AIKEN – Radioactive alert!
For this atomic experience, you won’t need your Geiger counters, but you will need some experience with pinball equipment.
The Aiken Atomic Pinball League tournament starts this Wednesday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Radioactive Pinball Arcade, 113 Laurens St SW, Suite 103, Aiken.
Though this tournament will start Wednesday, there will be no radioactive glow from atomic energy at the arcade. The tournament participants’ (and maybe even your) glow will come from happiness, human contact and the colored lights of pinball machines and signage, according to event organizers.
“The main reason I run the tournament is community. I feel like a lot of the screen time my generation grew up with replaced some of the classic ways people connected in person, and those spaces have become blurred by social media, politics and the daily grind of life,” said Justin Morgan, one of the coordinators, who added that “The league gives people a place for friendly competition, fun and real human connection.”
“What started as three friends sharing a love of pinball became much more than that. We kept talking about how cool it’d be to start a league, and Justin put in all the hard work to make it happen for us,” said Kacie Sanders, who along with Lars Beckner round out the trio of coordinators.
“Now it’s blossomed into a wonderful niche community I never thought I’d find in Aiken,” she said.
About 20 to 30 league members participate in the growing league, and they play five rounds of pinball each session, and the participants for all sessions come from throughout the C.S.R.A.
“Each session includes five rounds of play. The league runs across seven total sessions, with the final session serving as our championship finals. The top 12 players compete in the finals, and we also run a consolation tournament for players who don’t make the top cut,” Morgan said.
Eight pinball machines will be used for this tournament, including: Funland, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hulk, Medieval Madness, Harry Potter, Halloween, The Munsters and Star Wars.
The league awards cash prizes for 1st through 3rd place in the finals along with a trophy.
“We’re currently working on this season’s trophies, which will be custom 3D-printed mod designs created by HotNozzleNerd on Instagram,” Morgan said.
Last season, winners received custom mini arcade cabinets filled with prize money.
Fourth place receives a prize donated by Radioactive Pinball Arcade.
“In the consolation tournament, the top three players receive ribbons and cash prizes, and fourth place receives a small prize from Radioactive Pinball Arcade as well,” Beckner said.
Sanders said, “I personally enjoy running the tournaments because I enjoy bringing people together and providing a warm and welcoming experience to anyone who joins. I do it all for fun and the love of the game and community, and it’s something I get to do with two of my closest friends.”
There are no deadlines to enter.
“We don’t have a deadline for signing up, but if you miss more than two tournaments you won’t qualify for finals. Should someone be playing just for fun they can sign up anytime during the season,” Sanders said.
“The tournament is open to anyone 18 or older who pays a $20 league fee. That fee covers all seven sessions and goes entirely toward prize money and trophy costs. The league fee is separate from the arcade entry fee, and we occasionally make age exceptions depending on the situation,” Beckner said.
Aiken Atomic Pinball League is not the only league in the C.S.R.A. this Spring.
Starting Thursday, April 2, Retro City Arcade in Evans will be having a Spring Pinball League. There is a $20 registration fee for the league itself. More dates for the Spring Pinball League in Evans will be April 16, April 30, May 14, May 28, and June 11 – the Finale.
According to the Retro City Arcade Facebook page, “…you do NOT have to be a pinball wizard to join. You don’t even have to be ‘good.’ All you need is a desire for some fun competition, a few laughs, and hanging out with fellow pinballers who love the silver ball! It’s friendly. It’s a little competitive. It’s a whole lot of fun.”
To sign up for the Aiken Atomic Pinball League tournament at Radioactive Pinball Arcade, go here.
For more information on the event, see the invitation:
Aiken Atomic Pinball League – Spring Tournament 1 | Facebook or the Radioactive Pinball Arcade Facebook page.
For more information on the Retro City Arcade League in Evans, email info@retrocityarcadeevans.com
Other newish happenings at both arcades come in the form of equipment.
Radioactive Pinball Arcade in Aiken recently brought in a Tapper video game (an 80s video game where you control a bartender trying to use a tap and send beer out to customers) and has ordered two Pokemon pinball machines to join the vast array of machines they already have.
“One is the pro and the other is the highly sought after Pokémon Limited edition. They are only making 750 of them worldwide, and we were able to get one. We should get our pro sometime in the next week and a half and our limited edition Pokémon, hopefully by the end of March,” said co-owner Erin Edwards.
With the addition of the new pinball machines, Edwards said, “I want to set up a little flippers Pokémon party.”
For more information, stay tuned to their Facebook page.
Retro City Arcade recently brought in what they called some new (to them) pinball machines to add to their others. According to their Facebook page, two of the games were donated by a family who wanted them to have a good home. They include: Eight Ball (Bally, 1977); Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Bally, 1976); and Upper Deck (Williams, 1973).
Ron Baxley, Jr. is a veteran journalist who has been a published author for 34 years and is working on writing a Southern-set television series. His latest satirical Southern fantasy Oz book, “O.Z. Diggs the Fifth Estate” is the third in the O.Z. Diggs VII series. For additional columns and fiction, go to https://substack.com/@ronbaxleyjr . Contact him via ronbaxleyjr.com .
