I wonder if the new generation likes oldschool pinball tables

[soundwave106]

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.

Pinball has all but disappeared from the arcades (which actually, from what I see, has also all but disappeared for the most part, the exception being the giant Dave and Busters / Gameworks type places... at least in the states). So I imagine many young people have no real good opinion on pinball.

Those that do probably find it a bit old school since the technology has not advanced much since the 1990s. Some other "older technology" type things have revived over the years, though, so we'll see. I have heard claims that some of the so-called "hipsters" have taken interest in it, for instance.

If a revival happens, well, I think Williams was kind of "on the right track" with their Pinball 2000 system. A lot of the Dave and Busters / Gameworks games are bigger and more interactive, incorporating video and flash and flare (sometimes with real elements, sometimes with networked competition, etc.). I can't see pinball gaining popularity without a technical rethink along these lines (adding video or other interactive elements, more pizzazz, better ability to take advantage of the high computing power). At the same time, pinball fits perfectly with the trend of arcade games being more than just a screen and a joystick, in a way.

My pinball era is firmly 1990s, but I like the EM/early SS machines as well -- they are a "purer" form. Pinball definitely is oriented somewhat around generations and nostalgia though. There's us hardcore folks that will have every pin, but most 1990s fans probably won't gravitate towards the EMs or early solid states.

I think I have said this before, but I do think a separate 1970s pinball pack would be an interesting concept, to make a subset of this game that *specifically* targets Boomer-era nostalgia. (There's not a lot of games that do that.)

 

[hawk]

Some older pins look more modern.

Demolition Man has many ramps and features. Junk Yard is more modern but looks like an older pin.

 

[oqvist]

Complexity is a good thing. I am born in 78. I did encounter some vintage tables when young too and I didn´t quite enjoy them then. To simple and to little to do. They wheren´t harder then the new modern tables at all and was really hard to get into.
Playing the em tables is much of a chore in TPA too.

I am scared they will release a EM table every time because I was brave and bought the season pack but so far so good

I think they should divide season packs to modern and vintage since I suppose they are quite polarizing.

 

[Deltaechoe]

I'm in my mid twenties and central park is one of my most played machines, so at least some of us like older pinball

 

[Rayder]

Played my first pin when I was 4. That was 42 years ago.

I don't really have a preference for any particular generation of pinball table, just as long as I enjoy the game when I play it. What year the table was made doesn't really matter. Some I like, some I don't. Simple as that. I'm no elite pinball master, I just like pinball in general.

Most of the younger generation don't appreciate many of the greatest games of the past. Pinball is old and boring to them, just bouncing a ball around. They would rather play a video game than any pinball machine. They just don't understand the value of pinball. Who can say why?

 

[lio]

I was born in 1981 and the first table I ever played was BK2K - probably pretty much when it came out in 1989, at least I remember the place then had Radical! and EATPM so it was in the bloom of system 11 games.
That said I don't have much interest in tables that are much older than anything system 11 gameplay wise (also the sound/music is just so much better on more modern games).
However I really like the looks on some older games like Centaur, Xenon, Embryon or Fathom so for them it's the artwork that draws me in and I will play some old (virtual) tables every now and then - also I can appreciate the less cluttered playfield layouts in a way, but it's still mostly "solid state/modern pinball" that I am interested in.

 

[Slam23]

Night and I share the same birth year, 1972. Although I have vague memories of standing behind a pinball machine at 7, my main experience with pinball was in the DMD-style era of the '90s when I was in college. Out of nostalgia I always tended to gravitate towards those machines. However, TPA brought me a new-found appreciation of non-DMD era machines. I now understand the appeal of a Big Shot for example, the combination of masochism and raw adrenalin and the precise shooting for targets. Although I still love complexe rulesheets and toys, and progressing through "stages" in a game, story- and modewise, I have equal but different fun with grinding at Black Hole and Gorgar for example. A relavitely "simple" table can have good flow and gameplay with satisfying shots and rewards. I also think that the casual player nowadays needs more and quicker instant gratification, which can turn away players from earlier machines. I wouldn't have chosen to play EM machines if presented with a limited time window in for example an arcade hall which also features modern pins, if I hadn't had the experience with them in TPA. Now I would love to play a Big Shot for real, just to see if it would kick me in the behind as the TPA version regularly does. On a side note: I think Big Shot would be my candidate for being the "Dwarven Fortress" of pins, "Losing is Fun"

 

[Terminator]

I played on a table (real) once! can't remember when or where, because i was way too small at the time to recall from memory (but i do remember glimpses) Don't think it is popular here in UK. Many years later, i played virtual pinball on my windows PC... Space Cadets. Best game ever, very fascinating! The sound, the sights, the skill.. I loved the whole concept of keeping the ball on the play-field and beating the top scores.

Now many years later i randomly came across TBA because i was looking for Space Cadets for iPhone, and got sucked into a new world of real pinball tables with TBA. It has really open a new world of games and experience for me, and a culture i was unaware of. So far it is great! love all these new tables and the history behind each one!

I see all these tables a new (modern) because I've never known or seen them before, so it all seems new and fresh to me. I don't get any nostalgia like most of you. When i compare TBA and Zen, I prefer TBA, because of the natural look and feel of TBA tables in general. Maybe because I'm 25 IDK Zen feels too cartoonish and aimed for for kids IMO.

 

[PoSTedUP]

i was born 1990. i prefer Centaur, genie, black hole, flight 2k, space shuttle, pinbot, taxi etc over all but a few of the newer school tables (AFM and ToM). but i like most tables, 'just intrigued by the older ones.

 

[LanceBoyle]

I didn't start playing pinball until 2001 or so when I was 6, and it was with some DMDs at a local arcade, plus Microsoft Pinball Arcade at home, and I enjoyed all of them, as long as it was pinball.

For a more recent example, my little brother seems to enjoy pinball (or pinball games, at least) as much as I do, regardless of era (I think one of his fav tables on the Gottlieb collection was actually Big Shot). So hey.

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

And it's got THIS:

 

[superballs]

I don't have a set preference for any era. Sometimes I'm looking for the lights sounds and fancy boogaloo from a more modern machine and others I want the simple tri tone and raw difficulty of the older em machines. Sometimes I want the fast paced ball routed mayhem of the older ss era.

I'm a fan of most tables in TPA with haunted house being my least favorite.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

I was born in 1986, which I think makes me one of the younger people to have posted here. I guess that also makes me part of this "new generation."

That being said, my interest in pinball was really only passive, in the background, for nearly my entire life. I've always been a video game person, and I don't think that will ever change. (One of my favorite game franchises is Pokémon, which is pretty much the Ritalin of video gaming: It's incredibly slow and deliberately-paced. A serious player will actually spend weeks to build a team they're satisfied with!) The main reason I never got into pinball was because it was too intimidating. I played a few games here and there when I was little, but I was so terrible at it, and I knew I was, that it kind of instilled a fear of pinball into me. That, and I understood it extremely poorly: I mistook the insert lamps for the actual switches--for instance, a game would tell me to shoot at the blinking lights. I get the ball up to the blinking lights (without making it to whatever was behind them) and wonder why nothing happened. That horror and violence were such common themes also turned me off as I was easily scared of such things.

I only started getting into pinball in September 2013. This was when I had uploaded a video of Sonic Generations. You see, there was downloadable content in the form of a pinball machine. It's themed on Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2 (16-bit) and seems to be a decidedly EM-style. I maxed out the score at 999,999 and put up the entire hour and twenty minutes it took to do so.

(By 17:30, you'll have seen everything the table has to offer.)

This video did two things: It refueled my confidence in being able to play pinball competently, and because I always make my descriptions as detailed and accurate as possible, I looked up some pinball glossaries to make sure I got my terms correct. I first searched Wikipedia's, then found the Internet Pinball Database. Looking at these glossaries, I learned about all sorts of pinball machines and how they actually have rules beyond "A scores X points, B scores Y points, etc." This made me curious, so I searched for pinball on location in Los Angeles (not an easy task until I learned of Pinball Map). It seems to have ignited a latent love of pinball I've had in me since I was young but was not yet mature enough to appreciate.

As for what games I prefer the most, my favorites are the recent Sterns, and I think I'd like Wizard of Oz too if I ever had the chance to play it. That being said, my absolute favorite machine is Junk Yard. I'm a progress-oriented player, so I'm not as interested in putting up a high score as I am progressing towards wizard modes, or whatever lies at the end, though I enjoy games from all eras, even flipperless and woodrail games. I have a preference towards games that give me freedom of choice to do what I want (this is why Zen Pinball often gets annoying for me), games that are also progression-based, and humorous light-hearted games. Modern Sterns do a good job of putting a lot of variety in and gear you towards advancing things; hence, even games that pinball people tend to not like much like 24 or Wheel of Fortune, I enjoy quite a bunch. (The only modern Stern I've played I don't really like is Indiana Jones, as there isn't much variety there. There are also a lot of machines I prefer over AC/DC, as the few games I've played on it, I didn't feel like I was progressing much, but I haven't been able to find a good set of rules for it, so I probably don't understand it well.)

I'm guessing this ties into why I like video games so much: It's all about progress. Scoring went out the window during the 5th generation (PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, SEGA Saturn, and Atari Jaguar). Your objective was to get to the end, and it's been that way since. If you wanted to impress people or feel accomplished, you could do speed runs or handicapped runs or no-damage runs or somesuch.

 

[Rudy Yagov]

I'm 25 years old. I used to play occasionally at the movie theater and such places back in the 90s, but I didn't really get into the world of pinball until just a few years ago. 2009 or so.

I enjoy playing pinball from all eras, but I'm primarily a fan of System 11/Alphanumeric games. They strike the perfect balance of rules and gameplay to me. Plus, dat 80s sound and music.

I've owned several System 11 machines in the past few years, and I don't think I'll ever own anything else.

 

[PoSTedUP]

I'm 25 years old. I used to play occasionally at the movie theater and such places back in the 90s, but I didn't really get into the world of pinball until just a few years ago. 2009 or so.

I enjoy playing pinball from all eras, but I'm primarily a fan of System 11/Alphanumeric games. They strike the perfect balance of rules and gameplay to me. Plus, dat 80s sound and music.

I've owned several System 11 machines in the past few years, and I don't think I'll ever own anything else.

im 24. and yeah the 80's "pew pew" sounds and whatnot is the best sound ever. centaur is may fav table. so badass.

 

[Kratos3]

Late 80's, early 90's tables tend to be my favorites(probably nostalgia plus simpler rulesets with superior gameplay). MM, ToM, and AFM are the more "modern" tables I like the most, but give me BK2K, High Speed, Funhouse, and Pin*Bot, and I'm good to go.

Born in '77

 

[PoSTedUP]

Late 80's, early 90's tables tend to be my favorites(probably nostalgia plus simpler rulesets with superior gameplay). MM, ToM, and AFM are the more "modern" tables I like the most, but give me BK2K, High Speed, Funhouse, and Pin*Bot, and I'm good to go.

Born in '77

yeah MM, too. and T2 and adams family (major ones grew up on along with ToM). ive never played BK2000 or high speed :/. the getaway looks super awesome tho, too.

 

[PC.Doctor]

I was born in the early 90's and I never had gotten close to a pinball machine, though I have heard of them before. After hours playing TPA and FX2, it was about time I try my hands on an actual pinball machine. It was pretty difficult since there were barely any arcade stores around my area that had any pinball machines to play.

Pinball machines are slowly dying away because of the more high-tech consoles like PS3 and XBox One. There has to be a way to make pinball was popular as it was at the height of its peak.

 

[DokkenRokken]

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

I won't lie, I'm not a big fan of EM tables, but "Big Shot" is a rare exception. I love that table. It actually has things to do, a rare occurrence for an EM table.

I don't play pinball for high scores, that's just boring to me. I need something more than that, hence why I don't really dig EM tables unless there's really something to do besides rack up points and hit bumpers. (My favorite tables are "Theater of Magic", "Class of 1812", "Attack From Mars", and "Phantom of the Opera".)

As for "Genie", it's ok, but I'm also not a fan of 865 flippers in a game. If it has more than 4, it gets a little irritating for me.

 

[dbreid101]

I introduced my kids to the Pinball Arcade on Xbox and they really enjoyed it. They aren't fanatical about it like me but they show interest in new tables. I took them to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas awhile back and we spent about three hours playing all the best tables and many newer ones that I had been looking to play. They were pretty excited to play so many tables. My favorites will always be the tables from the early 90's that I played in my teens.