1984 — Attraction in Springfield

I type this as someone who specifically came here for pinball. I had zero desire to play any of the arcade games.

Having read the website, I was familiar with their entry system. $10 entry for the retro arcade and/or pay quarters for pinball. (IE, if you want to play JUST pinball, then they waive the $10 and you just pay per pinball game). Or atleast, that's how I assumed their entry system worked because every other place that does it that way DOES it that way.

Nope. Apparently, you have to pay $10 just to get in so you can pay more to play the pinball machines. And look... I get it. I understand the whole "pay to play makes people take pride in their pinball game" vs the freeplay "start 4 players and walk away after shooting 2 balls". But to make pinballers pay a $10 fee on top of having to pay quarters?

Now yes. They DID waive the fee for me cause it was a "slow night". But what if it wasn't? I would have walked right out.

But he $10 fee wasn't the only problem. Of the 6 machines I played, all 6 of them felt like they could have used varying degrees of maintenance. Heck, Attack from Mars left flipper was so weak that the right side of the machine was near unplayable. And like... Yes. Maintenance can lag behind. But wasn't the whole point of taking your pinball machines OFF the free play band to minimize wear and tear and help with keeping up with maintenance? Some of these games feel like they haven't been touched in a while (weak flippers, sensor issues, board angle, board lights).

And to really illustrate the lack of maintenance: One of your games is completely broke and just eats quarters (Eight Ball Deluxe) but the board lights are on indicating the machine is on? If the machine is broken, turn it off.

Edit: i removed my "positive" about the 50 cents. Having gone to another place where i had to pay an entry fee (granted it was for an extensive musuem), they only charged 25 cents a game AND the games played decently well. Which caused me to come here and revise my rating from a 2...

We've been here twice and we absolutely love the place. They have an awesome bathroom upstairs and then a men and women's bathroom downstairs. Have a couple seating areas with some retro TV shows and music videos playing, a mini Recreation of the library from Ghostbusters and several other little references in the building that are cool when you notice them like the duct work looking like a sand worm from Beetlejuice. Tons of retro arcade games, my favorite being joust but they have duck hunt and asteroids and Tron and so many others. At the time of writing this it was $10 per person to get in which is good from the time they open which I believe is 6:00 until close which is 11:00 and it's well worth the price. They also have a large pinball room that is 50 Cents per play which I understand because I know from experience the maintenance on those machines is expensive and they break down very often. Would recommend this place 100% to any retro gamer, anyone who grew up loving 80s culture and even to those with kids that have never played any of these games, I bet...

This is as close to an arcade from the 80s as you can get. Between the two floors of the building They have approx. 75 stand up arcade games including Qbert, Donkey Kong, Paerboy, Digdug and Joust. Once you pay your admission ($7.50 I think). All games are free to play and it always seems like there are open games use. Granted they do have some crappy games no one liked to play then and still no one likes to play now, but for the most part the selection is real nice. They have about 25 pinball machines also, those however you have to pay for ($0.50 I think). Scattered around the arcade they have stools to sit on while playing games which is a nice relief after a couple hours of standing. They also have a few clean lounge chairs and couches to actually sit and relax or wait for your kids to finish up. They keep a very family friendly atmosphere and they sell sodas and snacks aswell. The staff has always seemed friendly when we go and helpful if needed. I highly recommend taking the family out for a few hours or this would be a great spot for a...