Pinball Hall of Fame, Las Vegas
When I was in Las Vegas for CES, I visited the Pinball Hall of Fame. Yes, of all the museums in Vegas, I went for the pinball.
Located in a strip mall about three miles east of The Strip, the Pinball Hall of Fame was opened on February 3, 2006 by Tim Arnold, a pinball historian and collector. Tim has long been a fixture of the pinball world, most significantly as the owner of Pinball Pete’s in Michigan. He owns about 1000 pinball machines, about 200 of which are here in the Hall of Fame, along with an assortment of video games and other novelty machines. Tim runs the museum as a non-profit, with all profits going to the local Salvation Army. It might be the largest public collection of pinballs in the world.
I interviewed Tim to learn about the history of pinball. In just a few minutes, Tim delivers a concise and thorough history on the pinball world, all off the top of his head. What came before pinball, how the flipper revolutionized the game (with buttons!), how pinball was almost destroyed, how it resurged, how it diminished.
I’m excited about this first video production on The History of the Button. I hope you enjoy it.
Note: Sadly, the QuickTime hasn't survived, yet. Got some more digging to do.
Behind Tim is a pinball bingo machine in mid-repair.
As good luck would have it, Gene Jarvis was visiting the Pinball of Hall of Fame at the exact same time. Gene was a pinball and video game engineer at Williams in the 1980s, creating some of the best games of that era, including Defender and Robotron. I got to watch Gene and Tim reminisce about the history and people they both know. As bad luck would have it, I didn’t have enough camera space left to interview Gene as well. Damn. I did talk to him for a few minutes. Very nice guy. Next time, I’ll have plenty of GB to spare, just in case. You never know who you’ll run into. Speaking of which…
Apparently while visiting CES, Wil Wheaton also visited the Pinball Hall of Fame. I ran into him briefly on the CES show floor and gave him my card to check out the History of the Button. I’m a dork.
