How did your love for pinball begin?

[Kevlar]

My love of pinball began right here with the Pinball arcade app. I never played pinball growing up, used to walk right past to the video games. Played the odd video game pinball over the years like devils crash but it was when I saw a preview of TPA on touch arcade that I really began to take notice. On release I became quickly addicted and started looking around for real tables but there's nothing within 40 miles of me that I know of.

 

[Probolkoc]

I was a kid in the early '90s, and back then Finland actually had arcades. I frequented the one in my hometown, but didn't usually play pinballs, going instead for shooting games like Point Blank, and fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage. However, I often watched when someone who could really play pinball was playing, as pretty much anything can be very entertaining if it's done skillfully. One time when I was watching a guy play The Addams Family, he got a replay but was in a hurry to leave after finishing his game, so he let me play the remaining credit. Ever since that I started to play pinballs more and more. A couple of friends got into them as well, so we often played against each other. I used to deliberately enter their initials if I made a high score while competing; something I thought was funny while they did not. My all-time favorite table (and not surprisingly, the one I was best at) is Monster Bash, so I naturally bought Pinball Arcade upon hearing that MB will eventually be available on it. We used to play Monster Bash at my hometown's arcade, and quite often we had cumulated so many credits by the closing time that the arcade workers had to give us token coins to compensate for our 'loss'. Other favorite tables of mine are Who Dunnit?, Attack From Mars and Medieval Madness.

 

[shutyertrap]

We used to play Monster Bash at my hometown's arcade, and quite often we had cumulated so many credits by the closing time that the arcade workers had to give us token coins to compensate for our 'loss'.

Ha! You found a way to turn a profit playing pinball! Brilliant.

 

[Absynthetik0]

Every summer my family and I would go out to our cottage at Winnipeg Beach. My parents would take my sister and I to the local Arcade there (which is still around) called Play land. It had a two large garage style doors which were always open to the main street. The owner Looked and still looks like Burton Cummings and his wife looked and still looks like Dog the bounty hunters wife. The walls were absolutely covered with posters from bands like Poison, Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, Billy Idol, David Bowie, Twisted Sister, The Cult, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. This arcade was not only my introduction to Pinball but it was my introduction to 80's Goth Rock and the Goth subculture which would later become an important part of my life. This would have all been in the mid 90's but the arcade hasn't changed to this day. I wasn't drawn to pinball at all at the time because you couldn't win tickets and therefore prizes. After a few months and a lot of trying I soon realised that it didn't really matter if pinball didn't give out tickets... because I sucked at everything that did. So I went over to the pinball machine based off my favourite movie. The Addams Family. My dad got me a milk crate to stand on so I could see in the machine and away I went. I remember him saying to me...
"You have really good eye hand coordination."
I guess that was all I need to hear, because I've been an avid player ever since!

I still love the feeling and atmosphere of that arcade... stepping inside is like stepping into a scene from "The Goonies" or "The Lost Boys"

 

[smooverr]

My mom bought me Pinbot for the NES. I didn't really know much about Pinball then...but it started a lifelong infatutation with video pinball. TPA got me into the real ones

 

[night]

As a kid (70ies/80ies) I owned a large toy pinball machine featuring the japanese anime 'Goldrake' (aka UFO Robot Gredinzer). It was a large table (for a kid) on 4 legs, had lights, made sounds and had a digit score. I loved the machine, especially in the dark where you could see all the electronic lights. Well, this is how it started for me.

 

[Timelord]

I was a Chicago kid in the 50's and my neighbors had a "Miss Liberty" pinball machine in their basement. I was hooked almost immediately. From that time on I played as many tables as I could. I even had a job at Bally Williams (not the pinball division though) before I was recruited by a major Medical Imaging manufacturer as an E.E.

I want to thank Farsight for the work that they put into recreating these classic games. Now that I'm retired I spend an awful lot of time playing emulated pinball. I simply don't have room for all the tables I want. (LOL)

Thanks again Farsight!!!

 

[TripleT]

I think I have a case of OCD, and pinball somehow feeds my desire to play the "perfect game". Same sort of challenge/feel as playing racquetball/tennis/billiards/basketball... all of which I have been addicted to!

 

[Jutter]

Okay back to the start I go. Had to do a little digging for this. We're talking late seventies.
My initial exposure to real pinballmachines is but a prologue. My hometown didn't have an arcade, but the anual "Kermis" did feature a traveling arcade complete with pinball machines (old EM tables) old-style mechanical arcadegames and the earliest electronic arcadegames (which were much more like vectrex games, than the bitmapped stuff we'd see soon after). Admittedly the stuf where you're shooting at aliens with a zap-gun or handling a joystick while spamming buttons got most of my attention, but in between I also gravitated towards the pintables. Those slingshots aggressively launching the bal into a group of luminescent mushroombumpers in between which it franticly starts bouncing around, the bellchime with every impact making the machine sound like your frontdoor having a seizure...

(A "Kermis" by the way, should you be curious enough to not skip this bit between the brackets, is somewhat simillar to a county fair, but smaller scale and without stuff like local woodcrafts and kiddie-science-displays)
Now here's where thing really got started. The first pinball computergame that properly sucked me in was Night Mission Pinball on the Atari 800XL

Realistic ballphysics my foot. That game was a jolly madhouse.

The other one was David's Midnight Magic, which actually did have pretty impressive ballphysics, looking back at a videoclip.

 

[Sean]

Strangely, my obsession started with another video game, Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set on Commodore64 around 1984

That was one of a couple of programs I actually paid money for on my Atari 800XL. Too complicated for me, but the promise was too tantalising to pass up at the time!

 

[Sumez]

Nope; remember, they're all in video game form. Owning these games made me think I'm actually owning real games.

For a second there I was boiling with envy

 

[Sumez]

My own story is a little embarrassing, but a true testament to FarSight's work.
As a video game kind of guy, I grew up with game consoles during the 80s and 90s, while pinball was experiencing both a resurgence, its peak years, and eventually the fall of Williams and Bally. So it was always present, but I also considered it a lesser game form, based mainly on pure, random luck. I liked some video pinball games, but still pinball was that thing you'd occasionally pop a coin into, flip the flippers a bit, and then regret that you wasted your money.
I'm also an avid arcade game collector, and those circles are always full of pinball geeks, which I always thought was boring as hell, it wasn't until recently that I discovered what I had been missing...

Some guys I know recently started a small arcade with 80's games and a single pinball machine (Gottlieb's Class of 1812).
At first I thought it was just taking up space, but eventually it started luring me with its pretty colors, voices, and mechanical parts. Around the same time I came across a cheap used copy of Williams Hall of Fame for PSP. I had heard of it before, and thought the idea of recreating real pinball on a computer was lame, instead of using the possibilities a computer had, but now I was suddenly getting interested in the subject. I had no idea real pinball could be so exciting! I ended up getting totally hooked on Funhouse, Whirlwind, and Taxi (and I had never heard of any of them before), so I went out to buy the X360 version, only to discover three new tables in this version, namely TOTAN, MM, and NGG, three tables that all lifted the game up a notch! Fast forward to TPA on the X360, and I'm completely hooked!
My next project is getting better at playing real tables, hopefully enough to eventually impress people around me, and my obsession has now reached the point where... well that's a story for another thread...

In the end I sort of regret having missed out on this great concept for 30 years of my life, and considering those that are into it boring. But now I'm here!

 

[Sean]

Welcome Sumez. I also used to regard the game as too random and certainly my early exposure as a child wasn't too good when I could barely press both flipper buttons, much less see the playfield without standing on a chair! I hit my teens during the mid 80s and was better able to appreciate pinball for the skill required at the right time. I was lucky enough to enjoy a number of machines right before it all fizzled out.

Finding that a company was recreating these machines for consoles is what sold me the Wii. I stumbled upon the Pinball Arcade doing a spontaneous search in the Mac App store hoping to find some interesting video pins; the fact that Farsight not only was continuing to do pinball recreations, but improving their engine was a very welcome surprise. I honestly never expected to play Star Trek: The Next Generation again, so it's quite a thrill to have it on my iPad!

 

[noneed4me2]

My earliest memories of a pin was around the early eighties and my step dads friend had a fully restored old ass-em table that was reminiscent of taxi and big shot with just some rollovers a few drop targets and 2 or 3 bumpers. My mom and steppy were kinda alcholies around this time so whilst they did their thing I would play this table for hours with my stepdad's friend's daughter who was I think my age. It was my first time I could take the time to master the game without all the frenetics of an arcade environment and while the table was really simple for someone at my age it was perfect.

Years later and with a couple of divorces under my parents belt I was visiting with my old stepdad and we went to visit his friend who I remember had that table but I was in my late twenties now and married with a kid. Never thought I would see it again but sure enough he still had it, (the little girl I used to play with grew up to, really grew fine to boot. where the hell was I when she was developing? but that's a whole another tale). It was still in pristine condition and other than his daughter and him I doubt anyone touched it much. God that girl was so pretty and sexy and well I should stop now before I say something incriminating.

Thinking about it now I will have to try and track said parties down to find out what the table was. All I remember now is it had no back glass and was setup much like a tabletop pacman you find in bars. I did a lot of playing in the 90's when I was working a lot and still in the military. Posts would often have a few pins spread around and while I liked good ole video games a good pin can drain my change purse like nothing else yet leave me without that "I could've used that money on a burger or movie rental, or ect.." feeling.

I am not a terribly social person and while pinball can be shared experience when I play it tends to appeal to my solitary side and the hyper focus mode I drop into when every ball moves and hits exactly where I want it to go. The top one hundred pins I am lucky to say I have played a lot in the wild and I wasn't even going about trying to do it. Thanx for the memories pinball and thanx to all those who bring such an entertaining, engineering marvel to life.

 

[Bass Mummy]

Playing the hell out of Pin*bot as a young kid, STTNG as a teen and Indiana Jones in my early 20s.

 

[Butterkins]

Video games were my first love -- Space Invaders, Galaxian, Rally X and Pengo had me in their grip -- but I always loved looking at the pinnies. (Maybe even more than playing them, sometimes, seeing as how ruthless the tables were. This was a big issue for a kid without much money: the pinball tables just ripped you off with their house balls, and lack of ball saves. It felt more like chance than skill, at the time.)

I used to watch and nag the pinball repair guys. Often, they'd leave me credits on the machine, which was just awesome. (20 cents was a lot of money back then.) I was fascinated by the stuff behind the backglass and underneath the playfield.

And I was rapt by the digital LED/plasma scoring on games like Genie. It's soooo pretty.

Here in Australia, in the '70s and '80s, every fish n chips shop or corner deli had a pinball or two, as well as some videos. Eventually, the videos took over, and then eventually even the videos went.

Nowadays, the pubs are filled with gambling machines. Probably many of them made by Williams.

I grew up with the start of the solid state machines, and the weird EM-solid state hybrids. I generally avoided the older EMs; they were drain monsters, the noises/music sucked.

Played stuff like KISS with its awesome art and crappy music. Gorgar, of course. Silverball Mania. Six Million Dollar Man. Charlies Angels. Evel Knievel. Harlem Globetrotters. etc. etc.

Lots of Bally and Williams games. Gottlieb was a distant third; just never really liked their themes or designs that well.

I still play a lot of games on the 360 and PS3, but over the years I keep going back to pinball.

For me, pinball is art+engineering. I love the aesthetics of pinball, and don't like ugly tables, even if they play well. The theme and design is everything. (Which is why I'm down on so many Stern games, and why I'm harsh on Farsight's UI and art choices.)

To my mind, Farsight have a responsibility to these games. They represent memories; our youth, even a little bit of heritage. These games should be presented in their best possible light. I know Farsight want to do this, but they have a lot of work to do.

 

[noneed4me2]

I love reading all you guy's stories as its a testament to how these games have affected our lives. Even though we all gotta deal with crap its great to loose yourself in a great pinball table.

I was blessed growing up near a place in the late eighties and nineties called Castle Park in Riverside, CA. This place had a huge row of modern pins along a wall downstairs in the castle proper, and an upstairs area dedicated to early video games and em pins. Looking back now the owners must have been fans cause I rarely saw a pin down for any length of time and they were always well maintained in other aspects. They would have days where you could go in and for like 10 bucks or less you could play any machine for extended times as all were set to free play.

I am planning a return there with my kids to show them what an arcade experience was like outside of chuck rat's. Overall socal isn't to bad a place to live if your into pinball.

 

[McGuirk]

I remember playing pinball occasionally when going down the Jersey Shore with my parents and my little brother. Back when almost every pizza place, restaurant or theater had an arcade and some pinball tables. I was always more of an arcade guy, but I remember loving Pinbot for the color patterns near the visor. I forgot where I heard about the PHoF Williams Collection, but I saw that Pinbot and Funhouse (another one I remember playing at a comic shop) were on it, and I had to get it on PS2.

From there, I'm always looking to play tables and keep up with releases on TPA. I'm still hoping for a new Williams PHoF collection of other tables, though all that is coming out (eventually) through TPA anyway.

 

[netizen]

late 70s, early 80s. Parents couldn't get a sitter so I got to go to the arcade with my sister, and the 'rents got to go to the bar. I figured that pinball games would last longer than early video games, and were more interesting. It was better to make the quarters last because I wasn't really able to go and get more, nor did I want to.

Drunk parents are notoriously rational

 

[ravager]

Must have been in the late 60s. My mom was in a bowling league, and she would bring me along. When I outgrew the day room, I would wander around the bowling alley and would watch the kids play pinball. When I finally got some change, I played, and did the two hand slap (I was 4) and so the balls drained quickly. I really wanted one of those cheap plastic pinball machines for my 5th, 6th, and 7th birthdays, but my parents weren't having any of it. When I was 11 my parents bought a camper and I would go to the rec rooms and play pinball all of the time. I wish I could remember all the EM tables I played, but I can't As a kid, I had no money, and so I was always scamming the operators out of the cost of a game or two. One way was lifting the front end of machine and dropping it, which would give you credit for a quarter. This worked on some machines, but not all. Then there was a way to get credit for one penny. It took patience, but always worked on certain tables. You would need seven cents...two pennies and a nickel. You kept dropping the nickel in until it stuck, where it didn't go down to the coin return. That required some patience, but when the nickel finally "stuck", you then gently put in one of the pennies. Most of the time, both the penny and nickel would come out the coin return, but if the stars aligned correctly, both coins would stick. Then you took the SECOND penny, and shoved it in the coin slot as hard as you could. I would say, 9 of 10 times time that would give you credit, and the nickel and one penny would come back to you through the coin machine. So you got to play for one cent. Good times. Hey I was a kid...don't judge me.