Location: 732 11th Avenue South, Hopkins, Minnesota, USA.
Date: September 2015

SS Billiards in Hopkins, MN is one of the oldest continuing operating arcades in the United States. From the website, the arcade “has been serving the Twin Cities for over 30 years” and hosts “the Twin Cities largest collection of publicly playable pinball machines”.

Lloyd Olson (with his faithful canine companion Prada) run, manage, and own SS Billiards.

Back in Time

Few may remember this as the outside of SS Billiards:

More of you may remember this as the outside of SS Billiards:

The Present Day

Now all of you, my kind readers, may know this as the present-day inside of SS Billiards.

The current view inside SS Billiards

Question

So why I’m I taxing your memories? It seems only fair; as I have to flex my brain remembering the details of the crowd-funded refresh of this pinball mecca. The one, the only, the old, the very old, SS Billiards.

Fund-Raiser

Kris Lillemo conceived of and ran the fund-raiser which set out to raise $8,500. After just two months approximately $15,000 had been raised by around 160 people. The page read, “A time to honor and support an original Pinball icon. A refresh or some may say a re-launch (LTG) of the longest continuous running arcade in Minnesota.”

The IndieGoGo funding page
(click to visit)

Timeline

Get in your time machine and mark your Google calendars for October 20th, 2014. Or, just settle down and enjoy this post-review. For those of you with time machines, you may want to take an extended trip, because this is what Lloyd's looked like back in 1973.

Flying Carpet, Grand Slam, 4 Square, Super Star and Pong along the back wall

For the rest of us, here’s what and when it all went down. So get gussied up!

The container arrives

All the games are removed to go in the container

A new floor layer is put down

All done!

The games go back in

The pool tables return

Current Pinball Machines

This is what you readers most probably care about, the current lineup of pinball machines.

But first…  I’ll build suspense by arcing around and zooming in.

An article on the Redcurrent.com site and games for sale

Some of the notices

The story of the neon sign and media articles about SS Billiards

The new cues

This is Lloyd's front row of machines.

The Walking Dead, Breakshot, Bill Paxton Pinball, Pirates of the Caribbean
and The Wizard of Oz

The Walking Dead

Bill Paxton Pinball

The Wizard of Oz

Let’s not forget this special machine, standing stately in its designated spot.

Medieval Madness Remake

Meanwhile, near the change counter we have.

Space Shuttle and Pinball Pool

Golden Tee and Little Pro

Swag

Signage

Near the back we have two rarities under neon light.

Taxi and Big Bang Bar

At the back we have this impressive line-up.

Six classic dot-matrix games

Panning along the row we have:

Attack from Mars and Wheel of Fortune

An original Medieval Madness and Corvette

The Addams Family and Twilight Zone

All under a neon sky

Summary

With an eclectic line up of well-maintained pinball machines, it's no wonder SS Billiards is the best place to play pinball in Minnesota. In fact, SS Billiards is a worldwide destination for serious pinball fanboys and fangirls.

Of course you could also enjoy playing billiards, or giving Prada a tummy rub, or chatting with Lloyd.

Prada and Lloyd

Or you could have Lloyd show you his credentials.

Providing tech support for PPS and JJP

You can see more from inside SS Billiards in this Fox 9 News report:

Back to the Future

For your Doctors who time travel, I hope to Houston that you’ve had no problem opening your fuel cell e-valves on the precious tritium which is the fuel that makes your machines go, after charging up your flux capacitors to jumping gigawatts, and rejoining us now; he wrote mimetically and paradoxically.

Bye-the-by, I noticed that you exceeded the speed of light limit as you made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. But, I’m so glad you’re back home with me after pushing that curious button; to read more Pinball News articles.

© Pinball News 2015