We had the opportunity to play pinball in three different locations here in Helsinki.
On the first day we arrived, we visited Chaplin Bar. It's a pool hall, bar, and pinball parlor. They had an interesting lineup of well working machines. I got to play Last Action Hero and 24. Both are machines I have had little time on. I also got to play the Pro Version of the OG Transformers machine. It played great too.
We were there at opening on a Wednesday so we didn't have to deal with any other patrons. The machines were €1 per play so bring money. There is a change machine on site. We played for a little over an hour and by the time we left, there were a couple of people playing pool.
On Thursday night we went to Flipperikellari. They are open every Thursday night from 5pm to 10pm. Entry is €15, and there is no need to contact them in advance because it isn't a private club.
We ended up taking an Uber, which calls a taxi for you. We wanted to maximize our time there as well as get free dinner at our hotel.
We arrived and fire trucks were blocking the alley. We tried to see if we could walk around the block as to not get in the way, but couldn't. The firefighters were finishing putting out a large house fire. We saw a pinball guy walking out of the grocery store with beer and followed him by the fire trucks. The pinball location is BYOB.
Pretty clearly a pinball guy.
The entrance was pretty clear.
Pinball Map said they have 72 machines but it felt like they had a few more than that. About 8 were out of service.
I got to play Card Whiz for the first time and yet it seemed very familiar. Turns out it's the two player version of Royal Flush.
They had an awesome alternate back glass for Genesis. The original is truly awful in my opinion.
Aces and Kings was awesome. I had never played it before.
The Spinner in the middle of the playfield (much like the Lamp in Tales of the Arabian Nights or the Avengers: Infinity Quest Portal Disc) adds to the lit bonus row and the lit bonus collect saucer collects the bonus.
I hadn't played Excalibur very often either.
Big House was totally new to me (sorry about the dirty camera lens). It was really fun and it trolls you. If you lock a ball and then drain, it takes like 45 seconds to kick out your locked ball before giving you your bonus.
I might have played Torpedo Alley once before.
I also haven't played Panthera.
It was a cool, well organized space.
Another broken Hardbody:(
They had a nice collection of modern Sterns too.
And two Batman machines side by side, the newer one paying huge homage to the older.
The 3rd opportunity was unexpected. We took transit to the suburbs to go to EMMA or Espoo Museum of Modern Art. There was a surprise pinball machine in the museum!
This wing of the museum is currently dedicated to the music scene in Finland and there was a D&D premium as a part of the display.
We both played and then enjoyed the great museum.
Pinball in Helsinki is pretty solid. There are quite a few more locations we won't be playing at. They even have a couple of tournaments a month. Sadly there aren't any tournaments while we are here.
