Pop's Pinball Parlor in Somerville delivers nostalgia and friendly competition
SOMERVILLE – A Somerville business is serving up a heavy dose of nostalgia for pinball players, along with some friendly competition.
The bells and whistles at Pop's Pinball Parlor are music to a player's ears.
"I think there's something about having the control of being able to press a button and see it actively make a machine come to life right in front of your very eyes," said Ty Ueda from Pop's Pinball Parlor.
Pinball paradise
The Somerville location is a fun and competitive space with 11 pinball machines.
"That's one thing we get when we have new players come in. They see some of our good players play and they ask 'Are you supposed to push it around like that, is that allowed?' And we actually say it's encouraged. It's actually necessary," Daniel Radin of Pop's Pinball Parlor said.
Radin and Ueda are silver ball lifers and watching customers enjoy the classics has been a great experience for them.
"Extra cool to see people resonate with certain games. They'll say, 'Oh my gosh, I played Terminator 2 in my college rec room like 20 years ago, or Stars, or to just see the different level of nostalgia that people have for pinball," Ueda said.
A competitive sport
So what does it take to be a pinball store owner? You have to know the machines in and out.
"It's hard to know if the game is working well if you don't know all the rules to it and everything. So knowing everything that it's supposed to be doing is pretty pivotal," Ueda said.
You also have to be ready for the occasional heckling when playing a competitive game.
"A labor of love"
What the business owners are doing is bringing old school fun to many and sharing the joy of coin-operated machines.
"It's a labor of love definitely but it's all worth it when you bring a new game in and you get to see everyone line up and gather around it and excited to see what it does and how it plays, it just makes it all worth it," Radin said.