Can you remember the first pinball tables you ever played?

[CycOd3liC]

Getting close to 50 here, i don't remember playing pinball until around 1990. I'm still trying to put my timelines together, but not sure I can accurately answer the question.

The first pinball tables I remember playing?

Swords of Fury
Banzai Run
Phantom of the Opera

I can't really say which of these was first, but Swords of Fury is the one i remember the most.

Is there a particular pinball table that got you hooked? For me it was FunHouse, hands down. That was probably about the 5th table i ever played.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

It would've been sometime around 1980. My family owned a campsite, and we had an arcade, and naturally we had pinball.

The three machines I have earliest memories of, and I must've played them at least once as a 7-ish-year-old, are Space Invaders, Paragon, and an EM called Stardust.

I also vaguely recall there having been a Black Knight at some point later, and definitely remember there being a Banzai Run, and even later LW3 and DE Star Wars.

There were probably others, but during the 80s and very early 90s - before I went off to university - I wasn't really into pinball, only video games. (Defender and the full sit-down Star Wars cabinet were my favorites, but there was always something else I got really good at over the summer; the one I remember most was Super Locomotive, which doubtless nobody else has even heard of.)

My "second first pinball table I played" was in my first year at university, and it was Hurricane. It was in the bar I frequented most nights, and one of the guys I hung around with was a pinball fan, so we all played it to death. Hurricane became Dr Who became Twilight Zone became Dracula became Frankenstein, and there were many other tables spread around campus and since I was in Brighton, there were many other tables in various arcades dotted around town and on the pier. My pinball education had truly begun....

 

[Fungi]

1973. Some baseball theme with star rollovers representing the bases. I was just a wee lad.

 

[Dedpop]

Amazon Hunt in 1985 with my dad in a bar in Paris.

 

[strells]

When I was a kid in the early 80s, my parents actually bought the Happy Days themed Fonzi pinball for home play! This was more a toy than a real pinball machine, but it was pretty much my first exposure to pinball. I didn't play much, if any other pinball in the 80s (video games were my bag then). When I went off to college in '91, my first real machine was either Phantom of the Opera (yuck) or Elvira and the Party Monsters (yay!). From that point, I was hooked.

 

[Nightwing]

First pinball that I remember playing was Eight Ball Deluxe. It was at a banquet/function place where my grandfather's work had their annual outing. The following year they replaced it with Galaxian & Pac-Man - and then it was all about video gaming.

But 1989 & Banzai Run renewed my interest in pinball. Hence the reason why I want it in TPA so badly

 

[shutyertrap]

First I remember playing are Banzai Run, Haunted House, and Comet. Balboa Funzone, Newport Beach, probably 1988.

No doubt I'd played some prior (I even had a pinball wizard tee), but I've no memory what they might've been.

 

[CycOd3liC]

There were probably others, but during the 80s and very early 90s - before I went off to university - I wasn't really into pinball, only video games. (Defender and the full sit-down Star Wars cabinet were my favorites, but there was always something else I got really good at over the summer; the one I remember most was Super Locomotive, which doubtless nobody else has even heard of.)

Oh man, the sit-down Star Wars sure brings back some memories.

 

[CycOd3liC]

First pinball that I remember playing was Eight Ball Deluxe. It was at a banquet/function place where my grandfather's work had their annual outing. The following year they replaced it with Galaxian & Pac-Man - and then it was all about video gaming.

But 1989 & Banzai Run renewed my interest in pinball. Hence the reason why I want it in TPA so badly

EBD was probably one of the first 10 tables i played (around 1991 or so) but hadn't seen one since.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Eight Ball Deluxe was the first backglass I can remember being imprinted into my brain. I was probably around 4 years old, so sometime in the early 80's.

 

[CycOd3liC]

Eight Ball Deluxe was the first backglass I can remember being imprinted into my brain. I was probably around 4 years old.

I remember where I played it the only time i ever saw it. It was on the Fort Myer Army base in Arlington, VA in 1991. It was in this bar on the base that had these really amazing meatball subs. It was immaculate and played really good, just didn't knock my socks off after playing T2 and FH for the first time a few months earlier.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I remember where I played it the only time i ever saw it. It was on the Fort Myer Army base in Arlington, VA in 1991. It was in this bar on the base that had these really amazing meatball subs. It was immaculate and played really good, just didn't knock my socks off after playing T2 and FH for the first time a few months earlier.

T2 blew me away when it first came out. Luckily my local arcade had it as one of the two pins among the sea of video games. I can't even remember the other pin that was there since T2 was the only one I played in between games of Double Dragon, Final Fight, Bad Dudes, Pit Fighter, Ninja Gaiden, etc.

 

[Crawley]

Earliest one I can recall playing for sure was Haunted House. It looked and sounded so awesome. But the game was over so quick.

That pretty much kept me away from playing pinball with a few exceptions here and there and mainly just played video games. But the one that brought me back was T2. Played it a lot at my college game room. They paired that with Medieval Madness and ST:NG which I also played a lot of. Then arcades pretty much died and that was that until I found all the TPA and all the expos.

 

[wolfson]

I can`t remember exactly which one,i remember Central Park,Kings and Queens and i think the other one was Home Run.memory slipping,should have been born on the island of Ikaria !!! I think it was one of the first 2,Home Run came out about 1970.

 

[lio]

Black Knight 2000 followed by Elvira and the Party Monsters then Radical!

 

[The loafer]

You guys are pups! I gotta go with more details

- First I ever played was probably when I was 10, so back in 1974 at the Ottawa Exhibition in their EX traveling arcade (probably a Gottlieb). Too young to remember the game and I was more into the pitch/bat EM's at that time

- First I ever played that really peaked my interest: Royal Flush at the old Aylmer Hotel in Aylmer Quebec - 1977?

- First that started getting me hooked (IE: skipped school to go play it : Eight Ball (with the Fonz on the backglass), played it at "La Cantine", an old snack place for kids in Gatineau, Quebec. 1978?

- First that hit me like a ton of bricks: Williams' Flash at the Mall Arcade near the Canadian Tire in Aylmer Quebec 1979.

Oh boy, that one led to another, and another, etc, but if I have to pick one, I get Flash is the reason why I got so much into pinball. The rest is history that is still being written... Pinball is amazing, so many memories that I still vividly recall. I wish I'd documented via pics the arcades back in the day, would love to recreate them virtually so we can really reminisce.

 

[CycOd3liC]

1973. Some baseball theme with star rollovers representing the bases. I was just a wee lad.

Was it this one?

http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/baseball/baseball_pinball.htm

 

[Fungi]

Was it this one?

http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/baseball/baseball_pinball.htm

Gotta be. Nice find Cyco.

 

[shogun00]

Rollergames

 

[mpad]

T2 or Totan... Before that I wasn't allowed to enter those bars