{"id":14762,"date":"2019-01-16T08:58:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T08:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/?p=14762"},"modified":"2019-01-16T08:58:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T08:58:30","slug":"pinspotting-here-and-there-january-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/2019\/01\/16\/pinspotting-here-and-there-january-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"PINSPOTTING: HERE AND THERE – JANUARY 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI’m an adventurer, looking for treasure\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2015 Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to the Winter edition of PinSpotting. I will submit a column to Pinball News occasionally to share with the readers the games that I have found in places that people might not normally expect to \ufb01nd them.<\/p>\n

Bars and arcades are usually where we \ufb01nd video games and pinball, but as I found, this is not strictly the case.<\/p>\n

Arpino Orthodontics<\/strong>
\nWest Maple Ave., Libertyville, IL, USA<\/p>\n

When I was but a wee lad and needed dental braces, it certainly would have taken some of the anxiety out of going to an appointment if my Orthodontist had a Revenge from Mars<\/em> (Bally, 1999) in their waiting area.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Revenge from Mars at Arpino Orthodontics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the day that I visited, Dr. Arpino was very generous with his time, showing me the well-equipped patient game room which also has some other arcade and driving games. It is clear to me that he is passionate about games – he is even having some 3-D arcade art commissioned for the game room. We were invited back to photograph this art when it has been installed.<\/p>\n

Revenge from Mars<\/em> is set to free play and is in very good condition. I felt as if the ‘free game’ thresholds were set a bit low; somewhat puzzling when the game is set to free play. A plus feature is that they even have a step stool so that height challenged humans can get in on the fun.<\/p>\n

Siren Records<\/strong>
\nMain Street, McHenry, IL, USA<\/p>\n

In our age of digital music and downloadable albums, the concept of a ‘Record Store’ is as much of a throwback as\u2026. pinball. So looking at it that way, having pin games in a record store is more natural than you might feel that it would be at \ufb01rst.<\/p>\n

\"Siren<\/a>
Siren Records in McHenry, Illinois<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Siren Records is one of the few independent record stores remaining in the greater Chicagoland area. They have an o\ufb00-the-hook selection of vinyl records spanning genres such as Rock, Jazz, Punk, Classical, Psychedelia and Metal. Their selection includes bootlegs and ‘fan club editions’, as well as other hard-to-\ufb01nd pressings of local singers and bands that most people would rightly consider to be quite out of the mainstream. For me, that makes Siren Records all the more a treasure.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Some of the vinyl at Siren Records<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are the expected CDs, DVDs, cassettes and SACDs available for sale, but this is a store primarily for those of us who enjoy the pleasure of ‘full-sized’ artwork and liner notes that can only be found in 12\u201d (30 cm) analog LP records.<\/p>\n

Siren Records o\ufb00ers two huge rooms of used stereo equipment for sale (1958 Fisher President console stereo anyone?) and has a repair service for most analog audio equipment (analog
\nrecord turntables a specialty) that may need ‘shopping’.<\/p>\n

\"Used<\/a>
Used equipment for sale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a great listening area with comfy chairs and rock band posters and artwork on the walls.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The listening area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"More<\/a>
More audio equipment in the listening area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Near the front of the store, there are band T-shirts and jackets available for reasonable prices.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Some of the band merchandise for sale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But to the pinball; Siren Records has not one, but THREE games available to play – Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast<\/em> (Stern, 2018), Ghostbusters<\/em> (Stern, 2016), and The Rolling Stones<\/em> (Stern, 2011).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The latest addition, Iron Maiden, with Ghostbusters and The Rolling Stones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All are in excellent ‘just unboxed’ condition.<\/p>\n

Siren Records owner Bill told me that he wishes he had more games available for his customers to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a>
Bill with his three games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would seem that lack of \ufb02oor space and the cost of new games prevents that\u2026 at least for the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI’m an adventurer, looking for treasure\u201d \u2015 Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist Welcome to the Winter edition of PinSpotting. I will submit a column to Pinball News occasionally to share with the readers the games that I have found in places that people might not normally expect to \ufb01nd them. Bars and arcades are usually where …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[746,745,744,747,97,308,843,720,743,844],"class_list":["post-14762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn","tag-gilmore-automobile-museum","tag-gurnee","tag-gurnee-mills","tag-hickory-corners","tag-illinois","tag-michigan","tag-orthodontist","tag-pinspotting","tag-portillos","tag-record-store"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14762"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14779,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762\/revisions\/14779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}