Galloping Ghost Pinball — Local services in Lyons Township

UPDATED REVIEW 5-28-2019 I got the chance to come back here after the addition of Medusa, Scared Stiff, Munsters and Dracula this week.

This time, I took my 6 1/2 year old son John. I've taken him to the arcade before, twice, and he loved it. I wasn't sure if he would be down for the pinball. I didn't get the friendly and knowledgeable young man's name working in the early afternoon, but he was very cool and offered to refund the money if my son was not into it. I appreciated this gesture and him telling me this. Very cool.

Well, it wasn't necessary, as we stayed for 3 or 4 hours and loved every minute of it. My son destroyed me in the Joust two player pinball, and he also destroyed Fred and Shahdee, who were both very friendly, good guys. I know it's a simple game, but it was cool that they joined in and were not afraid to be nice.

Another cool thing, we brought our own small stool for my son. Someone must have noticed, as a half hour after we were there, someone came in carrying extra stools for the pinball arcade kids and shorter customers to use. I was so pleasantly surprised by that. Again, very cool, guys.

Shahdee (Not sure if this is the spelling) was working the latter half of our visit and treated us very well. He just seemed like he appreciated nice people and was very welcoming to me and my son.

Can't wait to come back! Love the additional room and the new games. Watched the livestream with my son of the 4 new games and loved the humor and good nature of Doc Mac and the other staff members. You guys show the community much love by caring for and providing these treasures of pinball and video games. Thank you and see you soon!

• First Review **

I was born in 1980, and got to enjoy arcades and pinball in all of it's glory.

The arcade is a beautiful museum of arcade games the likes of which the world has never seen. For the price of $20, I sincerely believe it is worth it to pay and just walk around looking at all the games. This place is a blessing to the hearts of guys like me that grew up playing these games and going to arcades that paled in comparison to the awesomeness that is Galloping Ghost.

That said, when I heard that they were doing this pinball location, I was excited beyond belief. The one thing I always said when I went to the arcade was that I was disappointed that there weren't more pinball games.

I finally got to go here with a friend and had to put forth a sincere effort not to dork out too much and too openly while playing these classics!!! I mean, this place alongside the arcade is a DREAM COME TRUE. Add to this that the workers and also Doc Mac seem like sincerely friendly and normal, nice people.....? Thank you guys for running this place and the arcade. When I was young, my parents were divorced and some of the only times I got to spend with my dad on weekends, we went to arcades. I took my dad to the arcade and it was a beautiful walk down memory lane that was so heartwarming to see his face light up playing these games together again. And now, I plan to take him here to the pinball, that was his favorite to play while my brother and I were running around blowing through massive amounts of his hard earned quarters.

Thank you Doc Mac and company for running this place, and for doing what you do. Beyond awesome to have this treasure so...

Update: It's only gotten worse. I'm not sure if they don't have the money, time, or expertise to upkeep the machines but a lot of them are in unplayable condition. GI out, parts broken, mechs not working, system errors, there were quite a few machines that were just not playable. Twilight Zone was off, Adam's Family had GI burned out and a leaky DMD, Scared Stiff looked like it had been hit by a chop shop, Bride of Pinbot had no GI, several machines in back were off. It was really disappointing to see the machines in such a bad state. I love coming here and you can play all day which is a great deal. Some of the machines are in great shape and play well but a lot of them look like they were hit with hammers. If you come here for certain machines they have it's a real disappointment to find them out of commission for weeks or months.

It's hard to write this. I love galloping ghost. I've been here to the pinball one a bunch of times and only had good things to say but recently the machine upkeep has not been good. For a long while it's been 5 stars. Lately a lot of the machines are off or have broken parts. Some are on but barely playable. Most of them look like they've had thousands of plays with no service. Please service the machines.

Some have no audio, the rubber is broke in places, bent metal protectors block the ball, weak coils, unlevel and loose play, lamps burning out, parts missing, dim or no lighting making some machines impossible to see. It seems like the only machines in good condition are some of the new ones. I know how costly upkeep is on pinball in a public venue but when the pins aren't working it makes it hard to want to come back. I enjoy coming here and want to support you but I'd rather stay home and play my pins if I know the experience is going to be broken. Almost every pre 2000s pin...

Spent a few hours here just on the pinball side. $15 admission fee was very worth it to play all the pinball games. There was a good mixture of older and newer machines. At the time only a couple machines were down, but most of them were in good working order. The machine selection even had some more rare games like Alien, Predator, and Godzilla that I hadn't seen in person. If you are in the area and like pinball, I highly recommend visiting galloping ghost. I should also mention that they have an arcade side with hundreds of arcade games. Admission to both is $30. While I didn't go to the arcade side, I would say this is a very fair price for hours of entertainment. You can also leave and return as you please as long as you keep your receipt....