VHS Fest 8 Rewind - Part One

VHS Fest 8

Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA

There are few weekends at the Mahoning that can match VHS Fest.  It's an annual event that takes place in the second weekend of July and features dozens of vendors selling movies, movie memorabilia, and other goodies, as well as a lineup of movies that bring us back to the days of the 80's and 90's when we'd grab a pile of tapes from our local video store.  I'll write about the movies soon, but this post is all about the vendors and the things that they had at their tables.

There were fewer vendors on site this year compared to VHS Fest 7, but that was by design.  I believe that they capped each day at 40 vendors, some of whom were on the lot for just one or two days while others were there for all three days, and I think this made for a better experience for everyone.  Not only was there a lot more room to move around, but the limited number of spaces likely helped the folks who were vending to make more than they did last year.

Crypt Video Rentals had a shop on the stage outside of the concession building that resembled an old mom & pop video rental store.  In addition to selling movies, they offered a tape cleaning service for anyone who had a rare or valuable VHS or Beta tape that had gotten damaged by humidity.

 

Lunchmeat have been one of the co-sponsored of VHS Fest since the beginning, so they naturally had one of the larger tables on the lot.  I picked up a sweatshirt, some stickers, and a very nice tape stand that was created by James Dufendach.

Photo by Sean O'Rourke

Photo by Rob T.

Photos by Justin Cluckey

Photos by Dave Wright

Most of the photos that I took of the vendors were at a distance.  I feel kind of weird taking pictures of the merchandise because I don't want to give the impression that I'm about to haggle with them over finding something on eBay at a better price, and I also don't want to accidentally take pictures of people who don't want their picture taken, so here are some photos shared by the Mahoning staff and the vendors themselves.

One of my favorite parts of VHS Fest are the shows put on by the guys from the Found Footage Festival.  I've been a fan of theirs for years prior to our discovering the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.  I picked up the first eight volumes of their show on DVD from their merch table, and I'm looking forward to spending an evening in the near future watching them and laughing my ass off.

I'm a sucker for a good mystery bag.  One of the stands had a box of them available for five dollars.  Each bag contained three tapes and some bonus stickers, and your only clue of what was inside was written on the outside of the bag.  I bought one labeled "Monsters" and was happy to find that it contained Night Of The Living Dead, Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook, and Frankenstein.

There were a lot of cool things for sale on the lot this past weekend, but my favorite purchase was this art project.  Late Night With The Devil is easily in my top five horror films that I saw for the first time in 2024.  Kozmo of Cosmic Debris VHS liked it too, but he wasn't a fan of how it changed the aspect ratio for some scenes, and the fact that it began as a faux-documentary but it didn't end in the same way.  He re-edited the film to remove the intro and the backstage segments added commercials from 1977 into the breaks to make it feel like it's something that was recorded off of television from start to finish.  It's brilliant!

 

I'm always on the lookout to find the movies that they're showing on the big screen during VHS Fest.  I was able to pick up three of them at this year.  The photo at the top is an old bootleg of Nightmare Sisters that I picked up from Hayden Hall, who is the artist who designs the VHS Fest poster every year since I've been going.  I bought this copy of Robot Ninja from J.R. Bookwalter who wrote, directed, and produced it.  He and actor James L. Edwards who plays Sculley in the film had a table outside of the concession building.  Mr. Edwards signed the back front of the tape cover, and Mr. Bookwalter signed the back.  Finally, this copy of David "The Rock" Nelson's short film Conrad Brooks vs Werewolf was purchased about ten minutes after we saw it on the big screen, and I wasn't alone.  The entire lot was laughing their ass off during this screening, and as soon as the Found Footage Festival guys said that it was available for sale, Tom, Mike, and I each ran over to their table and purchased a copy.  This one is for the Marines!

Soylent Green is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I was happy to find a big box MGM tape, as well as a copy of Make Room! Make Room! that the movie was based on.  The written story came out seven years before the movie, but this paperback was published shortly after the movie premiered, which is why the actual name of the novel is in small print on the cover beneath the title of the movie that was based on it.

These are the rest of the tapes that I picked up at VHS Fest 8.  I didn't buy any one thing that was rare or expensive, but I did get a lot of great deals on some of my favorite films, as well as others that have been on my watch list for a long time.  I'm sure I'll have more to say about each of these movies as I watch them, but I'm going to save that for another day.

Speaking of having more to say on another day, this post is the first in a three part series.  Part Two will be about the event itself and the special guests, and Part Three will be focused on the movies that were screened on each of the three nights of VHS Fest 8.

Guaranteed To Upset Your Stomach

Vomit Bag
Mark Of The Devil (1970)
I found this at one of the vendors tables earlier today at VHS Fest 8.  I've got a lot more to share about the event over the next few days, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about this odd little piece of film history.  This bag was a gimmick that was used to promote the 1970 West German horror film Mark Of The Devil.  They were handed out by theaters to people who bought a ticket to see the film which was marketed as the most horrifying movie ever made, along with a warning that when (not if) this movie made you sick to your stomach, you were expected to vomit into the bag to keep the theater clean.

We got to see an original 35mm print of this film last year at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater during Weekend Of Terror VIII.  It's an excellent horror film that was famous at the time for depicting things that actually happened in 17th century Europe when witch hunters tortured and killed innocent people.  The brutality shown in this film is along the lines of what you'd see in Saw or Hostel, but Mark Of The Devil premiered in theaters over a quarter century before either of those films, and I'm sure it shocked and horrified audiences to the point where some of them may have actually used these bags for their intended purpose.

Harry from Exhumed Films handed out replicas of these vomit bags prior to last year's screening at Weekend Of Terror VIII, but the one I found today is the real McCoy.

The Big Guy And The Big Dipper

There's going to be a hell of a lot of photos of VHS Fest 8 to share next week, but for now, here is a shot that I took on the lot on Thursday night.

It's All Part Of A Cosmic Unconsciousness

Repo Man
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Last night was the unofficial kick off to VHS Fest 8 with a mid 80's classic.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

The fourth punch on my Thursday Thread-Up card was the 1984 sci-fi punk rock comedy Repo Man.

 

The Mahoning Snack Bar had a brand new grill installed earlier this week, and it was put into service for the first time at this screening.  Jules Winnfield would definitely approve, because this is a tasty burger!  I challenge you to find a better tasting cheeseburger for this price at any movie theater in the country.

Instead of pre-show trailers, we got to see a classic cartoon prior to the start of the film.  This copy of the 1951 Tex Avery directed MGM cartoon Cock-a-Doodle Dog is part of Jeff's collection of vintage cartoons on 35mm.  We got to see it a couple of times last season (before Back To School and The Lost Boys), but whether it's new to me or not, I'm always glad to see these on the big screen at the Mahoning.

Repo Man is a cult classic which has received almost universal praise from both critics and fans over the past forty years, and while I enjoy it too, I will be the first person to admit that I really don't understand what's going on in the story.  I get the whole "consumerism is terrible, capitalism is evil, and the American dream is dead" vibe.  The film beats you over the head with that subtext so hard that it feels at times like a late 70's Saturday Night Live sketch without the laughter from the live studio audience.  However, setting that theme aside, I'm really not clear what's supposed to happening on the surface.

So... there's a Chevy Malibu being driven around by some guy.  If they ever make it clear who this guy is supposed to be, I have missed it every time I've watched this movie.  There is a dead alien in the trunk of this car.  Both the alien corpse and the car are radioactive, and they have the power to vaporize some people at random while leaving others unharmed.  The car also has the power to glow and fly, but only at the end of the film.  How or why the car has any of these powers and who is in control of said powers is never explained in a way that I've been able to understand.  It just kind of does weird shit randomly.

Several groups of people are chasing after this car.  The repo men want it because there's a $20,000 bounty on it.  The government and/or scientists want to reclaim it, which makes sense.  The United Fruitcake Outlet wants it, and they're a group of... I don't know... alien enthusiasts?  The Rodriguez Brothers want it too, but I'm not really sure who they're supposed to be let alone why they want this car.  Are they a rival group of repo men, or criminals, or aliens, or just a couple of assholes who like messing with the repo men... I have absolutely no idea.  A group of punk rockers want it, but I think they just got involved by accident thinking that they were stealing an ordinary car.  Finally, a televangelist who Otto's parents gave all of their money to is interested in the car, though I'm not sure how he even knows about it or why he wants it.  It's entirely possible that I just imagined that part.  The mechanic from the repo lot ends up being chosen by the car as its new owner for some reason, and with he and Otto sitting inside, it flies through the skies of Los Angeles like a glowing spaceship.  Then roll the backwards credits.

Look, I don't claim to be the smartest guy on the lot and I'm the furthest thing from an expert on movies.  Repo Man is a hell of a lot of fun to watch, but I've had the same experience every time that I've seen it: I enjoy it while I'm watching it, but I'm frustrated as hell for about an hour after the credits roll because it seems like everybody else understands this story but me.  Maybe something will click and I'll get it next time, but unless I'm watching it with someone who is willing to pause it repeatedly to explain what just happened, this is probably going to be one of those things that will continue to fly over my head like a radioactive Chevy Malibu.

From Yellow To Pink

Kit Kat Pink Lemonade

Hershey (2024)

I'm sure that their new Pink Lemonade version is different in some way from the Lemon Crisp Kit Kat that was released earlier this year, but without the benefit of trying them back-to-back, I can't really tell what that difference might be.  The old one had a tasty lemon flavor, and this one does as well.

Draw Me Like One Of Your French Chocolates

Claypoole's General Store
Lehighton, PA

Who's Road?

Dicks Dam Road
Camp Hill, PA

It was like that when I got here.

We Know How To Behave... We've Had Lessons

A Hard Day's Night
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
I've enjoyed listening to The Beatles music since I was a kid, but last night was the first time that I watched one of their movies in its entirety.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Prior to the show, Angie, Kate, Mike, Gene, Ben, and I hung out on the field in the shade of the giant Mahoning screen.  Ben introduced me to a board game called Stratego that was a lot of fun to play.  Apparently, this game has been around in some form or fashion since 1946.

There was a curated trailer reel of movies centered around music and musicians prior to showtime, followed by a 35mm screening of A Hard Day's Night.  It was a fun movie with a lot of laughs and great music, and it looked incredible on the Mahoning screen.  Black and white movies really seem to pop at this place.  Being able to see the Fab Four at a drive-in theater isn't an experience that is available in very many places in the world in 2024, but it's just another incredible Sunday night in Lehighton.

Your Wish Is Granted

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

They Grow Up So Fast: Big / 13 Going On 30
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Saturday night at the drive-in was dedicated to two movies about thirteen year old children who make a wish that results in them living in their adult bodies and in an adult world.  While these two movies share a very specific plot device, the characters, the setting, and the execution of that plot device make these films two distinct experiences that are both fun to watch.  It also makes them an excellent pairing for a double feature.

I was kind of surprised that my wife stayed home for this one since she's a huge fan of 80's movies, but I get it.  She needs to have some quiet time away from people to keep in a good frame of mind.  I've become a bit of a celluloid junkie, so my quiet time for the past few years has been the winter after the baseball and drive-in seasons have come to an end, and I go into hibernation like a bear until the following spring.

Despite flying solo to the lot, I wasn't alone.  This place has kind of become like Cheers to me... a place where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came.  I had my chair set up in the lawn in the shade of the screen prior to the show when our friends Tom, Jen, and Jaxon came by to ask if they could join me.  Abso-freakin-loutely!  They're three of the coolest folks I've ever been lucky enough to become friends with, and I'm always happy as hell to hang out with them.

Big is a movie that probably couldn't be made today, at least not in the same way.  It's a movie riddled with massive plot holes and a relationship that would be picked apart by the modern day pearl clutchers for being "problematic", but Tom Hanks delivers a performance that is so damned charming that it succeeds in spite of this.  The story is centered around a young boy named Josh who is embarrassed in front of the girl that he likes when he is too short to go on a carnival ride with her.  He wanders around for a bit until discovering a Zoltar fortune telling machine.  He puts in a quarter and wishes to be big, and then wakes up in his bedroom the next morning as a thirty year old man.

It's the kind of movie that you really have to approach as a modern day fairy tale to get the most out of it.  If you can switch off the critical part of your brain for an hour and forty-four minutes and just let the story be what the story is while laughing off the obvious flaws in the plot, you're going to have a good time.  There will be plenty of time after the credits have rolled to marvel at the fact that there was apparently no attempt to find a missing 13 year old boy, while the kid next door takes routine unsupervised trips to New York City to spend time with an adult male whose social security number came from a locker combination.

This movie premiered on June 3rd, 1988 and it became one of those movies that practically kid I went to school with had seen.  I didn't get to see it in theaters, but I know that I watched either as a weekend VHS rental, or during one of the pay channel free weekends, or over a friend's house.  I can't remember exactly how I first saw it, but I do know that I haven't watched it from start to finish since I was younger than the Josh Baskin character is in the movie.  I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to see it on 35mm on the big screen at the Mahoning.

Geoffrey brought a couple of classic cartoons on 35mm that were screened during intermission.  The first was a 1970 Woody Woodpecker short called All Hams On Deck, in which a pirate named Captain Blah chases after the woodpecker when the bird sees where he has buried his gold.  This was followed by a 1948 Tom & Jerry cartoon called The Truce Hurts, in which Tom, Jerry, and Butch (the dog) agree to be friends.  The truce holds up for a little while until a disagreement over how to share a big juicy steak puts an end to the peace.  Seeing these classic cartoons on the big screen at the Mahoning is always a treat.  This is especially true when they match the tone of the movies that they are appearing with, which these two cartoons most certainly did.

 

Like Big, 13 Going On 30 begins with a child living in the late 1980's who makes a wish that results in them waking up in their adult body.  However, in this case, the girl who makes the wish (Jenna Rink, played brilliantly by Christa B. Allen and Jennifer Garner) does not wake up as an adult in the same year in which she makes the wish.  She instead wakes up as herself in 2004 as a thirty year old woman with no memory of what happened in the years between her 13th birthday and the moment that she realizes that her wish has come true.

The focus of the movie is not just Jenna, as a 13 year old, trying to navigate the world as an adult, but doing so in a future that she doesn't understand, and discovering that the adult her is not a person who she's proud of or wants to become.  Another way this movie distinguishes itself from Big is the fact that unlike Josh Baskin, whose naiveté leads him into a relationship with a woman, Jenna Rink is disgusted by the attention shown to her by men.

I saw this movie when it first came out in 2004, but I can't remember if I saw it in a theater or if it was a DVD rental from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.  I remember thinking that it was alright, but I saw it with my girlfriend at the time who I was in a relationship with that continued long after its shelf life had expired.  I don't think either of us even really liked being around each other after the first few months, so most of the things that I experienced with her in the early 2000's have taken on a slightly negative tone in my memory.  I haven't seen the movie since that first time and really never had any desire to go back to it, but as the credits rolled on the big screen at the Mahoning, I was glad that I had the opportunity to give it a second chance.  13 Going On 30 is a fun 2000's comedy flick with a killer soundtrack and heartwarming performances.  It's never going to find its way to one of my favorites list, but it's an enjoyable film that's absolutely worth watching for those of us who aren't trapped by our own cynicism, and it was especially enjoyable to watch it along with Big with friends at the drive-in.

Ripping This Night A New One

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

The AGFA Triple Ripper III

Super Soul Brother / The Oracle / Fatal Termination
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
I woke up on Friday morning excited for one of my favorite nights of the year on the Mahoning calendar, but I went to bed wondering whether or not this is the year that AGFA's annual event has jumped the shark. 

The first movie of the night was a 1978 blaxploitation flick, and the only film that featured Wildman Steve in a starring role.  It has multiple titles, and the one that was advertised on the poster was Super Soul Brother, but the print that AGFA brought out to the Mahoning had a different title, which I have censored in the photo above.

Based on the advertisements leading up to this event, I was expecting something like a more comedic Shaft.  I'm sure that's what the filmmakers were going for, but if that's the case, they failed and failed hard.  This was basically the 70's equivalent of a minstrel show.  Every blaxploitation film I've ever seen has leaned into stereotypes, but this movie goes so hard in the direction of being outrageously offensive to get laughs that I found myself growing more bored with each passing minute.  Make excuses for it if makes you feel better, but this movie wasn't worth the time it took to thread it up in the projector.

 

The Oracle was the only movie of the night that I enjoyed, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it good.  It's the kind of schlocky horror flick that goes best with the occasional interruption from Joe Bob Briggs to add some humor and background information to what we're seeing on the screen.

I think I'm going to have to give this one a second shot when I'm in a better frame of mind. I was too annoyed to let myself really get into it.

The final movie of the night was a Hong Kong action / cop flick from 1990 called Fatal Termination.  The goofy title was probably the best part of it for me.  It's one of those movies that they genuinely tried to produce an action-packed dramatic story, but the acting in the dialogue are so silly that it becomes an unintentional comedy. I thought it was okay. I didn't love it or hate it, but this really isn't a genre of film that I get too heavily invested in, so take my lack of enthusiasm with a grain of salt.

And that's a wrap on Triple Ripper III, and it might end up being a wrap on my attending this event because it has gone steadily downhill in the years since it began.  The first Triple Ripper in 2022 was one of my favorite shows of the year.  Last year's Triple Ripper II wasn't as good as the first, but I still had a good time.  If Triple Ripper II was a step down from the original, Triple Ripper III fell down the entire staircase.

I won't go so far as to call it a terrible show.  The Oracle was good enough that it would have been a fun choice for a Patreon screening, and Fatal Termination was alright, even though it's not really a genre of movie that I have a whole lot of interest in, but Super Soul Brother was absolute trash, and the decision to start off a triple feature with that nonsense in 2024 is simply mind boggling.  I guess they wanted to go on chronological order, first with a movie from the '70s, then the '80s, then finish it off with a movie from the '90s, but I think this night would have gone a whole lot better if it started with the Oracle and ended with Super Soul Brother, or better yet, replaced it with another film altogether.  At any rate, I'm glad to have had a night to hang out with my friends on the lot, and I was glad that Susan and Anthony won the raffle.

Part of the fun of the Triple Ripper in previous years has been to go onto the lot knowing as little about the movies as possible and letting the night be a surprise, but frankly, AGFA has lost my trust in giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Assuming it comes back in 2025, I'm going to be doing as much research as possible on the films in the lineup before deciding whether or not to head out to the lot that night.

We're All In The Same Cage Here

Easy Rider
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The drive-in was home to a true American classic on the Fourth of July this year.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

There was an excellent pre-show DJ set from a very cool man named Guy who brought a pile of bandanas to hand out to fans in attendance.

 

It started raining pretty heavily not long after we pulled on the lot.  It continued raining until about ten minutes prior to showtime, after which point the skies cleared up and it was a beautiful night.  We sat outside for the entire movie and the trailer reel after the film, and as soon as we packed up and got back in the car to drive home, there was rain falling on the windshield.  This isn't the first time that this has happened this season either.  The drive-in gods have been good to us!

Easy Rider premiered in theaters nationwide two days before the launch of Apollo 11, six days before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and a month before Woodstock.  It was a pivotal year in American history, and although it was eleven years before I was born and have no first-hand experience to make this assumption, this movie felt like it captured the time and place that it was released as well as any movie ever made.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are both absolutely incredible as Wyatt and Billy, but Jack Nicholson gave one of the best performances I have ever seen on the big screen with a performance for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 42nd Academy Awards.  This exchange between Hopper (Billy) and Nicholson (George) is one of my favorite exchanges that I've ever seen in any film.

Billy: They're scared, man.

George: Oh, they're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em.

Billy: Hey man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody needs a haircut.

George: Oh no. What you represent to them is freedom.

Billy: What the hell's wrong with freedom, man? That's what it's all about.

George: Oh yeah, that's right, that's what it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it - that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. 'Course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

Billy: Well, that don't make 'em runnin' scared.

George: No, it makes 'em dangerous.

The things that irrationally rile people up may have changed over the years, but the reaction to them really hasn't.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Last night at the Mahoning was my first time seeing Easy Rider.  I've heard of it before it was announced on the drive-in calendar, but it's a movie that I had absolutely no intention of ever sitting down to watch.  The only thing I knew about this movie prior to seeing it is that it had something to do with motorcycles.  The only interest I have in anything automotive is the fact that they take me to and from the things that I actually am interested in, so Easy Rider could not have been further off of my radar.  In reality, this movie isn't actually about motorcycles at all, but I never would have known that, and I never would have known what an incredibly powerful film this is if not for the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.  After 3+ years of coming here, the amount of movies, music, people, and ideas that this place has brought into my world has become too numerous to list.  It's a special place, and I'm thankful that I live close enough to it to make it a part of my life.

A Psychotic Love Letter To 80's Horror

Maxxxine
A24 (2024)

It might be the recency bias talking, but I think this might be my favorite slasher flick of all time.  I'm not sure if I'd go as far as to say that it feels like what we'd see if Tarantino directed a horror flick, but it definitely feels like it was inspired by his work.

I enjoyed X a lot, and I thought Pearl was alright (I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it as much as many others seem to), but I'd say that they saved the best for last.  Maxxxine is by far the strongest film in the trilogy.

A Horror Flick That Will Make You Crave Pizza

A Quiet Place: Day One
Paramount Pictures (2024)

This is the third movie in what has become one of the most creative and entertaining horror franchise of the 21st century, and it did not disappoint.  Lupita Nyong'o delivered an incredible performance as a woman living in New York City who is in the final stages of terminal cancer.  She leaves hospice care to go into the city on the day that the aliens who have taken over the planet in A Quiet Place first arrive on Earth.

I'd recommend this to anyone who has even a slight interest in horror or suspense.  The story is told in such a way that you don't have to watch the first two movies in the series to understand and enjoy the prequel, and it's told well.  The only thing you really have to know going into this movie is that if you haven't eaten dinner before you walk into the theater, you're going to be tempted to go on a pizza run on your way home.

Get A Grip

Game Boy/Game Gear flyer

Software Etc (July 1994)
This is one of the most mid-90's things that I've ever seen.

The Arcade That Moved Downstairs And Went Downhill

Timeline Arcade
Hanover, PA

We spent my 44th birthday at the Timeline Arcade in Hanover, PA.

I've been to their arcade in York, PA several times over the past six years, but this is the first time that I've visited their Hanover arcade since it was moved from the second floor of its building to ground level.

Time Out Family Amusement Center  (photo source: Arcade Blogger)

Timeline Arcade - Hanover, PA

The new entrance to the Timeline Arcade has been designed to resemble the outside of a Time-Out Family Amusement Center, which was a chain of arcades found in malls across the country throughout the late 70's through the early 2000's.

 

While a lot of work has gone into the aesthetics of the Hanover location since the arcade was moved from the second floor to the first, unfortunately the same cannot be said for the games themselves.  I'd estimate that the arcade includes maybe 25% of the games that it had prior to the move, and a significant number of them were either out of order or had damages that ranged from hindering the gameplay to rendering it completely unplayable.  Examples include Tetris, which had glitches on the monitor which made it impossible to tell which spaces were empty and which spaces had bricks at the bottom of the screen, to Q*Bert, which the joystick panel was not attached to the panel and separated from the rest of the cabinet entirely when you tried to move up.

The pinball games were in better shape, but they weren't without issues either.  Two of the machines were out of order completely, the Terminator 2 machine had a left flipper that was non-functional, and several other machines had issues that affected the game play.  Most of the older machines had plungers that could barely launch the ball hard enough to get it through the chute and onto the table, which I'm guessing means that they either had broken springs or that the wrong springs were used so the plunger isn't hitting the ball as hard as it's supposed to.

They did have some pretty cool machines though, and the ones that worked properly were a hell of a lot of fun to play.  The newer machines, like the John Wick and Elton John ones, worked perfectly.  Most of the other ones were playable, even if it was a bit of a struggle to get the pinball to launch.  I'll post some more pictures of these machines and some of the others in a few days.

To call the Timeline Arcade in Hanover, PA a disappointment compared to what it was before the pandemic would be a massive understatement.  A few years ago, this was one of the coolest arcades I had ever visited in my life.  Today, it's not worth the gas money that it takes to get there, even if admission was free.

I visited the York location earlier this year, and it is still absolutely incredible, but its expansions seem to have come at the expense of the Hanover location.  Quite frankly, if not for all of the time and money that it must have taken to make the Hanover arcade resemble the old Time Out Family Amusement Centers, I would have said that it was being used as a warehouse for machines that were in need of repair and overflow cabinets that they didn't have the room to put out in York.  The difference between these two arcades is so vast that it's hard to believe that they're owned by the same person.  It's like comparing a playground in a state of neglect to Disneyland.

If you live in Hanover and you only care about playing pinball, visiting the Hanover location might be worth your while to buy a one hour pass.  For anyone else, do yourself a favor and skip the Hanover location and visit the Timeline Arcade in York.