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The Classic Pinball Podcast
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#85 Pinball Museum or HOF? - The Classic Pinball Podcast

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago1 hr 15 min listenBy George
From the creator

George highlights his trip to Memphis and Gatlinburg Tennessee, then on to Asheville North Carolina. Pinball at every destination. The discussion turns to the Pinball Hall of Fame ( Pinball HOF) and...

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Highlights

  • The Flipside Pub in Memphis has monitors above every game so bar patrons can watch players, and is run by someone known on Pinside who invented the 'Opsicle' LED product.
  • Gatlinburg arcades charge $40 per game for pinball, while another arcade in the same area charges $1-$1.50 per game.
  • Tennessee and North Carolina have laws prohibiting direct coin insertion into arcade machines; venues must use card-based payment systems to skirt gambling regulations.
  • Venues call themselves 'Pinball Museums' for tax purposes, allowing them to avoid paying taxes on individual machines compared to traditional arcades.
  • The Asheville Pinball Museum charges $15 all-you-can-play, features about 35 games including older titles and modern Sterns (Monster Bash, Attack from Mars, Simpsons, Ghostbusters), and had good gameplay quality.
  • Tim Arnold of the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas had an incident last Thursday involving a child spinning in circles in the aisles; Tim politely asked the family to take the child outside for safety reasons.
  • The family of the autistic child involved in the Pinball Hall of Fame incident is planning to sue Tim Arnold.
  • The Pinball Museum of Gatlinburg will not reveal what machines are behind the door online or in person; it charges $20 admission without disclosing contents.
  • Historically, farmers used fermented grain (moonshine/alcohol) to power farm equipment before gasoline became standard, and Henry Ford marketed the Model T partly by promising that an acre of land would fuel the vehicle.
  • Prohibition was enacted because oil tycoons did not want farmers using alcohol as fuel for vehicles.

Notable quotes

“If you're not running a regular tournament on Twitch every week showcasing your bar and machines, you're missing a bit.”
George
“I've never seen more amusements in a concentrated area in my entire life... It's like sensory overload.”
George
“The Pinball Museum of Gatlinburg. Folks, I don't know what the deal is with this place, but they will not tell you online and in person what machines are behind the door.”
George
“It's for tax purposes. If you're doing a museum, they can put all the games in there and not put a tag on them.”
Dave
“You can't put quarters or dollars into a machine. You have to buy a card and redeem points into a machine. Is it against the law?”
George
“Tim's a really nice guy. Tim donates a lot of that proceeds from that to the Salvation Army... He's a benevolent guy. But he can also be very direct.”
George
“Sad to see another incident at the Pinball Hall of Fame.”
Pinside thread excerpt (quoted by Dave)
“If you're a kid and you're just running down the aisle there, and you could get some water on the floor, you could slip, you get hurt, and it's on the owner that you got hurt in his place.”
George

Entities

  • Beale Street· location
  • Biltmore Estate· location
  • Gatlinburg· location
  • Pinside· organization
  • The Classic Pinball Podcast· organization
  • Dr. Dave· person
  • George· person
  • Henry Ford· person
  • Janice· person
  • Kyle· person
  • Tim Arnold· person
  • Arcadia· venue
  • Asheville Pinball Museum· venue
  • Beale Street Brewery· venue
  • Bold Rock· venue
  • Commissary Barbecue· venue
  • Flipside Pub· venue
  • Gatlinburg Space Needle· venue
  • Hillman Beer· venue
  • Margaritaville· venue
  • Pinball Hall of Fame· venue
  • Pinball Museum of Gatlinburg· venue
  • The Dissolver Brewery· venue
  • Wiseacre Brewery· venue

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