Arcade Visit: District 82, De Pere, WI

It’s been a long time since I’ve made my last blog post. But not nearly as long as it’s taken me to get to District 82 in De Pere, Wisconsin, one of the nation’s top pinball joints.

Which is ridiculous, considering I literally live in the area. De Pere — which is just outside of Green Bay — is only 20 minutes from where I used to live, and an hour from where I live now. Look, I’m a busy man, all right?

But, excuses be damned — I finally carved out the time to visit when my pinball-lovin’ buddy from the west coast came out to visit for a few days.

District 82 is open to the public Fridays through Sundays. A $25 entry fee gets you all-day access and everything is on free play. A wristband allows you to leave and come back as much as you want. Drinks are available for purchase and you’re even welcome to bring your own snacks and lunch. During the week, they hold “Tilt’n Tuesdays” tournaments open to anyone for an entry fee, often accompanied by food trucks.

Located in a sort of semi-industrial area, the space has high ceilings and is decked out in vintage pinball fields, backglasses, and banners.

I don’t have an actual game count, but you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a table that District 82 doesn’t offer. From woodrails and wedgeheads to 80s and 90s classics to the latest from Stern and Jersey Jack, it’s all available and all in beautifully-maintained condition.

Tournaments are often livestreamed on Twitch, and the District 82 YouTube channel even has a series of 90-second pinball tutorials!

There is also a small selection of video games, for those who need some digital with their analog.

According to their website, they even offer pinball repair services, which I did not realize, but I may have to take advantage of to get my Gottlieb “Pin-Up” wedgehead to stop blowing fuses.

I must admit that I am generally terrible at pinball. I always seem to shoot, watch the ball bounce off something, and then drain right down the middle, and that’s mostly my experience. However, I gotta say that on the day my friend and I visited, with free run of the place and all afternoon to hang, I felt like I could take my time, play around, and actually started getting the hang of controlling the ball and aiming it and almost (lets not get cocky here) making it do what I want. Almost. But even if my gains were minimal at best, I had a blast, and definitely want to make return trips here to see if maybe, just maybe, I can actually develop some skill after a lifetime of embarrassingly brief pinball games.

It’s clear that District 82 is run by people who really love and treasure pinball, and want to promote and preserve it. I even found Nudge magazine talking about it with great reverence as one of the top pinball destinations in the country. If you’re a pinhead, you clearly owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage to De Pere, Wisconsin and its eighty-second district.

I’ll finish with a photo dump, followed by District 82’s vital information.

Play more pinball!