"Pinball Sucks!": a retrospective on my hobby

Captain B. Zarre

New member
Apr 16, 2013
2,253
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Pinball sucks!

That is how I felt as I thought to myself today at home. My hometown is a ghost town for pinball and arcades, so barely any locals even know what it is. I also go to school every day and the students there don't care for it either. So why don't they care? Why are they into these weird sports shows? WHY?!?!

To this day none of my friends, not even my BFF talks to me about pinball. The closest I have to a pinball-loving acquaintance is Nightwing on the forums. In fact, even Pinball Arcade itself hasn't been noticed much recently: if it had been promoted properly with billboard ads and such then it could be a best-seller, instead of the ever-expanding Angry Birds crap we're getting today for iOS. Pinball never really felt like it was making a renaissance at all - in fact, even newspaper authors always seem to talk about it being some kind of ancient hobby like playing with sticks (also PLEASE stop treating pinball like it's been EM forever, it's like the reused Atari 2600 Pac-Man sounds in frequency)

So why do I love pinball so much then, if I have decided in my head it sucks? Well, the games sure don't. They're beautiful crafted masterpieces that revolve around shooting a ball to hit ramps and loops. They have themes to them that send you into the world of a cultural icon like Twilight Zone or Star Trek The Next Generation. They convey promotions and were once huge profit earners.

So, in the end, is it really my fault that I "think" pinball sucks? No. It's not. It's the public's fault. They are the ones who haven't been spreading the word about pinball and it's beauty. Some who just think "oh, you plunge a ball and try to flail it to make lights pop up and things happen" are completely wrong. They are their own form of abstract art - like a video game only described through playing it again and again. If the video game boom had never occurred, pinball would be running strong today with designs that could even top Wizard of Oz in originality. But we don't live like that. We live in this cruel world for pinball-lovers. It's certainly a very mean world.

But that's the public's fault. Not mine at all. I have my own opinions, and I think what I want to think.

With that in mind I got onto Pinball Arcade and played some Whirlwind.

Pinball certainly does "suck". :)
 
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Baramos

New member
Aug 18, 2013
101
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I have a similar issue. I have to travel a half hour to play White Water and Roadshow at a truck stop (the owners take very good care of them, though--I guess truckers are still into pinball if no one else is). An hour and chunk of change to play Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, Scared Stiff, and Wizard of Oz at a hookah bar. If I went to Pittsburgh I'd really be in luck, but it's 3 hours away.

I suppose I'm fortunate to have two good machines within a reasonable driving distance, though.
 
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