Visited Tilt on Queen W in Toronto yesterday. Started with a not very friendly guy at the door. Once I paid the entry fee I walked into the beautiful space. I love the booths with gaming computers in them. Old lit up pinball playfields on the wall, very cool lighting everywhere. Nice bar. Great atmosphere. They have a ton of video games and a good selection of pinball machines with a nice variety. Unfortunately it was hard to find a pinball machine that was level. Some so bad that balls would get stuck because of it. Next to that, many with a ton of lights out, dirty playfields, an occasional weak flipper. I walked out disappointed. Likely won't be back. Meeplemart for the win!
Tilt Toronto
- Thread starter IVPinball
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Hammerhead
Well-Known Member
kool1
Well-Known Member
Tilt Toronto, Zed 80 and Tilt London are all similar in my opinion. Loud, rambunctious, unsupervised kids everywhere running and yelling and shrieking around the games. Oh, and the pinball machines aren't well maintained in a variety of ways (not levelled well, dim or burned out GI lights including entire strings in some games, weak to non-functional flippers, missing posts and honestly just too many things broken or in poor shape to try and keep track of it).
Cabin Fever gets my vote for the best place to play with Meeplemart close behind in second.
Cabin Fever gets my vote for the best place to play with Meeplemart close behind in second.
Cabin Fever is definitely the best. The vibe in there is great and because it's so small and focused on pinball everyone who is there is older and serious about playing.
Shame about Tilt, I was just going to go there to try out Funhouse. I heard they just got a DDR machine too which I'm sure will annoy some of the pinheads. I like DDR but in that environment I can see it annoying people.
Also I have it on good authority that the DDR machine they bought was marginally functional but it was on the floor a day or two after they got it, so the odds that they did anything to improve it like countersink the pads, fix/adjust sensors and upgrade to the latest possible mix are pretty slim.
I had a similar bad experience at Shox's. They have a great lineup but when 3 or 4 machines have broken flippers or aren't working right in some way it really turns you off from coming back.
The Funhouse wasn't playable when I was there. Lower left flipper acted like it was stuck in quicksand. Not sure what the deal was. Assume it's fixed now though. That was a month or more ago.
Shoxs...lol. They get my vote for foul mood service. At least the old woman behind the bar does. Oh, sorry, am I causing you great distress by asking where to get change for the machines? My bad.
The games were in decent shape when I played them for the most part. Demolition Man wasn't on though, which I had wanted to play. Ball got stuck in weird places more than once playing Transformers. Enjoyed playing 24 though. First one I have seen or played. Nice trying it out to realize I don't need to pursue getting one. Just no where near enough to do on the game thanks to the bare bones timeframe it came from.
Hammerhead
Well-Known Member
I find Pin-Up in Waterloo suffers from this same issue. Always one or two not on, others not shooting as they should. Not as bad as Tilt London mind you.
At least we now have Forked River here in London. Corey will definitely take good care of these games and has committed to cycle titles in and out regularly to keep things fresh.
At least we now have Forked River here in London. Corey will definitely take good care of these games and has committed to cycle titles in and out regularly to keep things fresh.
kool1
Well-Known Member
Finally got to Tilt Toronto in December, twice in fact. . While games are not in the best working order, most of them were at least okay and that was better than expected. I'm sure YMMV but they have a good selection and the arcades are decent also. Definitely worth $10 for the night.
Best two pinball places remain Meeplemart and Cabin Fever.
Best two pinball places remain Meeplemart and Cabin Fever.