This weekend my family and I drove down to Philadelphia to visit my brother. A half hour from his house on the New Jersey side is a spot that has always intrigued me. It’s a location called the Berlin Farmer’s Market. Over the years I’ve heard that there’s pinball there. How a farmer’s market has pinball is beyond me, so we set course to check it out.
To put it in terms that someone from the Northeast would understand, the Berlin Farmer’s Market is a mix between the Meadowlands Flea Market and New York City’s Canal Street. Basically, it’s a huge space with many vendors selling everything under the sun. There’s lots of food vendors and stores that sell everything from tires, to trinkets, to speakers, and so on.
The market goes on and on, literally for miles. Eventually we came across a booth called “Hyndman’s Arcade.” The arcade contains an excellent assortment of games, including my favorite…PINBALL! Here’s the lineup:
2020 Stern Pinball Avengers Infinity Quest Pro
2019 Stern Pinball Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro
1996 Capcom Breakshot
2020 Stern Pinball Led Zeppelin Pro
2019 Stern Pinball Munsters Pro
1995 Gottlieb Shaq Attack
1999 Sega South Park
2020 Stern Pinball Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pro
2003 Stern Pinball Simpsons Pinball Party
Wow, what a lineup for such a random place! All of the newer Sterns that we played worked perfectly. They seemed like they were fairly well maintained. The left flipper on the Breakshot was sticking a little, but other than that I didn’t find any issues with the pins.
Beyond the pinball, the arcade had lots of driving and shooting games. It had a very old school mall arcade vibe. The games all took quarters. The newer pins were a dollar per play and three plays for two dollars.
After we played in the arcade for a while, we wandered around the Market. At one booth that contained all sorts of fruits and vegetables I found quite the gift to bring to my brother’s house…something called a Jack Fruit. This monstrous fruit resembled the dragon’s eggs from the show Game of Thrones. It was spiky and must have weighed 30 pounds plus. So heavy. The rest of our stay at the mall was spent with me carrying my baby dragon around. I became a fruit celebrity with everyone asking me about it. My dragon baby and I even did a wine tasting. The fruit itself has the consistency of pulled pork and tastes like Juicy Fruit gum. Oh yeah, the seeds are poisonous so don’t eat that part.
So there you have it. A very interesting trip. If you ever find yourself in the Berlin, NJ area and are in the mood for some pinball Hyndman’s Arcade is a great place to visit.