Welcome to the early stages of RenoPinball.com. This is a great resource for pinball in the Reno area and also home to the Reno Pinball Syndicate, the only pinball club in Reno. Though the Syndicate only has three members and one doesn't know he's part of the club, it's got a future because it's got a webpage. Also the directory of pinball machines should have up-to-date information on all machines operated by Tip Top Amusement (which is most of them) and almost-up-to-date information on the rest of the machines in the area. If you would like to update any information please e-mail here. Also, click here to read the lexicon, a set of terms that the Syndicate uses to talk about the ball.
06.24.06 - Me again. I found an excellent 3D pinball simulator package that is available free for download on the web. The package combines two programs: Visual Pinball and VPinMAME. Visual Pinball is a 3D modeling program used to construct the actual, playable table, while VPinMAME is a dot-matrix pinball display emulator. The programs are designed to run in tandem - Visual Pinball constructs the table that you play on while VPinMAME handles the scoring and display. Overall the emulator is fantastic - it's quite possibly the most faithful representation of a pinball table possible in a digital format. There's a very large selection of tables available for download, as well. Check out the following links for downloads and more information. NOTE: You will need to register at vpforums.com to download these files.
Visual Pinball + VPinMAME Starter Package (includes everything but the tables and roms ready to go upon install): Download.
Table + ROM website (you will need to download both the table (left) and the rom (right) and put them both in the tables and ROMS directories): List.
The minimum system requirements are pretty slack, so this should run on just about any computer that's running Windows XP. Have fun! -JCP
06.16.06 - Yes indeed. It's been almost a year since our last update. This website has been put on the back burner, due somewhat to the lack of other pinball players in the Reno area. Since we built the map and list of machines we really don't need to use them, and nobody else seems to, either. But we met some radical dudes over at Harrah's the other day who were putting up some good scores, and they sent us an e-mail with a few updates to the list and such. No guarantees if we're going to bring that stuff current, but I wanted to put something on the front page to indicate that we still own and control this website - just not often. Peace out. -JCP
06.24.05 - Updated the directory again. Should be pretty accurate now except for the map which is just pretty. We have investigated the Monster Bash machine. It is in very good working order except the "G" rollover lane in "D-I-G" which costs some skill shot gifts. Most importantly, Coaches is open 24 hours which means you can play one of the best pinball games ever no matter what time it is. Which is good. We've only started to replace all the scores but it's only a matter of time. Everybody: Step to this. -ACF
06.23.05 - Updated the directory by machine and by location in accordance with the Tip Top Amusement Master Spreadsheet. Also, thanks to Tip Top, we now know that Monster Bash is at Coaches Sports Bar and World Cup Soccer is at Pizza Plus on Oddie. Two great machines. Please frequent these establishments. -ACF
06.22.05 - Currently in negotiations with Tip Top Amusement to get updates of where their pins are located around town. This will be a huge boost to the site and we will be much more useful. Also, The Syndicate has been playing alot of The Sopranos at The Hilton. This is one of the best games Stern has put out and we're pretty good at it so if anybody thinks they can throw down with our scores, get over there and put up some initials. I dare you. -ACF
01.11.05 - Took off the sounds on the toolbar. Also, I updated the directory with the following information: Park Lane Mall got rid of their old machines and replaced them with Roadshow, from the makers and era of Funhouse, but unfortunately the display doesn't work at all. Also, they added Dr. Who which is one of the creepiest pinball machines I've ever played. It's actually quite fun though and it would be highly recommended if it weren't for the fact that the right flipper doesn't catch. If you hold the button it still only flips once that then falls. Still playable but requires adaptation. The other change to the directory is a Guns'n'Roses machine at Q's Billiard Club on South Virginia by Moana with a non-functioning right flipper. The game looks like fun so I hope they get around to fixing it. -ACF
12.30.04 - Added sounds to the toolbar. That sort of thing is usually annoying but I don't care about anybody but myself and I think they're funny. I also updated the map and the directory to encompass some new information. -ACF
12.25.04 - I'm finally building and publishing this site. Most of the information was gathered in the Summer of '04 and not updated. Thus, it may all be out of date. Oh well. Eventually, this may be a big deal but for now it's just a geek-type project that isn't going to garner too much attention.
The idea is this. Part of the site, the directory, will have a database of pinball machines in the Reno area. The other part is going to be for the Reno Pinball Syndicate, a ballers club for this area. We'll plan hang-outs, brag about scores, refer to eachother entirely by our initials, and eventually hold some tournaments. We'll also have some information on dealers in the area, specifically those that treat us well. We'll also change the way we do things very quickly in the event that we are offered advertising, and I think we're perfect for that sort of thing. -ACF