In a digital age, pinball games still have a place in Georgetown and across the city
Photo 1: Mike (no last name given) plays Tron. Photo 2: Georgetown Pizza Arcade has several machines including John Wick, Jurassic Park, the Foo Fighters and the custom-made Beyond Eight Ball. (Photos by Steve Lannen)
Seattle is known for many things including pinball. Although a much smaller city, Seattle has triple the machines of Los Angeles and a thriving pinball culture. In an age when it is de rigueur to have a gaming system at home, people plan vacations to Seattle to play pinball.
Most Monday nights, 20 of the city’s taverns host Monday Night Pinball, “the largest social pinball league in the world” with 340 players. That league includes teams from Georgetown’s Seattle Tavern & Pool Room and Georgetown Pizza & Arcade, both on Airport Way S. The latter hosts three (!) teams and a separate all-ages pinball tournament at 4 p.m. every Sunday to encourage players of all ages to compete.
Danielle Crowson co-owns Georgetown Pizza & Arcade with her husband, Nic. Both have played in the Monday league for 12 years and watched it grow from eight teams to 34 this year. They love that their business has become a pinball destination for nationally ranked players but also families looking for a fun activity.
“We have an awesome community of people. Different walks of life, different careers and they all come together to play pinball. It’s just kind of exploded,” she said.
Georgetown Pizza & Arcade hosts their 2nd Anniversary Halloween Pinball Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 31. $200 pot splash for the prize pool and trophies for top three players. Raffle drawing with prizes for all entrants and $50 for Halloween costume contest winner. Signups at 6:30 p.m. Play starts at 7 p.m. $10 to enter.
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