I spoke with the owner of Ayce, and he confirmed the current line-up: Los Angeles Pinball Map
America’s Most Haunted (Spooky Pinball, 2014)
Dr. Dude (Bally, 1990)
Guns 'N Roses (Data East, 1994)
Indianapolis 500 (Bally, 1995)
Iron Man (Vault Edition) (Stern, 2014)
Kiss (LE) (Stern, 2015)
Medieval Madness (Williams, 1997)
Raven (Gottlieb, 1986)
Rollergames (Williams, 1990)
Street Fighter II (Gottlieb, 1993)
And they have a ghostbusters and game of thrones pro coming soon.
I think some of those machines last time were added prematurely. But it’s not completely clear to me. He didn’t mention anything about secret rooms or anything.
It’s possible, yes. How many locations have machines there? Do you have a running list? Are there leagues and stuff there (aka people that would use the map and keep it up to date)?
Someone removed AMH from the location yesterday, and so I checked with him again to confirm that it’s really there. And he said it was. So I added it back.
A couple months ago I mentioned to the Ice Palace operator that we’d prefer if he didn’t “whitewash” the comments like that. He claimed that he has customers who look at the map and will decide not to go there if they see that there’s a problem with a machine. I… don’t totally believe that. But anyway, yeah it’s a bit annoying. Every comment (except for one) at those two locations is by him. “Must play if you like poker and with 50 cents for 5 balls, how can you go wrong.”
I remember that. That was a quality rant. I’m sure he saw it. That’s what prompted me to say something to him (though I didn’t know how to get in contact with him until he sent a message to us about something).
I’ve never been to those locations. But yeah, according to the comments, every machine is in MINT CONDITION!
We’ll see if anything changes once we have this user system in place.
The Ice Palace machines are most certainly NOT in mint condition. They’re pretty promptly repaired if something catastrophic happens (the Lethal Weapon 3, for instance, had foreign objects crammed in both of its coin slots), but they are not nearly as flawless as those descriptions make them out to be, and comparatively small things like the kickback on Gilligan’s Island not working have remained broken for years.
Then again, maybe that’s because I stick notes onto the machines themselves if I encounter something wrong with them.
It is not nearly as bad as Family Amusement Corporation, however. Stuff like the Ace in the Hole scoop in World Poker Tour and the vault in Sopranos needing a VERY strong hit to detect have been that way ever since I started visiting the place, though in that case, they don’t seem to have a dedicated and knowledgeable pinball repair person, but instead the general maintenance person tries his best to understand what’s wrong. They don’t do any whitewashing of descriptions though. I’m not sure if they know they’re on Pinball Map.
I’ll be visiting AYCE Gogi sometime very soon too; I want confirmation in person if the America’s Most Haunted is actually there. Bear in mind that the machines are not turned on during weekday afternoons. I’ll ask someone there if they can be turned on upon request, as I intend to go during lunch hours.
Yes, I have been to Pins & Needles. I don’t go there very often though, as I prefer visiting 82.
I never went to arcades much when I was younger except to spectate, as I didn’t have any money to play anything with, so I never really had any nostalgia visiting Family Amusement Corporation. Definitely felt like a relic of the past though, even if they have up-to-date fighting games and rail shooters. Only I’m sure that, in the 80’s and 90’s, people were better about repairing these pinball machines.
For some reason, the machines at Pinz Bowling Center don’t see this kind of wear and abuse, even though I know machines are moved between those two locations somewhat often. (Any remarks I make about their condition on Pinball Map go totally ignored, of course, and with these two locations, my notes just disappear without the problem being fixed unless it’s something obvious, like a chunk of plastic jammed up the right orbit in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! or dead flippers in The Simpsons Pinball Party. The impression I get is that whoever is asked to do repairs does not play pinball and can only fix things that are obviously broken even to a non-player. But when told that the scoop up top in World Poker Tour doesn’t work, he probably won’t know what the problem there is.)
It’s the little hole that’s glowing red on the upper playfield. I’ve seen other people try to explain it to the old man, pointing to it and saying that bars should come down to trap the ball, but it only confuses him.
Ah, I see what you mean. That was my mistake. What is it though? Is it a captive ball? There seems to be something similar in Breakshot and Avatar. (The report was made long before I went there the first time though, and it’s referred to as “Ace in the Hole.” I didn’t even know it did anything until I read the coverage on Pinball News and then saw tournament coverage of World Poker Tour on Twitch. Even then, because the camera is top-down, it means I have never seen the Ace in the Hole mechanism in action.)
Good question. In WPT’s diagnostics, it’s referred to as “jail”. I’ve also heard the term “mousetrap” used. You’re correct that it’s also seen in Avatar. Breakshot’s contraption is kind of similar, but has a key implementation difference that you never strike the captured ball(s) directly, but rather hit a large post that transfers kinetic energy to the captured ball(s). (And my use of “ball(s)” also suggests another difference: in Breakshot, there can be two balls against the post, and the game even responds appropriately depending on whether a strike knocks one or two balls into nearby saucers. In Avatar and WPT, there can only be one ball at a time in jail.)
Oh yes, and I can confirm that America’s Most Haunted was indeed at AYCE when I visited on Thursday. I mentioned it on Pinball Map already, but the bass is odd. The machine vibrates any time it plays a low sound. I’m glad to have been able to play it though, to get an idea of how a new company’s machine plays. (L.A. seems to be one of the last places to get a machine in public that isn’t a Stern. There are a few operators who are really good at getting Sterns when they come out, but most seem to ignore anything made by other companies.)
P.S. Jungle Queen is now at AYCE? That was unexpected. Is Molly running the machines there, by any chance?
I should mention Striker Xtreme is at two other locations in the Los Angeles area: One at Pinz Bowling Center and one at this random laundromat south of Santa Monica. Definitely quite notable in how obscure it is, and definitely one better suited to be played in public than at someone’s home though.
Flipper Football, on the other hand, I’ve never played a fully functional one.
As for AYCE itself, I’m not entirely certain if there’s any pattern as to if the machines are on or not during low-traffic times. I had been there on a Monday afternoon, about 2 PM, and all of the machines were off, and I had been there on a Thursday afternoon, at about 12:30 PM, and the machines were on. But if I ever go there and the machines are off, I’ll try to ask if there’s anyone with the authority to turn them on for at least as long as I’d want to play.
I personally believe that Striker Xtreme’s simplicity and straightforwardness makes it a very good machine for beginners. As long as they’re familiar with the basics of soccer (football for much of the world), even someone who has never played pinball before will know where to aim. It DOES last for quite a while, which is good for beginners too…and people who are paying per game and, like me, are more concerned with getting their money’s worth. (I hope I’m not weird in that my satisfaction seems to derive from how long I can last on 4 quarters without excessively stalling.)
It’s why I said that Striker Xtreme is better suited out in the open than in someone’s private collection. It’s good if you only have the change to play 1 or 2 games and you’ve never seen it before, and it’s rare enough that most people have not.
I always considered it disrespectful to do that…and I fear getting kicked out if I’m caught doing so.
