Any pinball collectors/players here?

[Vox_Reason]

Santa brought my 5 year old son a pinball machine this year (Star Trek: Next Generation). I started playing as a kid in the 70s, and after my 5 year old son played his first pinball machine a few months ago and loved it, I knew what Santa was bringing this year. Go into an arcade these days, and they're now "kiddie casinos"--exchange tickets for worthless trinkets. Other than that, it's light-gun games, dance dance revolution, and driving games--that's it. Zzzz....

The pinball industry is in sad, sad decline. There is only 1 company (Stern in Chicago) still making new pinball machines; Bally/Williams and Gottlieb closed their doors years ago. Parts are becoming harder and harder to find, and prices are skyrocketing as more people like me get into the hobby and push demand higher and higher. As time passes, more and more machines not owned by collectors succumb to wear and tear and neglect.

Pinball seems to be a piece of genuine Americana that's fading away quicker all the time. It's something you can't truly simulate on a game console or a computer, although Visual Pinball and PinMAME are very highly recommended! The physical nature of the game is very appealing, and every game is different; no "learning patterns" or "figuring out the AI" in pinball.

Do you have any fond pinball memories? Did you play pinball way back when? What were your favorite machines? Do you own a pinball machine? Which one, and why that one?

[Hugin]

1. I confess...

I have always liked pinball better than these new cathode-ray-tube games.

There are more unknowns!


I ordered a 'Black Knight' tee-shirt from the back glass of a Gottlieb machine
back in 1984. I still have it.

[Beetwasher]

2. LOVED That ST:TNG Pinball Machine!!!!!!

Oh man, that was one of the best one's!! I used to play it all the time!!

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for it?

[Vox_Reason]

7. I bought it from a collector for $2100.

WAY, way more than we could really afford, but "STTNG" is generally considered among players and collectors as one of the top 5 or 10 games ever made.

I'm not a big "Trekkie", though I did enjoy "TNG" when it was on the air, but after I found out that STTNG was the machine that was the most affordable among the top games, I was sold. You can't touch the other top games in decent shape for less than $3000, unless you want a "route beater"--a game that's been on an operator's "route" so long that it's beat. Even then, "route beater" versions of the top games still go for well more than what I spent for a STTNG machine in decent condition.

I'd never played a STTNG before I bought it, and I'm VERY pleased. It was everything I'd read about, and much more. It's a truly amazing game!

[Beetwasher]

17. Yeah

It's like a pinball machine AND video game in one and the multi-ball mode was crazy! I loved that game! Great find! Congrats!

[Hugin]

3. Having said, 'back glass'...

I wonder how many people nowadays even know what a 'back glass' was...

or... a 'bumper' or have ever 'popped an extra game or ball'.

It's all about the POP!

[Vox_Reason]

9. "Backglass" became "Translite" in the 80s

Backglasses were so much cooler, but the translites didn't get damaged the way backglasses did (paint flaking/peeling, etc.)

BTW, for those that don't know, translites are artwork on thin sheets of plastic that sit behind plexiglass in the "backbox"--the piece that faces the player and shows the score, etc. Backglasses were pieces of glass with paint on the back.

Nothing more satisfying than the cracking sound of a match or a replay! That's another thing about pinball that's different than video games (which I also dearly love)--free games. If you score beyond a certain amount, or the last 2 digits of your score equal a randomly generated pair of numbers, you were awarded a free game.

[Hugin]

11. The mechanical aspects of the machines were amazing...

Then they switched to tube-type numerical readouts and finally to LEDs.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

4. I don't own any pinball machines...

But I worked at an arcade while I was in highschool, and my boss (owner of the company that provided the vid games for the arcade) loved pinball machines.
I swung in there recently, she's still there, the arcade is doing surprisingly well in this day of home video game consols, and she's still got 5 pinball
machines against one wall. All in really good condition, too.
I'm considering asking if she has an edition of Williams' "Millionaire" around. It'd be 20 years old now, though, so I'd bet it would break down easily.

I was really sad when I found out Bally/Williams closed their factory and stopped making pinball machines.

[Vox_Reason]

12. You can find a "Millionaire" for about $1000 these days

There aren't a ton of them out there (only 3500 were made in 1987), but you can find them if you hunt.

Good for your former boss keeping those machines up and running. Curious--what 5 machines are they?

Bally/Williams was simply the best. Steve Kordek, one of the great veterans of the pinball industry, is seen in November 1999 with the very last Bally/Williams machine as it rolled off the line at . A picture is indeed worth 1000 words sometimes.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

20. She keeps them rotated, so I don't really remember.

Apparently, the company she owns provides a large number of arcade & pinball machines (and video lottery, much to her chagrin, but hey, the money's in video lottery, too) for the eastern half of their state.

But I vividly recall playing a ton of games, almost all Williams machines, from the late Eighties:

Millionaire (I don't know why I'm so stuck on that one. Maybe it was because I was good at it)
F-15 Tomcat
High Pursuit
Pinbot
Taxi
Big Guns
Black Knight 2000
Fire!
Funhouse
Comet
Cyclone


I sort of got turned off pinball machines for a while when they started all being based on television shows or movies, and the scores got simply outrageous. But I'll still put money in a pinball machine before I hit an arcade machine if I have a choice.

On edit: that picture really made me sad. The look on Mr. Kordek's face is the look one has when their heart is breaking. :cry:

[Vox_Reason]

28. Many classics in that list

Black Knight 2000, Pinbot and Funhouse, particularly. Cyclone is also a great game.

The picture is profoundly sad, I agree. No question Mr. Kordek's heart was broken, and probably still is. A great American company was closing its doors, many good and talented people lost their jobs, and there would never again be a new pinball machine bearing the famous Bally or Williams name.

Sniffle...

[bluethruandthru]

5. I own an old Bally machine

called "Knock Out". I bought it for my husband (before we were married) over 20 years ago. I'm not sure what year it was made. It was old when I got it back then.

[Vox_Reason]

14. Is this the machine you're referring to?

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1392

[bluethruandthru]

23. That's it! n/t

[Deep13]

6. Oh sure, from Soho down to Brighton, I must have played 'em all.

:evilgrin:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. But that deaf, dumb, and blind kid....

:P

[Wapsie B]

10. I love to play when I can.

And just think, you can't download cheat codes to beat the game either. Damn, I didn't know Stern was the only one left. :cry:

[Vox_Reason]

15. Alas, Stern's it.

Their next machine (coming out next month) is "Family Guy" (http://gallery.moll.no/oyvind/v/misc/familyguy), based on the animated TV series. Things are bad enough that the only machines Stern makes these days are based on licenses.

I'm sure it'll be a good game; "The Simpsons Pinball Party" a couple of years ago was fantastic. Their next game is a Spider-man license this summer.

[Kat45]

13. I absolutely LOVE pinball!

Man, I haven't seen a pinball machine in years. When I was in college, we had two pinball machines in the house we lived in. (It was an Animal House type of place.) The pinball room was always busy--both machines were busy day and night. We finally had to make a rule that you couldn't play after midnight or something like that because people would be playing all night, and the noise would keep the folks in the bedroom above it awake all night. Senior year, my boyfriend gave me a roll of quarters for my birthday and was curious to see how long it lasted me. lol

I really miss pinball; never really got into the video games. I hadn't vacationed at the beach for a long time until this past summer, and it was such a bummer to see all these arcades and no pinball.

I can't remember which games we had in college. I know that one had something you tried to shoot the ball up and we called it "the hairy arsehole." :rofl: I had some favorite machines in local bars but I can't quite remember them offhand. One had three levels of play and you could end up simultaneously playing balls on the different levels. Might have been "Haunted House"? In later years, with the fancier electronic machines, "The Addams Family" machine was a favorite; that was fun to play. But I really preferred the older, purely mechanical machines. Remember when you got 3 games for a quarter, 5 balls per game? (It sucked when they changed it to 1 game with 3 balls, and I think it was more than a quarter too.)

[RetroLounge]

16. I had a 1964 Bally Bongo Pinball...

Was forced to sell it last year...

:cry:

RL

[mike_c]

18. no, but check out the current issue of MAKE magazine....

It has a neat article on pinball restoration.

[Vox_Reason]

29. Thanks!

Article link:
http://makezine.com/08/pinball/

This is an excellent introductory article with great links. Thanks for mentioning it!

[Digit]

19. Pinball maniac here

In the "olden days", ie the 60's, we would go to the BA (bowling alley) after school for some pinball and a round or two of pool.
We would put ashtrays under the front legs of the machine so we could rack up some games.

Computer pinball don't "git it" as you can't put "english" on the machine.

[smtpgirl]

21. Love Pinball

Space Invaders
Haunted House
Baseball
Billards
Spirit of 1976

[mitchum]

22. My first job out of high school was with a pinball machine distributor...

From 8 until noon, I would recondition a machine. From noon until 1, I would smoke my lunch. And from 1 until 5, I would play and work the bugs out of the machine that I had worked on earlier in the day. Trust me, that was a dream job for a teenage head back in the 70s :)

Many of the back glasses were exquisite, and I imagine there is now quite a collector's market for them alone.

My all time favorite machine to play was the Bally Wizard.

[Burma Jones]

24. You Betcha, I own six machines and play them

Here they are:


Cirqus Voltaire - A Wild and wonderful game, from John Popadiuk...loads of fun


World Cup 94 - Another Popadiuk Masterpiece


Hi-Low Ace, a pretty good Electro Mechanical Machine


Grand Prix, another decent EM machine


Eight Ball Deluxe


Space Invaders

[Vox_Reason]

25. Excellent collection!

Cirqus Voltaire is one of those top 10 games I was talking about! World Cup Soccer '94 is a personal favorite. Popadiuk is one of the great designers, for sure. Eight Ball Deluxe is an undeniable classic, and Space Invaders has one of the coolest backglasses ever! Nice electromechanical (EM) games you've got there too.

Thanks for checking in. That's a great collection! Someday I hope to have a similar number of machines... Hopefully I can find a way to do that and stay married too!

[Burma Jones]

30. I have an understanding wife

and kids that like to play....

[Hugin]

32. Eight Ball Deluxe!

Wow! That is one of my all time favorite machines!

I've probably dumped enough quarters in them to own one by now! :D

There was one in the Lounge Area where I was for a few years during the
early to mid '80s... It was new when I arrived, but, by the time I left
we had totally worn it out!

[RedStateShame]

26. In college, I played the SWEETEST pinball machine ever....

It was a Guns N Roses machine. The machine had 2 plungers: One in the shape of a pistol handle, complete with trigger, and the other in the shape of a rose. I remember paying 50 cents to play it, and when the first quarter plopped in, I think a recording of Axl Rose saying "You're in the jungle, baby" played, followed by "You're gonna die" with the 2nd quarter. That, and on the 3rd ball, it played Mr. Brownstone.

[Vox_Reason]

27. GnR machines are highly collectible.

They go for around $3000. Never seen or played one, but people tend to hang on to them, and there are never very many available. It's kind of the modern version of the KISS machine of the 70s...

[Oeditpus Rex]

31. It's been a long time

I seem to remember this rule of thumb, though:

Bally/Gottlieb = good

Williams = bad

Williams tables seemed... loose. :shrug:

[derby378]

33. FIREPOWER is one of my all-time favorites

Basically, any Williams cabinet is a keeper. I also enjoy Sorcerer, Pin-Bot, and F-14 Tomcat.

[seemunkee]

34. Check out the latest copy of Make magazine

They have an article on restoring pinball machines that you might be interested in.
http://makezine.com/magazine/