What would you be willing to pay to play 23 of the Top 25 pinball games in the world?
Would you believe you could do it all for $10 over two days this weekend as The Pyramid Scheme transforms their concert and dance venue into the Grand Rapids debut of the Pinball Pyramid exhibition?
Flashing lights and bleeping sounds will fill the room. According to Jeff VandenBerg, event creator and co-owner of The Pyramid Scheme, they are bringing 50 pinball machines to the stage, the sides and even dance floor.
To achieve the number of 50, VandenBerg will relocate machines from his bars (The Meanwhile and The Pyramid Scheme), but will also import machines from his private collection and that of a few collectors in our area. Most of these games hail from the golden age of modern gaming (the 1990s) and from top manufacturers Bally and Williams.
If you have ever wondered what makes for a Top 25 game, one of Grand Rapids' top authorities is Nick Monoyios, a local part-time pinball Greek god/champion. By day, he is Grand Rapids' mild-mannered long range planner for The Rapid.
“My girlfriend works late so after work, I often skip over to [The Pyramid Scheme] to kill some time relaxing with a very analog game with lots of bells, lights and whistles,” Monoyios says. “And while I feel pretty confident that with enough play, I can unlock the hidden secrets of some of these machines, I do enjoy visiting
IPDB.com (think IMDB for pinball machines) where I can find out which ones are the best.”
Once unlocked, these secrets can be extra balls, magnetic gravity-defying movements and even midnight madness as the machine reboots at midnight, mid-play, becoming a new game entirely. Neo from the
Matrix just said, “Whoa!”
And before you accuse me of drinking the local pinball scene’s Kool-Aid, I invite you to watch the thrilling documentary
Special When Lit, which looks at the history of pinball and the community that has risen up around the games. It is a portrait of American gaming and a look at the return of this historical pastime to pop culture.
“Bally Williams went out of business right after they released their pinball machine for
Star Wars, Episode 1,” says Vander Berg. “So you could say Jar Jar Binks didn’t just kill the
Star Wars film franchise, but ended pinball, too.”
Saturday it is open pinball all day with each paid admission and on Sunday, VandenBerg will set aside 5 games of his choosing for those who have paid an extra $5 to play in the tournament as they compete for prizes and the title of Grand Rapids’ Pinball Wizard.
Note: To date, no female has risen up in the ranks as a local champion, but this needs to change, my lady friends. Get. In. The. Game.
Admission: $10. (All Ages from 2 p.m. until 7p.m. only)