Frolic’s Arcade, despite the name, is not an actual arcade. A City of Toronto zoning bylaw states that only two pinball machines or other electronic games are permitted in a restaurant or amusement establishment, so pinball leagues are held mostly in the homes of private collectors such as Frolic’s Arcade. Run out of the basement of an unknown suburban address by husband and wife duo Chris and Robin Frolic, the collection sports 15 machines including a tricked-out Tron cabinet and the highly prized Game of Thrones game. Every week the Frolics open their doors to many of Toronto’s members-only pinball leagues and aficionados. 

The Toronto Pinball League (ToPL) is one such group whose members number well into the thirties. 

The group has been meeting up and playing pinball competitively every Monday since 1996. Splinter group the Toronto Pinball Vixens also play at Frolic’s Arcade and was born out of a need for a more inclusive and female-friendly space for pinball enthusiasts.

The sport, which has been around since at least the 1750s, is enjoying something of a revival among the city’s hip young creatives with pinball machines, both new and old, springing up in dive bars across the city to satiate these millennials’ seemingly bottomless thirst for all things retro.

“It’s a fun thing to do,” says Christopher Green, bartender at Dundas West bar the Dock Ellis, where a vintage pinball machine was recently installed. “You can have a couple beers, play a couple games. It’s a good way to pass the time.”

For those wishing to play at Frolic’s Arcade or in other private collectors’ homes, you’ll have to join a league, but if you’re after a more casual game, there are a handful of pinball machines to be found nestled in amongst a host of vintage arcade games at the Junction hangout Junction City Music Hall or at Dundas West local Get Well.

There are also a couple of machines at Cabin Fever, Handlebar, Unlovable and 3030.