Magpie Adventures

Lisa:
Hello friends! Welcome to Magpie Adventures, a show about how we feel in the spaces we share. I’m Lisa Pruden. Thanks for being here in this space, where a past version of me speaks to a future holding the present version of you. I hope there are snacks.

The theme of this season is play. I’m curious about where we go when we’re feeling playful and what play can look like. I found 3 very cool places to show you. Episode 1 was Boulders Climbing Gym. Episode 2 was Hexagon Boardgame Cafe.

This is episode 3, and it’s all about high scores and nostalgia. So, shake out your wrists, we’re heading over to Arkadium Retro Arcade.

Arkadium was created to celebrate and showcase pinball and classic arcade games, and their collection is an absolute delight to play through. With about 90 machines from the mid-century through to the millennium, there’s a little something for all ages. And they host competitions. Arkadium has one of the biggest pinball leagues in Canada.

So whether you are here for the pretty lights and sounds, like me - or you’re ready to dominate a machine with your high score, like Jeff who we’ll meet later, Arkadium is a very fun space to explore.
It is located in Sherwood Park on 130 Broadway BLVD. If you live in the park, route 414 can get you pretty close.

I’d like you to meet Derek.

Derek:
Yeah, I'm Derek Thompson. I'm one of the partners here at Arkadium Retro Arcade.

Lisa:
Derek is going to be our tour guide before he turns us loose among the games and gamers.

Derek:
Yeah, so ultimately, what we have in the arcade is we have about 50, 52, pinball machines and another 40 classic arcade machines. We've got a downstairs and an upstairs. And then as well, we've got party rooms that are set up downstairs for birthday parties, and then a big space that's upstairs that we can rent out for corporate events and such, two bars, you know, full non alcoholic, alcoholic drinks, and all the gaming that you can think of doing in your time that you visit here,

So essentially, when you walk in, it's sensory overload. So, you know, all the pinball machines are on, the lights are flashing. You've got all the games, all the classic arcade games that are there with their, you know, really old screens that, you know, because every game that we have here, we try to bring back to its original state. So anything that you come into it will have the old original equipment on it, on our classic arcade games, and then our pinball machines, there's, you know, the sights and sounds of those things when they turn on are very different from a modern machine all the way to classic machine or to electrical, mechanical machine with the with the reels on them.

Lisa:
And I'm noticing you have some very fun, colorful and LED lights happening on the ceiling.

Derek:
Yeah, we've got all sorts of stuff. So there's, you know, different lights that we've got, LED lights. You've got strobing effects with our, you know, lighting that we have on the roof. And, you know, just a bunch of arcade and pinball memorabilia that's located elsewhere, upstairs and downstairs in the arcade, just to give it a little bit of a vibe. And of course, we have our great art that's in here as well too. So we got some graffiti art as you go up the up the stairs with that as well, too. Which makes, you know, goes right with our theme.

Lisa:
The Graffiti art takes up the full walls of the staircase and really adds to the vibes. It looks great, and brings me back to my late 90s arcade days.

Derek:
So yeah, as we go along here, you'll have another, you know, 30 or so games that are downstairs. But really, the upstairs is where we hold all of our competition pinball tournaments. And as you go up the stairs here, we've got, there's a ton of pinball machines up here. So there's 40 pinball machines and another 12 classic arcade machines that is upstairs here. And this is where a lot of the league players will hang out. We've also got a nice space up here for corporate events, or if you just want to sit down relax, have a bite to eat or whatever. And then, as well, a big, 85 inch screen TV that you can go ahead and watch your hockey games or whatever you like on there. I got bubble hockey, all sorts of stuff up here to do.

You know, you have to come to see it for yourself. You know it because it really is, it's, it's something for everybody. You know. The only thing that's tough around here is the summer time, because the air conditioning is, you know, it can get really hot up here with the games. But other than that, it's good.

Lisa:
So this season is all about play and playfulness on the podcast. So what does play mean to you? What does it feel like to play?

Derek:
Yeah, I think you know, especially when people come here, you know, it's just a sense of nostalgia. At this place anyway, that's what play means at Arcadia. So if you've ever visited the arcade you know in your youth, in the 80s and 90s, this place will bring you back to those fulfilled memories that you would have had. One of the reasons why I created this place was for that nostalgia to make sure that when people you know Don't forget about classic arcade or pinball machines and how they play them when they were young, and the enjoyment that they had to go ahead and play those machines when they did. So that's what we try to do here.

Lisa:
That's great. And what about for you personally, when you're at a machine, what does it feel like for you?

Derek:
Yeah, I’m a competition pinball player, so it's intense, right? So for me, I'm intense when I play, I play to win, and ultimately, when I'm trying to get on a pinball machine, I'm trying to blow the thing up every single time that I play it. So for me, it's definitely intensity. It's but again, it's a stress relief as well, too. Because, you know, everything in the world can just go away all my worries and go away. As soon as I go ahead and play on a pinball machine, I can let it all go, and it's a real sense of a stress free environment for me as well.

Lisa:
You talked a bit about the nostalgia, but how else do you hope people feel when they come to this space?

Derek:
Yeah, I just hope it brings them joy, like that's what we do here. And it's, you know, for all ages, right, anywhere from, you know, kids that are very young, at five years or older, all the way to, you know, grown adults that come in here and really enjoy the space. So again, you know that it's, it's you come here for fun. That's, that's really the best way I can express it, is that if you want to have fun, come to Arkadium.

Lisa:
What do you feel like when you're in this space?

Derek:
Yeah, I think ultimately, a sense of, you know, just awesomeness when I come in here, being able to go ahead and share all these classic pinball machines and arcade machines that, honestly, people would never get an opportunity to play elsewise. So when me and my partners decided to, you know, to get this place going, we had all these machines in our basements or in our houses. And it's just nice to be able to go ahead and share our collection with the masses, and for them to be able to, you know, be able to play a lot of machines that they would otherwise not be able to.

Anybody who comes in will always pick out oh yeah, I played that game, or oh yeah, I played that game. And it brings that emotion to them whenever they see it.

Lisa:
Derek is going to show us a special pinball machine. It was the first machine that he purchased for his collection, AND it was the very first machine he ever played.

Lisa:
Tell me what we're looking at here. I'm getting very 80s vibes.

Derek:
Yeah, so this is a 1978 Paragon Bally pinball machine. Yeah, it's like, I say it's the first pinball machine that I got to play. When I was five years old, my dad gave me a quarter and said, “Here's here's a quarter. Go in the arcade and go play a machine.” And I threw it in this one, and I fell in love with pinball after that. So always ask my dad, hey, can we go back to the Arcade so I can go play pinball? Right? So, yeah, it's, you know, very. Very old machine. It is electric scoring. So we actually have ones that are older than that that have mechanical reels, but this one in this era is called a solid state machine. It has electric scoring. I think my high score in this game is about 3 million on it, so it does go up quite a bit compared to some of the older machines that we do have here, and it's a wide body. So you know, they had made two different sizes back in those days, a standard body and a wide body. So you don't see the wide bodies very often out in the wild. So it's a good opportunity to come in and check it out. If you've never seen it.

Lisa:
And I'm seeing the art on the machine is reminding me of those, like fantasy vans, the paintings on the vans that you used to see. And in this case, it's a maybe very muscly Viking man with wings riding a lion over a very beautiful bikini woman. I'm loving this.

Derek:
yeah, and I think, you know, as you walk through the arcade, you'll notice, you know, the different types of art that are on the machines. On the older machines, I would say it's much more risque, because that was the era, and that was the way that it was back in the day. And you know, ultimately, the the art on the pinball machines, you can tell just by the type of art that's on them, what era they're at, because you definitely will see some really, really cool depictions of different, you know, art packages, depending on the machine that you're looking at. And you got to remember, back in the 80s, there wasn't as many license themes, so the license themes really came out in the 90s and further on. So there was a lot of like, generic titles, like Paragon, just a generic title with a custom art package that was put on them. And that's why you'll see a lot of those really cool custom art packages that came out in the 70s and 80s.

Lisa:
That’s very cool. All right, do you want to play it and show us how it goes?

Lisa:
Remember earlier when Derek said h ow the world fades away when he’s at a machine? It happens so fast. As soon as the ball is released, he is in the zone. The play field is lighting up with markers and achievements. When I play pinball, my whole goal is just to keep the ball in play. But Derek knows how to direct the ball, and it is very cool to see in action.

Lisa:
Tell us your final score.

Derek:
289,890. So not my best score but, you know, I’ll take it.

Lisa:
Right, pretty good. And I saw the jiggling of the table. How integral is that to pinball playing?

Derek 15:30
Yeah, it's so you know, if you want to be a high caliber pinball player, you have to learn how to nudge the machine. So there's lots of various skills that you have depending, you know on your skill level, right? So that there's tap passing, there's drop catching, there's all sorts of flipper skills as you get better with the game that you'll learn over time, in order to go ahead and keep your ball in play and be able to achieve the scores that you can. Rules, knowledge is also helpful as well too. Knowing what to shoot for on the game as well, too. But the biggest thing is being able to keep the ball under control and slow the game down as much as you can, so that you can make the most accurate shots that you can. All the best players in the world make sure that they can slow the ball down so that they can make the most accurate shot, so that they can go ahead and, you know, achieve that score that they want to on the machine.

Lisa:
Okay, so Paragon is on the field as an insert, and you got up to the letter G, what would have happened if you would have got the last two letters?

Derek:
Yeah. So one of the strategies on the game is, is that you can spell Paragon, and you spell the letters by going in and going into the right scoop on the game, when you achieve all the letters in Paragon, each one will give you one bonus. But ultimately, if you spell the full Paragon, that will give you 75,000 points when you do that. One of the biggest strategies on this game is to go ahead and shoot the drop targets on the left hand side, because those will give you bonus multipliers for your bonus. So as you go along, it'll be two times, three times or five times your bonus, all depending on when you've collected it. So those bonuses as well hold 20, 30, or 40 on the play field as well too. So when you have those bonuses hold, you're really going for those multipliers to go ahead and achieve those high scores. So you know, this was a 1980 game, while it has a huge depth of code that's in it to make it work properly, and so that the players can go in and achieve different things on it.

Lisa:
That’s so cool. Like, How satisfying is it when you hit one of those objectives?

Derek:
Yeah, for sure, and especially if you know what the objectives are, a lot of players don't. They just go in there, they flip the ball, they try to get the highest score that they can but for me, being a professional pinball player, I know exactly what I need to go ahead and, you know, achieve the scores that I do. And you know, when you're able to go ahead, hit the shots that you want to and the older that you want to to achieve that highest score and to beat your competitors, it's a very satisfying feeling.

Lisa:
Friends, I’ve been bit. Hearing Derek talk about the different machines and strategies is starting to open up a whole world and history here. And I love lights and sounds, I just want to try every machine. But that’s not what we’re going to do right now. Now it’s time to meet Jeff, the league player I mentioned at the top of the show.

Jeff:
Oh, hey, I'm Jeff. I like to come out to Arcadia and play a lot of pinball, play competitive. Yeah, got a couple machines of my own. So yeah, I'm really into it.

Lisa:
And what got you into it?

Jeff:
I am actually mainly an old vintage arcade guy, and I refuse to play pinball because my 25 cents would have went a lot further, continuing to play Miss Pac Man. And then I had a cousin who talked me into playing Black Knight 2000 at Roma billiards about 30 years ago, and kind of change everything. Yeah. And then it was just go to arcades and go hunt down pinball machines. And that's how it started going. Yeah, absolutely.

Lisa:
When you say hunt down pinball machines, what do you look for? What makes the machine fun for you?

Jeff:
Oh well, when I'd say, hunt down pinball machines. When I started playing pinball, it was the early 90s, and it was the death of arcades. So places closed, and then it was a matter of, well, this place doesn't exist anymore. This doesn't exist anymore. Now, where are you gonna find a game? And you would find him at a pool hall or a pizza place or a Donaire store or anything like that. So we were literally driving around looking for pinball machines, and every once in awhile we would find them. So that's kind of what I was getting at.

Yeah, Everything, everything disappeared. Everything disappeared. And it was, how do you find these things? And it really just vanished, till about eight years ago, and then things popped up again.

Lisa:
The resurgence must have felt pretty good for you.

Jeff:
Yeah, it was really good. Yeah, it was. It was fantastic to be able to go and, you know, have a lot of fun playing pinball, and get a couple people together and go at it. Yeah.

Lisa:
So do you have the favorite machine here?

Jeff:
I think I have many favorite machines. I do enjoy playing Metallica, obviously. But if it comes to some of the older games, I would say that high speed is one of my favorites. I definitely got a thing for the mid 80s games. Yeah, I would have to say I probably put a lot of time on High Speed or Addams Family. And Addams Family is a lot of people's favorites.

Lisa:
Jeff had been playing the game High Speed just before we started talking.

Jeff:
Yeah, I absolutely killed the machine. It was good. You could more, but it was a good game, yeah.

High Speed is an ultra classic Williams game. It's got a lot of really cool things going on for it. It's kind of in the air of where games started to take off, and they had started having a lot more things that you could do. But some games are just set up better in other games. And this one part of the game is that the game flows well as in and you can make a shot, and you don't have to slow the ball down, you can time it, and you can hit a different shot, if you've got that type of skill. But it's a fairly fast playing game. The layout is really cool. It's got a mirror on it that you can see yourself if you're playing sometimes. But yeah, classic 80s, simple, cool colors. The whole idea is that you've got to speed and go fast and break the law and get away from the cops. And, you know, if you get far enough in the game, you literally escape the police chase kind of thing. And there's like, a whole thing in the game stops. The game freezes for a couple seconds, and there's a big red light siren on the top of the game, and it starts spinning around as this red light spinning around, and it's going crazy, and makes a ton of sound. It plays a cool, you know, 80s, eight- bit song before the game plays again, and it tells you you got away. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, it just told you, Hey, buddy, pull over while we're sitting here. It's got a track mode to it pretty but, yeah, just fun. The layouts are cool. It's not that complicated, but the colors are great.

Lisa:
And there's lots of flashing lights.

Jeff:
Yeah, lots of flashing lights, and just something going to sit in front of but, yeah.

Lisa:
Another huge difference between this High Speed machine and the Paragon Machine that Derek showed us is the story. Paragon had objectives and multipliers to achieve on the play field. High Speed has that, and it takes you through a mini-story where you are out running the law. And friends, the stories can get involved.

Jeff:
If you play John Wick, John Wick is a whole scenario of fighting different families and killing enemies and doing this and that. At some point, I suppose you find your dog or whatever the movie is about. But it goes on and on and on. So it's really it's really integrated. And I was saying that the Dungeons and Dragons machines downstairs, they literally created where, if you played Dungeons and Dragons, you would be with all these people and create this environment, and there's a dungeon master, I guess, and you'd roll dice, and you'd go in a dungeon. You don't know what's going to happen. Well, the pinball machines are created to be very linear, but Dungeons and Dragons, they decide to do something different, where every week it resets, and the dungeons and the places you go are not the same. So every time, it's something a little different, if that's how you play the game. So gets you enrolled, gets you involved in a different way.

Lisa:
The evolution of pinball is really cool. I’m going to have a link in the show notes to just one of the guides I found that traces pinball all the way back to the Bagatelle Tables from late 18th century Europe. There was also a period around the 1950’s when pinball was banned in some major cities. The history is just wild. I hope you check it out.
But before we leave Arkadium, I want to introduce to one more person. This is Karen.

Karen:
My name is Karen Langdo and I started playing pinball last year in the fall, and it's just been a really great space to get out of the cold, and it's nice to pack onto another evening out, if you're going to the movies or out for dinner, it's nice just to come stop by and play pinball for an hour or two and make it a whole day.

Lisa:
And are you competitive or at all? Or do you just play for fun?

Karen:
Been playing for fun. Well, for me and my husband, like we're very much children at heart, still, we have arcade cabinets at home, and we thought, let's add pinball. So that actually brought us out of the house into somewhere more social. So it's neat to see how many other adults are hanging out in the space. I think I've seen more like 40 year old men's birthday parties here that are like Ninja Turtle themed, than children. So just seeing it bring out the kid and everyone too in this space is really neat.

It's just like a really great space just for people to come together, like if you're meeting up with friends, or, like, first dates, I've seen a few here, and I think it's a really great space just to get to know people, even while focusing on something else at the same time.

Lisa:
Thanks very much to Derek Thompson for showing us this classic arcade. And thanks to Jeff and Karen for sharing their pinball experience with us. Friends, my inner-nerd is unlocked. I found a Jurassic Park machine that fills my heart with joy.

As you heard, Arkadium has league nights, you can book a party space, and they have a ladie’s night too. I’ll have a link to their website in the show notes. And a link to that pinball history guide I mentioned earlier if you’d like to nerd-out with me.

This podcast is created by yours truly, here in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ). Edmonton, Alberta in Treaty 6 territory.
If you have ideas for vibes and locations - or arcade tales of triumph and woe, email me at himagpies@gmail.com. Or, find me on Instagram at hi_magpies.
Thank you for listening and sharing this time together. It means alot.

I’ll leave you with sound of an arcade game called Ice Cold Beer, where there is a vertical board full of holes, and a ball balancing on a metal bar. You must maneuver the bar to place the ball in the lit up hole, avoiding all the others, as you climb higher and higher on the board. We were not successful.

Stay safe and keep trying out there.