It’s difficult to call a location “iconic” if it’s only been open for a couple of years, but Bruce Nightingale’s Silverball Salloon in Rochester, New York feels like the quintessential pinball bar. Bruce, a lifelong pinball aficionado and valued member of the community, runs a tight ship. All of the pins at the Silverball Saloon are always in tip top shape and sparkling clean.
The first thing that my son and I did after we completed the long trek to Rochester wasn’t check into our hotel, nope it was to head on over to the Silverball Saloon. Once there, the first game we played was one of only three of its kind on location in the World (at least that I am aware of anyhow)...Stern Electronics’ rare 1981 masterpiece Dragonfist. What a treat to be able to play it.
Dragonfist sits in a long pin lineup right next to a pin that Bruce and his co-host of the Slam Tilt Podcast singlehandedly caused the price of to double, Stern Electronics’ Stars. As a fellow owner of Stars myself, I am a big fan of the game.
Right across the aisle from the Stern Electronics games was another unusual pin for location, the super wide 1980 Bally Hotdoggin’. Another fun game.
You don’t see many places that can maintain older pins in such great working order. I mentioned three older pins to start things off, but the Silverball Saloon actually has a great mix of new and old games. For example, right in the middle of its lineup is Stern’s newest game Black Knight Sword Of Rage.
As I’ve mentioned in earlier reviews, when I play on location I try to play pins that I’ve never played before or have played but have lousy scores on in the Pindigo app. I passed the 200 mark of unique games played in Pindigo this trip. One game that they had here that I had a completely garbage score on in a Pindigo was Bally’s unusual 1995 game Whodunnit? This game is unusual for a number of reasons, both its code - which requires players to try to solve murder mysteries sort of like the old board game Clue, and also for its layout - with triple ramps branching off of a center shot. My son and I put several games in on Whodunnit? last night and really enjoyed it. The one at the Saloon even has a Color DMD, which I’ve never seen on this game on location.
Here’s the rest of the current lineup at the bar courtesy of Pinball Map, with several made corrections by me:
AC/DC (Premium) (Stern, 2012)
The Addams Family (Bally, 1992)
Attack From Mars (Bally, 1995)
Avatar (Stern, 2010)
Batman 66
Beatles (Stern, 2018)
Black Knight: Sword of Rage (Pro) (Stern, 2019)
Diner (Williams, 1990)
Dragonfist
Fire!
Ghostbusters (Pro) (Stern, 2016)
Hotdoggin' (Bally, 1979)
Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro) (Stern, 2018)
Iron Man (Stern, 2010)
Lord of the Rings (Stern, 2003)
Medieval Madness (Williams, 1997)
Metallica (Premium) (Stern, 2013)
Monopoly (Stern, 2001)
Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern, 2006)
Robocob
Star Trek (Enterprise LE) (Stern, 2013)
Stars (Stern, 1978)
Taxi
The Walking Dead (Pro) (Stern, 2014)
White Water (Williams, 1993)
Whodunnit?
In addition to the great pinball lineup, The Silverball Saloon has a few video games up front, Pac-Man, Asteroids, a sweet Big Buck Hunter HD and a driver vid that I forget, a full bar, food and shuffle bowling and electronic darts downstairs.
If you’re a pinball fan and find yourself anywhere near Rochester, you definitely need to check The Silverball Saloon out.
Surprisingly, I have yet another arcade road trip location in the queue. I made an unexpected visit to a pretty neat place tonight. Keep your eyes peeled for a write up in that in the next day or two.
Thanks for reading 🙂