A Trip to Pinball Paradise: The Pinball Wizard Arcade in Pelham, NH

Finding a true arcade in today's Chuck E. Cheese knock-off-filled wasteland is a tough task. Most modern arcades, if you can even call them that, are filled with loud, annoying ticket games and the occasional sit-down racer or first-person shooter. Not much diversity or excitement there, if you ask me. Thankfully, there are more adventurous entrepreneurs who buck this annoying trend by dedicating arcades to the classic video game, pinball, and even electro-mechanical arcade games. The most popular example of this is Funspot's American Classic Arcade Museum in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, but there are other fine examples of this phenomenon.


The Pinball Wizard Arcade, as you might expect from the name, is mainly dedicated to pinball games from all eras (well, at least from 1970 on) and companies. There's at least 90 pinball machines ranging from true classics like Black Knight (1980) and KISS (1979) to current titles like Tron: Legacy (2011) and Family Guy (2007). Seeing all the old classics and the brand spankin' new titles side-by-side in such pristine condition should give veteran pinball wizards flashbacks to their high school and college days. Let's face it, how many places are you going to find both a Star Trek pinball game based on the original series (1991, Data East) and one based on The Next Generation (1993, Williams) together?

"Beam up to the Pinball Wizard Arcade, Scotty." Trekkies will love this double dose of Star Trek

The Pinball Wizard Arcade is like a crash course on the history and evolution of pinball machines. The earlier games like Big Show and Champ (both 1974) are more low-tech but just as charming with their buzzers and bells and light-up scoreboards. Modifications and themes like digitized voice samples (my favorite by far is the "Welcome to Xenon" message you get when starting a game of Xenon), dot matrix scoreboards, multi-level playfields, and movie/TV series/band tie-ins are in abundance here, too. With the dirt bike-themed Blackwater 100 (1988), the player must shoot three balls with the plunger up into the double-level playfield. Fish Tales (1992) features a fishing rod-shaped plunger and a moving fish topper above the marquee. Each game has its own unique design and quirks that make them stand out from each other.

Extinguish the fire while you get rid of some pesky gophers on the golf course and fish off for some bass off the pier.

Pinball marquee artwork has a very rustic, comic book look as seen on these three late 1970s games.

Of course, pinballs aren't the only type of game available for play at the Pinball Wizard. There are also 180 or so video games dating all the way back to Tank (a 1974 2-player game released by Atari daughter company Kee Games). The golden age of video arcade games (1978 - 1984) is represented well here by popular classics like Pac-Man (1980), Defender (also 1980), Frogger (1981), and Q*Bert (1982). You'll even find lesser-known games that have slipped through the sands of time like Black Widow (1982), Wacko (also 1982), and Circus Charlie (1984). Fans of '90s fighting games will also get their fix here with the original Mortal Kombat (1992), The King of Fighters '96 (1996), and Street Fighter Alpha 2 (also 1996). 

It's the Taito All-Star Line-up! But wait a minute! Why is there a Tecmo game sandwiched in between Elevator Action and Jungle Hunt?

Now you can take out the centipedes and millipedes side-by-side! No need to bring bug spray here, just a lot of tokens and good game-playing skills.

The staff here is incredibly friendly and always willing to share various factoids about the games on the floor. Tokens are reasonably priced: four for a dollar, twenty for $5, forty for $10, and one-hundred for $20. I would highly recommend the Pinball Wizard Arcade to anyone looking to see and play classic pinball and video games. There are not many places where you can find these games in near-immaculate condition.The games at the Pinball Wizard look so good you'd swear they were just released last week. They look and play just as fine as when they were first shipped to pool halls, arcades, bowling alleys, and other public places where coin-op games could be played back in the 1970s and 1980s. This enthusiast of classic pinball and video games couldn't be more pleased with the selection and condition of the games here. Go check it out!