Alright guys - it is 12.20am Tuesday morning here and we just got back from Fremont St - I will step back a couple of days and try and catch you up as best I can.
Sunday we checked out of LA and head to Vegas a day earlier than planned - we HAD to get our pinball fix. It was an easy 4 hour drive from north of LA to Vegas , including a rest stop and a coffee just over the Nevada border.
Thanks to Tony we decided to stay at The Riviera for one night, before checking into our pre-booked accomodation at The Luxor on Monday afternoon
The Riviera is where we were going to come to play the pinballs in this casino anyway. Tony used his fine negotiating skills and scored us a great room with some of the BEST views of the Las Vegas Strip.
Cant wait until the night when this view will really be nice.
If that impresses you and you want to stay when you go to Vegas then this is the casino you are looking for.
After check in we re-entered the smoke filled and smelly casino floor and headed for the 'Arcade' which is located on one of the far corners of the complex near the food outlets, it gets a LOT of passing foot traffic and there was often someone playing a game or two, which was good to see. I went back to the games around midnight while Tony scored his beauty sleep and I wasn’t the only one playing, even at that time.
There are 26 pinball games here in total , along with around 6 original arcade games.
Of the 26 games 11 are EM's - EM games were 50c a play.
WILLIAMSTriple Action, Lucky Ace, Granada, Spanish Eyes.
GOTTLIEBJungle King, Ten Up, Playmates, Pro Pool, Subway, Hurdy Gurdy, Palace Guard.
Here are some playfield shots and ONE of the cabs - the PF's were all quite tidy, the BG are as best as can be expected for games from this era but the cabs are very average.
The remaining, more modern games are....
Taxi, Teed Off, Surfin Safari, Cue Ball Wizard, Nightmare on Elm St, NBA Fastbreak, World Poker Tour, NBA ( Stern ) Lord of the Rings, Rolling Stones, Family Guy, Iron Man, Dark Knight, CSI, and of course a Gottlieb Vegas.
The price to play these is 0.75c for ONE game and $2.00 for 3 games, MOST games were set to 3 balls , a couple were set to 5.
Iron Man had no ballsaver time set into it, neither Tony or I got 'scabs' on any of the games we played leading me to assume the replay percentage is set VERY low.
Here is Tony playing Taxi , note whats going down the driveway in the background as I took the shot !
The condition of the games overall is quite good, MOST play well and very few were broken that we played. Tony played CSi to discover that it had numerous faults however. Cue Ball Wizard had 2 rows out in the display but the game itself played OK. Keeping up my reputation for breaking games Cue Ball Wizard was the first game I dropped coin into, I hit the left upper targets and a rubber broke and then jammed in behind the targets so they couldnt drop down again - LOOKOUT PPE .....better have them techs ready for me !
It is definitely worth some time spent here if you visit Vegas - even as a 'teaser' for PHOF - these games are worth spending some time and coin on.
For those people interested , the arcade cabs were Ms Pacman, Scarmble, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Centipede & Outrun - all in original cabs which was cool to see - I put the highest score of the day onto Galaxian .....a massive 12,000 point game - YAY.
Hey lady - I think I know who ate all the dots .....................and it clearly wasnt Ms Pacman
After playing the games at The Riviera for a few hours we headed over the road to the old casino - Circus Circus.
Man - that place is LARGE.
We found out the back they have an 'Adventuredome' - it is MASSIVE and has an indoor rollercoaster, indoor water rides as well as stacks and stacks of arcade games.
We then took a walk up The Strip to Treasure Island, watsched the show there , wandered the local casino's and headed back for the night.
Here are some random shots around the area and in casino's - this place is GREAT to photograph.
Later on the way back we heard the noise of those gang-banger 'bouncy cars' heading along the strip.
They drove by and I was annoyed I missed photos of them.
Then we came across the guys parked in a lot on our way back, so I approached them and asked about the cars.
My new best mate 'Leroy Iamgunnapopacapinyourass' Jones told me these 'lowriders' are Buick Regals and he welcomed Tone-Loc from Adelaide and Wott-Dog to the gang.
These cars drive along kind of like that, popping, bouncing, lifting, lowering , front wheels cambered inwardsa at insane angles - it's kinda silly but cool to see.
