Category: blog

I never realized an article about my little arcade could turn into a world wide viral thing. It leaves me in a weird place because now I’ve had hundreds of requests from people to visit, when this isn’t a business and I’m not trying to monetize it. Obviously a real brick & mortar business would have loved all the attention, but I don’t know what to do with it.

Then came more media requests and TV requests. I’ll have to let the dust settle before I decide what I will do next. In the meantime I will continue to update this site as a blog about what I do with my arcade.

There’s been interest in the arcade due to the Toronto Life article. As mentioned, the arcade is a private collection, but on occasion we’ve opened it up for a charity night. I’ve created an email address for people interested to be put on a list.

You can email your interest to:

guestlistrequest@frolicsarcade.com

Outside of this, this isn’t a business, so it isn’t available for private bookings or rentals.

Other places to play:

There are multiple leagues that play regularly in and around Toronto:

Toronto Pinball League – plays every Monday at venues around the GTA.

City Pinball – Plays regularly in Toronto.

Bluff’s Pinball League – Plays regularly in Scarborough

DRAPL Pinball League – Plays regularly in Durham and east of Toronto.

There is also

The Church of the Silver Ball – Open most weekends in Mississauga.

Happy Flipping!

My mom was visiting on the weekend and available to watch the kids, so Robin and I could have a date night.

“Do you want to go play some pinball?” I asked her. “Sure”, she responded, but she hadn’t played pinball in many years.

I discovered the Church online, just following some Toronto pinball links. It is a private collection housed in a warehouse by Mike & Christine Hanley. Every once in a while they open it to the public, and they happened to be doing one of their “Pinball Faith” nights this Friday.

We drove to the Mississauga warehouse, which was fun just to drive too… driving the car into a deserted warehouse district, but then seeing a bunch of cars parked in one area. Reminiscent of our old days.

We went inside, and were greeted by Mike. It was $10 per person, any games that had power were free to play. His collection spans from older Electric Mechanical games, on through solid state and DMD. The crown jewel of his collection was the complete “jpop” collection of pins, from World Cup Soccer, Theatre of Magic, Circus Voltaire, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Star Wars Episode 1. I would find out later him and jpop are actually really old friends and Mike actually inducted him into the Pinball Hall of Fame the year previous.

Mike had a game open and Robin was immediately intrigued by all the guts, so she asked Mike to show her some more which he was happy to oblige. By the end of the night Robin declared “We’re getting one!”. Usually the wives are the resistance on any pinball acquisitions :-).

Welcome to my blog where I will document my progression building a personal pinball arcade!

I played pinball as a kid and teenager at the arcade, and as an adult I had always wanted one. It wasn’t until recently though that I discovered others had been building home arcades with multiple machines.

Multiple machines seems to keep things more interesting than just 1 in the corner. You can have multiple people over all playing together, running tournaments, etc.

A pinball is like a piece of modern art, and great to show off and demo to people.

When I moved into my current house out of our previous 2-bedroom apartment, having the basement available meant I could finally realize the dream. The basement is on the small side (older house), but I think it will do the job for now.

When I move, a proper games room will be a big feature we will be looking for in our next house.