Classic! AMC's The History of Pinball - WATCH!

Pinballfan69

New member
Mar 28, 2012
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Fascinating! Thanks for the link.

Gottlieb/Williams/Bally true pioneers. It would be more interesting how they incorporated mission or how they designed tables to do different objectives. That would be interesting to me.

I chuckled when they were talking about where the industry is going. There are hardly any arcades anymore. Games are costing (at least in my experience) $1.50 - $2.00 to play a single game. Too much for my liking. Especially when the tables seem to be designed to lose your ball very quickly. I don't know what new tables came out recently if at all. I just can't and wont spend that kind of money to play an arcade/pinball game anymore when you can better value by paying a single purchase - be it video pinball or other form of gaming. That to me is why arcades died out. It got too expensive to go to. Manufacturers seem to wanting more percentage of the profits while arcade owners had to charge more for gamers with huge repair costs etc.

Home consoles Mobile gaming is by far the standard it seems.

There is a place that has some pinball at $.50 a game I might play those for a bit. I'm not sure why they charge so much lately to play games. Gamers want value for their money. I would be ok spending $.25 a game and have more fun doing so that pay the prices they are asking for now.
 

Lazymantech

New member
Apr 7, 2012
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That was a good watch. Growing up we had two tables (grand prix and captain fantastic). Wish we still owned the Capt. Fantastic table. Its a collector now. In Portland there is an adult arcade called ground kontrol that has a good number of tables. Finally get to play some of the great tables I play on tpa and phof Williams collection. They also have lord of the rings and star trek next Gen.
 

Extrema22

Member
Feb 25, 2012
65
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That was fun to watch, thanks! I think I've seen it before several years ago, or something similar. Although the 'famous' people talking about their machines wasn't that interesting
 

IdontHave50cents

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Mar 10, 2012
55
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Aw man that stinks that they pulled that down!!! Sorry you missed it szycag. What a wonderful documentary that may never be seen again! Aside from the hilariously cheesy interviews by Slash and Frank Thomas, the footage and information was very thorough and entertaining. Oh well. If anyone knows an alternative link to it please post.
 

Animator_pin_fan

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Mar 4, 2012
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it's funny since there were two treads about this http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/151-AMC-s-The-History-of-Pinball-documentary (I posted this a month before) and we linked to the same youtube clip, which is now sadly gone.
I know there is a version of it floating around bit torrent trackers, so if look around you can easily find it in full. However, strangely enough, in the version that I have, the interview with Slash has been edited out- weird huh?
 

goforthewall

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Feb 21, 2012
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Good thing I downloaded "AMCs History of Pinball", while it was up. I'm not sure if it's still copyrighted since it was a 90s TV documentary, right? As long as there are no copyright problems I could re-upload it... On another note: I still wonder how "Special When Lit" is still up, since that is the newest of the pinball docs and still being sold as well...

To one I recommend the most though is definitely "Tilt - The Battle to Save Pinball". Not just a good pin doc, but a great film overall! Go buy the 2-Disc DVD set directly from the creator =)

http://tilt-movie.com/
 
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IdontHave50cents

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Mar 10, 2012
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Good thing I downloaded "AMCs History of Pinball", while it was up. I'm not sure if it's still copyrighted since it was a 90s TV documentary, right? As long as there are no copyright problems I could re-upload it... ]


PLEASE PLEASE re-upload it! and let us know right away so we watch and save for personal viewing. I don't see how there would be any copyright violations. There isn't any licensed music or anything. The original link didn't get pulled down because of any violations. The user's account got canceled because of music violations from other videos he had posted.

Also, I got the opportunity to watch SPECIAL WHEN LIT last night on Netflix (thanks for the tip!) Its a wonderful doc that focuses more on the players and culture of pinball. The AMC doc really focuses more on the HISTORY of the game, hence its appropriate title. I think those two docs compliment each other very well and are definitely a great one-two punch for pinball fans new and old.

BTW, do you remember the name of the pinball player in SWL that was from Colorado? I'm a new resident in CO and would love to meet up with that guy at the places he plays!
 

Moon Jump

New member
Apr 19, 2012
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Bah! That sucks! I'm glad I watched it a few days ago before YouTube took it down. I remember watching it when it came out in 97'. It's pretty weird listening to the final question where they ask "Where do you think pinball will be in the coming years?" and they all talk like the sky's the limit. Not that Williams would just be doing slot machines in less the two years and Sega/Stern would be the only game in town.

I didn't care much for Special When Lit. It was like a bad pinball machine. It just bounced from topic to topic way too fast. First they talk about the history, then onto a collector, then to the PAPA tournament, then talking about a player and then that creepy old guy with his gut hanging out of his shirt. I also think they were trying to make the people they interviewed look silly too, but then again I had to hear about the people complain about King of Kong before I saw it.

I liked Tilt: The Battle To Save Pinball, even though it's less then 45 minutes long. It's well worth renting if you still get disks from Netflix. I like how they focus on just one thing, Pinball 2000. Regardless if you liked the gimmick or not it's really interesting to watch and see how they thought it would keep the game alive. I also loved how they said doing Star Wars Episode 1 was horrible because the designer wasn't allowed to share any information with the rest of the team so he pretty much had to do the game himself. After watching all of the Red Letter Media reviews it really makes you look at it differently like Lucas had a hand in killing pinball at Williams.
 

c-dub

New member
Feb 28, 2012
30
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I'm not sure if it's still copyrighted since it was a 90s TV documentary, right?

I don't see how there would be any copyright violations. There isn't any licensed music or anything.

Yes, this is absolutely still covered by copyright, which (in the US) covers pretty much any creative work (definitely not just music) for 70 years after the death of the creator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Whether or not anyone will care if you do re-upload this (it is, as you say, a TV documentary from the '90s) is a whole other matter. I know I wouldn't be complaining!
 

szycag

New member
Apr 19, 2012
71
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creepy old guy with his gut hanging out of his shirt

LOLOL that guy! I know the director's job is to give an objective look at a field of interest but I think I still would have had to compensate for that guy's complete lack of shame in some way, throw an XXXL hoodie over him or something like that, geezus!

Anyone who can reupload the AMC History of Pinball segments, you'd forever have my gratitude!
 
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