AMHERST — Pinball machines that are part of one of the largest collections of arcade games in the region line the walls of a new social club opening Saturday in North Amherst’s Mill District.
With multicolored lights flashing from them and many emitting various sounds, joined inside by neon signs and neon strips, a disco ball and a large mural portraying a flying saucer hovering above a horse, Tilted Orbit is designed to give off an otherworldly feel, appropriate for a place with a space-age theme that also uses an unidentified flying object in one of its logos.
Yet the intent of owner Amy McDonough of Florence, a founder of the Northampton Belles and Chimes women’s pinball league, is to create a space where people can gather over food and drink, while engaging in the fun and competition of pinball. A total of 34 pinball machines from her collection are joined by 10 video games and five prize cabinets.
Tilted Orbit’s grand opening at 113 Cowls Road on Saturday comes some 18 months after McDonough identified the site, a previously renovated barn that originally had an Atkins Farms Country Market satellite location, and four to five months of buildout to bring her love for pinball to a wider audience.
McDonough, who refers to the arcade as the mothership, said she is excited to have a portion of her collection, a mix of electromechanical, solid state and modern machines, available to the public.
“I personally want people to play my games,” McDonough says, adding that the Tilted Orbit arcade is like the home version she’s had for the past few years, but “with enough room for everyone.”
At her home, friends began coming over to play on the pinball machines. Now, she is leasing them to the business so that others can engage in what has been her passion since she was a graduate student at the University of Vermont.
“This largely comes from what I like and what I don’t like. Post-COVID, you don’t have a lot of these spaces anymore,” McDonough said.
While in a college town, McDonough said this will not be a typical bar.
“I felt this was an interesting crossover with students, finding a way to bring students in without becoming a drinking culture,” McDonough said.
With a tag line “Beam In, Flip Out” and describing Tilted Orbit as “landed,” McDonough’s business card refers to her as the founder, owner and “captain of the mothership.”
Retired from a career as vice president for a company in green and renewable energy, McDonough found her love for the game at Manhattan Pizza in Burlington, Vermont, in the early 1990s, playing regularly on the “Addams Family” motion picture pinball machine, one of the most popular ever with more than 20,000 units sold.
“I totally got hooked on it,” McDonough said. She then started running tournaments there. “It delayed my master’s thesis for a year.”
But after starting both a career and family, it wasn’t until a trip many years later to Funspot, near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, that she rediscovered her love for pinball, comparing playing to how one never forgets how to ride a bicycle.
“Playing pinball, it is like riding a bicycle in that way, and it was heaven,” McDonough said.
Soon after, she invested $15,000 to acquire a pinball machine based on the film “Pulp Fiction,” a game that will be one of the more popular in the arcade, because it has a great flow while playing and recites some of the G-rated lines from the movie, she said.
Other expected favorites include “The Addams Family” and three versions of “Black Knight.” The original 1980 machine is autographed by its designer, Steve Ritchie. “Black Knight 2000” dates from 1989, and “Black Knight: Sword of Rage” from 2019.
“Black Knight is known for being very hard,” McDonough said, adding that playing it helped her become a better, more patient player.
During the grand opening celebration Saturday, a day after a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, people will have an opportunity to play for free for two hours. The business will be open from 11 a.m. to midnight, becoming 21 and older after 9 p.m.
The event will also include a DJ under the big tent, a caricature artist, a yo-yo performance, a local Three Amigos food truck and community groups like the Belles and Chimes league.
When the regular hours begin, the business will have 23 part- and full-time employees. Upon entering and passing by the main mascot Oinkbert, people start their journey at the welcome desk, purchasing a reloadable play card for $1 that uses RFpay technology, with another $10 securing an hour of play, $15 two hours of play and $20 a full day of play. The card can be refilled whenever time runs out.
Almost all of the pinball machines use this RFpay, where people tap the card on the pinball machine they wish to play.
The use of RFpay allows McDonough to track which are being used the most, providing a chance to have a “Red Alert” promotion that will put the machines with the fewest plays each month at risk of being replaced. Already, McDonough has other machines, such as ones based on “Beetlejuice,” “Fallout” and “Sonic,” ready to be added.
Sprinkled among the pinball machines are five claw and spinner arcade machines, with physical prizes inside them, provided by Lucky Duck Vending of Easthampton. Two of the pinball machines will be “coin drop” machines that people who don’t buy the RFpay cards can use.
Tilted Orbit’s snack bar has what McDonough calls “arcade level” food that will be prepared in a small kitchen using a combination microwave, convection oven and air fryer, where chicken tenders, french fries and toasted sandwiches will be made. The menu will also include side salads and grazing boards with a selection of meats and cheeses.
There will be frozen treats, sodas and waters and grab-and-go products, including Oinkbert odd bites sandwiches, taking their name from the mascot and which McDonough made on geology camping trips to Wyoming, like a peanut butter and jelly with barbecue potato chips and bacon and peanut butter.
The bar will feature six to eight signature cocktails, a range of beers and wines and non-alcoholic drinks, with many served in bottles and cans so that the money raised from deposits can benefit Dakin Humane Society.
“That’s something we’re dedicated to,” McDonough said.
Beyond the pinball machines is virtual golf Apogee by TruGolf, where people can feel they are playing on one of 100 or more golf courses, or participate in various other sports. This can be converted into a movie theater, as well, or for console gaming tournaments. “There’s a lot of versatility in it,” she said.
The interior design was handled by Workroom Design Studio in Northampton, with Teagno Construction of Sunderland doing build out and ARTfx Architectural Signage & Fabrication of Bloomfield, Connecticut, which made the frosted windows, LED signs and the large mural, while Chris Bordenca of Ludlow created a mural at the main entrance.
This space-age theme carries through to the various sculptures of animals, each with the hypnotic spiral eyes McDonough herself fabricated, such as a horse named Peaches that hangs above the main bar and Oinkbert, who also graces the back of her business card, and another pig named Truffles.
Tilted Orbit has a party room that can be rented out and accommodate up to 16 children and two adults, and will have exclusive use of four classic arcade games, like Q-Bert and Galaga. Those using the party room will have access to the full arcade, though McDonough anticipates that younger children are less likely to be interested in pinball.
The final area is the “sick bay,” where broken machines are repaired. One currently being repaired is “Capt. Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” based on Elton John’s 1975 album.
McDonough said she comes from a family of collectors who ran a three-generation antique shop in Bennington, Vermont. She has long admired her family’s role in that community and sees Tilted Orbit as a way to build community in a different way.
The business will have hats, T-shirts, stickers and postcards with its logo and will be hosting special events, such as a visit by “Pinball: A Quest for Mastery” author Tasker Smith.
The New England Pinball League will be using Tilted Orbit on Monday nights for several weeks at a time for its league play, with a house league in place those nights when they are elsewhere. Even on those evenings, the space will be open for all to use.
Tilted Orbit will be open Mondays and Thursdays from 1 to 9 p.m., Fridays from 1 p.m. to midnight, Saturdays from 11 a.m. to midnight and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The business will be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
