PLAYING PINBALL ON HOLIDAYS

[SPURR]

Reading CruiserMans Sunday questionaire I thought I would start a thread on topic he brought up about playing pinballs on holidays. Im sure other members have some stories to tell as Im keen to read.
Here's a couple from me. My parents were the Griswold's taking us on summer holiday's up the NSW coast. Stayed at Foster Tuncurry a few times where they had a few arcade joints to go to. One had a huge slotcar track amongst a pile of pinballs. Then Sawtell this town is a few k's south of Coffs Harbour there was a fish'n'chip shop in the main street where they also ran next door to them a large room full of pinballs that i would spend every holiday cent there. I was like a private investigator searching the new holiday town for "pinballs" to play.

[Caveoftreasures]

i grew up in forster/tuncurry and i remember the large arcade just off the bridge end at tuncurry....gee, i hadnt even remembered it till i saw your post.
when i was about 18 yrs old (22 yrs ago) i did go in there, but not much, we were too busy chasing skirt, but it did have alot of pins and other stuff.

that arcade did shut about 1991 or 93. 
that guy still has a small operators business today ( i think he took it over from his dad) and has a few machines here and there in those country areas. u see him selling stuff on ebay and his ebay name is rodney something (bit of an unfriendly bastard).

glad u bought back the memories. small world huh. 

[Wotto]

Yes guys - I too recall the great Forster holidays.

Righto- see if these bring back ya memories

In Forster there was a CLASSIC old arcade called The Colony , there was also another one at the back of the shops facing the council caravan park......as well as the one mentioned by you guys over the bridge already - what a town !

The first shot shows the locations I am talking abot for the Colony and the one opposite the caravan park.
The Colony was in the main street at the end furthest from the bridge




Heres the Colony building today - an ANZ bank - I am sure this would be it as the architecture resembles what I remember it as , being bigger than the other buildings there



And heres the building that the other arcade was in




The old one at Tuncurry seems to have made way for some apartments 


Our parents were big 'caravanners' and we would get away about 4 times a year on big breaks and also a lot of weekends throughout the year - it didnt matter where we went, the FIRST thing I always did was check out the caravan parks games room or get the oldies into the township so I could look for 'the arcade'

[MrMaloo]

I'm off to Forster in a few weeks for a holiday . Does anybody know if there are still any arcades around there ??

[MrMaloo]

Here's the arcade I was talking about in my questionaire :

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Clarence+St,+Port+Macquarie+NSW+2444&sll=-32.72722,153.374634&sspn=3.363911,4.916382&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FWduIP4d9zsdCQ&split=0&ll=-31.429066,152.910032&spn=0.013329,0.019205&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=-31.429071,152.909924&panoid=4pSkSF_IFY7zXFXL99d_uQ&cbp=12,197.28,,0,7.82



It's funny how Steve (jyebow) and Tony (illawarra-steelers) also remember going here .... Got me thinking . I wonder if any of us have bumped into each other years ago and not realised .. 

[Wotto]

Here's the arcade I was talking about in my questionaire :



It's funny how Steve (jyebow) and Tony (illawarra-steelers) also remember going here .... Got me thinking . I wonder if any of us have bumped into each other years ago and not realised .. 

Yeah - U might remember me. I would have been the one winning  The Billy Mitchell of Forster 

[MrMaloo]

..

Sorry about the link not working guys . Took me a while to figure it out . Have changed my first post so the link works now .

      

[Caveoftreasures]

you are spot one. i had totally forgot about the colony...farrkk that brings back memories. if only you could bring up some photos of all the girls i rode back in year 10, 11 and 12 days at highschool. (need a time machine now !). man, that brings back memories. 

yeh, forster has grown since those days. i had friends who owned businesses everywhere in the main street. i remember the caravan park too. new years eve in forster in those days was alot of fun, but full of country piss heads trying to punch out everyone too.
without being racist, alot of the aboriginal teenagers would hang around the colony, and if u ever went there and wanted to play some games, and it was a bit dark n stormy on the inside, you would take off real quick, or you would end up in a brawl. 

thanks for the memories.damn those photos said it all. 

[Extra Ball]

We also spent holidays at Foster, Hawks Nest, and Tea Gardens (top fishing spots, and plently of dolphins....dolphins werent a big-deal at all back then lol). They all seemed to have arcades of some description. What really sticks in my mind is this ancient claw machine with life savers in it. My sister won a packet, (10 cents a game) and she was thrilled, but soon screwed her face-up because the were stale and crumby. Then one of the local sheilas told her that no-one plays that game because the life-savers are all off, and really old. 

[illawarra_steelers]

Oh jam all that....I'm on 4 weeks holiday as of today 

Lots of pins will be played....and worked on  in that time (well that is the plan) 

[beaky]

My parent would take us to Portarlington on a regular basis(It is a couple of hours drive from Melbourne). Unfortunatly they mainly had video games back then. One year they did convert the old theater into a amusment palor but only had a couple of pins which barely where played.

[illawarra_steelers]

This was the old Bulli kiosk that burnt down around 1978 - used to have around 12 pinballs + about the same amount of EM arcade games (and soccer and pool tables).

Used to spend the entire Summer holidays either in there or in the surf 

[bossninja17]

My old dad was a butcher with his own shop, so holidays away were pretty rare as he hated to leave the shop.
We did go to South West Rocks (NSW) one year and the general store did not have a pin but a wall mounted amusement machine in which you inserted 2c, flicked the handle, and if the ball landed in a "win" hole, you got 5 x 2c pieces back. This was 40 years ago. I wnet back to South West Rocks for the first time since then a month ago - couldn't believe how the place has developed. General store now a coffee shop, and no machine.
My holiday memories of pins are the Royal Easter Show (they always seemed old) and Mamma's at Epping.

[swampy76]

January 2005.

My job required me to be on 'operational standby' in Sydney CBD for two weeks. I had nothing to do, and couldn't drink!! (Have you ever been to the cricket without drinking?? Well I have.....)

Anyways, staying in Potts Point meant only a short train ride to the CBD and then a casual stroll to Darling Harbour. Then I discovered the arcade with the LOTR standing proudly at the back of the room.

Needless to say, the rest of my time in Sydney was sorted. I spent about three hours (and only four bucks thanks to the low replay score....) a day at Darling Harbour. This was an enjoyable working holiday!! (And we never got the call up to go to 'work'.......)

[bossninja17]

For an overseas perspective on holiday pinball playing, the latest edition of the Pingame journal (http://www.pingamejournal.com/ ) has a great article "PinGame Memories from Jim Bonkowski".