[HN Gopher] Pinball Map: Crowd-sourced worldwide map of public p...
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Pinball Map: Crowd-sourced worldwide map of public pinball machines
Author : technophiliac
Score : 176 points
Date : 2024-02-02 16:08 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pinballmap.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pinballmap.com)
| eschneider wrote:
| Ah...they note what machines are where. This is quality.
| yawn wrote:
| I use https://pinside.com. It's been around for a long time and
| is an amazing resource for Pinball info.
| schrectacular wrote:
| It feels like the maps have different goals - I see people's
| basements on pinside, but it's missing local small businesses
| with machines.
| ryantgtg wrote:
| Yeah, pinside is a great resource. Surprisingly, the pinside
| map was created four years after pinball map (source: wayback
| machine; disclosure: I'm a pinball map dev).
| SnooSux wrote:
| Reminds me of similar tools for DDR machines near you.
|
| https://ddrfinder.andrew67.com
|
| https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/arcades.php
| soupfordummies wrote:
| Sadly, it's REALLY uncommon to find both pinball AND DDR at the
| same place.
|
| Logan Arcade in Chicago has it. One of the best arcades period.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| There's a municipal airport less than an hour drive from me that
| has a pinball machine from 1975. I'll have to check that out next
| time I drive through there.
| nineplay wrote:
| https://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play/19493-cool-cat...
|
| I played on the ones in Maui just before they were lost in the
| fires. Not a great tragedy in the grand scheme of things, but
| still a pity. Star Wars was a delight.
| cowboyscott wrote:
| Related: Pindigo is a great tool for tracking high scores and has
| global and friend leaderboards.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pindigo-social-pinball-scores/...
|
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ascrewaske...
| kbxkgxkhdlhxkhz wrote:
| Scorbit is a neat alternative to Pindigo, and has hardware
| integrations for capturing scores automatically.
|
| Also interestingly, one of the founders also founded Equinix,
| Rev3, Digg, Opsmatic, and a handful of other companies...
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Adelson
| cowboyscott wrote:
| Wow, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time (Diggnation
| was an early podcast fav of mine)! Glad to see he's still at
| it.
| needz wrote:
| I'm Pindigo's dev. Thanks for the plug!
|
| Our locations are sourced from Pinball Map; scores can be
| tagged with locations which allows us to maintain leaderboards
| for specific machines (in addition to global/social/event
| leaderboards).
| cush wrote:
| Pindigo is my favorite social media app.
| sixothree wrote:
| What amazed me on my trip to Seattle was just how many pinball
| machines are available to play there. And not only that but just
| how insanely well maintained 50 year old machines are. These are
| machines getting played on a daily basis. Where are they finding
| parts for these machines? It's just crazy to think about.
| fourteenfour wrote:
| Seattle is great for pinball, most of the bars with 8+ machines
| host a team or two that play in the Monday night league. Ton of
| parts available at https://www.marcospecialties.com
| soupfordummies wrote:
| Yeah AFAIK Seattle is the top pinball spot in the world for
| some reason. You would think Chicago since that's where it
| started and where most of the big companies are based. But
| Seattle has the most machines I'm pretty sure.
| bdash wrote:
| Folks in the industry bought licenses, tooling, and parts for
| games from manufacturers that shut down. Others were reverse-
| engineered after the fact. Between https://www.pbresource.com,
| https://www.pinballlife.com, https://www.marcospecialties.com,
| https://www.actionpinball.com, and
| https://www.planetarypinball.com you can find parts for many
| machines going all the way back to the 50s.
| KingFelix wrote:
| Pinball map is brilliant, I use it everytime I travel. So many
| new pinball machines coming out. The latest one I've been
| searching for is Labyrinth. Only in LA at the moment, but looks
| super fun.
|
| Once you create an account you can make a note if the machines
| aren't working well and the owners will usually get someone in
| quick to fix too.
| soupfordummies wrote:
| Jaws just came out too and I've had fun checking Pinball map
| every day to see it spread out from Chicago (Stern's HQ) and
| populate more and more of the country.
| bdash wrote:
| It could be fun to use this data to build a visualization of
| new games rolling out to locations across the world.
| KingFelix wrote:
| I am super curious about getting data from Stern since they
| have added Stern Insider. They record all your scores and
| give you little icons for achievements etc. I don't know
| what other data they store, but it would be pretty rad to
| do some stats on it and look at the time of day when balls
| get drained, and multiball run times against a population.
| So curious to see if any outside factors influence
| gameplay. Outside of proper leveling, operation etc.
| bdash wrote:
| They collect a lot of information, but make very little
| of it available. What is available isn't exposed in a
| particularly friendly way. Some of the extra data they
| gathered makes it into the Year in Review stats they make
| available at the start of the year.
| https://social.bdash.net.nz/@mrowe/111779120066480793
| shows an example of this.
|
| I'd love to be able to see a moving average of my score
| on a particular game so I can see how I'm improving (or
| not) over time. Beyond that, I'm not sure what data would
| be useful other than as a curiosity.
| KingFelix wrote:
| Would be cool to see some other data like that for sure.
| I'll drop it in the suggestion box haahha
| KingFelix wrote:
| Yeah my local barcade paid for it, just waiting for it to
| show up! Have you played it yet? The premium looks rad, but
| ready to play any of them.
| theadultnerd wrote:
| I just saw Chad the Bird showing it off at Logan Arcade on
| YouTube
| Einenlum wrote:
| I really like pinballmap. I try to add gigs and machines all the
| time. But another app that has way more pinballs is Pin my balls
| (at least in France).
|
| Regarding pinballs I recently built a self-hosted app to track
| scores between friends.
|
| https://demo.pinball-friends.com/
| Einenlum wrote:
| Link to Pin my balls:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pinmyballs
| Einenlum wrote:
| There's also https://findapinball.com/en/
| bsimpson wrote:
| I wonder if the (presumably French) creator realizes how crass
| that name sounds in English.
| ryandrake wrote:
| If you're ever in Vegas, I highly recommend a trip to the Pinball
| Hall of Fame museum south of the Strip across from the Mandalay
| Bay convention center. My family put it on the list as just some
| rando thing to do between the "real" Vegas events, but our
| expectations were very much exceeded!
| paulnpace wrote:
| Pinball Hall of Fame is the only place in Vegas I've found The
| Addams Family, and it is the only place on this site with that
| game. The problem with the Pinball Hall of Fame is not only do
| they have the rear studs at max height, they put blocks of wood
| under the back feet. It just isn't fun.
| fourteenfour wrote:
| I do only see the one listed in Vegas which is strange since
| it's one of the most popular tables made. The webpage returns
| 483 Addams Family machines in other places though.
| paulnpace wrote:
| Yeah, it's really peculiar.
| busterarm wrote:
| Vegas doesn't have a lot of arcades. Outside of the PHoF
| there's two in reasonable driving distance and neither of
| them focus on pinball machines. One is pretty much only
| rhythm games.
| fourteenfour wrote:
| Yes, as a fan of arcades Vegas is disappointing. You'd
| think casinos might be interested in people who put money
| in machines without expecting a payout. The rows and rows
| of fancy slot machines with HD monitors do nothing for me.
| busterarm wrote:
| As a fan of arcades, Vegas is better than most other
| cities.
|
| The one rhythm place has all the Bemani stuff that I like
| and I can spend a day getting Drum Mania out of my
| system.
|
| Then the other one has a 2 screen Darius, Bishi Bashi
| Champ and other goodies and then PHoF has me covered for
| the rest.
|
| Maintaining old arcade machines is a pain in the ass and
| CRT (especially those that can sync down to 15Hz) days
| are numbered. 25 more years and you won't find any
| classic cabinets anywhere if I'm honest.
| S33V wrote:
| I don't think it works that well at very small zoom scales
| (larger than a small state). I'm seeing a few machines here
| locally in San Francisco
| mdip wrote:
| Oh man, we have a place nearby that has easily 40 machines, and
| some serious classics (they had the Elton John machine with the
| recalled artwork). They've been around for a few years -- simple
| setup: $20 gets you a wrist band and you can play for 4 hours[0].
| And I think that's the crux of it: I am unwilling to pay a buck a
| play for pinball only to -- often -- find out that it has
| multiple mechanical imperfections (like a side bumper being dead)
| that make it nearly impossible to play.
|
| There is a bowling alley nearby that bills itself as a Pinball
| Museum (with 20 or so machines) but they're all quarter driven. I
| went once, dropped $15, got annoyed and never returned. My kids
| and I go to the other place every other month or so.
|
| [0] Except for one machine -- they have this giant thing that
| uses a pool cue as a ball -- it's a Sega game ... Mammoth or
| something, and apparently very rare
| bowmessage wrote:
| I had to look up the large ball machine you mentioned, it
| sounds amazing. I found it's called the "Atari Hercules".
| Adding it to the bucket list!
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/1dkoox/this...
| K7PJP wrote:
| It's a terrible game, very slow and boring, but you must play
| it once. I really appreciate the dedication of any collector
| who brings that behemoth to pinball shows and keeps it
| running.
| myself248 wrote:
| I keep seeing these little niche sites, like "map of pinball
| machines", which is for some reason not just a filter or data
| layer or set of metadata tags on some larger mapping
| infrastructure.
|
| Likewise, there's the "internet movie firearms database", and the
| "internet movie cars database", and several others, which are not
| just object classes in some larger internet movie attribute
| database.
|
| Why?
| 2024throwaway wrote:
| Presumably because the `larger mapping infrastructure` doesn't
| deem a filterable list of pinball machines to make monetary
| sense, or fit into their overall product without adding
| clutter.
|
| I presume the same is true for the IMDB. They have their own
| list of things they are interested in, and firearms or cars may
| not be on that list.
|
| It's almost like different people/organizations have different
| interests and priorities.
| weaksauce wrote:
| because the pinball map serves a purpose that would not fit
| well in a larger mapping thing. people want to know what
| pinball machines are nearby them so they can go there and play
| them. very different in scope than a movie gun/car database.
| they also don't share the same playerbase that a more general
| arcade machine app might have; people like pinball and will
| seek that out in a different way that people who like arcade
| machines will not do the same.
| ryantgtg wrote:
| Is there an internet movie song database? I'd like to look up a
| song and see what movies and tv shows that song has been in. I
| thought I saw something like that many years ago... but wasn't
| exactly what I wanted.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Hah. None in my town, but I was a bit confused why the small
| nearby town had 52. Turns out they have a pinball museum ;)
| CptanPanic wrote:
| It would be nice if it showed how much the games cost to play in
| the map. Some are pay by hour, some $2, some .25$
| weaksauce wrote:
| the description usually has that kind of info in there... and
| it's crowdsourced s you can add that info in if you want to.
| busterarm wrote:
| Guided by the pinball map... The driver - still unknown to me
| zdware wrote:
| I have lyrics from this song tattooed along with the albums
| artwork. Always good to see another In Flames fan....
| amcpu wrote:
| Came here to scan the comments for someone else who would have
| posted that reference. So glad I found it! :)
| vannucci wrote:
| Glad to see that the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ has
| more machines than anywhere else to the state. Love that place.
| bob-bot wrote:
| That place is awesome. Couldn't believe they had the dual
| player pinball Joust there.
| https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/joust
| themcaffee wrote:
| If you are ever in Portland, Next Level Pinball Museum is bonkers
| with over 500 machines. About half of them are pinball machines
| and all are in top notch condition. Portland in general has a
| huge pinball scene with several large arcades in and around it.
| kyledrake wrote:
| I've had the rare privilege to meet the Pinball map creator (or
| at least one of them), an awesome person that has been
| maintaining this project for a long time. Definitely give them
| some support if you're a Pinball fan.
|
| Portland was the original base location and then IIRC they
| expanded to other cities. Portland's reputation as the pinball
| capital of the world is well founded.
| larrik wrote:
| I thought Chicago was the pinball capital of the world, given
| every pinball manufacturer basically ever was based there.
| JeremyHerrman wrote:
| One of the APIs powering the Pinball Map is the excellent Open
| Pinball Database (opdb.org).
|
| OPDB came about because an older site IPDB doesn't have an API
| (and doesn't want to have an API) in order for various pinball
| software to communicate with each other. I'm in some pinball
| leagues with the developer, Andreas Haugstrup, who also makes
| matchplay.events, pintips.net, and other sites that serve the
| pinball community.
| trbleclef wrote:
| What is the best way for an amateur to synthesize a similar site?
| I have used Google My Maps for a much smaller, manually updated
| map of air hockey tables.[0]
|
| [0] http://floridaairhockey.com/table-finder/
| weaksauce wrote:
| it's completely opensource so you could host it yourself and
| retheme things.
| waterheater wrote:
| If you ever go to Budapest and even mildly enjoy pinball, you
| need to visit the Pinball Museum
| (https://flippermuzeum.hu/en/main-page/).
|
| You pay an admission fee and get to play unlimited pinball from
| machines across the ages, even the old wooden units.
| bsimpson wrote:
| Pinball is a community sport.
|
| Most cities have at least one pinball bar with a weekly
| tournament. The same sorts of people go every week, and there are
| always beginners joining. If you're in a new place and need some
| social exposure, look for a pinball bar.
|
| I've met people at pinball tournaments who have found the
| confidence to move because they knew they'd meet new friends at
| the pinball tournament in wherever they're moving to.
| blockwriter wrote:
| It would be great if you could find the machine that is closest
| to 2 or more different locations, like if I want to challenge
| several friends across the country to post our high scores in a
| group message, and we needed to know what the shortest drive each
| of us would need to take in order to play the same make and model
| machine. Maybe it's in the app, or I missed it.
| mustacheemperor wrote:
| Worth noting the performance characterizations of an individual
| machine can depend on how it's maintained and how the operator
| chooses to set it up - so this may not be a completely level
| playing field.
|
| On the other hand, if you've figured out which Medieval Madness
| in your city you play best at, you can leverage that
| information to your advantage :)
| weaksauce wrote:
| there's an api you can use to get machines near a gps location
| and then you can look through that for machines that are the
| same. not a feature of the website proper but something you can
| do if you know a little scripting
| cdchn wrote:
| This is pretty great not just for finding pinball machines but
| finding venues that I never even knew existed. I found a small
| vinyl shop and a barcade close to me that I never even knew were
| a thing til I searched locally on this site.
| jaredwiener wrote:
| My wife is very into Ghostbusters pinball -- just found it at a
| combination pinball arcade/all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, that
| seems to also have fried oreos covered in nutella.
|
| This is going to be a very unhealthy weekend for me.
| Boogie_Man wrote:
| There is zero (0) reason I don't currently own a pinball machine.
| There are several listed on my local Craigslist right now for
| between $500 and $2500 USD. I could simply play pinball whenever
| my heart desired. The fellas who bankrupt early and rode with
| someone else when we play cards could have something do. I could
| maintain it obsessively, finding original manuals and schematics.
| They don't depreciate significantly if maintained. Am I a moron
| for not owning one? Why don't you people own one?
| bdash wrote:
| They're heavy, awkward to move, and take up a lot of floor
| space. They're loud and require ongoing maintenance.
|
| They're also a lot of fun! I really enjoy both playing and
| working on mine.
| larrik wrote:
| You people? I have 4! :P
|
| They require enough maintenance that you'll need a back up ;)
| bdash wrote:
| That's how mine started getting out of control. I had one
| non-working machine that I rescued from a family friend's
| barn. My wife decided we should get a newer, working one so
| we would have something to play while I kept working on the
| first. A year later and I'm at over a dozen...
| Boogie_Man wrote:
| There's a bit of a gap between 2 and 12. Can you elaborate?
| bdash wrote:
| I've bought non-working pinball machines from Facebook
| Marketplace or Craigslist for great prices and brought
| them back to life. They cover a range of the pinball
| spectrum from electromechanical games from the 1970s
| through 1990s games with dot matrix displays. I fix these
| up, play them until I get bored of them, then sell them
| to make room for future projects or trade them for
| something new-to-me.
|
| Separately from that, I've bought, sold, and traded to
| end up with a set of games that I enjoy playing. There
| are a couple of modern Stern games in the mix along with
| some mid-90s Bally/Williams games.
| Boogie_Man wrote:
| If I may ask, are you making a worthwhile profit on the
| machines you sell, or are you doing it for the love of
| pinball? I used to know a guy who claimed to have done
| this with claw machines and made a lot of money. (Yes he
| had a ponytail)
| bdash wrote:
| I'm not really making any money doing it. I learn a lot
| and enjoy the process.
|
| As an example, I picked up a 1978 Bally Strikes and
| Spares machine from Marketplace. It'd sat in the owners
| garage unplayed for 10 years and no longer worked. I
| bought it for $400, put somewhere between 20-30 hours of
| work into it and around $600 in new parts. If I'm lucky,
| I'll be able to sell it for around $1800.
| mrrsm wrote:
| I got a virtual pinball machine which gives me all of the fun
| of owning a pinball machine with almost none of the
| maintenance. My machine is the size of a normal wide body
| pinball cabinet and works like a normal machine does as far as
| tilt/bumping, flippers, coin door, etc go. If you have the time
| and passion for keeping up a regular pinball I would go that
| route. If you want something a bit more easy to maintain but
| just as fun to play I would look for a virtual pinball setup.
| theadultnerd wrote:
| been using this site for years, love it
| Tokkemon wrote:
| I have two pinball machines in my basement waiting to be fixed up
| and restored. But I don't have the motivation to do the work,
| probably because I was never nostalgic for this era, I'm too
| young. I do find them fascinating from an engineering
| perspective, however.
| dewbrite wrote:
| I spent a lot of time playing Bally Twilight Zone at the Munich
| Maker Lab a few years back. I still miss the tungsten bulbs which
| lit the ball consistently, as opposed to LEDs which tend to
| "blink" rapidly (at 60Hz?). It makes the ball much easier to
| track at high speed, and has such a nostalgic soft glow which
| gently fades off into nothing.
|
| I also miss reading the manual and fixing little things every so
| often.
|
| It looks like this machine has either moved on from MuMaLab, or
| was never listed in the first place.
|
| It would be nice to be able to filter machines here by what kind
| of lights they use. I imagine most places tend to use LEDs to
| save on electricity. At least that's been my experience checking
| the barcades I've found from this site.
| fourteenfour wrote:
| The early LED replacement bulbs were bad and flickery, they are
| better now. They even make add on boards to smooth the on/off
| state to mimic incandescent bulbs
| https://www.cometpinball.com/collections/led-ocd-boards
| ddoster wrote:
| I made a 4 hour trip to https://www.pasttimesarcade.com/ in
| Gerard, OH. Includes an incredible collection of tables from the
| 60s and 70s and a few from even earlier. I've been to Next Level
| in Portland too. It rocks.
| orblivion wrote:
| Between this and the brewery map a few days ago I'm curious why
| these aren't rolled into OpenStreetMap. You could still have a
| dedicated site and project like this, it's probably a good idea
| for the specifically motivated people to be in charge of that
| data. Just use OSM as your data backend and have bigger reach.
|
| Perhaps the database started too long ago and there's a licensing
| issue.
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(page generated 2024-02-02 23:00 UTC)