In the late 90s my brother Steve and I played in a local pinball league. I was never better than above average, but my little brother was good. Good enough to win the league and tournaments repeatedly. We were always on the lookout for new machines to test our skills on, and in 2001, Steve created PortlandPinball.com as a forum for local pinheads to discuss, amongst other things, locations of particular machines. Sadly the site is now moribund (though the Locations thread still has some life in it).
The recently launched Portland Pinball Map, created by SSW and CFF-ROM, fills the gap impressively.
The site enables users to:
- Check your favorite locations for their latest line-up
- Search for machines throughout town
- Browse the machines in your region
- Search for locations with four or more machines
- Comment on a machine’s condition
I don’t play pinball (or hang out in bars or drink as much Pabst) as much as I used to, but now I know where I can go to find Rollergames when I get the itch . . . What!?! According to the map, no Rollergames in all of Portland?! Sigh.
I walk down pinball memory lane after the jump . . .
In the 90s I had a Rollergames, and several other machines, in my bedroom:
Why yes, I was a bachelor.
In my family we start pinball young. Here’s my nephew Andy getting a high score on High Speed, as Hale-Bopp looks on:
For a while I stored that machine in my kitchen:
Related posts:
My absolute favorite pins are that mid/late 80s to early 90s Williams era. (High Speed!)
Just a murderer’s row: Pinbot, Black Knight 2000, Comet, Cyclone, Banzai Run, Taxi, Jokerz, Whirlwind and maybe my fave: Earthshaker
There are no Rollergames left in Portland, probably because you took the last one to Hawaii and left it there!
Flynn – Great list; those all bring back memories.
Steve – Yeah, I feel bad about that on many levels. Hawaii’s heat, bugs, and humidity have probably already ruined that machine
Wow. You told the internet that you had pinball machines in your bedroom.
Heather – Actually the pinball machines occupied the master bedroom. I slept in the other one.