Northstar Pinball Collective: Making Competitive Pinball Weird Again
There are a few international hotspots for competitive pinball play. D82, Jim Belsito’s house, wherever they feel like holding Pinburgh — but in recent years there’s also been an explosion of new pinball spots with an emphasis on tournaments and serious players. The long awaited Buffalo Pinball Collective and Wormhole Pinball Museum (IDk if this is what Wormhole is calling it, but you get the idea) will both offer experiences that will curb the appeal to a general public just looking to get in there and button mash on a Terminator 2, and CATER to us — the pinball freaks.
Northstar Pinball Collective in Savage, MN follows the same pattern. Get a ton of awesome competition games, set them up hard, and set up a standard “play all day” fee. At an extremely reasonable $20, it allows pinball hardcores to come from all over (seriously some poor bastard had driven 8 round trip to play pinball there the day before I arrived) while still having a dope space for locals to check out if they’re feeling it. This is all the brainchild of Dan Hansen and current world rank number 4, Luke Nahorniak, who came up with the idea after an especially raucous new year’s eve tournament.
Mad Scientists With a Dream
Dan Hansen is relatively new to the pinball hobby, but he’s not new to fixing stuff. An audio engineer by training, Dan is the main tech, not only for Northstar Pinball Collective, but a number of locations in the Minneapolis area. It was also his idea to team up with Luke Nahorniak to create the Northstar Pinball Collective after playing in an especially juicy tournament on New Year’s Eve at Luke’s house.
“Every available space had a pinball machine. No furniture,” Dan laughs. “I said, ‘what the hell are you doin’ here, man?’ I think he had like 25 games. The whole lower level was only pinball machines and no furniture. I had been slowly collecting for no reason. So we just put it together.”
While originally they wanted to find a space closer to the Twin Cities metro area, it was hard to find an affordable spot that could house as many games as they wanted, which currently sits at over 50 (with room for more). So the move to Savage, a suburb of about 30,000 people a half hour away was ultimately the best solution. After looking at where D82 is located, this might be the midwest’s biggest strength: our abundance of large pole shed type buildings in the middle of nowhere.
The games? They’re real, and they’re spectacular!
The first thing you’ll notice is that NPC doesn’t have only new Sterns. Is this where pinball hipsters have moved to in 2024? We get UP for old WPC games? I guess this is the equivalent of having a big indie rock section at your record store now, or maybe classic rock? Either way, you’re getting variety, and most importantly, they’re in good-ass shape. Yes, they play hard, but they’re fair and on my one time playing Road Kings, Dan quietly exclaimed, “that was the longest multiball I’ve ever seen on this game.” Which made me feel pretty, pretty, pretty good. There’s not much there that’s about this specific story, but I just wanted to throw this in there that I’m really good at the multiball in Road Kings — so eat it.
The Twin Cities Scene is Bussin’
I know we aren’t using bussin’ anymore, but I didn’t wanna say rizzy. It just felt gross. These days there are no shortage of places to play competitive pinball in the Twin Cities area. Bad Penny, LITT Pinball Bar, Falling Knife — I’d put the twin cities metro area against nearly any other spot in the country in terms of options for competitive play — so how can it support another? Well, because these operators support each other.
The entire month of September, NPC is teaming up with LITT, Broken Clock Brewing, and 56 Brewing to create the September Super Series, a traveling IFPA certified tournament that will tour some of the best spots in the area. Without sounding like an advertisement, because no one paid us, this seems like a helluva way to do a tour of some of my absolute favorite spots, in one of my absolute favorite towns. And while this IS a haven for competitive players, it doesn’t JUST have to be about the competition. In fact, that was one of Dan’s biggest emphasis in making this place: NPC was to be a social hangout, not just for nerds to get WPPRS as fast as possible.
“I met most of my pinball friends at District 82,” Dan Says. “Even if I don’t win at a competition, it’s a super social event for me. I love meeting people.”
That manifests in fun, goofy tournaments that don’t always have to be about crushing your opponents. The recent Birthday tournament for NPC employee Brooke, and tournie regular, Krista, had a frickin circus theme. People dressed up as literal clowns (instead of the metaphorical clown I dress up as every day), played pinball while jumping on trampolines, and quenched their thirst with a BYOB policy that everyone in small town america loves.
What’s next? More tourneys, more fun, and more pinball machines. NPC already regularly streams from the MN Pinball twitch stream, so stop and see what you’re missing. And if you’re within an eight hour driving radius? You might just wanna make the pilgrammage. See what they’re building down there. I guarantee it’s not a playhouse for the children. (clears phlegm after Tom Waits reference). See y’all there!
