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New Member looking to get out and play real machines!

Lroy

Lroy

Registered
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
535
Location
UK - West Midlands
Hey all, I’d discovered this forum recently from searching the Internet for places that have real pinball tables for play in locations near to me. West Midlands, UK.

I’ve only really gotten into the hobby this year and that is mainly off the back of playing digital pinball games over the years. Some great offerings in this regard on Nintendo Switch and it’s basically from enjoying the Williams/Bally tables in PINBALL FX3 as well as STERN PINBALL, THE PINBALL ARCADE and ZACCARIA PINBALL that motivated me to try and track down some of these tables in the flesh.

Recently my wife and I ventured out to Birmingham and had an amazing experience playing the 20 machines on-site at the bar Tilt. Needless to say, nothing can compare to actually playing a real table. Therefore, we’re hoping to seek out and find more opportunities to get more hands-on with the hobby of pinball.

This place looked like a great resource to learn of events and locations of tables as well as learning from the experienced community here.

The dream of course would be to buy and learn how to maintain my own pinball table one day.

Thank you for approving my forum registration.


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Welcome!

If you can afford a machine don’t worry too much about maintenance.

You can’t possibly be more useless than me and I’ve learned loads with help from the good folk on this forum and can sort a lot of my issues and currently have 9 machines all working . There are always people on here to help and several people doing repairs as a business who are also great people and very reasonable with charges when you do get stuck
Life’s too short !
 
One step at a time. Want to try and get out to some more venues in the coming months to actually play the tables to start with. Of course, I’ll be devouring information and trying to learn as much as I can about potential table purchasing as I settle in more here and post.

I’ve certainly not got the money I’ve seen some places asking - just about afford to rent one for a few days, lol ! But one day, when I know a bit more about the owners market and have put aside some funds.

Thanks for the welcome.


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Welcome. I'm fairly new to the forum too. I'm pleased I joined, I throughly enjoy logging in each day to read the comments/ posts. Everyone has been really friendly and some of the banter between members is truly hilarious.
 
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Welcome @Lroy you've come to the right place if you want to get truly addicted to pinball. Be warned - prolonged periods on this forum can lead to whole garages being taken over and bank balances depleted!

Seriously though if you want to find out where the machine are at the best way is to use http://pinformer.co.uk and the pinside map https://pinside.com/pinball/map - both have varying degrees of updatedness. Of course if you see any errors (of find any pins in the wild) share the love!
 
I'm a little bit offended that no-one mentioned the massive Northern Lights Pinball show that's happening in Manchester this 4th and 5th May yet ;)

Come along to that! Great way to meet a good bunch of us, play a load of pins (and arcade games and loads of other things going on too if you've got family tagging along). Loads of info in this thread : https://www.pinballinfo.com/communi...ow-at-play-expo-manchester-4th-5th-may.41753/

It's our first time in this new venue, but loads of videos of previous events in my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrWizcat/videos

(Oh, and welcome to the forum!)
 
Welcome

There's the NLP in Manchester in May and UKPinfest in August in Daventry (I think that counts as the midlands - does for us southerners anyway!)
Also there is a midlands league you can join and I think the new incarnation of Electric Circus is up your way too.
 
Thanks for all the warm welcomes and info. I've just booked tickets to PinFest in Daventry. See you all this August!

Eagerly awaiting more news about this new Electric Circus venue as it may be close to me. As for the Midlands League, is there any pre-requisite level of skill to join, I'm a total noobie, and do you have to own tables/host meets?
 
No level of skills required. Next meet.......... is this weekend in Grantham. Sunday afternoon 12, practice and 2pm comp. But it is as competitive as you want it to be.
 
@Pick Holder

Oh yes, as mentioned in my original post above, TILT is where I broke my cherry on real-life pinball machines. Had a fantastic evening playing the machines they had on site over Easter weekend. Ok to share pics here? Or another thread?


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And no requisite to own or host. Cost £2 plus a contribution for food. As you also get fed! It is child friendly too. No alcohol as most people drive anyway. It is a nice way to play games you have never played and to meet many pinheads.
Most of which are also on this forum.
 
@domlouis Thanks for the info. Hopefully, in the months to come I can get hands on enough with real machines to pluck up the courage to attend one of these league meet-ups [emoji3526]

Oh wow, food and kid friendly. How considerate. Definitely something I’d like to get involved in at some stage.


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Myself and Aid Cooper are in Brum also. Aid has an AFM and at the moment @Will 's RFM - and I have an Aersomith.

Feel free to share photos only if your wife is a stunner. :)

Sorry - I misread first post and jumped in like an idiot as usual.

Welcome aboard!
 
I will also add @Lroy that you wont find better machines in brum than at Tilt. Supplied by Pinball Heaven. The first machines in the UK usually go onsite straight away, even have prototypes appear from JJP.

Some other machines exist in Brum at the Costermongers and the Flapper which are always nice quality games.
 
@Pick Holder I’m just outside of Brum but great to discover there are other pinball fans close by. Super jealous and impressed you own your own tables. Wow!

Tilt has been a real discovery for me, can’t wait to get the chance to go again. Luckily, I’m unsophisticated when it comes to my beverages - haven’t a clue about posh craft beers - and pump the cash that I’d otherwise spend on common lager straight into the tables instead [emoji106]

Thanks for the tip-off about the other locations too. Next time I take the kids to the SeaLife Centre, I’ll definitely stick my head in the door of that pub you mention by the canal.

I did venture to Kongs the other weekend but they only had some custom arcade machines, which seemed to have LCD screens in the cabs?! So guessing emulated rather than authentic. I had hoped they might have had some pinball tables but none were present to my eyes at least.

That comment about my wife [emoji12]

I do intend to take pics of the real life machines I encounter in the wild - have the 20 currently at Tilt photographed - I just wondered if that was the sort of thing we shared on here or in a specific thread on this forum?


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Lroy said:
@Pick Holder
I do intend to take pics of the real life machines I encounter in the wild - have the 20 currently at Tilt photographed - I just wondered if that was the sort of thing we shared on here or in a specific thread on this forum?
Click to expand...

Whatever you want yourself, you started the thread (OP or Original Poster) so you can post in here if you like without annoying the OP.

OPs can get annoyed if for example they post up a game for sale and the thread drifts off into a chat about the band or the movie the game is based on or even just some random drivel 😀

Cheers and welcome aboard
Ian
 
Lroy said:
Hopefully, in the months to come I can get hands on enough with real machines to pluck up the courage to attend one of these league meet-ups
Click to expand...
+1 for league meets.
I was really nervous about going to start with, it felt a bit weird going to a strangers house to play on their pinball machines, but after a couple you find you aren't going to a strangers house anymore and you are going round a mates house to meet up with other mates.
I'd been to a few shows before and had machines at home but it wasnt until I started going to the league meets that I really got sucked into pinball.
 
@DanLewell Thanks for sharing your own experiences of League Meets. I can easily imagine they must be awesome. Hopefully, one day I’ll take the plunge!


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@Lroy

Coming to this thread a bit late, sorry. If you get yourself to Northern lights in Manchester this weekend you will get to play up to 7 Zaccaria EMs, along with loads of other machines from different eras right up to modern day. There are also loads of video games and other retro stuff.

Do check out the link.

http://www.ukpinball.com/

I go every year and take a bunch of pins, great atmosphere and great place to meet people form the forum too!

Cheers

JB
 
@Biff Sounds incredible. I can’t make it on this occasion unfortunately but will keep a note of the event for future reference. Thanks for the info and the link.


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Belatedly getting round to posting those pics I took of the first batch of real-life tables I ever got my hands on to play in the wild courtesy of TILT pinball bar in Birmingham.

218e104ba51237d9de2f2c026b9b1ef9.jpg



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