A new arcade packed with nearly 100 classic games and pinball machines has opened at 19170 Farmington Rd. in Livonia, and unlike its sister location in Fraser, there's no bar in sight. Free Play Pinball Arcade's second outpost is built strictly for family play, letting visitors pay one price at the door instead of feeding quarters into every machine.
Owner Joe Koliba opened the original Free Play Pinball Arcade in Fraser in 2019, introducing that same coin-free wristband model to give families an offline space to play together, according to Metromode. That Macomb County location caters to adult nightlife with a full arcade bar, but the Livonia venue, which opened July 1, was structured from the start as an all-ages, alcohol-free space, per Free Play Pinball Arcade. Koliba told MLive he wanted adults to relive their childhood and bring their own kids along to enjoy the games, saying the arcade is fun for the whole family and brings children and adults together.
Nearly 100 Games, Free Play Included
The Livonia location has nearly 100 arcade games and pinball machines, and all of them run on free play once a guest pays admission, per the same MLive report. The lineup includes '80s staples like Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Super Pac-Man, Joust, Moon Patrol and Space Invaders, along with the 1990s favorite NBA Jam. According to a Kineticist venue listing, the pinball side of the collection spans 38 machines built between 1971 and 2025, mixing vintage electro-mechanical tables with modern Stern releases like Godzilla and The Mandalorian, alongside classics such as Bally's Captain Fantastic and Williams' Twilight Zone.
Koliba said he searches mostly in private collections for games in great condition, and that the arcade works to keep its machines pristine, according to MLive's report. Some of that hunting has turned up unusual finds — Koliba purchased machines from Detroit boxing legend Thomas “the Hitman” Hearns, MLive reports. He also told the outlet that visitors often stay longer than they planned, losing track of time once they start playing.
A Giant Among the Collection
Among the more eye-catching pieces tied to Koliba's collection is Atari's 1979 Hercules, which stands over seven feet tall and nearly eight feet long and uses an actual pool cue ball as its pinball. It's widely recognized as the largest commercial pinball machine ever mass-produced, according to Side Quest Arcade. Atari built the oversized table in the late 1970s as a novelty draw meant to pull arcade crowds away from the earliest video games, the outlet notes.
Pricing and Hours
Free Play Pinball Arcade in Livonia is open Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., charging $10 per person for unlimited play through the end of August, per MLive's reporting. Thursdays and Fridays run from 4 p.m. to midnight, with a $15-per-person rate on Thursdays that doubles as ladies' night, when women pay half price. Saturdays run noon to midnight and Sundays noon to 8 p.m., with weekend pricing from Friday through Sunday set at $20 per person. The arcade also offers family and group discounts.
A Suburban Arcade Scene in Flux
Livonia's new arcade lands in a Metro Detroit gaming scene that has been reshuffling its storefronts. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum relocated from Farmington Hills to Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield in early 2026 amid commercial redevelopment pressures across Oakland and Wayne counties, according to ClickOnDetroit. Ann Arbor's Pinball Pete's faced a similar squeeze, closing its longtime South University Avenue basement space in December 2025 before reopening blocks away on East Liberty in spring 2026, as Hoodline reported.
Those relocations reflect a broader retro-gaming rebound playing out well beyond Southeast Michigan. The global pinball machine market is projected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2025 to $4.6 billion by 2034, a 5.2% annual growth rate tied to retro entertainment demand, according to Dataintelo. Stern Pinball, the industry's leading manufacturer, has seen direct consumer sales climb to roughly 70% of its business since the pandemic, prompting it to open a larger Chicago production facility in 2023, per Retail Brew. Sanctioned competitive pinball events worldwide reached 12,693 in 2024, drawing nearly 288,000 player entries, a 17% jump in active tournament players over the prior year, according to Betson Enterprises.
Livonia's own demographics may help explain the timing of the expansion. The city had a population of 95,535 as of the 2020 census, with a median age of 45.6 years — a profile that skews toward adults old enough to remember the original 1980s arcade boom, per city data cited on Wikipedia. Whether that built-in nostalgia translates into the same steady weekend crowds as a liquor-licensed barcade remains to be seen, but for now, Koliba's flat-rate, quarter-free model is betting that families will keep coming back to relive it together.
