought smokes or rolling papers. Sometimes he'd give us five quarters to the dollar if he knew we are on a pinball binge. Later found out he was selling dimebags on the sly to my friend's dad-who would spend hours and dollars feeding the pinball games and would rack up a high score no one could ever attempt to beat.

I remember when the National Coney Island at 12 and Main [[Livernois) had the TNG pinball game. We loved that thing.

pinball has been getting active the last few years.

'the arcade' in brighton
the vfw pin museum in ann arbor

pinball locator if you are interested in finding some locations nearby
http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/index.php
of course, call ahead , listings can be outdated quickly.

Used to hang out at The Flipper Inn back in the mid 70s, it was on Fenkell west of Lahser if I remember right, in Brightmoor. The place was usually jam packed. Walked up there with two buddies of mine on the day of the big snowstorm the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend in 1974, we were 14 at the time. Funny how I can almost always relate music to certain things. I clearly remember hearing Jeffeson Starship's 'Ride The Tiger' a lot, and a lot of Aerosmith from their first two albums. I think they always had the radio tuned to WRIF. Or was it WABX??

I remember the one on woodward & 13 mile - the Space Station, I think - that is now [[or was) a Starcrap

Curbed Detroit posted an article on 12/31 about the Offworld Arcade, a new barcade with a DJ, drinks and vintage games. I was a little depressed that the vintage games pictured all came out after my time in arcades.

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...ned-school.php