One of the highlights of my recent Vegas visit was a couple trips to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I'm not entirely clear on exactly how it's a Hall of Fame (as opposed to a museum, or even just a really cool arcade), but never mind. Over two hundred vintage games are available for play at the original prices, a couple as low as a nickel.
They do have a few of the more recent video-style games (like Space Invaders and Asteroids) in teh back, but the focus is mostly on metal balls, bumpers, flippers, and lots of flashing lights. I stuck mostly to the oldest machines from the fifties and sixties, because I thought they were kind of cool, though often frustratingly short in duration.
My favorites were the baseball machines, wherein a slot in the middle of the diamond spit out a ball, which I then batted (flippered) onto the field of play where it would land in a hole or through a door marked with the outcome of that at-bat (single, double, out, etc.). I felt like I mastered the one above, scoring as many as 13 runs before recording three outs (the runners ran around the bases in a diorama below the scoreboard).
There were about six generations of the baseball game, and the one above thwarted me-- only two runs before three outs, but one of those was on a home run (hitting the ball up a tiny ramp into the "upper deck") so I claim a measure of victory even here. Bill also beat me at table and air hockey, but in the former my goalie was for some reason twisted sideways, so I has at a distinct disadvantage. I guess it's safe to say this will be a regular stop on future visits to Vegas (way more entertaining than the machines in the casinos!).
One of the highlights of my recent Vegas visit was a couple trips to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I'm not entirely clear on exactly how it's a Hall of Fame (as opposed to a museum, or even just a really cool arcade), but never mind. Over two hundred vintage games are available for play at the original prices, a couple as low as a nickel.
They do have a few of the more recent video-style games (like Space Invaders and Asteroids) in teh back, but the focus is mostly on metal balls, bumpers, flippers, and lots of flashing lights. I stuck mostly to the oldest machines from the fifties and sixties, because I thought they were kind of cool, though often frustratingly short in duration.
My favorites were the baseball machines, wherein a slot in the middle of the diamond spit out a ball, which I then batted (flippered) onto the field of play where it would land in a hole or through a door marked with the outcome of that at-bat (single, double, out, etc.). I felt like I mastered the one above, scoring as many as 13 runs before recording three outs (the runners ran around the bases in a diorama below the scoreboard).
There were about six generations of the baseball game, and the one above thwarted me-- only two runs before three outs, but one of those was on a home run (hitting the ball up a tiny ramp into the "upper deck") so I claim a measure of victory even here. Bill also beat me at table and air hockey, but in the former my goalie was for some reason twisted sideways, so I has at a distinct disadvantage. I guess it's safe to say this will be a regular stop on future visits to Vegas (way more entertaining than the machines in the casinos!).
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