I've always enjoyed the opportunities to play pinball when they arrive, especially if it's on location with a machine that has strong flippers and a clean playfield. Well, for the past few years I've been collecting arcade machines and pinball machines. My wife loves my Jurassic Park machine, but she's always been lukewarm at best toward playing games on location. I don't know if it's the money or the fact that she's not great at pinball, but getting her out of the house to play a few games wasn't always easy.

A couple of years after being married we hit up a local nickel arcade. They had a Hook pinball machine, and for some reason my wife seemed to enjoy it, despite it's horribly weak flippers and non-working sound. Since it was only a nickel to play, she probably played it for a good hour. After that she was a little more open to pinball, but still not exactly excited about on-location play.

Fast forward another year or so and we find out about another nickel arcade in our area called Nickel Mania. Well, this arcade is ran by a serious collector, so he keeps his machines clean and in high working order. He also has about 15 pinball machines...good ones too. The Addams Family is one of those games, and the first time my wife played she literally jumped and giggled when the magnet grabbed her ball in the middle of the playfield and sent it flying in the opposite direction. The theme, the music, the sound, the art, and the crazy happenings mesmerized her.

Before long she was tugging at my sleeve on Saturday mornings asking if we could swing by Nickel Mania and play a few games of The Addams Family. From there she ventured out a bit more, and she's becoming quite the fan of pinball. Now I'm able to go play on location whenever I want...as long as I bring the wife along.