The world hasn't been the same since the video game arcade started to die a slow death. The rise and power of the home console almost made coin-ops obsolete. Now, you can play whatever game you want without having to wait for some joystick jockey to get off the damn thing or raid the cushions of your couch for that one extra quarter to bring your character back to life.
The folks at FUN! Billiards and Gameroom Superstore have a vast collection of these gaming relics that are still purchased and played by private owners and the few remaining arcades that are still out there. This March, a group of 100 people will get to play them in the name of raising money for a worthy cause.
"We've never done this before," said FUN! owner Steve Nordseth. "A lot of people in the area were interested and asked us if we would do this and we thought yeah, let's do it."
FUN! announced on its Facebook page that they will hold an open house from 6-10 p.m. on March 15 featuring 60 of their fully restored pinball machines and arcade games, all of which will run on free play mode for the 100 people who purchase tickets for the event. Tickets are $20 apiece and available for purchase through Paypal, according to the instructions on the party's Facebook event page. All of the proceeds will go to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.
FUN!'s collection of pinball games includes just about every classic title you remember from your childhood such as Midway's critically acclaimed Addams Family and Twilight Zone pinball machines designed by renowned pinball designer Pat Lawlor.
Nordseth said they also plan to let the party attendees play some rarer titles such as the hard to find classic from Williams Medieval Madness that has become a sought after collectible among pinball-heads for its groundbreaking design and hiring pre-30 Rock stars Tina Fey and Scott Adsit to record voice overs for the game while they worked at Chicago's famed Second City. FUN! will also let the public play Midway's super-rare Western-themed pinball gem Cactus Canyon, of which there are just over 900 left in the entire world.
Ticketholders will also get to play a new pinball classic based on The Wizard of Oz from the newly formed Jersey Jack Pinball. Nordseth said the machine is the first to put a high definition LCD screen in the "backbox" that can play cut scenes in response to the game play on the playing field.
The event will also feature a number of video arcade games and traditional tabletop games such as shuffleboard, pool and foosball.
"It will basically be all the things you'd find in someone's game room in their house," Nordseth said, "and all the things you used to find in the arcades."
