Where else would you expect to find the best pinball in the Twin Cities but in a forgotten strip mall in Hopkins? SS Billiards lies off the beaten path, obscure to all but the truly dedicated. SS doesn't wear the glitz of a Dave & Buster's, or the bells and whistles of a Chuck E. Cheese. You won't find jalapeño poppers to snack on between games as with other whitewashed suburban chains. Here in this low-rent atmosphere, where pimpled, nicotine-fed youth roam free, is something far more compelling: a history of pinball in just one room. SS has games that score in the hundreds and in the hundreds of thousands. Send your ball up the chute with a satisfying sproing or just push the button. Play with your favorite trademarked characters or a simple pair of clunky flippers. A Redford-like cowboy stud beckons you from the once-ubiquitous Eight-Ball Deluxe game. In his western shirt and full 'stache, and with adoring harem, he typifies the dawn of the 1980s. This was the twilight of the game's reign, before Pac-Men and -Women came to devour pinball's oversized ball bearings and screen-printed boards.