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Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans - please read this first
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You can still see that 70s influence in games like Roller Disco and Night Moves
Naildriver74
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- Aug 2, 2013
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I was a freshman in high school in 1970 Jefferson City MO. We spent a lot of time at the bowling ally and like Jeff said rows of pins it was a great time to be that age.
superballs
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- Apr 12, 2012
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What I *do* know from IPDB sales figures is that the glory age for raw pinball machine sales was not the early 1990s... it was the late 1970s.
The early 1990s was a nice revival, with good sales for many tables. But there are only three pins that sold over 15K during that period (Addams Family, Twilight Zone, and T2). Between 1976 and 1980, in contrast, *8* pins sold over 15K. One even sold almost as much as The Addams Family (Eight Ball). Only one of those 8 is currently in TPA (Firepower).
To a lesser extent, a similar story emerges if you look at >10K sold machines (10 from 1990-1993 vs. a whopping 28 from 1976-1980).
How well a pinball sold back then doesn't necessarily translate to what sells now, of course. Gorgar, Firepower, and Black Knight came from that era, they were good >10K selling machines... and they don't seem to get a whole lot of love here. (However, forum opinion does not translate into sales figures either and only Farsight knows this number.)
The greater ubiquity of pinball back then suggests that at least the *potential* for late 1970s pinball nostalgia exists. Even if perhaps some of both today's players and the 90s revival folks are turned off by the relative lack of bells and whistles. (Some people still play early 1980s arcade games after all, primitive graphics and all.) I don't know if that potential really translates into sales, but it's possibly a mistake to *entirely* write off this market. (Probably it would need to be marketed separately or something, eg an "old school" table pack.)
BTW, I think Farsight's EM choices so far have been... odd. Small time games like Jive Time in Williams Arcade over well selling early-mid 1970s EMs (like much of what was eventually settled on in the poll, eg Wizard, Spirit of 76, Royal Flush, Space Mission, etc)? Now, Central Park and Big Shot aren't *bad* choices, but they probably aren't the cream of the EM crop that would represent what an EM game would truly sell like...
Great post, welcome to teepaff man.
Don't forget movie Theaters and bowling alleys though, they remained fairly well stocked with pins for quite some time after the decline of the arcades.
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and Airports. Where I live the largest collection of pinball machines in one place is the International Airport.
superballs
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- Apr 12, 2012
- 2,653
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Our airport just became "international" hopefully it's just a matter of time.
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we're in the process of tearing out our "municipal" airport to build condos
superballs
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- Apr 12, 2012
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I hate condos they take all the feeling away
Fungi
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- Feb 20, 2012
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Hah! 10 points to superballs.
Espy
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- Sep 9, 2013
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My airport used to have a Dark Knight pin, surrounded by slot machines... I played it once when it was just put in and it was fine, but I returned a year later to discover the thing had been left to rot. Almost literally. Playfield was almost illegible, sound was turned off (or maybe broken), the ramp never diverted to the left, two of the three bumpers were broken (pretty sure one of those actually broke as I was playing it), one of the slingshots was broken, right flipper had that thing where it stays up until you press the left flipper, the crane toy kept registering hits to it when there were none. I got a high score thanks to the tiny replay score, and left my name as FIX PLEASE. It was gone the next time I was there. Worst condition machine I've ever played.