Scene Report: The Bay Area

This post is part of an ongoing series that highlights some cool things about the regions covered on the site

One of the first additional regions (after Portland) that we added to the site was the Bay Area. The Bay Area included a lot of cities—such as San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and a crapload more in the South and East Bay—and also a lot of machines and locations. At current count: 232 locations, and 532 machines.

Maybe because the area is to “techy,” the map sees a lot of users (especially app users). This means that the data stays pretty up to date! Since the area is so large, we have a couple admins to share the load. Our first admin, Jonny, maintains a fresh pinball blog. He posts daily, covering local pinball news as well as a well-curated feed of the cool and unusual places pinball shows up in pop culture.

This recent post illustrates perfectly how robust the pinball scene in the Bay Area is. The San Francisco Pinball Department (a league) has started their new season. 69 people showed up! Gene X put together this documentary showing the league in action at Free Gold Watch

http://player.vimeo.com/video/72465357

Gene X’s studio, Orange Photography, regularly documents the Bay Area pinball scene. You’ll find a lot of their photos on the Bay Area Pinball blog.

Another great post is this one showing the arcade tokens that Jonny’s come across at Playland-not-at-the-beach.

So that’s our quick scene update! The Bay Area has a really rich scene, with leagues all over the place, regular tournaments, and some of the country’s largest annual pinball expos. If you want to stay on top of it all, check Jonny’s blog for events and the coolest places to play, follow his twitter account, and use the map to find all your favorite pins!