State of Pinball 2022: The Arcades of the Midwest and Normal West
At its heart, Nudge is an on-location magazine. While it’s dope to own your own machine or three, the soul of pinball will always be in the arcades. The good news? The future looks bright. Some of the arcades on this list are doing some pretty ambitious stuff in 2023. Electric Bat in Arizona AND TILT Pinball Bar are significantly expanding their operations, North Star Pinball continues to do their own thing up north, innovating.
It seems like every major city has at least one or two super great pinball spots. That’s amazing. We’re living in a halcyon age of pinball right now – enjoy it, you frickin’ dorks. Get out there, spend some cash, and lets keep these folks plied with enough spare change that they can afford to buy a new Scooby Doo or two in the new year. Ya heard?
For ease and laziness’ sake, I’m gonna divide these by general regions. Here are the first two regions. We’ll run The East and South next week. If your arcade isn’t on here, don’t worry. Let us know! We’d love to come take some pics. Also, we obvy don’t extend as much into the SE or NE nearly enough. Look for that to change in 2023. OK let’s pass out some very important fake awards!
The Midwest: God’s country
No matter what, you gotta hand it to the midwest. We hold it down when it comes to pinball. First off, mecca – Chicago. It’s where pinball was born, and it’s where it’s someday gonna die. I’m envisioning a post-apocalypse run by tribes who identify with their fave pinball brands: Spooky fanatics raiding packs of Chicago Gaming Company pilgrims while the Stern army lays waste to the rest of a burned-out landscape. But before then, there’s time for pinball!
Logan Arcade - Chicago
When we say Mecca, Logan Arcade is mostly what we’re talking about. Chicago is so lucky to have them. Their game selection is dope, their bartenders are cool, and they go above and beyond to make sure if you’re there to play, you’ll be able to play. The games are immaculate but sometimes almost demonic in how difficult they’re set up. Rick Brewster and I spent a hot frickin’ minute getting our privates kicked in by the meanest/best T2 we’ve ever played.
Beyond games, they’re a big part of the streaming scene. They offer food from this weird vegan hot dog pop-up, and they have recurring events like “Magical Tuesday” where they have a guy come and do magic. The Bond release party we went to was fun as hell there, and we may or may not have run into Gary Stern in the bathroom. That guy is everywhere!
Sparks Pinball Museum - Detroit
Sparks is run by dudes who really care about pinball. Located a scenic drive’s length away from Detroit, it was one of my favorite pinball spots when I lived in the Motor City. It’s located in this strip mall that houses the most cavernous, awesome bowling alley you’ve ever seen. It’s wild. They’ve got an amazing selection of old Bally Williams games – something like 50 or so. Sometimes places like that get complacent and don’t fix the games they have or buy new games. Neither of those things are true for Sparks. They still manage to get all the newest Sterns AND their old stuff shoots like a dream. Plus the bartenders are nice as hell.
Tilt - Minneapolis
What can we say? This was the birthplace of Nudge. I lived two blocks away. Sure, I’d played pinball some when I lived in the Bay Area, but this was the spot I learned to love it. I’d smoke half a J on my walk back from working the door at a club and then just zone on a game for an hour. The best. When the pandemic happened and I couldn’t go to Tilt on a regular basis, it fermented something. Now my pickled brain does this. Oh, and they have 25 machines that are almost always the LE, premium, TOP OF THE LINE version of whatever game you wanna play. Hell yeah.
District 82 - Green Bay
Who doesn’t know District 82? Just a ridiculous amount of games. A never-ending amount of games. And all the Wisconsin hospitality you could hope for. We regularly have Nudge correspondents going to District 82 for IFPA events. They’ve quickly become the standard by which other IFPA tourney spots are judged. Like ‘em or hate ‘em, having a buncha tournaments in one weekend actually democratizes pinball rankings where you don’t have to travel the world to get a dece rank. I’m only sort of pretending I know what I’m talking about here, but I just know a lot of y’all nerds love this place and so do we.
Other cool midwest pinball spots
Obviously, there are a ton of other dope spots to play pinball. Offworld Arcade in Detroit is the first that comes to mind because of how curated and amazing of an experience it is. I/O Arcade Bar in Madison is another. Oh, and Reboot in Eau Claire, Wisconsin is a nice new addition.
The West: Hip as hell
Pinball out west feels a little cooler. The arcades out here have dope ass shirts, celebrities at their tournaments, and just kinda feel a little more Licorice Pizza-y than anywhere else in the country. You feel me? The pinball is real, and it’s glam. I love it. And we gotta say – LA is doing a great job. From retro spots like Walts to insanely opulent arcade/comic stores like Revenge Of, LA is pinball spoiled.
Electric Bat Arcade - Tempe, AZ
What can we say about EB that hasn’t been said? When’s the last time you went to a pinball convention and DIDN’T see one of those glow in the dark electric bat shirts? We won’t spend a ton of time on these folks, as they’ll be a feature in Nudge soon-ish, but Cale Hernandez and Rachel Bess have made something special. From their punk-ass social media presence, to their collection of games that spans brand new to retro, to the vibes in their spot – these guys do it right. Plus, their tournaments are frickin’ insane. 60+ people? Dang, y’all.
Wedgehead Pinball - Portland, OR
image courtesy of Wedgehead’s Facebook page
I only have one regret about the great Nudge Pinball trip to Portland in 2021. I somehow frickin’ missed Wedgehead. Beyond having an amazing pinball selection (they do) and a sick-ass selection of cocktails (also true), they’re truly pinball activists in their community. They started Howdy Pardner, a beginner friendly co-op league, that helps folks learn pinball and which, to my knowledge, hosts the only pinball anti-tournament in the world. Also they have the coolest t-shirts of all time. I want one so bad.
Walt’s - Los Angeles, CA
Walt’s was where we first heard about Tyler White. For that we’ll be forever grateful. They also host off-the-chain tournaments that are run by photography royalty, Elizabeth Weinberg. Like seriously – that’s wild to me. LA, man. This is the kinda vibey spot that attracts casuals who show up in droves just because they wanna soak in the good karmic clouds that surround the place. Drinks, lots of dark wood, and a liberal dog policy. Thomas Pynchon couldn’t have imagined a better pinball spot, man.
Revenge Of - Los Angeles, CA
Another LA heavy hitter. Imagine playing pinball inside the Millenium Falcon. Now add a shitload of comics and people dressing cool and what not. We have a HUGE soft spot for Revenge Of because they ordered 30 (!!!!) copies of Nudge for their store sight-unseen. That’s the sort of blind loyalty people usually reserve for new Spooky releases. We appreciate it. I’ve never been in person, but it’s on the list. Oh you better believe it.
Other good arcades in the SW
Free Gold Watch, and a whole buncha Bay Area spots. Obvy we cover Seattle a lot too, but IDK. We’ll write about you some time. Stay tuned for Part II next week.
