The Best Places to Play Pinball in Houston, Texas

Whether you are coming down for the rodeo or the annual Houston Arcade Expo, there is plenty for arcade lovers and pinball enthusiasts to get excited over in Houston, Texas. The city and its surrounding communities are full of great arcades, interesting places to play pinball, and BIG fun!

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Downtown Houston is full of unique and exciting things to do. Houston is home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where you can walk through the space shuttle replica, wander inside a replica of America's first space station, and touch a rock from the moon. The hall of paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science has several complete dinosaur skeletons, or if you prefer your animals still living, the Houston Zoo is one of the nation’s best. Of course, if you don’t mind the dead, definitely check out the National Museum of Funeral History, which is far more quirky and fun than it sounds.

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The Galleria is one of the nation’s largest malls, but Houston’s best shopping is in The Heights on 19th Street. It’s a funky area with a one-of-a-kind shopping experience and a great place for gift shopping. If you head over to the beach in Galveston, be sure to pop into Gypsy Joynt and Play on the Strand and let us know how the pinball machines are running. 

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Houston is known for its diverse culinary scene, with everything from Tex-Mex to Vietnamese cuisine. Get some perfectly seasoned chicken, collard greens, and red beans and rice at Frenchy’s. Adventurous foodies should not miss the Hong Kong Food Market.

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If you’re local and you love pinball, check out Space City Pinball League and the Bayou City Pinball League to find like-minded pinheads to challenge you with some competitive pinball and improve your game. 

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Ready to play? Here are Houston’s Top Places to Play Pinball

Wormhole Pinball

• Address: Unlisted (on purpose, but you should still seek them out)
• Pinball machines on location: 25

Let's get this out of the way first. Wormhole Pinball is not a public location. It's currently operated as a private club of sorts (so private, in fact, the address is purposefully hard to find). However, if you participate in the pinball community enough (or just like to peruse Twitch's pinball category), you're likely to come across one of Wormhole's excellent pinball tournament streams. If you find yourself in the Houston area, Wormhole is open to the public on tournament days (1st Saturday and 1st and 3rd Monday of each month). The current iteration of Wormhole (an expansion is in the works) features about 25 routinely rotated machines, including a mix of new, old, LE models, and hard to find games. Explore the Space City Pinball League site or IFPA events calendar for more info.

The Game Preserve

• Address: 473 Sawdust Rd. Spring, TX 77380
• Pinball machines on location: 31

The 80's are back! The Game Preserve is a true classic arcade in Spring, TX, with original arcade games like Star Wars, Robotron, Joust, Centipede, Street Fighter, and a hundred more, plus over 25 pinball machines like The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, and Dr. Who all on free play. Get a day pass or a monthly membership, and bring your own food and beer since you’ll want to stay for a while. Ask about leagues and tournaments, too! Love it here? Check out their original NASA location (below). 

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The Game Preserve NASA

• Address: 20810 Gulf Freeway Webster, TX 77598
• Pinball machines on location: 25

Houston? We have an enormous arcade. The Game Preserve NASA in Webster, Texas, is a large space-themed retro arcade (and 2nd Game Preserve location to make our list) with a pay-one-price system and a ton of vintage arcade games, and a few pinball machines from the last 30 years. The Game Preserve hosts leagues and tournaments and is a destination for local pinheads. They also have a good selection of candy, light snacks, and drinks, but also allow you to bring food in or BYOB.

Cidercade Houston

• Address: 2320 Canal St. Houston, TX 77003
• Pinball machines on location: 19

Cidercade Houston features over 275 new and retro arcade games. The variety of games includes classic, fighting, shooting, driving, sports, and modern pinball games, plus air hockey, ping pong tables, and skee ball. They offer unlimited play for $10. Of course, Cidercade offers a variety of hard ciders, which they make themselves. They do not have food but often have food trucks. They are family-friendly during the day but 21+ after 8 pm. 

EinStein's Pub and Arcade

• Address: 16733 West Airport Blvd. Richmond, TX 77407
• Pinball machines on location: 15

EinStein's Pub and Arcade features pinball, music, and sports. It is a great place to hang out with friends and family in a neighborhood bar style environment. They have a great selection of draft beers and food and goes 21+ after 9 pm each night. Besides pinball, EinStein's Pub and Arcade has air hockey, skee ball, bubble hockey, foosball, and DDR. The pinball collection is 15+ games ranging from the 1970s to current games, and they hold monthly tournaments. They also have a DJ Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

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Note: EinStein's has a second location (EinStein's Pub) in Katy, Texas. They also have a large selection of pins (26 at time of publishing) and hold regular tournaments and events. Worth checking out if you're in the area!

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Eureka Heights Brew Co.

• Address: 941 W 18th St., Houston, TX 77008
• Pinball machines on location: 13

Eureka Heights Brew Co is a classic craft brewery / pinball space. You know the type. Big wide open manufacturing space. Picnic tables. Concrete floors. Huge lineup of 13 pinball machines maintained by one of the folks behind Wormhole pinball. The lineup is almost exclusively newer Stern machines, although at time of writing this, they do have at least one Jersey Jack machine, 2022's release, Toy Story 4. The brewery has rotating food trucks and all kinds of non-pinball related events.

Poison Girl

• Address: 1641 Westheimer Rd. Suite B, Houston, TX 77006
• Pinball machines on location: 9

Poison Girl in Houston, TX is a feminist, provocative dive bar arcade with an impressive whiskey collection, red walls adorned with erotic art, life-sized paper mache cowgirl statues, and a great pinball collection including Creatures from the Black Lagoon, Monster Bash, Deadpool and Scared Stiff. Don’t let the Kool-aid man scare you away from the patio. Poison Girl is definitely adults only, but you’re welcome to bring your dog. 

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Poison Girl also has a sister bar called Little Dipper Lounge, itself with curated selection of 8 pins, an eclectic vibe, trivia nights, and is also accessible via public transit (take the METRORail Red Line).

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Speedy's Fast Track

• Address: 11440 Hempstead Rd., Houston, TX 77092
• Pinball machines on location: 7

Whether you're racing go-karts, hitting a hole-in-one at the mini-golf course, playing arcade games, or zapping opponents in laser tag, you're bound to have fun while at Speedy's Fast Track in Houston, TX! Speedy’s stocks all the latest Stern pinball machines like Godzilla, Deadpool, and Jurassic Park in high-quality limited edition (LE) tables, plus the latest arcade games like Wild West Shootout, Fast and Furious Super Cars, and Angry Birds Coin Crash. Plus, there are pool tables, air hockey, foosball, and skeeball. There’s no food inside Speedy’s, so there’s always a food truck parked outside. Speedy’s is family-friendly, and anyone under 17 will need a chaperone so just bring the whole family. You know how they like to do it in Texas – BIG!

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Houston pinball players - did we miss anything good? Drop us a line and let us know!

‍(special thanks to Shawn K. and Travis M. for their contributions)