Those of you who have read my pages over the years know that my two boys play a lot of sports. One of the sports that they play is lacrosse. Club lacrosse is played during the summer and often requires road trips to tournaments up and down the East Coast. Over the years my family and I have used these trips to visit tons of arcades in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. For years, I've had a running joke that involves Delaware. Nothing against the state itself, it's awesome, but all these years when it came to arcades, Delaware has been a "pinball-less wasteland" to use my traditional quote. Well, I am happy to report that Delaware is no longer a pinball-less wasteland. It is now a pinball paradise thanks to the recent opening of a members-only Pinball Social Club located in Wilmington, Delaware...the Delaware Pinball Collective.
I have been talking with my friend Chad Hastings about visiting the Delaware Collective since before it even opened but for some reason my sons didn't have any tournaments in Delaware last year. This year we have two in the First State. The first thing that I did after my son's games were over was hightail it over there. I was not disappointed. Located a short drive from southern New Jersey and fairly close to Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Delaware Collective contains a constantly rotating collection of 50+ pinball machines. The club is located on the second floor of a very nice building in a newer industrial park.
Upon entering I met up with the member who was on duty that day, Joe Fox. I had an amazing time hanging out, talking about the location and getting my ass kicked by him at game after game. Out of the more than 50 games on the floor when I was there not a single one was down. That's almost unheard of for a large pinball arcade. Not only were the games all up, but they played great. Many of the Stern games were Blinged-out with the official topper, shooter rod, Insider Connected, you name it. They had the usual suspects of games, but they also had a lot of rarer machines that you normally don't see in arcades, such as Williams No Good Gophers 2.0, a TON of the classic Stern Electronics machines, Banzai Run, Playmatics, etc... And judging by the queue of games waiting to be restored in the collective's storage space many more awesome machines to come.
Here's a list of the Collective's recent lineup of games, courtesy of Pinball Map. Pinball Map is usually fairly accurate, but I was just there on Saturday and I know for a fact that its current lineup is significantly different than this, but it will give you an idea of what it's like there. The differences are actually a good thing because it means that they keep the lineup fresh:
Aerosmith (Premium) (Stern, 2017)
Attack From Mars (Remake LE) (Chicago Gaming, 2017)
Avengers: Infinity Quest (Premium) (Stern, 2020)
Bank Shot (Gottlieb, 1976)
Banzai Run (Williams, 1988)
Baywatch (Sega, 1995)
Beatles (Stern, 2018)
Black Jack (Bally, 1977)
Black Rose (Bally, 1992)
Bobby Orr's Power Play (Bally, 1977)
Centaur II (Bally, 1983)
The Champion Pub (Bally, 1998)
Cirqus Voltaire (Bally, 1997)
Comet (Williams, 1985)
Dialed In! (LE) (Jersey Jack, 2017)
Eight Ball (Bally, 1977)
Flight 2000 (Stern, 1980)
The Flintstones (Williams, 1994)
Future Spa (Bally, 1979)
Game of Thrones (Pro) (Stern, 2015)
The Getaway: High Speed II (Williams, 1992)
Godzilla (Premium) (Stern, 2021)
Grand Lizard (Williams, 1986)
Grand Prix (Williams, 1976)
Guardians of the Galaxy (Pro) (Stern, 2017)
Hot Hand (Stern, 1979)
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (Williams, 1993)
Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro) (Stern, 2018)
Iron Man (Vault Edition) (Stern, 2014)
Joker Poker (Gottlieb, 1978)
Jurassic Park (Pro) (Stern, 2019)
Laser War (Data East, 1987)
Lectronamo (Stern, 1978)
Meteor (Stern, 1979)
Monster Bash (Williams, 1998)
New World (Playmatic, 1976)
Night Moves (Gottlieb, 1989)
Nine Ball (Stern, 1980)
Nitro Ground Shaker (Bally, 1978)
No Good Gofers (Williams, 1997)
Pro-Football (Gottlieb, 1973)
Rollergames (Williams, 1990)
Rush (Pro) (Stern, 2022)
Safe Cracker (Bally, 1996)
Scared Stiff (Bally, 1996)
Space Shuttle (Williams, 1984)
Star Trek (Pro) (Stern, 2013)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Williams, 1993)
Star Wars (Comic Art Pro) (Stern, 2019)
TRON: Legacy (Stern, 2011)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Pro) (Stern, 2020)
Theatre of Magic (Bally, 1995)
Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993)
The Walking Dead (Pro) (Stern, 2014)
Wild Fyre (Stern, 1978)
World Cup Soccer (Bally, 1994)
Wrestlemania (Stern, 2015)
If you are a fan of pinball and find yourself anywhere near Delaware you have to check out or better yet join the Delaware Pinball Collective. If I lived a little closer, I'd join up and be there all the time. It's such a nice bunch of people in a friendly atmosphere with amazing pinball machines.
Delaware Pinball Collective
1100 First State Blvd, Second Floor, Wilmington DE 19804
(302) 492-5055
