Texas Pinball Festival is one free game after another

by Mike Orren

GRAPEVINE — My wife and I made it out to the Texas Pinball Festival at the Hilton DFW Lakes in Grapevine today, after several years of meaning to do so and missing it for some reason or another. While I'm an avid video gamer and want all the latest gadgets, there's something nice about the tactile feel and natural physics of a pinball machine.

There's a whole series of events for the serious aficionados and tournaments scheduled throughout the weekend. But for the hoi polloi, it's a simple good deal. $15 gets you admission to a room full of pinball machines of all vintage as well as a few video games. Everything is set to free play, so consider it a pinball buffet.

There were well more than 100 machines, mostly functional and in good shape. However, there was a constant stream of repair efforts and a few machines that were off more than on.

We played machines as old as 1960 models -- an era in which all machines seemed to have been card-deck themed -- and as new as the latest Batman game. The old machines are beautiful and great for nostalgia value, and the newest games have more features and functions than a Rube Goldberg contraption, but my personal favorites are largely the games of the late 80's / early 90's, like Terminator 2 and Addams Family. They're a nice mix of classic gameplay and new features without crossing the line into being a full-on video game.

My only complaint about the logistics of the Fest was that I would have liked to have seen some signage describing the proper etiquette. In general, we (and most others we encountered) played one game per machine and moved on if anyone else was waiting. There were a few rude folks who monopolized favorite machines and it would have been nice to be able to do more than cough and groan in hopes they'd catch a clue. (I'm talking to you, lady in the green shirt and hair ribbon playing Addams Family; and to you, high-scoring dude in the ballcap playing Indiana Jones around 4:43 PM.)

In addition to the hotel restaurants and bars you could visit (as bracelets grant in-and-out privileges), alcohol, soft drinks and sandwiches were for sale in the main room.

Many of the games were for sale, and at prices that I'd call bargains based on my occasional pipedream research in looking for a machine for our house.

In all, it was a fun event for anyone who likes Pinball. We stayed for about three hours, but it was clear that there were festgoers who were planning to encamp long into the night. The Fest continues through Sunday.