According to my calculations, if those 650 machines that are playable twice a year were put on route throughout Southern California, it would increase the supply of publicly playable machines by 130%.
Operating that many machines is no small feat, of course. But, man, that’s a lot of pinball sitting in a nearby warehouse.
And that definitely highlights the lack of machines in southern California in proportion to its population. (I notice that southern California also takes a LONG time to get recent non-Stern releases, if they appear in public at all.)
I hope they can do what they need to do to get it open year round. I would say I’d visit it more often if that’s the case, but I think that much is obvious. I’d be a nightmare to maintain though. How do the collections at places like Las Vegas’s Pinball Hall of Fame stay maintained?
As for the article itself, I can see why it’s not open often if it costs that much per day in electricity costs. How do other very large collections deal with that? Also, from the article:
[quote]Although she’s old enough to have grown up with pinball, Barrett says
her parents never let her have a quarter to play as a kid. Now, she’s
making up for lost time.[/quote]
Yep, that was how things were when I was little too. (My father believed strongly in buying something to last. Putting quarters into an arcade machine that doesn’t compensate you anything was anathema to him. If anything, he would’ve been more likely to just buy a machine outright.)
Based on my experience last weekend, I’d say that they don’t get maintained too well there. Percentage of games powered on and percentage of games fully functioning were each a bit lower than in Banning, by my estimate.
I see. I must’ve gone by when somebody had just recently repaired the machines then, because on my last visit (which was admittedly a while back), most of them were working. Well, over 80% of them, which I’d say is great. Though I’m pretty used to games in public not being in the best condition, so if it’s turned on, I can begin a game, and the flippers are working, that counts as functioning to me.