Maybe it’s something in the air, or maybe it was Brett Bates’ recent story about pixel people, but I feel the need to share another slice of San Franciscan gaming randomness.
On an outing to catch a movie at the painfully empty Metreon (what the hell happened?), my gal and I took a detour to a hotel lobby on 7th Street — no kidding — to check out some classic pinball machines we read about in some SF magazine.
San Francisco’s Americania Hotel oozes that retro chic vibe. I dunno if that’s meant to attract Baby Boomers, kids, or us gamers, but it worked. We walked in and saw a handful of Internet stations that looked like what you’d imagine designers of the ’70s thought the not-too-distant future would look like — complete with uncomfortable, pod-like chairs.
But our goal was the game room a little further back. It featured a stack of board games, the accordion-style lettering you can see below, and a couple pinball machines.
Now, I love me some pinball, but over the years I’ve come to realized that I’m not as big a fan of old-style pinball — the tables that have minimal bumpers and targets and seem a step behind in keeping up with your score. That’s what these were.
Up first was the exciting-sounding Capt. Fantastic, which is, of all things, an Elton John vehicle — who knew?! It features said star strutting his stuff up on a Wizard pinball machine up top, and a bevy of busty beauties on the table. Just really confusing on many levels.
The game, though, wasn’t so hot. The placement of obstacles felt off, with far too many openings on one side, and one of the flippers needed some WD-40 badly.
The other game…well, I’m not sure the name. It was some generic cowboy setup — kinda like Woody from Toy Story — and even more disappointing. I found the ball to drop down the side way too easily (maybe it was my fault, but I’m chalking it up to poor table design), and again, the flippers didn’t have a proper spring to them.
Complaints aside, I think this is more a situation where the idea behind it is better than the execution: classic pinball tables in a stylin’ hotel (hell, it’s even got an awesome burger joint past the bar). But I’m sure the wear and tear and these vintage machines — coupled with my modern-day expectations — took the shine off just so much.
