Some time ago the #latenight guys at Stern Pinball posted a few instagram pictures about a bar, which consists of pinball machines. The Location was unknown and there was no further information. It was not clear if the bar still existed. So i asked my german arcade friends if there is any information about the Pin Hut. Some suggested that the bar must be built around 1990, but a satellite dish on the roof proves that it could not before 1993, because there was no public Satellite TV in Germany earlier, at least that’s what we thought .  As it turned out later, there were satellite dishes from 1990 onwards.

So i asked the pinball community about further details. Some guys knew the pinball bar and stated that it still exists in a small town near Frankfurt  (Hessen/Germany).  Since I wanted to visit a friend nearby that location anyway, this was an ideal opportunity to make another arcade/pinball road trip and get more details about that unique pinball bar. So i wrote Stern that i will do a story on that but it could take a while.

Roadtrip time!

So, here we go! 🙂 Time for another Pinball road trip with my Arcade Friends Andy and Nico. We also managed to visit Bernd Ulmann and his awesome analog computer collection and the Technikum 29 Computer Museum. Both are worth a story, which I’ll try to add here later…

Onkel’s Billiard Cafe is located in a small Town called Mörfelden-Walldorf about 15km from Frankfurt. We arrived just before sunset and entered the Cafe to have a drink. The owner was not present and so we spoke to the waitress and tried to find out what’s all about that Flipper Hütte. She asked us to wait and added that Ralph will surely tell us the story.

While we waited we did a few rounds on the well maintained pins and slurped a cocktail. It’s always nice to see when people are not only operators but collectors too.

Ralph arrived and it turned out he was a really nice guy willingly to tell us the story about the hut.

In 1993 Bally went near bankrupt and so they wanted to shred many pinball’s because they were non-sellers anyway and took too much space in their storage.

Ralph got wind of this and so he asked Bally if he could have the machines, with an idea already in his mind. At first he only wanted the back glasses but the guys at Bally said, no, you can’t have them alone you have to take the whole pin, because it costs Bally 150 Deutsch Mark, around 150$ in todays cash, to throw them away. So Ralph didn’t hesitate. They agreed and he rescued about 100! pinball machines from oblivion which piled up in the backyard. As he didn’t want to throw anything away at the time, he now wondered what he should do with all the pins. The first thing he wanted to do was put the pinball machines side by side. A kind of pinball snake. But he had a better idea…

[Show slideshow]

The Pinball Hut

He asked us to follow in his backyard where the Pin Hut resides. What a jaw dropper: On a concrete foundation 4 rows of Flipper Cases just like Lego  pieces piled up. It consists of many known and famous EM Pinballs like Star Trek, Centaur, Harlem Globetrotters and so on. One might cry about that many pinballs that are built into this hut, but keep in mind they where shred otherwise and at least they benefit a good cause. Also keep in mind not all pins have been used for the hut. Some of them were given to collectors, some were used as spare part donors and the rest were used for the hut.

Ralph said the cabin consists of about 96 pinball machines. He also managed to safe most of the printed circuit boards which later used for decorating the counter and added that it should be in the Guinness Book of Records, because there is only one other hut which consists of 8 pinball machines.

Inside the Cabin there are some beer benches for partys and other occasions. There are some Vintage Gambling Machines for decoration. The view inside is also really awesome, even the ceiling is fitted with playfields from famous EM Pins.  From the Backboxes only the Backglass and the PCB’s survived. He had no storage for all the parts. Again, be aware that the whole Pins would otherwise end up in a shredder or landfill! Ralph has seen grown men cry when they saw the pinball machines. But he said that they should be happy, after all, the pinballs are still there!

He even allowed us to take a few parts we needed for our Arcade or Pins. Andy took some Gorf custom chips which get rarer and rarer these days but they were bad, as we later found out. Anyway, a nice gesture from him!

I love the analog warmth of this picture. With 80s hits blasting out of the speakers, the scenery had the potential to shoot you right back to the future.  In fact, I’m thinking about throwing a party here one day 😉 During the tour, Ralph said he should have made a flat out of it.

It’s a really gorgeous site, even the ceiling is made out of playfields. What an awesome view!
He adds that he could also have had slot machines and if he had a larger plot of land, he would have built a second hut. Imagine!

Although Ralph built a decent roof and foundation back then, you can see the slow decay. The roof is leaking and the weather has taken its toll on the building.

The hut also survived the storm Kyrill. The water was up to half of the lower pinball machines, chipboard panels of the pinball machines are badly affected and are slowly rotting away. 

But against all odds, the hut is still standing after more than 30 years.

He once said jokingly during the conversation: “If some american guy comes around and picks up the hut with a helicopter, perhaps to Las Vegas, I would sell it”

All in all not many can say they have a Pinball Hut in the backyard. He saved many Pins from oblivion and made the best out of it. Thank you Ralph for taking the time and tell us the story behind the Flipper Hütte. We hope that it will remain a few years and that i can do a party there!