3 Squares (Maple Grove)

Maple Grove certainly was one of the last places I would look for a pinball machine. However, it's nice to be surprised. We went get dinner at 3 Squares before a movie.  Squares is notable for a few reasons. It is the only restaurant in "The Grove" that isn't a chain, their food and beer selection is the best in the city, and I, sometimes regrettably, run into people I went to high school with. Now the restaurant has a 4th distinction, awesome pinball machines. They said there was a 20 minute wait for a table, so we played pinball until we got a table. Then we placed our order and played until the food came. It was perfect.

The first game we played was the newer Batman. It has a fun addition where you have to hit the Scarecrow, which is like a crane hanging over the table, for extra points.
Vonny's High score: 12.8 mil
My High Score: 12.4 mil
Replay: 29.7 mil

Next we moved onto the classic Addams Family. Previous to us someone was playing tournament play and left the 4th player with a turn left and a full credit on the machine, so score one for us. I finished out the tourney play, and Vonny took the credit.
Vonny's High Score: 21.6 mil

Last we moved on to T3: Rise Of The Machines. Like T2 it also has the "pistol" shooter which I don't like. This game was our least favorite.We didn't catch right away that there is a way to trigger a second game on the scoreboard where you shoot a ping-pong ball at some lights.
My High Score: 13 mil (but I got the match)
Vonny's High Score: 11.7 mil
Replay: 33 mil

Flaherty's Arden Bowl (Roseville/Arden Hills)

Apparently this place is one of the oldest family run bowling alleys in the country. I expected it to be packed with college students from Bethel and Northwestern who are looking for vice-free fun on a friday night. I guess they all went home for the holidays, because it was pretty dead. I found three machines, however, right when you walk in the door. South Park, Family Guy, and High Roller Casino.

I started with South Park, and played two games. Its $.50/1 game or $2.00/5 games. Is it just me or is this a really boring game? The shooter was really sticky, so I cleaned it off with my coat sleeve and started. When it does multiball it launched 5 at me, which was a bit more that this mediocre wizard could handle. Eventually, on my last ball of the game, it got stuck under a flag. I couldn't get it loose without shaking the machine. First shake. Tilt. No good. Second shake. Tilt and game over. Ball still stuck. Finally the third time i shook it it came free. I guess I should've asked for my $.50 back
High Score: 56 Mil
Replay: 245 mil

Next was High Roller Casino. $.50 per game. This game is pretty fun. It really tripped me up though when it started yelling JACKPOT! and adding balls to the shooter alley. I didn't realize it was doing it until there were 4 stacked up. Let me tell you the spring is not made to push four balls. I ended up having to pull it back and hit it as hard as I could until I cleared them all. It's a clever way to do multiball, and I would play it again.
High Score: 73 mil
Replay 185 mil

As one of my new favorites I saved Family Guy for last. It was $.50/1 or $2.00/5 games. I probably shouldnt have waited to do this one last, as when I got to it, I really wasn't in the mood to play for some reason. I played on anyway. It wasn't pretty. I even sucked at Stewie Mini-Pinball.
High Score: 5.4 mil
Replay: 7.9 mil

Sportys (Como, Mpls)

I remembered that there were a couple of odd bars on Como just west of 280, and lord knows there is no better spot to find a pinball machine than an odd bar. My first stop was Station 280. My guess is this place used to serve to a lot of workers in the industrial days-gone-by. Now it seems to be a sports bar with a d-bag clientele from the U who are choosing  to not live in Dinkytown. They have a large game room, but no pinball, so I headed further west to Mannings and Sportys. Mannings seems like the kind of place that is owned by The Mob. At 10:30 on a Saturday night it had four employees and two customers, with a clean, quiet, old school atmosphere. Sadly they had no pinball machines, so I walked across the street to Sporty's.

 Sporty's is kind of strange. There was definitely nothing sports-related about it, and the clientele seemed college-hipster. Its an old bar that added a weird dining room by expanding into the space next door. Here I was excited to find Terminator 2 and Star Trek: The Next Generation machines.

I first played T2. The right side coin slot ate my quarter, but I looked up to see it had a free credit on it. It is only $.50 per play. Not a bad game, but I don't care for the "gun" shooter it has.
My High Score: 5.6 mil
Replay 36 mil

Moving over to Star Trek: The Next Generation I was disappointed to see that it also had the "gun" shooter, although it would probably be categorized as a phaser. However, don't let that get you down. This game is great. It had a ton of ramps to shoot over and over, and a reachable replay. Its priced at $.50/1, $.75/2, and $1.00/3 games. I got an extra ball and came so close to hitting the replay that I almost added another quarter to keep my game going. However, part of me feels like that is cheating, and it was getting late. I look forward to playing this machine again.
My High Score: 321 mil
Replay: 345 mil

Mortimers (Uptown Mpls)

I had never been here despite the fact that a good friend of mine spent a year living within a 5 minute walk of it. I don't know why we never went. Its a pretty cool bar, and well known by pinball enthusiasts thanks to it's 8 machines and monthly tournaments. For some odd reason you can't find it on google maps either. This is especially strange since its the only building on the block and has expanded to take up all three store fronts. When I was there the bar had the added attraction of a barfly in her 40's hassling men for a drink. She even went after a group of 5 guys playing the Lord Of The Rings machine, calling them nerds for not wanting to spend time with a sexy women like her.

Most all of the games are $.75/1 play or $2.00/3 plays. The games the had that I didn't play were: Rolling Stones, Lord Of The Rings, Sopranos, and X-Men.

I did play the following:
Iron Man
My High Score 4.6 mil
Replay 25 mil

Tron (new)
My High Score 4.8 mil
Replay 28.2 mil

Transformers
My High Score 5.5 mil
Replay 31.1 mil

AC/DC (includes weird cannon)
My High Score 5.5 mil
Replay 29.5 mil

these are not good scores

Caffetto (Uptown Mpls)

This is another, that like Jimmy's Pro Billiards, could be an old-school enthusiasts dream. Sadly 1/2 of the machines are out of order. They are a little hard to find, but if youwalk in the front door, and go straight past the barista there is a staircase going down to the basement on the left hand side. In the "Saw-esque" basemet there is a ping-pong table and these four machines;
Big Guns... out of order
Black Knight 2000... out of order

Cyclone
Each game is $.50/1 play. Cyclone is kind of a fun circus-based game, and some good ramps.

My High Score: 340K
Replay 1.4 mil

Jack Bot
Jack Bot is kind of cool. It's an awesome look at the future. A robotic future where mass-inflation has driven pinball scores into the billions. I'm not kidding. I have never seen a machine with scores this high. A robot greets you to the game, and the shooter has a metal tip which makes an awesome metal-on-metal sound when you launch the ball. Unfortunately many of the lights on the left side of the game were burned out making it a little difficult to play

My High Score: 308 mil
Replay: 1.4 Billion

Grumpys (Downtown Mpls)

Grumpys Downtown is always a solid bar. Good beer selection and food. If you walk in the backdoor, from the parking lot, immediatly on your left there is a "Family Guy" machine. I initially didn't care for this one, but its growing on me.The replay again isn't unreachable, extra balls, are easy, and the Stewie Mini-pinball adds for a fun novelty. The last nice aspect was, like Macs Industrial, they had the volume low. You can only take a machine farting at  you for so long before you get annoyed.

My High Score: 14.5 mil
Replay: 16 mil

Burger Moes (Downtown St. Paul)

I was tipped off to Burger Moes having a machine called "Hurricane." What I wasn't told was where it was. If you go through the main bar to the back, and hang a left just after the bathrooms and before you get to the kitchen you might see a handwritten sign pointing to the game room in the basement. The game room is a brightly lit room with concrete walls, a few chairs, a pool table, darts and "Hurricane." It's a weird space. It feels like that one "friend's" house you used to go over to. You know which one I'm talking about. The one you really didn't like, whose house smelt funny, but he had a Nintendo in his basement. Yeah, that one. Anyway the "Hurricane" is a bargain 3 games for a dollar. It's pretty old school, next to no digital stuff going on. It has some sweet ferris wheels on it, and the ramps are easy to shoot. It has a fairly attainable extra ball and replay, which is good, because there is no ball save. You have to lift it off teh ground to tilt it, and The machine incessantly yells at you while you play that its "CLOWN TIME!"All in all this is worth your quarters though.

My Top Score 9.4 Mil
Replay 11.4 Mil

Mac's Industrial Sports Bar (NE Mpls)

Mac's Has a great beer selection and good burgers. Stay away from the Chili though. I got food poisoning once. Right when you walk in the front door there is a "Family Guy" machine. I like the novelty of the Stewie mini-pinball, however it doesn't make up for this beat up game.  The shooter sticks on it, and there is a broken flag laying on the table that floats around whenever the ball hits it causing the ball to go who knows where. I'm a little unsure how anyone could hit the 60 million replay with it like this. It must have been from before it took the beatdown that left it in its current shape. Also it cost a buck to play this broken machine. Save your money for another beer and go play somewhere else.

My High Score: 2.7 Million
Replay: 60 Million

Columbia Grill and Tavern aka Starbar (Columbia Heights)

I was never at this place when it was called Starbar. I hear they had a "Simpsons" machine back then. Well under new ownership it has been replaced by "Lord Of The Rings," The machine says one play for $1.00, but actually only charges $0.50. This is cool, because I am quickly beginning to hate this game. I've never had a machine send so many unhittable balls down the center. I didn't want to put too much into it as I was afraid one of the townies might say something. Plus this machine in particular had a shooter that would stick half-way through the pull unless you pulled it at just the right angle.

Anyway... whatever. The place is a dump.

My High Score: 2.9 million
Replay: 25 Million

Jimmy's Pro Billiards (Columbia Heights)

I walked into this joint and got very excited. Its a mammoth space with a lot of pool tables, and, at 4:30 in the afternoon, a few depressing old men. Apparently they sell food as well, but I wouldn't guess it to be to great. Anyway back to the pinball. They had 4 machines lined up. I haven't heard of anyplace yet, save SS and Blainebrook, with more than two. First is Addams Family. We all know what to expect from this. Although it is no longer my favorite, it does still hold some love in my heart from when I was younger. Its $0.50 a play with no bonuses for paying in more, and it operates just fine.

After I played that I moved on to the next three old school classics. They were "Pool Sharks," the awesome "Matahari," and "Eight Ball Champ." Unfortunately all had handwritten signs on them saying "Out Of Order. What a disappointment. This cold have been the best find in the Northeast area.

Oh well, "Addams Family" had a credit already on it, so I played for free. At least that is a nice bonus.

My Best Score: 15 Million
Replay: 54 million