I've lurked here for a while, so, um, hello!
I have a SpiderMan, which was bought mostly by accident when I purchased a pool table. I’ve always wanted a pinball machine, SM was there and matched the theme of the cinema room I was building into the new house perfectly. For years I’ve missed being able to go into arcades and play as so few have pinball any more.
I'm now wondering about adding another machine with a bit of a different feel and started thinking about where to get it, what to get and if I really have the space as the room was really designed with only a single pin in mind. I can probably get rid of the second row of seating as it is hardly ever used.
Anyway, my son is back from Uni and so I took the opportunity to drag him down to the pier amusements in Bournemouth last week. He loves arcades, always has (wonder where he gets that from) so didn’t actually need much persuading (the dragging was mostly to get him out of bed, later afternoon!)
We started with TWD, which we both like as a show. The reputation for this being a hard game seems quite justified though I suspect it wasn’t set quite right, as I can’t believe the feed into the play field from the pop bumpers is meant to be STDM! My son, having grown up gaming in the age of Youtubers is prone to loudly vocalising his gaming rage to no-one in particular and that happened a LOT on TWD.
Anyway, we played about 10 games (having got a couple of matches and both earned a couple of replays). It was hard, but hitting shots was rewarding and a lot of fun and we had a great time working out the rules and which shots were ‘good’ at any given time.
We then moved on to Star Wars. The difference in light show is blinding, to the point of it seeming as if nearly all of the play field was being lit or flashing at any given moment. My first play on a big LCD game and the in-between balls info was useful, but in game it was tough to read (easier with another person telling you). The scoring seems very inflated - a quick drain on ball 1 still rewarding 40mil after what can only have been about 10 seconds of game time. The play field felt a bit empty after TWD’s Well Walker right in the middle but our main issue was that it was hard to figure out what to shoot next - so much was lit/flashing it wasn’t that clear. However being Star Wars, hitting the Death Star and taking out Tie Fighters was fun enough.
Then onto Ghostbusters which was unfortunately setup horribly, not level and tilted to the right. That may have affected our enjoyment but again the rules were unclear and it just wasn’t any fun at all - even bashing the slimer toy was nothing great. 2 games each and we were done.
Creature wouldn’t take cash, so didn’t get to play that.
After a break for a drink, we changed up another 20 quid. A couple more games on Star Wars, but then the rest of it went into TWD - this despite the fact the coin mech was dodgy and it could take 5-10 attempts per coin to get it to register. It was by far the most fun of the games. My son even managed to become Tunnel Mode champion. To continue the theme, we finished off with some time on TWD shooting game they had until it closed (its been a while since they had to throw me out of an arcade at closing)
We spent over 3 hours in the arcade and had a great time, it was fairly busy so ended up staying open later than advertised. I’m not sure how much use the pinball machines get but in the time we were on them, four other people played one game each and left so most of the money was being spent elsewhere, which is a shame.
LoTR when I played it a few months back was good fun, but I’m quite tempted by GoTG as it fits better with the room theme and I assume is an easier purchase than WD/LoTR as I can buy it new rather than trying to find something s/h.
Not really sure what I'm asking, but hello again and any comments welcome
I have a SpiderMan, which was bought mostly by accident when I purchased a pool table. I’ve always wanted a pinball machine, SM was there and matched the theme of the cinema room I was building into the new house perfectly. For years I’ve missed being able to go into arcades and play as so few have pinball any more.
I'm now wondering about adding another machine with a bit of a different feel and started thinking about where to get it, what to get and if I really have the space as the room was really designed with only a single pin in mind. I can probably get rid of the second row of seating as it is hardly ever used.
Anyway, my son is back from Uni and so I took the opportunity to drag him down to the pier amusements in Bournemouth last week. He loves arcades, always has (wonder where he gets that from) so didn’t actually need much persuading (the dragging was mostly to get him out of bed, later afternoon!)
We started with TWD, which we both like as a show. The reputation for this being a hard game seems quite justified though I suspect it wasn’t set quite right, as I can’t believe the feed into the play field from the pop bumpers is meant to be STDM! My son, having grown up gaming in the age of Youtubers is prone to loudly vocalising his gaming rage to no-one in particular and that happened a LOT on TWD.
Anyway, we played about 10 games (having got a couple of matches and both earned a couple of replays). It was hard, but hitting shots was rewarding and a lot of fun and we had a great time working out the rules and which shots were ‘good’ at any given time.
We then moved on to Star Wars. The difference in light show is blinding, to the point of it seeming as if nearly all of the play field was being lit or flashing at any given moment. My first play on a big LCD game and the in-between balls info was useful, but in game it was tough to read (easier with another person telling you). The scoring seems very inflated - a quick drain on ball 1 still rewarding 40mil after what can only have been about 10 seconds of game time. The play field felt a bit empty after TWD’s Well Walker right in the middle but our main issue was that it was hard to figure out what to shoot next - so much was lit/flashing it wasn’t that clear. However being Star Wars, hitting the Death Star and taking out Tie Fighters was fun enough.
Then onto Ghostbusters which was unfortunately setup horribly, not level and tilted to the right. That may have affected our enjoyment but again the rules were unclear and it just wasn’t any fun at all - even bashing the slimer toy was nothing great. 2 games each and we were done.
Creature wouldn’t take cash, so didn’t get to play that.
After a break for a drink, we changed up another 20 quid. A couple more games on Star Wars, but then the rest of it went into TWD - this despite the fact the coin mech was dodgy and it could take 5-10 attempts per coin to get it to register. It was by far the most fun of the games. My son even managed to become Tunnel Mode champion. To continue the theme, we finished off with some time on TWD shooting game they had until it closed (its been a while since they had to throw me out of an arcade at closing)
We spent over 3 hours in the arcade and had a great time, it was fairly busy so ended up staying open later than advertised. I’m not sure how much use the pinball machines get but in the time we were on them, four other people played one game each and left so most of the money was being spent elsewhere, which is a shame.
LoTR when I played it a few months back was good fun, but I’m quite tempted by GoTG as it fits better with the room theme and I assume is an easier purchase than WD/LoTR as I can buy it new rather than trying to find something s/h.
Not really sure what I'm asking, but hello again and any comments welcome
