A new pinball arcade will open in York next month.
Oh, Flip! will open inside gaming café bar Up A Level, and is set to bring a dose of gamer nostalgia to the city.
The pinball arcade will officially open on Saturday 3 May with a special launch party that includes a free cinema screening.
YorkMix spoke with founder Rosalyn Aspinall to find out more about the new venture.
“Pinball has been around in some form for a century,” said Rosalyn. “The game as we know it evolved in the 60s and 70s mainly – it’s changed a lot through the years.
“Whilst people might remember playing a pinball machine in a pub, I don’t think that many people have ever had the opportunity to really appreciate and enjoy the game, and really get into it, learn it and understand it.
“So the idea of a pinball arcade is to create a space for that.”
The games will have a pay-for-time system, rather than putting coins in the machine.
“I think that really helps people to have the space to enjoy the game, try, fail, learn and improve and don’t feel like you’re getting ripped off,” she said.
Oh, Flip! will be a unique venture for York. “There’s not really anything around here that’s dedicated to pinball.”
The games room will feature a selection of classic machines and modern machines, with most decades accounted for with games from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
“I think seeing a modern game next to an old game helps you appreciate them more.”
The pinball machine currently set up in Up A Level – Total Nuclear Annihilation – is from 2018, and Rosalyn is aiming to also display a Dungeons and Dragons machine that was released in 2025.
Rosalyn herself is a huge games fan and has “always had a bit of a fixation with pinball.”
“I’ve always wanted to do something with it.” She was especially inspired after visiting the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam, which has over 150 games.
“It was really cool being in that space and seeing it popular, and seeing the games being appreciated and being played.
“I thought, we need something like this in the UK. So since that trip I was quite fixated on trying to make this happen.”
Rosalyn explained that the biggest challenge will be the upkeep for the machines. “Pinball is hard to look after – there’s an ongoing maintenance need for it.”
The other challenge is “getting people to want to come and try it!”
The launch event on Saturday 3 May will take place at City Screen with a free showing of the 2022 film Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game, before a fun evening of playing pinball. Book your free tickets here.
Rosalyn is keen to “build a local scene” for pinball, and to introduce events like pinball tournaments in the future.
Oh, Flip! will be open every day from 10am to 11pm. It will be £10 for two hours of play, and deals like day passes and memberships will be introduced in the future.
It’s going to be flipping awesome!