Highlights From The Pinball Hall Of Fame

While I was in Las Vegas for the Classic Gaming Expo, I stopped by the Pinball Hall of Fame. The property is home to more than 100 playable tables, from the early days of pinball through the most recent releases. I snapped a ton of photos during the nearly three hours I spent there, like I did with the Videogame History Museum exhibit at CGE. Take a look at some of the weirdest, coolest, and most interesting things I spotted.

You'll immediately notice that I'm a shutterbug at the top of his game. I toted around a professional-grade setup, bringing you some of the most incredibly sharp, vivid, and in-focus images you may ever see in your lifetime. If something looks a little blurry, poorly lit, or badly framed, I must have done that on purpose. Or something like that.

This GoldenEye table is one of the first games that I played during my visit. The skillshot at the beginning gives you a chance to fire a bullet at Bond in his familiar opening sequence. I missed.

Speaking of pinball adaptations of '90s movies, here's Starship Troopers. It was a fun table, with a pretty interesting gimmick.

If you look at the right set of flippers, you'll notice a weird little vestigial flipper above the expected one. There are two sets of buttons on the right side of the cabinet, which operate each one independently. 

That mini flipper is unusual, but not unprecedented. Pinball manufacturers have been experimenting with flipper placement since flippers were introduced. This Show Boat table, for example, has four of 'em.

Here's a Canada Dry-themed table. That whole "advergaming" thing isn't a new phenomenon, either.

You won't believe what this WWF Royal Rumble table does. It rumbles. The cabinet rumbles a lot, in fact. I ended up playing several games of this one, because the theme and gameplay synced up in a really fun way. I'm a sucker for Doink-era wrestling, I guess.

Alas, the Waterworld table wasn't operational. Insert timely Waterworld joke here: _____________.

I've probably spent more time playing versions Elvira and the Party Monsters than any other pinball table out there, thanks to the Atari Lynx game Pinball Jam and the Pinball Arcade adaptation. As it turns out, all my practice with the electronic versions of the table didn't totally transfer over to the real world. My first game ended in no time flat. Maybe the table understood that we had a history; it awarded me with a free game when it was over. Thanks, Elvira!

I could have sworn that I heard Ben Hanson squeal with delight as I pressed the start button on this machine. Then again, that could have just been a velociraptor sound sample from the movie.

Get a load of this goofy guy. He has a magnet in his mouth that allows him to "eat" the ball – complete with chewing motions and sound effects.