I wonder if the new generation likes oldschool pinball tables

[hawk]

I was born in late 90s and I still enjoy tables that were made in 80s and 90s. Most friends of mine don't like pinball at all and those who do prefer modern super hero tables over older ones. I know it is all because of nostalgia and many people like games they used to play when they were younger. I wonder if the new generation likes oldschool pinball tables or new ones.

 

[Brock]

Kids these days.. BAH! They can't play a game if it doesn't tell them how wonderful they are within two minutes of starting, rewarding them with sparkling jewels and light shows just for working out how to jump over a hedgehog or something. Then hand-holding them through hours of banal gameplay whilst continually rewarding them with glorious trinkets and showering praise.
I can't imagine there's many who would have the patience to play something like Big Shot for any length of time, they wouldn't be able to handle the fact that it kicks your arse without so much as an apology until you've put in the time to develop the skills to achieve the only reward you'll ever get: a meager score.
Prove me wrong kids.. If you can play Genie for ten minutes without having a tantrum maybe I'll change my views, (if I wasn't too old for opinion changes)
/Old Git

 

[Fungi]

Sorry, I'm an old git that loves pinball but I can't play ten minutes of Genie without having a tantrum.

 

[hawk]

hahaha, yes, this generation is different

Patience plays a big role. My older brother needed to create a www page to share interests. These days it takes just a tweet.

When it comes to pinball it's the same. TPA is still good for new players that just discovered pinball.

 

[Heretic]

funny stuff, just play what you enjoy i say

 

[Stuart Webster]

I'm still scarred from Sonic Spinball in my childhood...

 

[Shaneus]

I'm still scarred from Sonic Spinball in my childhood...

You should try playing Crue Ball At least the music is decent... it's by the same guy who worked on Black Knight 2000!

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

I'm still scarred from Sonic Spinball in my childhood...

Me too... Even now I always lose on the Lava Fortress

 

[DopedToInfinity]

I'm still scarred from Sonic Spinball in my childhood...

I conned my dad into buying that for me on release day due to our mutual love of pinball. It was a ****ty pinball game and a ****ty platformer. £40 straight down the dumper!

 

[superballs]

I don't exactly know if I'm part of the old generation or new generation or an in-betweener really.

Born in 1980, so from a video game perspective i'm definitely older, but when it comes to pinball, I missed the entire EM era, and was born into the early-mid SS era.

That said, I enjoy pretty well any era, and most pins, as long as I can flip away. Even the pins I don't like at one point ususally end up in my good graces at some other point.

 

[pinballchris]

Though almost 40, I was never exposed to a lot of pinball in my youth, I remember playing some tables, but they were never readily available in my small town. I think I remember Black Hole for some reason around 8 or 10 years old. That being said, I still think Gorgar is the best TPA table yet.

 

[CycOd3liC]

Mid 40's here... My favorite pins are mid 80's to early 90's pre-dmd.

 

[invitro]

If you can play Genie for ten minutes without having a tantrum

I am trying to work toward 3M on Genie. I had a high score of around 1.1M on Friday, and then played it for three hours and got up to 1.3M (#258). Then I played it three more hours Saturday and got up to 2.2M (#73). I got a little derailed playing WD on Sunday, but I'm getting back to Genie in a few minutes to try again. I love that damn table all of a sudden. It is my reason for living.

 

[DanBradford]

i have never yet managed to keep playing a game longer than my patience will last, the thing that always drains first is the last ball.

i'm fairly certain that the year we were born/the year we first discovered and enjoyed pinball dictates the games we love the most; at the shows, the majority of people playing the EMs are fellas in their 60s or so, the majority of under-18s would never play one of those (but then i'm 44 and i only would if there was nothing else available).

 

[Espy]

I'm 24 and I even love Central Park. Last time I checked (admittedly a while ago), I was in the top 20 high scores.

 

[Buzz1126]

I was born in the late Fifties, and have been playing pinball since the Sixties. I don't think most new gen players would like the EM tables, and it's because of "the flash". Look at the evolution of the tables, and you can see it. Every few years, a leetle more got added to the tables. A third flipper. Habitrails. DMD's. Even scoring. The pinball makers had to compete with the up and coming video consoles, so the tables got more and more complex. Getting married slowed my playing down, but so did all the "advancements". If you were to pull a greaser playing an EM game out of the Fifties, and drop him right in front of Whodunnit, he'd flip (pun intended). A BILLION POINTS?!? And Wizard of Oz? He'd be far too busy watching the backglass to play the game. Nowadays, I'll play any game in front of me, but I just don't think the NewGens would.

 

[night]

I'm from 1972 and been at the dawn of the video game age, from everything between Pong up to Quake which I loved to play in the 90's. As for pinball, my sweet spot are the early 80's tables (same for video games). I can imagine that the newer generation don't care or have any nostalgic feelings with TPA pinball tables and probably have more fun with Zen. It's like hearing an old song and you have these flashback memories, you can't blame anyone for not understanding such a thing. It is no surprise our little poll here showed that the majority of TPA players are between 30/50 years old.

 

[Zippy]

Really though, Pinball has spanned three generations: the Boomers, Gen X, and The Millennials. People seem to have different tastes that don't always line up to their age, either. I like the categories that Pinside uses:

Modern pinball 1991-now
Late solid state 1985-1991
Early solid state 1978-1985
Late EM games 1953-1978
Early EM games 1931-1953

Me? Despite being born in the early 70s, I'm definitely a Late Solid State through Modern. I mean, I certainly played pinball in the late 70s - early 80s, but the machines just wasn't as memorable as the video games I played at the time?

The first pinball machine I remember being totally enthralled with was Pinbot, and then Terminator. My golden age for playing pinball was in college, when we had 3 machines at any given time in the student union, where I would play between classes. This is where I fell in love with Theatre of Magic, Star Trek TNG, and the Addams Family. Sadly, after graduating from college, I've pretty much only ever played pinball at rest stops on various interstates.

 

[RagingBull888]

I'm in my late 30's and don't care what age of pinball I am playing as long as I am having fun. For instance, I've had more fun playing Big Shot and Centaur than I have playing Harley Davidson and Class of 1812. A lot of what I enjoy about this is the nostalgia factor as I have fond memories of playing Pin Bot, Space Shuttle, Fish Tales, Twilight Zone and some of the other games. The other neat part is discovering games I have not had the chance to play in real life such as Black Knight 2000, Centaur and WHO Dunnit.

The biggest thing about the new generation is that they have not had as much opportunity to play real life pinball and get a feel for what makes it fun.

 

[Crawley]

Grew up in the 80s/90s but played pinball rarely. Video games were more interesting. But now I like pretty much all generations of pinball. If I had to choose I'd lean more towards the tables made in the 90s as I love the themes, callouts, and fast play. But love EMs too as those require pure pinball skill. Last year at the Midwest Gaming Classic I did the Tom Taylor tour. Tom has a warehouse of about 300 pinball machines set up free-to-play. The vast majority of them are EMs. I loved playing those tables and going back this year too for some more EM magic.