1st Pin That Hooked You on Pinball

[Pop Sergeant]

First pinball I remember playing on a regular basis was Freedom. First one I remember getting addicted to was the Bally Eight Ball with Fonzi on the back glass. First one that truly amazed me was Black Hole.

 

[TripleT]

I don't remember what lousy pin ate my quarters in the early 80's, but it drove me straight to arcade games like Defender, Robotron, and Defender Stargate, where I was able to get more playing time for my money.

In the 90's a buddy and I were passing an Attack From Mars machine and got drawn in. A couple of hours later we were both addicted.

Every table pack that comes out is a little like that day back in the 90's. That said... bring on Centaur!!!

 

[k88dad]

A Brief Pinball Bio

I was hooked the first time I played, and I'm sure I was too young to remember the specific machine. I played a lot of Travel Time in the mid-'70s. It had the quirk of using a timer (instead of ball count) to limit play. There were shots that could add to your time.

I had a gap between classes in my freshman year of college, and there was a conveniently-located Spirit of '76. That table stands as one of the classics, so I'm glad I minored in pinball. My favorite table is Paragon, from the wide-body era, and an arcade in my college town had that and many other pins. For a time, they had a Hercules (novelty, giant) pinball which used a pool ball as a pinball. It was sad watching the early video games slowly take up square footage in the arcade. I played video games, too, but it felt like sacred ground was being trampled.

Post-college, I frequented a large arcade with dozens each of pinballs and video games. This was the Gorgar and Fireball era, when many firsts for pinball were introduced. I still have a very soft spot for Gorgar and his seven word vocabulary. I also recall playing Royal Flush and Jet Spin/Super Spin. The latter pin had both a Vari-target and a 3x Roto-target. The long flipper shot up to the middle Roto-target to score a special was quite satisfying.

I missed a lot of the early DMD days (thank you, emulation.) I have played a few recent machines IRL. Lord of the Rings is a favorite. The wife is a Theatre of Magic purist.

 

[TomL]

When I was a kid, I only played video games at the arcade, never the pinball tables. But in college, the game room at BK2K near the foosball tables. Playing foosball, we constantly heard BK2K's attrate mode chatter:

No way! Give me your money! Stand up and fight. Ha ha ha ha!

At first I ignored it, then I mocked it, then, suddenly, I was hooked!

 

[bavelb]

Space Shuttle.
No...really!

 

[karl]

My uncle had a machine in his diner/pub when I was very very young. Unfortunately he lived 1500 KM away so I only got to play once or twice a year but it was enough to get the bug. I probably had no idea what I was doing with the ball but I was
completely hypnotized. The problem is that no-one in the family remembers which game it was. The place has been closed down for a long time and my favorite uncle has passed away a long time ago. It probably was a mid - late 70' Bally or Gottlieb.
Kind of bothers me a bit that I don't know what machine is to blame for my empty bank account today ;-) I had a talk with someone who think it might have been a Harlem Globetrotters. Hell if I know :-(

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Kind of bothers me a bit that I don't know what machine is to blame for my empty bank account today ;-)

Machine, singular? You've been buying enough pins to populate a small arcade!

 

[karl]

True My uncle would be so proud ;-)

 

[dagwood]

As a young fella, I got hooked on pinball with Gottlieb's Sinbad at the local deli. I played it so much in 1979, I eventually became a Gottlieb fanboy! Between the early 80's & now, I would go on to owning and trading a series of Gottlieb EM & SS tables including, The Incredible Hulk, Volley, Genie, Spin-a-Card... I've only ever owned 2 non-Gottlieb tables, WMS Bride of Pinbot & Sega's Surf Rescue. Today I have two 1969 Gottlieb EMs and a 1992 Cue Ball Wizard.

I live for pinball!!

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

I originally was addicted to pinball when I got the Gottlieb Collection for my birthday. The true moment of when I became a Pinwiz was at the arcade where I scored a replay on Party Zone, but you already know about that.

 

[AKrumbach]

For me, it was a two game combo that really hooked me.

The first part was a solid state game called Cowboy. This game was setup in a supply closet in the church my family attended, marked for free play, but the door was locked except for about 15 minutes between the morning service and Sunday School. That 6th grade year was the year I learned excellent flipper skills -- enough to roll the score on that game (10,000 points) just about every time ... and how to pick locks so I could get in more practice time after sneaking out of the sermon.

The second part of the combo was TAF ... the first game I "mastered" a decent strategy for, or at least I thought so at the time. I'm not sure which sunk the hook deeper, getting to enter my initials into the machine on the high score board (I don't think it was grand champion, though the game was brand new at the time), or having to be dragged away from the machine after three "just one credit left" extra games... and having to leave that final credit to someone else.

 

[jaredmorgs]

OK, this is hard for me to pinpoint *the* pinball that got me hooked. I have a bit of a blur in the heady days of the early 90's when I was in High School, because there was an over-abundance of pinball tables in my local area.

I think the first pinball that got me hooked was a Fish Tales down at the bowling alley. This machine, in hindsight, was a strange machine to cut my teeth on. It wasn't the easiest table because it was very fast. And I don't remember lasting very long on it. But there was something about it. Maybe the "fast shot" to the lock after launching. Launch > Flip > BANG into the lock > cue lightshow as your reward.

Now, if you are interested, read on for what drove my passion for Pinball...

A dedicated (for all intents) Pinball Arcade run by this recently out-of-jail guy getting back on his feet opened up in my neighbourhood. I had ridden past this guys' closed arcade (while he was getting it ready) and remember losing my mind with the tables (many of which were older tables initially 'coz the guy was short on cash) he had on the floor.

I remember Big Guns, Twilight Zone, Dracula, Space Invaders, Hook, Dr Who, Whirlwind, Alvin G and Co's Soccerball... The list of stellar tables goes on. There were half pins half videos. But pins were always this guy's passion.

He was the only guy who bothered to take the time to actually *show* me how a pinball machine work. I remember having theories about how the flippers worked (wires connected to the buttons that directly actuated the bats) but once I found out how they worked, I was hooked.

The mechanics and theory of operation, even at the age of 14, what what hooked me on pinball. The games were merely the carrier.

I subsequenty got my first paid job at Pete's "Pinball Palace" (incidentally the same name that featured on some playfield artwork on a certain Rollercoaster themed pinball by Williams - the one with the two ferris wheels ). I cut my teeth on pinball repair under this guy's stewardship. I then went on to work at a rival arcade to his, then he took me on again when the owner asked me to leave due to my ties with Pete.

The new arcade, "Play On Inn", had the same balance of videos and pins. The pins were up the back of the arcade, which was always a little darker

This time, he had some captial behind him. So a freshly unpacked Cirqus Voltaire, Flintstones, Star Trek TNG, Addams Family, The Getaway, White Water, and some others of that era that escape me.

I owe Pete a lot. He was kind of a father figure to me. He gave me my first job ($40 for a whole day's shift, but I didn't really care about the money much - free games!). He taught me about the importance of customer service, and keeping customers happy. He taught me the pride of a well-maintained machine (always had a good supply of parts to ensure no downtime), and he even taught me how to work on electronics (helping me build a complex Subwoofer amplifier from kit).

So thanks Pete for the passion of pinball, and the ability to make Ryan's life hell by nitpicking on elements of tables I played over 12 years ago.

 

[Punisher]

I can only remember 3 tables at the same time. Space Shuttle, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and ST:TNG. Those were the three tables that'd show up in my parent's motel when I was a little kid. CFTBL however induced my fear of that damned knocker, since I'd end up getting a Special all the time on it. Even got my first Replay on it, too. Space Shuttle I played a lot more often, since it used a bell, instead of a knocker.

 

[brakel]

First pinball I remember playing on a regular basis was Freedom. First one I remember getting addicted to was the Bally Eight Ball with Fonzi on the back glass. First one that truly amazed me was Black Hole.

I never knew that was Fonzie. I always thought it was supposed to be a James Dean like character.

 

[Pop Sergeant]

I never knew that was Fonzie. I always thought it was supposed to be a James Dean like character.

Fonzie and Pinky Tuscadero ... a VERY well drawn Pinky Tuscadero I might add ...

 

[Carl Spiby]

Fish Tales in a pub, about 2 years ago.

 

[ER777]

Tales From the Crypt was the one I played a lot in the 90's, mostly because it was readily available.

Skip forward almost 20 years (with almost no pinball in between) and it still comes down to what's available and working for deciding what my favorite table is.