Machines on the move

Photos by F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWAbove, Pinball Hall of Fame founder Tim Arnold works on a "Jurassic Park" pinball machine. Below, a Vegas-themed machine is one of more than 200 games on display at the not-for-profit Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club?s new location at 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. Photos by F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWLeft, Mike and Sara Dale of Anchorage, Alaska, visit the Pinball Hall of Fame at its new location, 1610 E. Tropicana Ave., Nov. 9. Brightly colored details can be seen on a section of the playing surface of a Superman-themed game at the Pinball Hall of Fame. Photos by F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWLeft, Mike and Sara Dale of Anchorage, Alaska, visit the Pinball Hall of Fame at its new location, 1610 E. Tropicana Ave., Nov. 9. Brightly colored details can be seen on a section of the playing surface of a Superman-themed game at the Pinball Hall of Fame. Advertisement

Tim Arnold knew moving the Pinball Hall of Fame would be difficult, what he didn't expect was that it would almost kill him.

"We were moving machines over to the new location and the guy operating the lift hadn't done it before," Arnold said. "I was steadying the machine and he moved the lift in the wrong direction and it fell. I got my eye smashed into the lift gate, caught between the machine and the gate."

Arnold ended up with 10 stitches on his eyelid and a shiner, but fortunately, his eye survived the damage.

"I'll have a scar, but at least the eye still works," he said.

That statement mirrors the experience of the rest of the move, a process fraught with paperwork complications, construction delays and more stress than a retired man needs to put up with. Arnold and his crew of volunteers weathered it all and came out the other side a bit banged up, but happy to have survived, and looking forward to what they hope will be a thriving new location for the not-for-profit Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club, which owns and operates the Hall of Fame. Arnold, who gave himself the title of Director of Things and Stuff, coordinates the volunteers.

"We're set on volunteers, what we need now are more customers, to help us pay the bills," Arnold said.

The move from the old leased location, 3330 E. Tropicana Ave. near the Tropicana Cinemas, to a new building that the club owns at 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. is part of an effort to bring in more customers.

"We're closer to the Strip, so tourists can get to us easier, and we're right on the road," Arnold said. "We were back in a corner at the old location. It'll be a month or two before we get our sign out front, that money went to the sprinkler system, but we've got a banner out there for now."

That banner seems to be working so far. The old visitors have found the new place and already were dropping quarters and flipping flippers before volunteers finished moving.

Mike and Sara Dale take a trip to Las Vegas every year from Anchorage, Alaska, and they make sure that trip includes a visit or three to the Pinball Hall of Fame.

"I like this a lot better, it's much bigger," Sara Dale said of the new location. "We love coming here, and we love pinball."

"I've been playing pinball since I was a kid. There used to be some arcades in Anchorage, but we're down to one and they don't have pinball," Mike Dale said. "It's great to see all these machines, especially the old ones."

The Hall of Fame has more than 200 machines up and running already, which is a few more than the old location had. The eventual plan is to have 400 machines, and informational signs about the machines.

"I'm going to make this whole row wedge heads," said Arnold, referring to an older style of pinball machine. "They'll all be laid out in chronological order."

The group is taking it easy for a few days, before diving back into moving machines. Now that they've got a good bit in place, they plan to add more machines at a more leisurely pace.

"We've got a bunch of ideas, but it just about killed us opening the place," Arnold said. "It's a long-term project, we've got five to 10 years before it'll be where we want to get it to."

The Pinball Hall of Fame is unusual in that the exhibits, pinball machines and a few video games spanning the history of the game, are not only on display, but also in use. Arnold feels that the machines need to be seen in action to be truly appreciated. The downside is that because of that, the machines require constant maintenance. On nearly every visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame, you'll find a machine opened up, exposing the inner mysteries of switches and wires.

"There's only two of us who know how to fix them here. They don't teach people how to do this anymore," Arnold said. "They don't even teach people to solder, because they consider the lead to be a hazardous material. When we stop doing it, I don't know what's going to happen."

The Pinball Hall of Fame is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week at 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. Admission is free. Game play is 25 cents to $1, with most games on the lower end of that price scale. For more information, visit www.pinballmuseum.org.

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.