Back to Next Level Pinball Museum

 Portland, OR

All Day Pinball

Today we had lunch, set Francis up with everything he needs for the day, and headed back to Next Level Pinball Museum.  We were going to be there most of the day so we brought some food and water to sustain us.  We arrived at 1:30pm to play and then the tournament started at 7pm and went until 9:30pm, so a long day of pinball.  Donna decided she was going to stick it out the whole time rather than take a trip back mid day like last time.

The stay officially started with lunch at Magna, the 11th top rated restaurant in Portland according to  Oregonian Newspaper.

It has a few awards to go along with the newspaper recommendation.

The menu is limited, but the Filipino dishes are fantastic. 

When we arrived at Next Level, we went straight to the back room.  The Boss Level area is a new 7000 sq. ft. area that just opened yesterday. It brings the number of pinball machines to 300 and the number of arcade games to about 300.  

It's just as cool as the rest of the museum.

Tons of great arcade games but I am here to play Pinball!

Most of the machines in Boss Level are machines that have been in storage for a long time, so I got to play a lot of machines I have never played before.

Wow, the glare on this one is bad.  It's Gottlieb's Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Look at that Mario themed castle!

They had a whole bank of Spooky Pinball machines.  They are kind of known for being unreliable and not the most fun playing modern pinball machines.  

"Pinball" by Stern is one of the most generic machines I have ever seen.

She's talking about The Rolling Stones!

At some point I had to Wee so I found this appropriately placed Wii sign above a Urinal 

Another machine I have never played before

This is NOT Rambo!

I don't think you would see this today.  Pinball machines themes, for good or bad, remind us of what used to be acceptable and how far most of us have come.

This Gottlieb James Bond 007 is a unique machine.  The play is timed, so every time you drain you lose a bit of time.  You have to be careful on this machine to make sure you don't play out of turn during a tournament.  From The Internet Pinball Database, "Originally released as a time-based game, it proved to be so unpopular with players that new software was released allowing it to be set for 3/5 ball play."

The tournament was fun.  It was a Flipper Frenzy format so I got to play 17 games in 1.5 hours.  I finished right in the middle of the field, so kind of my target.  There were a few spots where I could have won and moved up to top 1/3rd.  I am learning that a few small adjustments will make a big difference.

Here are the rest of the machines I played that I didn't play in the tournament.

I ended up playing 105 games of pinball.  Each play was less than 22 cents.  What a bargain!  You just have to be there for 9 hours to get that kind of value.  I also got to play about 21 machines I have never played before.

That's it for today.  If you missed, "Playing Pinball at an "Abandoned Mall" check it out.