Data, Portland, Pinball
The Quest to Quantify Portland's Pinball Prominence
Ryan Callihan
Analytics Lead, InterWorks
Some things I love:
Maps
Data
Portland
Regional History
Pinball
Pinball
I started noticing pinball everywhere
Wait... am I crazy or is there A TON of pinball in Portland?
How do I objectively prove this?
But first!
Some crazy pinball history.
Louis XIV of France, 1700's
Bagatelle
Montegue Redgrave, 1871
Ballyhoo, 1932
Marsh's Free Museum, Long Beach, Washington
Bally Sports
Bally Entertainment
(not just pinball)
Bally Total Fitness
Bally Pinball
Pinball in the 1940's. A game of skill or a game of chance?
1947 New York City
- the Las Vegas mafia
- Al Winter
- Seattle Teamsters
- Tom “Blubber” Maloney
- Portland Teamsters
VS
Stan Terry
James "Big Jim" Elkin
Portland and Pinball in the 1940's and 50's
Offbeat Oregon History
Roger Sharpe "The man who saved pinball", 1976
So... is Portland a great place to play pinball?
(spoiler: yes)
How to answer the question:
What are the best pinball cities in the USA?
- Define what 'best' pinball means.
- Find data.
- Prepare data.
- Analyze data.
- Build a viz to share.
Metrics used:
- Total number of pinball machines in a given city.
- Total number of places to play pinball (pinball establishments).
- Pinball machines per capita (per 100k)
- Pinball establishments per capita (per 100k)
The Data
Census Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Delineated on the basis of a central contiguous area of relatively high population density and > 50,000 people.
From this, I got:
1) Metro boundaries
2) Population
Data: Pinballmap.com
API includes:
- Machine Name
- Location
- Machine Condition
- Machine Manufacturer
- Machine Year
- and way more
Python - Get JSON from PinballMap API
All pinball locations across the USA
Pinball Density
Pinball Analytics
So, I've got the data. Now what?
The Spatial Join
The Spatial Join
Back to the original question. What cities have the most pinball?
So... who is the best pinball city?
Data from 2018
# of Places to Play
# of Pinball Machines
# of Pinball Machines (per Capita)
# of Places to Play (per Capita)
#1!
#2!
#1!
#2!
Is Portland the best pinball city? (in Aug 2024)
Analysis is done.
Now, how do I share it with the world?
3 C's of Dashboard Design
But someone already did it :(
- Use updated data
- Make a regional or more focused analysis
- Tell a better story
- Work directly with stakeholders
Who cares! Make it better!
1992
Creepy. Kooky. Spooky. Ooky.
The End
