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Selection comes from enthusiast's stockpile of 1,000 machines

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Las Vegas resident Neil Fransen's face lit up when he walked into the Pinball Hall of Fame on a recent morning and asked about a favorite game from his childhood -- The Wizard. When Pinball Hall of Fame organizer Tim Arnold told him he had it, Fransen was eager to play the day away like he did as a child.

"There was nobody that could beat me at that game," said Fransen, 46. "As a kid, I played all day on one quarter."

He's a bit less nimble with his fingers these days, but he and his 18-year-old son Guy Fransen still had some fun popping quarters into the old machines inside the 3330 E. Tropicana Ave. museum.

Arnold, who opened the Pinball Hall of Fame with the help of other members of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club, said he has seen that type of enthusiasm often since the 4,500-square-foot space opened in mid-January. It features 200 pinball machines from Arnold's overall collection of 1,000.

The machines are from many different eras. The newest one, made in 1994, is based on the television series "South Park." The oldest game in the Hall of Fame was made in 1948.

Clark County allowed the Hall of Fame to open as a museum because the games were all older.

Newer pinball machines are pretty hard to find, Arnold explained. He said he is uninterested in the new stuff anyway, especially video games that he considers violent and anti-social.

The majority of the machines inside the Pinball Hall of Fame have long, colorful pasts. Arnold pulled some of them out of forgotten buildings. Most of them were in complete disrepair, and he has spent years restoring them.

The facility is like a traditional museum in many ways. Arnold plans to rotate collections of pinball machines -- machines with similar themes, makers or eras -- in and out of the space as time passes.

What makes this museum unique is that patrons are encouraged to play with all of the displays as often as they like and admission is always free, Arnold said. Games start at a 25 cents each.

Arnold said he would like to see area residents have a fun night out at the museum. People spend too much time huddled around their home entertainment systems these days, he said.

"I think society loses because people need to congregate in the village square, to get together, to have a night out of the house," Arnold said.

Arnold, 50, said he remembers when people had to do more than lift the remote for entertainment.

"When I was growing up, you used to eat your meals at home and go out for entertainment. Now you eat your meals out and stay at home for entertainment," Arnold said.

Aside from getting a kick out of playing pinball, Arnold said the game has had a practical impact on his life. He said it gave him a very solid living. He could afford to retire years ago thanks to a profitable chain of arcades he built from the ground up as a young college student, he explained.

He started with a simple pinball arcade, later adding video games as soon as they were invented. After a while, he had an entire chain of arcades in Michigan called Pinball Pete's. Ever since he sold the chain in 1990 and moved to Las Vegas, he has been working on creating the Pinball Hall of Fame.

It is part museum, part hobby and part charitable endeavor. It might be other things, as well.

"It's a dandy midlife crisis," Arnold said. "Some guys get a blonde and a convertible."

But few of those guys later donate the convertible. Arnold uses the pinball machine money to help a cause he believes in. He pays rent, the electricity bill and insurance first, but the rest of the money that the machines take in is donated to the Salvation Army, he said.

"I'm a firm believer in community service," Arnold said.

He said paying the bills and still having a bit of profit leftover is not always easy.

"We're paying today's rent with 1970s coin," Arnold said.

That means operating lean. Everyone who works at the Hall of Fame works for free.

Arnold's wife, Charlotte, was scrubbing the bathroom on a recent weekday morning. She's not particularly interested in pinball herself, but supports her husband's interest, she said.

"Unless they start making women with bumpers and flippers, I don't have to worry about him chasing other women," she joked. "If he goes to a bar, he's in there looking for a game. I always know where he is."

She may not spend much time playing pinball herself, but she said she does share her husband's interest in giving back to the community. For years, the two opened their home for charitable organizations to raise money, offering the pinball machine collection as an attraction for would-be donors.

The space on East Tropicana Avenue was selected based on timing and its proximity to Tropicana Cinemas.

"We're cheap entertainment for a family and they're cheap entertainment for a family," Tim Arnold said.

The Arnolds had thought of buying a space for the Pinball Hall of Fame, but they watched for years as real estate values skyrocketed and rent stayed the same. They decided to rent for now and reevaluate the matter when the lease expires -- four years from now.

Meanwhile, they said they love to see people connect with their past at the Pinball Hall of Fame.

"If you grew up watching TV or movies or listening to music, you can relive your childhood in some form digitally -- you can get it off the Net, you can get it at Blockbuster. It can be reproduced and delivered to you," Arnold said. "This can never be reproduced and delivered to you because it only exists in the physical world."

The Pinball Hall of Fame serves unexpected purposes, as well.

"We actually get quite a few recovering gambling addicts in here," Arnold said. "You're going to spend $2-$3 an hour here, you're going to spend $2-$3 a minute playing video poker. So it really is harmless fun and it gives you the same buzz as gambling. You're playing against a machine, you're doing things and hoping to win, but it's a very, very slow burn on your wallet."

The Pinball Hall of Fame is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. There is a private party area for rent. For more information, log on to www.pinballmuseum.org.