When did the term "Pinball Tables" supplant "Pinball Machines"

[Kolchak357]

I agree with Jeff. Probably a regional thing. Like soda and pop. Western Pennsylvania is all pop, us in the east call it soda.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I think "table" is more of a pinball-fan term. "Pinball machine" is the general public's preferred phrase.

If you search Pinside for "table" you'll only get 67 topics, while "machine" turns up 846. The term "pin" is definitely the most popular, with 1502 topics. A lot of guys refer to them simply as "games" too.

 

[brakel]

I grew up in the 80’s arcades and never heard anyone call them tables back then (it wasn't until I started playing video game pinball that I really remember hearing it). Maybe it depends on where you're from.

I grew up in Chicago and always heard pinball machine or just pinball. As in "my brother and I are going to Lakehurst Mall to play pinball." I'm not even sure what parts of the country we were in that we would hear "table" I just know that we'd heard it from time to time.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I grew up in Chicago and always heard pinball machine or just pinball. As in "my brother and I are going to Lakehurst Mall to play pinball." I'm not even sure what parts of the country we were in that we would hear "table" I just know that we'd heard it from time to time.

Right on. I grew up only a couple hours from Chicago in Indiana, so it was the same lingo for me.

 

[Timelord]

By the 80's almost everyone referred to them as machines, Jeff.

My use of tables is an admittedly much older colloquialism, plus I was raised with friends in the industry and actually worked for Midway as an E.E. before being recruited by the Siemens Medical Imaging Division. I knew a lot of the gals who worked at the Gottleib manufacturing division when I was active in my Lodge. They comprised the main wiring harness manufacturing division. I wouldn't characterize my experience as mainstream by any means.

That would account for a lot, besides the 20 - 30 years difference in time.

BTW Indiana or Lake county suburbs was an entirely different cultural experience than Addison and California, regardless of era. It was a rough neighborhood to grow up in back in the day. And very much influenced by Riverview Park and Bally Pinball.

I was just giving a insight into an older subset of the term that may have given rise to a popularity of the term later on.

 

[Jeff Strong]

By the 80's almost everyone referred to them as machines, Jeff.

My use of tables is an admittedly much older colloquialism, plus I was raised with friends in the industry and actually worked for Midway as an E.E. before being recruited by the Siemens Medical Imaging Division. I knew a lot of the gals who worked at the Gottleib manufacturing division when I was active in my Lodge. They comprised the main wiring harness manufacturing division. I wouldn't characterize my experience as mainstream by any means.

That would account for a lot, besides the 20 - 30 years difference in time.

BTW Indiana or Lake county suburbs was an entirely different cultural experience than Addison and California, regardless of era. It was a rough neighborhood to grow up in back in the day. And very much influenced by Riverview Park and Bally Pinball.

I was just giving a insight into an older subset of the term that may have given rise to a popularity of the term later on.

I like hearing about stuff like that. Hopefully you can share more from your experiences.

Great to have some other Chicago guys here too.

 

[sfchris]

Right on. I grew up only a couple hours from Chicago in Indiana, so it was the same lingo for me.

OP here - and I also am originally from the Chicago area so it's possible this is a regional thing.

However, I learned two main things from this thread - the fact that "Table" is actually an old term (did not know that, thanks guys) and also that this is what the video games have been called for the last decade (I have not played any video pinball so I had no idea). The fact that video games have been calling it that rings the most true to me as the most likely reason younger people are calling it that now.

I'd like to make one correction to my topics - the kids are actually calling them "Tables" not "Pinball Tables". I was out playing last night and heard the term dozens of times. Seems to be very fashionable to play pinball right now and I am not complaining! It was cute watching some of the young ladies playing their very first game with their boyfriends

The only thing I will complain about is due to the drop off in pinball popularity in the last years, some of the etiquette has been forgotten! I had my turn passed over even though I had quarters on the machine, and I got countless hip checks into the buttons! Oh well, the good of this resurgence far far outweighs any negatives like that!

 

[Clawhammer]

This reminds me of a thread on a pinball forum I used to post on where somebody said "pinball table" and a pinball term police posted a picture of a playfield that had been turned into a coffee table.

 

[shutyertrap]

What an interesting thread!

I honestly don't know what I used to call pinball back in the 80's. I've lived in SoCal my whole life, and saying the two out loud, pinball machine sounds right. However, in my head and when I write, pinball table comes more naturally. I for sure agree that 'table' should be used for video pinball, as there is nothing mechanical about those.

I especially liked the example earlier used of asking where the machines were, and be told the tables were in the back. That sounded exactly like something I'd heard before.

One thing is for sure, you could never call The Pinball Circus a table.

 

[smbhax]

I had my turn passed over even though I had quarters on the machine

Ooh I did that to some dude last year and got a well-deserved reprimand.

A thought occurs to me on the return of pinball and so forth; I've seen a lot of people point out that it's due in part to retro-hipness, and video pinball games, but if you think about it, game consoles killed video game arcades, right? But people still want to go out and have some quick, flashy fun, so what's out there that *isn't* some lame-ass video game that's way less cool than the dozens you have on your home console? Pinball machines!