Rumors of this being the LAST fun night were circling the globe in anticipation of this event. Being that I had just been to the previous fun night in September, I figured I HAD to make this one, and I could turn it into a family vacation. We flew out on the evening of March 9th and got there around 8:30pm pacific time. There was no problems with check in and such and we stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel/Casino on "The Strip". Tim and I have been friends since before the last fun night so we got there a little early for some "exclusive play time".
Tim has set up some Chicago Coin "Commando Guns" that shoot ball bearings at high rates of speed. Sorta like an automatic BB Gun. Sounds Dangerous? It would be if he hadn't enclosed the whole attraction behind walls and plexiglass. It was very safe and people got to blast holes in things that were hanging from the ceiling (see the pictures). One guy brought a picture of his ex-wife that he hung on a pie pan and totally ripped to shreds.
On the first night, another guy and I found a machine smoking, since smoking is not allowed, we pulled the plug on it. As far as I know, that was the only machine that burned up! There was about 400 games set for free play including a nice selection of video games. I also want to add that there is no charge to play on fun night. You simply show up, sign a card, get a name badge and start playing anything that's open. There is a drawing for cool pinball and non pinball related prizes and you could buy raffle tickets for them. Buying enough of them, got you some cool gifts as well. The money from the raffle went to your choice of either the Pinball Hall of Fame Building Fund, or the Las Vegas Salvation Army.
I did an interview with Tim on March 11th while he was fixing a couple of games. I asked him some questions I've always wanted to know and I plan to make the video tape of this available by June (more details as it happens).
At 10:00pm on each fun night, prizes are handed out to raffle winners and the big prize on Friday was your choice of pinball machines in your house for a year, or a cocktail pin to keep. The "in your house option" was only available to local people. All of the prizes were donated by some of the well known companies in pinball and included everything from graphics for games to framed posters.
The pictures below speak for themselves. Some of the pictures are from the inner sanctum work area and some are of games he has stored outside for the event. These games are usually inside, in the rows. It's interesting that he has more games outside his shed than I have in my collection. Click on each picture to see a larger view. I took these at an even higher resolution but cut them down for this web page. They are available for publication in other venues for certain considerations, but are Copyrighted by me. No other use is permitted without my permission.