November 3 was the New York City Marathon. It was also the day of a much less publicized and stranger marathon, which took place in a laundromat/pinball Mecca located directly on the sidelines of the Marathon route. While hundreds of marathon runners streaked by, some of Brooklyn’s most serious pinball players were at the Sunshine Laundry pinball marathon, playing the bumpers for glory. We caught up with some of the players that made the trek to get some time on Sunshine’s A-list games.
PINBALL MARATHON ‘2013 from CITIZEN on Vimeo.
Sunshine Laudromat is a hidden gem. A half-arcade/half-laundromat that looks like the inside of a John Waters film, it that has become a kind of cult-hideout for the pinball scene in the NYC largely thanks to it’s owner, Peter. Peter is a huge pinball enthusiast who has amassed of 200 machines, some of which were smuggled in from Mexico, which he rotates through the laundromat floor. His passion is Bally-Midway machines from the 1990s, which he rightfully considers the pinnacle of pinball. His clientele agree, coming from near and far, even from buildings with their own washers and dryers, just to play his machines.
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