At a time when most people are thinking about dinner, Revenge Of is lit. It’s almost 6 pm, and flashes of multicolored light burst from pinball machines lined up inside two back rooms of this Glassell Park comic book shop that — much like the Tardis in “Dr. Who” — is much bigger on the inside than it appears from an unassuming corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard. Strain your ears and you can faintly hear Tegan and Sara’s mid-2000s indie hit “Walking With a Ghost” in the background, but the playlist is mostly overpowered by chit-chat and cries of both triumph and frustration — a cacophony driven by the off -kilter rhythm of plastic flippers against steel pinballs. There’s no alcohol served at Revenge Of’s bar and no dance floor in sight, but this is a vibe that’s more party than arcade. With 26 machines, including buzz-y new games like John Wick and Pulp Fiction, Revenge Of has become a destination for pinball wizards and novices alike. In less than an hour, the store’s Sunday evening league will start and nearly every machine is occupied as players get in a few minutes of practice and more people arrive. Overall, more than 70 people are part of the league, some local to northeast Los Angeles, some driving in from as far as Ventura. As game time approaches, Joe Kuntz, co-owner of Revenge Of, pulls out a megaphone to try to gather the crowd. “Entertainment is at a premium,” Kuntz says over a phone call prior to this event. “It costs money to go somewhere. How do we keep it accessible, low-cost, high-value entertainment?” ‘Geek wine cellar’ Coming out of the pandemic, Kuntz and his pals had amassed a collection of pinball machines that they wanted to share with others. But, they also knew that this alone might not be able to draw a crowd. Since their favorite comic book shop closed during the pandemic, they decided to try fusing the two concepts. So in 2022, Kuntz, along with business partners Jeff Eyser and Joe Meyer, opened Revenge Of as what they like to call a “geek bodega” — Kuntz acknowledging that bodega is a “more East Coast term for the local corner store.” In addition to comics and pinball, there are shelves of DVDs, boasting Criterion-released classics and the cult-y Italian horror films known as giallo. In a corner dedicated to vinyl, the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack sits next to a few copies of the new Billie Eilish album. Behind the front cash register are rows of soft drinks and snacks. With a handful of machines set up in a corridor-thin room that looks like the interior of a spaceship, pinball took off quickly. They launched a league that attracted a near-capacity crowd. Meanwhile, other store events also grew in popularity. Kuntz says that their biggest request from customers was for a place where they could buy comics and have a community space. About a year into Revenge Of’s life, the store expanded into a recently vacated unit next door. The new addition became the Base Station, sci-fi sleek in shades of gray with a mocktail bar and seating area, plus more room for comics and, of course, pinball machines. “We were definitely inspired by ‘Alien,’” says Jeff Eyser, who, by day, is a TV and film production designer with his own fabrication shop. Plus, Eyser adds, “I was watching a lot of ‘Silo’ at the time on Apple TV+, so everything is kind of grounded and bunker feeling.” Ready players, one…and two…and… On tonight, it’s the fifth week of the league’s seventh season and the first night of division play. Where the past few weeks have been about seeding players, now the pinballers are assigned to groups in one of four skill level-based divisions. Ultimately, they’ll compete for the top spots in their division. While there are prizes for the winners, this is a casual league. It’s not part of the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA), the group that oversees competitive pinball, and machines are left on the basic settings instead of competition or tournament modes. Players of all skill levels are welcome. “We wanted to be a warm, welcoming, inviting place for beginners, novices and people to experience comics and pinball for the first time,” says Kuntz. That’s what has happened at Revenge Of. From left, Josh Sira and Michael Meyer prepare to compete in a pinball tournament hosted by the Revenge Of comic book shop in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 30, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer) Before tonight, I attended a previous league match, as well as a one-off tournament. I’ve also stopped by the shop to play pinball on my own. The crowd here — and it seems like there is always a crowd — is not what you might expect for pinball. It crosses whatever demographic lines you want to draw. In a city where arcade games are mostly housed inside 21-and-older venues, this store holds a somewhat rare distinction: All ages can play here. It’s not uncommon to see parents and kids enjoying the nearly century-old, coin-operated game together. Sometimes, the kids are barely tall enough to reach the plunger that will push the pinball onto the playfield. The price of the games, typically $1 in tokens per round, also makes it an economical outing. You can spend a good amount of time here for $10 or less. That’s impressive given the caliber of machines. Most were released within the past few years; some are decked-out with additional features, such as Jim Henson’s Labyrinth topped by goblin sculptures and featuring a plunger made to resemble an in-universe weapon called nipper sticks or the Mandalorian machine with a topper that displays game stats. “We’re so spoiled,” Tyler White told me on the first league night I attended. “We have 26 machines. Custom plungers, custom art — all those bells and whistles.” A stormtrooper plunger used during a pinball tournament at the Revenge Of comic book shop in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 30, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer) White is an ambassador for the Revenge Of league and for pinball in general. He’s a highly skilled player, known for winning his own machine two years ago at a tournament at Walt’s, the vintage pinball bar in nearby Eagle Rock. His knowledge of the game is deep, and he’s generous in sharing it. You might assume that he grew up with pinball, but that’s not the case. “I’ve got Pokémon and Zelda tattoos. I was raised playing Nintendos and Xboxes and PlayStations, and I’ve done a cosmic return to pinball,” he says. White actually began playing pinball when he worked as a bar manager and was tasked with maintaining the venue’s machines. At first, he says, he was “terrible” at it. Now, he mentors new players. “It’s been huge for me creatively because life’s hard and it’s easy to forget that you can learn new things or gain new skills for not a lot of money or whatever it may be,” he says. When White isn’t playing, he works the room, chatting up other players, offering advice on the game, making friends. “Tyler was the first pinball friend I ever made,” says Ryan Sheldon, who makes weekly treks from Ventura to Glassell Park to play at Revenge Of. “It’s a surprising way of growing my social circle.” Ryan got into pinball during the pandemic. He started watching streams of games and then bought his own machine. Less than a year ago, he joined the league and convinced his 18-year-old son, Bruce Sheldon, to do the same. “He’s better than me already,” says Ryan. “Playing here made me want to get better and gave me an incentive to want to get better at the games,” says Bruce. Now, he’s gaining a reputation as a fantastic player. White refers to Bruce as “so incredibly talented.” For Bruce, pinball provides an altogether different gaming experience than what he grew up with. “I was never going to an arcade as a kid. I was just staying at home, playing Wii,” he says. And the physicality of arcade games is not the same as playing video games at home, he adds. “I don’t think it translates at all.” Pulp Fiction An all-ages pinball tournament hosted by the Revenge Of comic book shop in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 30, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer) Bruce’s favorite machine right now is Pulp Fiction. Actually, multiple players at Revenge Of cite Pulp Fiction as a current favorite. Released earlier this year via Chicago Gaming Company, it was, by request of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, designed in the style of a vintage pinball machine. It looks as if it were released concurrently with the 1994 Oscar-winning movie using its then-retro aesthetic as a template. Unlike contemporary games, there are no videos playing on the backbox, just the scores set against artwork inspired by “Pulp Fiction.” The playfield is laid out with nods to the movie, including sculptures of a grand royale with cheese and the infamous pocket watch. But, it plays more like today’s games, with more options for scoring points. Josh Sharpe, who designed the rules for Pulp Fiction (and is also president of the IFPA), describes the machine as like an onion. “You’re looking at it at first glance and it’s a 1970s/1980s style of game,” he says by phone, “but there really are layers to it like an onion, especially on the rules side, where there’s depth of content and then there’s also breadth of content.” He adds, “For Pulp Fiction, being able to offer a wide palette of things that players can do to entertain themselves was paramount to the game.” On the first night of the league’s division play, the pinballers spend a couple of hours coursing through Revenge Of as they take shots on six different machines. Each division is made up of four groups with three or four players. The groups appear like teams, with all the camaraderie one might expect from baseball or basketball, except that the individuals are technically competing against each other. “You are playing with a group each night, but everyone wants to get better, so helping people learn a machine is never the wrong thing to do,” says Mayumi Roehm. In 2022, Roehm, who lives in Monterey Park, found Revenge Of while embarking on her own pinball journey. Now she organizes the shop’s monthly IFPA-sanctioned tournaments for women and nonbinary players. “If someone asks me how to play something, I’m always open to teaching them what I know,” Roehm adds. “If they beat me, good for them.” League of their own On this night, Roehm is grouped with Bill and Cici Rude, a couple from Woodland Hills who are new to the league, but not to the game. Cici gravitated toward pinball back “when everybody else started playing video games,” and her interest was rekindled over a decade ago after watching a documentary and recognizing the old machines. Bill, an artist, actually made the animation and designed the figures on the playing field of the Scooby Doo machine that’s at Revenge Of. Their first purchase as a couple was a pinball machine and they currently have two at home, but that’s not the same as playing in the league. “At home, you have the option of restarting the machine if you’re having a shitty game,” says Bill. Plus, he adds, pinball machines are unique. You can become accustomed to the quirks of the machine you regularly play and master it, but try a different machine running the same game and the results might not be that great. For a chunk of the night, I watch White play. “Finesse,” he said when we first met two weeks earlier, is something you learn from pinball — and he has a lot of it. On Galactic Tank Force, a year-old game with a mid-20th century B-movie aesthetic, White smoothly juggles multiple balls. He does that again on John Wick, the latest machine from veteran pinball-maker Stern, and remains calm when words like “Jackpot” and “Super Jackpot” flash on the screen. I think back to our conversation from the previous league night. “You’re not playing against the computer,” White told me then. “You’re going against yourself. I’ve learned so much about myself from pinball.” That’s a sentiment that comes up again and again in conversations while working on this story, as well as something I’ve noticed while playing on my own. Even with the digital elements that new machines often have, pinball is still largely detached from today’s computer life. You can’t flip between screens while you play or pause a game to return a text. You have to focus on the ball and the playfield. When you do that, you learn to both look inward and forge better connections with the people around you. It’s like a meditation, albeit one aided by the clank of flippers against pinballs. Plus, it’s a good time. Ultimately, says Kuntz, “It’s just a lot of fun. People have a lot of cheap fun playing pinball.” Pinball leagues Sure, you can play pinball on your own, but if you’re looking to connect with other people for friendly competition and meaningful connection, try a league. A number of different pinball leagues exist throughout Southern California, as well as one-off tournaments. The frequency with which leagues meet vary, but they typically play through seasons that last weeks or a few months. Most leagues also have dues that you’ll pay at the start of the season. Below are just a few leagues that we’ve found. Keep track on their websites or socials to find out when sign-ups begin. The Revenge Of comic book shop hosts an all-ages pinball tournament in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 30, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer) Revenge Of Pinball League More ‘Games People Play’ This story is part of a collection of stories printed in September 2024. Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year. What’s its enduring appeal? Why does sharing Wordle with friends feel so satisfying? Why the ancient game of bocce ball is on a roll Read more ‘Games People Play’ More SCNG Premium content Revenge Of’s pinball leagues meet on most Sunday evenings during seasons that last about eight weeks. Players of all skill levels are welcome to join at this all-ages venue. In addition, the store hosts a monthly tournament for women and nonbinary players as well as frequent open tournaments. Follow Revenge Of on Instagram to keep track of tournaments, as well as sign-ups for the league’s next season. Los Angeles Pinball League LA’s oldest pinball league meets on most Tuesday nights at 82, the bar/arcade in the Arts District for casual, IFPA-sanctioned games. The Los Angeles Pinball League runs three or four seasons a year, plus tournaments in between the seasons. It’s a large league with about 60 members; all skill levels are welcome, just note that 82 is a 21-and-older venue. For more information about signing up to play, reach out on Instagram . Downtown Pinball League All skill levels are welcome at Downtown Pinball League , which meets on Wednesday nights at Mission Control in Santa Ana. The league’s website is up-to-date with their schedule and contact information for those who want to join. Belles & Chimes OC Belles & Chimes is a nationwide network of pinball leagues for women. The Orange County chapter currently meets at Captain’s Arcade Showroom in Anaheim and posts updates on Facebook and Instagram . Pinbug In mid-September, Pinbug concluded its first league season. The website for this downtown Pomona pinball arcade is kept up to date, so check there or on Instagram for information about upcoming events.