i love pinball, and now i am sad.

MrBlahBlah

I love pinball machines, but since most arcades have all but vanished I rarely get a chance to play them anymore. I didn't grow up in the golden age of pinball and have been playing video games for a good portion of my life but I'm sad to see so few of them around. Im still want to own the Twilight Pinball machine badly.

Metropolis

There's this bar in Seattle that is filled with pinball machines. I'm not sure if it was intentional but a few of them were screwy enough to let you keep playing long after your two quarters ran out.

I miss arcades. T2 with the machine gun that started searing your hand was possibly one of the highest achievements of man.

jibbly

Does anyone remember a short-lived pinball game called Caveman? At some point, the ball gets locked and you used a joystick to chase dinosaurs around on the video screen. When you went back to your cave, the ball popped out and regular play continued. I can still hear it say "Caveman, Wake up!"

mmcnary

Pinball rules.

You all need to go straight to Portland, OR and experience Ground Kontrol and get playing. Grab a beer and watch a band while you're at it.

I guess I would be preaching to the choir, because the young ones here who don't know what a pinball machine is, wouldn't be able to afford a whimsy flight and grab a drink at an obscure arcade.

iomatic

Where'd those two guys in the middle's heads go? No brain needed for assembly apparently.

ryangee

Sad to see something so classic not be around any more. I want one next to my rotary payphone, 8-track and record player, complete with that THING you used to convert the record player to play 45s. Kids today miss the thrill of playing records at 78 rpm which made even Barry White sounds like Alvin & the Chipmunks.

Curves

@Ollie: I suck at multiball. I always end up just picking one ball and sticking with it.

A friend of mine has a vintage pinball machine from the days before they had flippers! You had to have a meanly tuned bump to adjust the trajectory without causing tilt!

DaOtter

Being a boomer I miss the Pinball and even the older slot machines that were totally mechanical. I'm very tempted to get a machine or two for this new house I'm building. My mail person (PC all the way) collects old slots he finds mostly on the dreaded ebay. Has about 11 so far and is one step from being whacked by his wife.

renditionman

@ARP: pretty much sums it up.

N@tedog

oh...and can I just add that the free game "POP!" is probably the most gratifying sound ever created? That and multiball. Gotta love the multi ball!

Ollie

I hadn't realized that pinball manufacturing legends such as Bally and Williams had shut down. Yes, I am very old school, raised on pinball and can remember when this new thing called Space Invaders replaced my beloved Eight Ball pinball machine (later reborn as the even better Eight Ball Deluxe). After Space Invaders came Asteroids. And then the floodgates had officially opened.

I never really did get into arcade video games. My biggest claim to fame was that I played Centipede cross-handed and was pretty good at it. (Well, I don't know if I really was that good at it as much as my left-over-right hand playing simply unnerved my opponents into losing.)

I know it sounds like one of those "back in my day" stories, but I have to say there is something very tactile, very analog, very you-are-connected-with-the-machine about pinball--especially the classic machines (1960s through mid-1980s), before electronics turned them into clamorous pinball/video hybrids--that you just don't get in any other form of arcade or home video game.

Hang in there, Stern.

* sigh *

* dusts off "SJSU Pinball Champ 1978" trophy *

* returns to abacus under his kerosene lamp *

bosskev

@crap-action-jackson: Just woke up and that is the post of the day. HAHAHA

Leonard Nimrod

@P3nnst8r: You raise a good point. I think pinball's real problem was the way the targeted the "deaf dumb and blind kid that sure plays a mean pinball" demographic.

Is it a loyal base? To be sure.

But it's hard to truly grow your product long-term with such a narrow demo-market.

92BuickLeSabre

I love pinball. Thats really sad that there is only one left. My they never shut down.

Thanatos-

There are so many examples of one tech obsolescing when another comes along.

I would like to feel sorry for the nostalgia but the owner's lack of foresight in keeping up with the evolution of entertainment annoys me somewhat.

To bad he considered himself in the "pinball machine business" instead of branching out his expertise and using his business contracts to create a broader, healthier business model.

Leonard Nimrod

@GOKOR: Do you mean TNT Amusements, with their ridiculous hour long commercial? They're a restoration & sales place, not a manufacturer.

davidm

As a business, I think it will die. As a hobby, it will live on because you know there are people out there that love pinball enough to keep it going. Jay Leno still drives a steam powered car on occasion.

Somewhat related...anyone else love bubble hockey?

carvelo

I think it's cultural. The first thing that struck me coming to the US from Canada was the lack of arcades all-together. Even most movie theaters lack arcades. I still can't find an arcade here in Chicago. Montreal, Toronto, and most big Canadian cities you find them - sounds blaring from the street. I still don't get it. It's like American entrepreneurs aren't interested in investing in a arcade storefront, instead they buy a Dave and Buster's franchise...sad...sad.

Oh and best pinball ever? I gotta say it's split between "Simpson's" and "Ripley's Believe it or Not."

Ollie

I put my four bits into almost any pinball machine I find. My college dorm had the Star Trek Borg pinball game, and I can pinpoint that as my reason for never making it to biology class.

zenpoet

HE'S A PINBALL WIZARDDDDD!!!!

P3nnst8r

So they've got a monopoly?

Gizmodo is just s shill for big pinball.

crap-action-jackson

I currently have this guy sitting in a storage unit because I don't have room in my current apartment. I can't wait until I get my own place and am once again able to play this game. It's easily the best pinball machine I've ever played.

Haunted House Pinball Machine

rbf2000

How much to pinball machines normally go for? I'd love to have one in my basement.

Sportyboard

I still think a good pinball machine is one of the most fun electronic games you can play.

The first pinball machine I ever played was Dolly Parton pinball. Beautiful artwork.

Once I can afford my own house, and not rent, I will buy a pinball machine.

suburbancowboy

I truly miss Medieval Madness by Williams.

irv

@iameleveneight: Golden Tee is the shit.

GOKOR

Most bars still have a pinball game or two along side Golden Tee and their fleet of pool tables and shuffleboard.

Oh, and there's a pinball manufacturer in the south jersey/philly area that is still alive as well.

GOKOR

@Kanyamagufa: don't forget bars...

I love pinball myself and I'm always down to putting a few quarters in a game when I see one, but thats a rare event now a days. I mean shit, you rarely ever see real video games in retaruants and bars now, all you see is lame crap like open tee and deer hunter. Video games for cromags.

iameleveneight

Yea, but there are like 5million machines somewhere rotting. It seems any niche market for them would be more interested in restoring a "Classic" than having one built.

Darrone

Definitely has a place in my heart. Sadly it's the "nostalgia place," right along side a number of other things that haven't been an actual part of my day to day life for years.

92BuickLeSabre

I love pinball, but I don't go to arcades, so, yeah, the problem isn't that pinball is a bad game, but that I have 20 brazillion entertainment options at home. I'm going to go to the mall? Nope.

I really want one for my basement bar. Someday...

Hestika

Even though you rarely find them outside of arcades, I never really thought of Pinball as being a video game and I still love to play whenever I find a machine. It's too bad they don't have them at movie theaters and restaurants anymore.

Kanyamagufa

@nystreetfilms: Pinheads younger fatter brother.

BoinK

Once the boomers die off, I think it will become an entirely niche market. Most of us were raised on video games and our kitch products will be 2600's, NES, PS1, etc.

ARP

what the hell is "pinball"?

nystreetfilms

Will always love pinball.

j4sk868

At the local bowling alley there's an ancient combination Pacman/Pinball machine, it's incredible, plays like regular pacman, but you can escape at the bottom of the maze, then it unleashed a pinball that gives you power ups in the pacman game, it's in shite condition, but must be worth something due to the uniqueness of it.

Confuzius

Pinball will make its comeback after Will Farrell makes a hilarious comedy about it.

Seriously though, I really do miss the analog games. Anyone remember crossfire? Pickup sticks? Digital definitely has its benefits and everyone loves button-mashing while staring at beautiful graphics, but I'm hoping for an Analog Revolution.

Gann

This kind of makes me sad, I really enjoy a good old analog game of pinball.

I'm really somewhat upset about the state of arcades in America - Now I'd have to drive 1 hour to get to one; and 5 years ago there were 3 in the same mall only 5 minutes away!

robotleawesome

Pinball rocks. I want one.

ferrdidly

Pinball is the apex of gaming.

If there someone setup a pinball arcade in Vegas with some kind of gambling mechanic, I would be very poor. Then rich for a few hours. Then poor again.

kelptocratic

@rbf2000: I absolutely LOVE Haunted House. Great game!

ninjagin

@AdamP:
Heh, and I'm apparently a few years out of date at this point. It appears that Midevil Madness tables are now going for $6,500 on the low end up to nearly double that for almost new in box.

AdamP

@Ollie: Man, I swear that pop damaged my hearing every time, but I LOVED getting it.

ParJoe

I love pinball.

Pinball is going to die because arcades are near-dead. Who goes to an arcade to play video games anymore? Xbox 360 and PS3 and Wii; I think this last generation console, combined with the proliferation of large LCD screens, are the end of the coin-munching boxes.

Oh well.

getz76

There is a bar here in my town (named "The Replay" imagine that).

It is a really really grungy little "alternative" bar in a town full of frat bars (In this case alternative means: gutter punks, neo-greasers, hippies, etc. NOT scensters for the most part)

And they have at least a dozen pinball machines crammed into a relatively small bar, and they have some of the greats (and most of the specific machines mentioned in this thread previously). Simpsons, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Haunted House, Playboy Mansion, and several movie related ones that I would have thought came out too late for a pinball machine to be made for them...

The owner owns several bars in town and is a huge pinball fanatic, he opened a similar bar right across the street w/o the pinball machines because he didn't want to have to remove them from the existing bar for space.

Great stuff... Oh and I think the pinball is free Thurs/Friday Afternoon!

bpapa9013

Wow! That many posts and no link to the coolest place in Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame:
[www.pinballmuseum.org]

TommySez

@GOKOR: If you remove the "the" from that sentence, you're absolutely right.

Pope John Peeps II

This is one of the most depressing stories I've ever read on Gizmodo. I used to have an old pinball machine that my grand father gave me after he shut down the arcade in Peddler's Village (for those familiar with the Jersey Shore).. That and an elevator action cabinet. I miss them both. I think I will dedicate the next two - three years to making my own pinball machine and MAME cabinet. I don't want the pinball to die.

thechansen

@Killjoy: Whoops! Twilight Zone was indeed mentioned during the time I wrote my post, so never mind that.

Killjoy

I love pinball, and for me there's a replay value inherent in pinball that I hardly ever find in video games. It's kind of gratifying to find that I've played almost every machine mentioned upthread... off the top of my head, I can add the Twilight Zone and Demolition Man machines as tables on which I whiled away many an hour.

But! Nothing tops walking into the local gigantimegaloplex as a teenager to find something I'd never expected to see without going to the UK - the Doctor Who pinball machine. I never managed to get a copy of "Dalek Attack" which I was trying very hard to do back in those days, so I think the universe offered this hiccup of probability by way of restitution.

Killjoy

@Sportyboard:
As far as cost, you're looking at anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a not very popular table that could use some work to $5,000 for a well-shopped really popular table. Someone mentioned wanting a Williams Medieval Madness table... you're not alone, that's almost always one of the top priced tables ($3,000-$5,000).

I'm posting this from next to my 1987 Williams Big Guns table.

AdamP

@FSeven: ditto!

scarbrtj

I wish I had more room next to my Tempest arcade machine for some hot pinball action. Either Dark Knight 2000 or the Futurama modded pinball would be perfect.

Man, I got a pocket full of quarters and I'm to the arcade...

deadbob

At 34, my entire life has been a veritable timeline of the video game industry. I remember pong, had all the flavors of Atari, C-64, C-128, Amiga, Intellivision, Coleco, etc.

Pinball remains dear to my heart.

I think it's the unquantifiable factor.

In today's video games, people can pretty much memorize the game and end up mastering it with little to no effort.

Case in point, DDR kids who play the game so much, they're not actually good dancers, they just have played the songs so much they could play it blindfolded.

Same with peopel completing various incarnations of Mario games in under 3 minutes. Same with Castlevania, etc.

There aren't many games that have actual replay factor. Enemies are in the same spawn area or it's immediate vicinity the second, third, and fourth time around.

Essentially, the more one plays a modern video game, the more he/she memorizes the game, the more likely that person is going to have repeat perfect games or very high scoring games with a very low point differential.

With pinball, the unquantifiable factor, ie. where is the ball going to go? ensures that the game is NEVER the same when replayed and ensures that high scores are truly a rare thing and not easily duplicated.

I hope somewhere down the road, someone reinvents Pinball and it sees new life breathed into the genre.

FSeven

I'll give you my Twilight Zone pinball machine when you take it from my cold dead hands.

rennsport964

I love pinball and grew up playing. My dad loved pinball and slot machines and used to buy them and fix them up. I still have a Cow Poke "wedge head" machine that works great (mostly, heh) and is from the 60's (it takes dimes!). Something really great about the noise and the actual physicality of pinball. There is skill involved in playing it and even if you suck it's still fun.

maven2k

@geekpi:

Geekpi don't waste your money on a Pirates pin. It plays pretty lousy. If you want to get a Stern pin I'd recommend Lord of the Rings or their Simpsons pin

PDAisAok

@Zenshai:

Pinball enthusiasts are also purists. When the Pinball 2000 came out many people did not like it because they said it wasn't what pinball gaming was about. You cannot mimick the experience in digital form, and even hybrid form has its problem (although I own a Revenge From Mars and I love the damn thing. Simpler than most pins but very fun)

PDAisAok

I sure hope it isnt on the way out. I own 8 pins and they are all on location pulling pretty decent money. I would like this trend to continue

PDAisAok

Pinball is great, but usually that's not the first thing people goto the arcades for, typically is some new video game. Remembering back with MDK came out and crowds of people standing around it.

8026mn

As the owner of a mint condition Indiana Jones pinball machine that has only lived in a private collection (so no lock bar installed on the cabinet), I can relate to this article. From all accounts, there are only a dozen or two of such machines, that weren't molested in arcades. Since I bought it 10 years ago, the market for 'classic' pinballs has boomed. It's worth 3-4 times what I bought it for. I hope to buy a Twister, the movie, or a newer Pirates of the Caribbean machine next.

It's a real shame that such quality game devices aren't in popularity any more. Just like with anything else, I hope there will be a resurgence of interest, so Stern can keep in the pinball business. Pinball companies like Williams and Balley didn't go out of business, they just went into more popular devices - slot machines. Quite the social commentary.

geekpi

I love pinball. I cried when I heard midway stopped making them. I would love to live in a big city and open a pinball only restaurant/bar.

James

They should really consider some new options for their Business Model.

Many companies fall into the trap of thinking that customers are loyal to their particular technology, while this isn't really the case, most pinball players are loyal to pinball itself, and when it becomes available in a digital format they will (and have) migrate over to that more accessible option. The same thing happened to Polaroid and their instant film and countless other companies and technologies.

I hope this company realizes this before its too late, as there is a lot of potential in this entertainment medium that could be expoloited.

Zenshai

The other problem is that a pinball machine is a mechanical device that requires a lot of maintenance (polishing the playfield, fixing broken switches, replacing lamps and solenoids, and oiling). An arcade machine probably just needs a new button now and again (but they're designed to last forever - they're all optical these days). Other than the screen going out or the hardware malfunctioning, there's not a lot to go wrong.

Medieval Madness FTW. Williams/Bally made the best pins - they felt great and not "cheap" like the Sega ones. That, and Williams/Bally did a lot of compensate for lack of maintenance in the software.

Worf

@dead_red_eyes: You are so right about World Cup Soccer. It just might be the best game ever.

I love pinball and play it as often as I can. I own a bar and we always have one pinball machine installed. We had World Cup Soccer for over a year. We recently replaced it with Theatre of Magic, which I like, but not as much.

As much as I respect Stern for keeping the faith, I can't say I think very highly of their modern games. They are just buying movie and television licenses and making heavily branded but very mediocre games.

robjennings

Addams Family, The Knights of the Round (i think), Mars Attacks, Dr. Who.

and for the good crossovers, Star Wars short table and if you can find it! Baby Pacman Pinball!!! [www.klov.com]

Sixxtwo

When I was a kid the bowling alley down the road had the two best pinball machines ever, star wars and addams family, AND they were 20 cents (NZD) for 3 games. I dropped alot of pocket money in those machines.

Sockpuppet

The problem with pinball is that nobody wants to take the time to maintain them. Working on real physical broken problems is time consuming, and just the daily wear and tear on a pinball machine requires some dedication. An arcade cabinet is reatively simple to work on in comparision-
swap out a new control panel, replace the monitor, a power supply, or the boards, and you're pretty much done.

The lifecycle of a hot new arcade game is fast enough that by the time the game is no longer pulling in quarters, you haven't approached the MTBF of the logic board. By continually swapping new ROMS for Golden Tees in, you're essentially giving your cabinet a shot at immortality.

Not so with a pinball game. This is what the miserably received Pinball 2000 system was an attempt at doing- a display screen that was projected onto the screen. The theory was that you could have untrained technicians service or upgrade pinball 'in the field' simply by upgrading ROMS and swapping in a new playfield. Then the playfield could be returned to the shop for service. Unfortunately, the homogeneity of the cabinets and the size limitations make it feel like an odd duck. (That said, I still liked the few games that came out for it- Episode I, for example.)

The beauty of pinball is that even when the game screws you over, there's nothing but physics behind it. You can guarantee that there's no "catch up" AI going on, no cheap shots from a boss, etc- just good old physics .

The guy that runs the Las vegas pinball museum is a hoot- hTim is a national tresure.

styrofoam

I have wanted to own a pinball machine ever since I was a kid (I'm 25 now). The only problem is that I live in Manhattan where the space required for a pinball machine simply doesn't exist.

I still plan on owning one though! I have the cash, just not the space :(

mmr

Pinball is awesome, every time I go to a bar I play it. I also setup Virtual Pinball on my PC at home in order to play tables I'll never see again (Like Terminator the be all end all of Stern pinball machines).

Too bad they are on the way out, just like arcades, XBL has replaced the arcade with communal gaming from your couch. It's too bad, we used to have 2 arcades at the mall Time Out and one in FYE. Time out disappeared about 10 years ago, FYE just pulled all their machines too, too bad :-(

We do get the arcade show at the local convention center where there are hundreds of arcade machines and pinball machines. Great fun

(Set Pirates of the Caribbean master total at 1.1 billion ;-))

phimuskapsi

Part of the problem is floor space. You can put two arcade games back to back in less space than one pinball machine.

GadgetPlay

All this nostalgia prompted me to do a bit of Googling and I came across a couple of interesting pinball links.

If you are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out the "Bay Area Pinball Association" at:
[www.bayareapinball.org]

Next time you are in Las Vegas, a must-see for pinball aficionados would be the Pinball Hall of Fame:
[www.pinballmuseum.org]

bosskev

Oh, my favorite pinball game of all time is "World Cup Soccer Pinball of 1994". It's very well designed, not too cluttered, yet not too sparse.

[www.pinballrebel.com]

dead_red_eyes

I think most of you guys are speaking from mainly ignorance. I'm a Gen-Xer and one of the first places I go whenever I spot a cool Arcade (which is rare now adays) is to scope the selection of Pinball Machines. Once you get a hold of a really good one, new or old, it just hits you. Some are simplistic, others have actual goals to try to make, with cool rewards. It may be a matter of taste as well, but it's not just a Baby Boomer thing, there is a level of enjoyment still to be had for everyone.

MagnoliaBoy

@robotleawesome: - "This kind of makes me sad, I really enjoy a good old analog game of pinball."

Agreed. I'm a pinball freak, and it sucks to see that it's dying now. There's a good place for pinball in Seattle called "Shorty's", and in Portland, OR there's "Ground Kontrol". Those are the only 2 places in the Pacific Northwest that I know of that have lots of pinball machines.

dead_red_eyes

I've always LOVED pinball, and I've never really put it into the same category in my mind as video games. IMHO, most pinball games require MUCH more skill than any video game, even on it's hardest difficulty. There's a burger place about a mile from my house that gets a new pinball machine about every six months (well, not new, but different). Right now they've got a sweet retro Star Wars table. Previously they've had Creature from the Black Lagoon, Indiana Jones, Terminator 2, and a slew of others I can't remember. I hope they never reallocate that back corner of the restaurant because I'll go there JUST to play pinball. No one's ever got the ball physics right in a video game version, so I don't think they'll ever completely die out.

MasterYong

it's sad how much it's died off, but I think a big part isn't that there are less people playing, there's less places to host them. How often do you see an arcade these days (unless it's a dave n busters or gameworks).

Once I make the space, I will someday have a pinball machine (or two) in my basement.

toyotaboy

"that deaf, dumb, and blind kid" won't be able to play pinball :(

jimmyJAKE!

Great,
Now some idiot will torpedo this factory by claiming he's operating a monopoly.
:-/

Coop

From what little I have seen recently, it seems the imagination has just left pinball machines. There should be more to them, new ramps, score activators and even story lines. My all time favorite is Attack from Mars pinball which included a story of you defending the earth from attacks and eventually working your way through space to invade Mars. I played for hours only making it to Mars.

pine1045

@PDAisAok:

Thanks for the heads up on that. I'm definitely buying it.

dead_red_eyes

@robjennings:

Yeah, Theatre Of Magic is fun ... but it's no World Cup Soccer Pinball of 1994. I've played so many different Pinball games, but almost none of them have the flow that World Cup Soccer '94 has. I swear that everyone who plays that game is touched by it, and it's great to see that you were too.

dead_red_eyes

For anyone interested, there is a pretty good documentary about the rise and fall of the pinball industry. It's called Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball

[www.tilt-movie.com]

PDAisAok

@Worf: Medieval Madness! "Look out, there might be trolls about!"

I still give Addams Family the nod for best pinball ever, but Medieval Madness is good stuff.

Mongoose

Fish Tales.

best.pinball.machine.ever.

bitfactory

Pinball rules! Damn...wish I had the money and the room to buy a few machines. It's on my list for the perfect game room in my house.

I want to have a pool table, slot machines, pinball, arcades, juke box and of course a bar to get my drink on.

clearbox

Great, I'm a huge Elton fan and I got beat to the reference. Multiple times.

Buran

@bitfactory: I'm personally a fan of Circus Voltaire, the one pinball machine that had me going to the Lowen-Spiel in Saarbruecken, Germany when I were stationed there.

Still the best pinball game I have EVER played.

Come to think of it, it were in that location where I knew Saar-Germans were into pinball. They had a room dedicated to the hobby!

I'm 30, but still loves a good game of pinball anyday, compared to games like Target: Terror, or any other [not so] RAW Thrills games out there today!

Soldier_CLE

God, that remind me...I need to find a home for the (somewhat broken) Secret Service (1987!) machine in my basement and pick up a new one. Apollo 13 (or Fish Tales) ftw.

ywgflyer

@Soldier_CLE: I agree. My friends and I used to drive 20 miles to get to the Fish Tales machine (that also served beer).

There's nothing like a good pinball machine with hard multipliers, and in the case of Fish Tales, great mini-games on the back screen as well.

bitfactory

@ParJoe: Dude, the reason it was so loud is so that everyone else playing knew you just broke the last record, as you silently gaze around the room, your eyes saying, "That's right mo-foes..free.game. Suck-it!"

Ollie

Pinball is wonderful, we need them in cafes and bars, but who ever goes to an ARCADE!!!

ecobore

Adams Family FTW!

aelver

I was raised on video games, but always loved pinball machines. I actually prefer most to a lot of arcade games.

Jasoco

Wait... how many bits and how many triangles can this so called "pinball" render?
:P

I remember not being able to play pinball because either I didn't hit the machine enough, or I hit it too much.

TILT TILT TILT TILT TILT

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

It blows my mind that noone mentioned Elvira's Scared Stiff. I think at one point I was dropping ten bucks a night into that game at a coffee shop in my home town. The place would close at 10 pm, then the owner, a hot, young school teacher, a dude from Tblisi and I would stay til 1, sometimes 2 am dumping our quarters into it. We would even make nightly runs to the casino downtown just to get more change.

Before they closed the arcade the the LSU Union in 2006, I had the highest score. I'd go by periodically to make sure I was still in control.

I still want one, but ... man. The space, the space. And the bank.

kuperman

i still really want the T2 pinball machine...

islandhopper

Yup pinball still holds a place in my "heart"

DJTripleRRR

A good quality pinball with it's randomness is infinitely more entertaining to me than any video game. With a video game you get predictability and very rarely any replay enjoyment whatsoever. A pinball, on the other hand, offers you an infinite amount of replayability.

It's sad that they have been relegated to the state they are in now. I'm hopeful for a rebound, but it's not likely to happen.

Gofastmazda

I love pinball, and I'm 28. Part of it might have to do with the fact that my dad has a Captain Fantastic pinball machine in the basement, so I probably have had more exposure to them than most people my age.

xenti

aside of being a pleasant, noisy, concentration-enhancing diversion.
playing pinball also offers something quite enlightening about the human condition. you can watch your own, and your friends problem solving techniques.
you are confronted with a static problem, with myriad solutions, how each one of us deals with this, shows much about thought process, coping skills, stubbornness, and willingness to change to reach a goal.
the only other games/sports that offer that kind of insight into an individual's mind (and character), to my way of thinking are golf, and bowling
i have watched seemingly balanced people come completely unglued playing golf, throwing clubs, screaming, and generally being asshats

oh, and the flashing lights are cool too!!! (fishtales FTW)

godwhacker

@92BuickLeSabre:

You haven't truly experienced art in motion until you've seen a deaf, dumb, and blind kid surely playing a mean pin ball.

P3nnst8r

Last factory in the world? The Bally and Williams machines are still being made. These days those machines are build by the Pinball Factory in Australia. The best pinball machines in my opinion: Simpsons and Elvira.

MarcelV

Technically, I think Stern is only the last manufacturer *in the US*. The Pinball Factory in Australia is apparently gearing up to do manufacturing runs of several cabinets, including re-makes of Medieval Madness and Cactus Canyon.
[www.pinballnews.com]
[pinball.com]

bookishboy

I love pinball. Way more fun than computer games. Also, every game is different, but still uses the same rules. And its always fun to see the weird decorations on the fiield (?).

redkamel

I miss those days of quarter gobbling Pinball machines.

ninjatales

I am a first year gen Y and I grew up on pinball along with video games. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with interacting with a physical object rather than just a joystick/etc. I consider many pinball machines to be functional works of art. That being said they don't fit as well in your living room and I'm not to the point where I have enough space to start a pinball preservation wing in my condo.

phoenxdebaser

@robjennings: licensing has been a staple of the industry since the 70s. It works. Get a new stern in your place like Spiderman or Lord of the Rings and I bet it would do great

flynnibus

For those wanting the fix - get the visualpinball emmulators. People rebuild popular real tables and it plays relatively well [www.vpforums.com]

@robjennings - Check out Sterns latest titles.. Lord of the Rings.. The Simpsons Pinball Party.. Family Guy.. Shrek.. Pirates of the Carribean. These are not 'cheap' titles and stand up with all the previous titles from other makers. Wheel of Fortune is a great players game that takes things back to where it should be.. skill.

The problem is the 'location' is what is dying. In the digital age, people don't goto a bowling alley to hang out, etc. And the consumer talks with their quarters.. and the quarters say redemption games and other junk are way more profitable to operate then pinball or video games. So that's what put out there. Pinball is a highly complex, mechanical beast. It requires upkeep (and cost) to maintain. Compared to a plush claw game... it just doesn't earn for the operator.

flynnibus

Move to Minnesota and support pinball here. We have pinball is just about every bar and movie theatre around.
Not to mention SS Billiards in Hopkins is the premier location for pinball. About 17+ games on location and serviced on the spot.

Minnesotapins

Pinball really is fun, except when the ball goes right in the middle of the flappers right when you start. I hope they don't stop making them, they really are alot of fun.

xa3021