Hi everyone, I’m recently back from a holiday in the US and thought I would give a quick report on my visit to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame (now in a new location).
I have to say that if you want to check out a bunch of pins that actually work properly, all in one place, then the PBHOF is for you. I managed to play MM, CV, STTNG, CFTBL, CC, MB, FT , Kiss and G&R plus a few others. I went with my wife and son on Boxing Day and spent a great afternoon there… certainly something different from the normal smoky casino Vegas experience.
I don’t know how the new location compares to the old one but it is certainly large. Open every day of the year, it is about a 5-10 minute drive from the strip. Just after Christmas, it still had a ‘work in progress’ feel about it. Whilst we had a great time there, the lighting in the place (or lack of it) really let the show down. Hopefully that is only a by product of having recently moved into the new accommodation and will be improved. I found it really hard playing some of the pins virtually in the dark but perhaps that’s just me. We were there in the middle of winter so the ceiling fans were adequate but if there isn’t any air-con going by summer I imagine it will get pretty uncomfortable in there.
All in all it is certainly worth the visit if you are in Vegas… Check out the double ended ‘Challenger’ pin in one of the photo’s. It is one machine with a player at each end trying to score against their opponent (the playfield would change it’s direction of tilt to favour each player alternately)… a good example of some of the more unusual pins there.