Link To Map

If your looking for somewhere in particular why not try this Map? The markers indicate a Pinball location and where available there is a link back to the relevant page on this blog letting you know a little about the venue.

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Golden Barley Hotel

The Golden Barley Hotel is located at 167 Edgeware rd Enmore. They have a Grand Prix machine and an Indiana Jones (2008) machine.  Both are 3 ball and $1 a credit or $2 for 3 credits.

UPDATE:  The Indiana Jones machine has been replaced with an Addams Family machine.  As you can tell from my opinion of the Indy machine below, this is a good thing. It is also $2 for 3 credits.






So, lets start with the machines.  I'd been curious about the new Indiana Jones machine for a while.  The original (Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure) is something of a classic so maybe expectations were a little high but this latest Indy pinny, much like the latest movie instalment, dissapoints.

The four movies seem to have inspired four things to do.  Near field left there is a scoop representing The Last Crusade, to the right of that is another scoop, this one needs to be opened by hitting it first, representing the Temple Of Doom. Straight up the middle is the Ark from Raiders with a magnet in front to mess with the ball and to the right of that is the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull ramp. there are two orbits and a closed off section that requires you to hit the pinball into some captive balls to spell MAP for bonus multiplier. And that seems to be about it. 

The highlight would be the 8 ball multiball. triggering the Ark shot opens the Ark and drops balls onto the playfield, which is cool the first time it happens, but 8 balls just feels a bit redundant, overcompensating perhaps? This and other multiballs seem to just require you to "hit flashing shots" and from what I could tell, every shot was flashing.



I think another reason this didn't play well for me was the waiting.  As an Indiana Jones machine it seemed packed with sound bites from the various movies, but in a loud pub, the sound not up too high, these were basically inaudible which meant waiting for the ball to eject for an inordinately long time till the sound bite I couldn't hear had run through.  I'd give the benefit of the doubt and say this would probably be much more enjoyable if it could be heard. 

So, in summary, four things to achieve, each one triggers a multiball that requires you to hit everything.  Rinse and repeat. Its just a bit boring.

Oh, one more thing.  The ball got stuck going round the orbit twice during my play through of this machine.  It took a tilt to dislodge it.  I don't know if this is becuase the machine isnt set at a high enough angle or just a little quirk of this machines design but it was one more mark against it.

Anyway, before I go on to the pleasant suprise that is Grand prix I might just cover the Golden Barley itself. Instant points when we found out it was $10 for jugs of Coopers all Saturday.  The Barley is a big pub, though I've rarely set foot outside of the front bar.  There is a bistro out the back as well as a beer garden that I've heard good things about.  Along with the Pinnies in the front bar theres a juke box and two pool tables.  There's also a TAB and plenty of screens showing various sporting events depending on the season.  Check out whats going on each day of the week here.







Now, onto Grand Prix.  I'd played this briefly once before as there is one at the Timezone near the Hoyts on George st. That one requires you to get a Timezone rechargable card and, as seems the norm in for pinball machines in arcades, was in pretty average condition. I had enjoyed it though and a shiny, fully working machine like the one at the Barley was fantastic.

The track around the outside of the playfield is a great touch. The ball does a few laps before ejecting it into the play field and during multiball a ball does laps, keeping the tension up and acting as a ball save, ejecting onto the playfield once you drain the ones in play.

The shots are all relatively simple but the game flows quickly and theres something about it that is just fun, especially the multiball with its cheesy 90's rock song and ball flying around the outside of the playfield.

All in all the Barley is a great bet and I think I'll be here drinking $10 jugs of Coopers and playing a new favourite machine quite often in the future.

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