- May 29, 2013
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My first table was Eight Ball. It was in a pub where my parents used to go to after work and I was maybe 11 or 12. The table got replaced eventually by a Playboy table
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What was the first pinball machine you ever played?
- Thread starter PC.Doctor
- Start date
I don't know what the actual first game I ever played was, it's likely that I did attempt something that vaguely resembled playing as a wee runt. I certainly never played much though, I was always fascinated and amused by pinball machines but none of my friends ever seemed to care and the only people I ever saw play were so good they made the daunting difficulty seem even worse.
My first recollection of playing(outside of some home video games I occasionally spent some time with) was at a roller-skating rink that for whatever reason had their tables on free play the night our group was there. I remember an attendant showed me how to reset one when it got screwed up or lost free play, and that I managed to screw up the other one and the same thing didn't work. I remember I liked the first one better, and I seem to think the playfield was... red. At any rate it was a hell of a lot more fun than roller skating with people I didn't like.
The first table I remember and truly played and learned(unless you count Space Cadet on PC which taught me about complex rulesets) was a Creature From the Black Lagoon I stumbled upon at an arcade I used to go to. I'm not sure when this was, surely 15 years ago by now. There was also a soccer pin but it wasn't as appealing and I didn't quite understand what to do so I stuck with Creature and fell in love with it. I used to go there a lot, eventually I would go just for Creature. I'd take like 20 bucks and spend a dollar on video games. I got fairly good at it but could only manage high scores when they had been recently reset.
Eventually the place closed and changed hands, losing the tables in the process. To this day that's the only table I've ever managed to really play out in the wild. So TPA has been a godsend for me. I bought it on a whim, largely because Creature was coming. Eventually I couldn't see any reason not to buy the rest of Season 1, and after hitting 2 billion for the first and so far only time on Creature during the Christmas tournament I bought Season 2 to try to get into the silver tournament tier. I'd say it's been a good investment, just wish I'd managed more of the real thing.
My first recollection of playing(outside of some home video games I occasionally spent some time with) was at a roller-skating rink that for whatever reason had their tables on free play the night our group was there. I remember an attendant showed me how to reset one when it got screwed up or lost free play, and that I managed to screw up the other one and the same thing didn't work. I remember I liked the first one better, and I seem to think the playfield was... red. At any rate it was a hell of a lot more fun than roller skating with people I didn't like.
The first table I remember and truly played and learned(unless you count Space Cadet on PC which taught me about complex rulesets) was a Creature From the Black Lagoon I stumbled upon at an arcade I used to go to. I'm not sure when this was, surely 15 years ago by now. There was also a soccer pin but it wasn't as appealing and I didn't quite understand what to do so I stuck with Creature and fell in love with it. I used to go there a lot, eventually I would go just for Creature. I'd take like 20 bucks and spend a dollar on video games. I got fairly good at it but could only manage high scores when they had been recently reset.
Eventually the place closed and changed hands, losing the tables in the process. To this day that's the only table I've ever managed to really play out in the wild. So TPA has been a godsend for me. I bought it on a whim, largely because Creature was coming. Eventually I couldn't see any reason not to buy the rest of Season 1, and after hitting 2 billion for the first and so far only time on Creature during the Christmas tournament I bought Season 2 to try to get into the silver tournament tier. I'd say it's been a good investment, just wish I'd managed more of the real thing.
Last edited:
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IDK the exact machine, but like VikingErik Baby Pacman stands out in my memories, as does a game with banana flippers that I cannot recall the name of.
I'm not sure what could have given you the impression that I was suggesting anything other than what I wrote. Sadly, I very rarely came across any working real tables once I was able to really comprehend them. Space Cadet was a very important part of my personal pinball history, probably more so than any other single video pinball game. In fact, the time I spent with that game learning to more deeply understand the game of pinball beyond "shoot at flashing thingies and try not to drain" may have been crucial to may ability to finally learn and enjoy my all-too-brief opportunity with the real thing. So it seemed relevant enough to give it a very quick mention. I did not cite it in any way as being the answer to the question.
Oh, and I didn't play it on Windows XP.
First machine I played was a Bally Fireball in 1972 at a marina located next to the campgrounds and beach were I worked a summer job in my high school years. It was the first pinball machine this particular business ever hosted. I actually was privileged to witness it being unboxed, set up, and tested. The guy who prepped it credited several free plays on it for those of us watching and waiting for it.
Spent many quarters in that machine over the next three years on summer evenings after work. For nostalgia reasons alone, I would definitely like to see this table added to TPA, but the innovative features for its time (especially the spinning disk) are enough to merit addition in my opinion. The machine was swapped for something else during my college years and I was never able to locate another until sometime in the early 1990's in the arcade at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.
Spent many quarters in that machine over the next three years on summer evenings after work. For nostalgia reasons alone, I would definitely like to see this table added to TPA, but the innovative features for its time (especially the spinning disk) are enough to merit addition in my opinion. The machine was swapped for something else during my college years and I was never able to locate another until sometime in the early 1990's in the arcade at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.
Kolchak357
Senior Pigeon
- May 31, 2012
- 8,102
- 2
Fireball is one tough machine to start on.
And welcome to the forum.
And welcome to the forum.
EldarOfSuburbia
New member
- Feb 8, 2014
- 4,032
- 0
We have a Fireball in our lobby at work - presumably in working order but I've never even seen it switched on. It's part of an electronics museum of stuff we've sold down the years. You could actually buy a version of the table from the Sears catalog!
Sean
New member
- Jun 13, 2012
- 682
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Has to be Black Knight and I was too small to play it really. This would have been just before video games took over the world as I seem to recall a Death Race game was in the same arcade along with Atari Sprint (the original black-and-white) top-down racer.
Other possible candidates are Eight Ball Deluxe and Firepower II.
Other possible candidates are Eight Ball Deluxe and Firepower II.
Pinetwig
New member
- Dec 23, 2013
- 170
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Time Warp? Remember those banan flippers from my childhood too.
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It may be, for the longest time I thought it was Viper, but looking at ipdb pics the images don't line up with memories. Either I broke my synaptic connections doing 3 letter experiments in my wayward youth, or there was another banana flipper powered machine in the wild.
Naildriver74
Active member
- Aug 2, 2013
- 2,189
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My guess would be you broke something
Trever Chalmers
New member
- Mar 29, 2014
- 26
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I have only played about 5 real tables I believe. The first one was high speed. I remember it because it was so loud. It even overpowered the music in one of the local bars I played it in. Now I can't find any in town, called everywhere
Pinetwig
New member
- Dec 23, 2013
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Disco Fever? How many machines have banana flippers anyway? Can't be that many?
Espy
New member
- Sep 9, 2013
- 2,098
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There was definitely more than one, but I can't recall the names.
9u1d0
New member
- Jan 7, 2013
- 310
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I really do not know what machine it was. I only remember the it was on a Spanish airport and we had a major flight delay. It was late 70's, and I was probably around 6 or 7 years old. There was a pinball machine and my dad let me play it several times while waiting for the flight
Zombie Aladdin
New member
- Mar 28, 2014
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I believe the first machine I ever played on was either The Addams Family or Banzai Run at All Amusement Fun Center in Panorama City, CA. I was 7 at the time, I think. I played one game, was disappointed the inserts were not buttons and thus didn't react when the ball flew by, and stopped playing for 20 years.
2013 was when I actually got into pinball more seriously, so I'm probably the last person to get into pinball here by a long shot. The first machine I played on was The Simpsons Pinball Party at Japan Arcade in Little Tokyo (which is either gone or it moved). The DMD was messed up, and the garage was stuck, but now I finally understood that you were supposed to shoot up the ramps the inserts were pointing to and not just over the inserts, and that there were actually rules beyond "A scores X points, B scores Y points," etc.
Baby Pac-Man is awesome. It doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves, if you ask me. Good pinball players tend not to be good video game players and vice versa, and you have to be good at both to do decently.
That was EXACTLY how I felt when I was younger. I didn't know anyone who knew a thing about pinball nor cared, even when I was little, and any time I actully saw someone playing, they were so good at it that they frightened me. Not helping was that some of these good players, at that time, seemed to dislike kids and made me feel unwelcome in these arcades.
Nowadays, if I tell people that pinball is one thing I am into, they are interested enough to hear me out about it, though rarely would anyone else ever try playing themselves. I think people need a friend to ease them into it, in a Milgram kind of way. This leads me to believe that interest in pinball is there and is widespread, but the intimidation I felt when I was little is still in most people when they are adults. They are afraid to start playing because they know these machines will mercilessly chew up and spit out beginners.
2013 was when I actually got into pinball more seriously, so I'm probably the last person to get into pinball here by a long shot. The first machine I played on was The Simpsons Pinball Party at Japan Arcade in Little Tokyo (which is either gone or it moved). The DMD was messed up, and the garage was stuck, but now I finally understood that you were supposed to shoot up the ramps the inserts were pointing to and not just over the inserts, and that there were actually rules beyond "A scores X points, B scores Y points," etc.
Baby Pac-Man is awesome. It doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves, if you ask me. Good pinball players tend not to be good video game players and vice versa, and you have to be good at both to do decently.
That was EXACTLY how I felt when I was younger. I didn't know anyone who knew a thing about pinball nor cared, even when I was little, and any time I actully saw someone playing, they were so good at it that they frightened me. Not helping was that some of these good players, at that time, seemed to dislike kids and made me feel unwelcome in these arcades.
Nowadays, if I tell people that pinball is one thing I am into, they are interested enough to hear me out about it, though rarely would anyone else ever try playing themselves. I think people need a friend to ease them into it, in a Milgram kind of way. This leads me to believe that interest in pinball is there and is widespread, but the intimidation I felt when I was little is still in most people when they are adults. They are afraid to start playing because they know these machines will mercilessly chew up and spit out beginners.
What do tables today run on...coal?
The first table I played was Hook from Data East, 1992. I was working at a local grocery store that had a small arcade section and they always had a couple of pinball tables. I spent every break and lunch hour in the arcade playing all the best pinball tables. T2, Elvira, Taxi, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. They always switched the machines out every couple of months. Got to play a lot of great pins. Love the Pinball Arcade because now I can enjoy these tables again.
ER777
New member
- Sep 8, 2012
- 797
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Bingo. How the heck are we supposed to remember this stuff?
dtown8532
New member
- Apr 10, 2012
- 1,685
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Hard to remember but probably Funhouse soon after it came out. My local Pizza Hut used to get new pins. They also had a cocktail Pac-Man. Yup. Pizza Hut used to be a cool place to go. .
Though I do have memories of going to Show Biz Pizza in the 80's, I was a video gamer and never took notice of any pins. Shame.
. Though I do have memories of going to Show Biz Pizza in the 80's, I was a video gamer and never took notice of any pins. Shame.