I was at MGC 2010 wandering through the pinball room when I stumbled upon MSF. The big DMD, atmospheric lighting, and unusual layout drew me in. Right from the start of game I found it to be a unique experience with being able to choose the score you want to listen to and then using the lever to launch the ball instead of a plunger.

I never triggered the Frankenstein toy in the half hour or so that I played the machine, but my interest in pinball was born that day nonetheless. This particular pin showed me that there is a lot of variation to pinball machines, whereas before I always was under the impression that they all followed a similar layout. For these reasons and many more I will eventually add it to my collection.

So how about the rest of you? What machine got you hooked?

A 1970 Bally Trail drive when I was about 14 years old

I would have to say TAF. I played it back when I was a bartender, when it was slow I would play with the customers...But I didn't buy a pin until 15 years later and that was LAH....that played really good and the rest is history.

The machine that got me hooked was Sorcerer that was way back

Tales from the Crypt...used to play it on free play after-hours at our local pool hall

TOTAN...Dropped a monster on it and decided I needed to own that pin.

I started to play in the early SS years (late 70's). Fell off the wagon in the mid 80's - became more of a vid guy. It wasn't till 91 Data East Batman that I really LOVED pinball! Looking back, I probably dumped some much money in that machine, I could've bought two of them!

CV (at my friend's house)

The_Dude_Abides said:

TOTAN...Dropped a monster on it and decided I needed to own that pin.

I desperately want a TOTAN, but I've never seen one in the wild to play...

jarjarisgod said:

I desperately want a TOTAN, but I've never seen one in the wild to play...

Yea they are very few and far between on route. They run VERY hot so they are not the best machine to have on all the time on location. Such a blast to play though. I first played it at either California Extreme or Pacific Pinball many years ago.

The_Dude_Abides said:

Yea they are very few and far between on route. They run VERY hot so they are not the best machine to have on all the time on location. Such a blast to play though. I first played it at California Extreme many years ago.

They hardly come up for sale either. And they seem to be less common than MM, AFM, or CV. At least on Ebay, CL, etc. My only chance to play it has been on the Williams Pinball HOF game for Xbox. Not quite the same as playing it for real I'm sure.

If I would have known about California Extreme sooner, I probably would have burned some vacation time and headed out for it. Guess there's always next year!

jarjarisgod said:

If I would have known about California Extreme sooner, I probably would have burned some vacation time and headed out for it. Guess there's always next year!

Yea, keep it on your radar it is such a good time! Pacific Pinball is also a huge event with a ton of machines later on in the year. I did post something about trying to get TRON at California Extreme (which will be there now) about 3 months ago you must have missed it unfortunately.

Mine's a tossup between Star Trek and KISS. Played them both in the summer of 1980, I had just
turned 16.

Played them both alot because they both were located at a corner convenience store
I lived across the street from. This place had a small room in the corner of the store
that was all glassed in, had a glass door, and you could go in there and play 2-3 pin's
they had. They generally rotated them, but at one time they had both of those in there.

The_Dude_Abides said:

Yea, keep it on your radar it is such a good time! Pacific Pinball is also a huge event with a ton of machines later on in the year. I did post something about trying to get TRON at California Extreme (which will be there now) about 3 months ago you must have missed it unfortunately.

Yeah, I've only become active on the site over the past month. Sounds like a great show. Have a blast for the rest of us!

scooter said:

A 1970 Bally Trail drive

Cool scooter

MB. i was in awe. and it's still in my top 3

Mine was Bally's Paragon, specifically the one at Brock's Ice Cream Parlor in Yuba City, CA. I used to go there all the time when I was in high school to play the Paragon (and also Bally's Space Invaders) and get a large Butterscotch Marble Ice Cream Cone! What a great combination!

Black Knight 2000, no doubt. That soundtrack and intense gameplay was just what my 11 year old mind needed the first time i played it. I have my own now, and it's never leaving my collection!

Funhouse for me...Rudy got me hooked, made many trips to the bowling alley to play this one!

I played some as a youngster but it wasn't until I got out of the Navy and bought my first, Lost World by Bally. It worked pretty good but needed some work and that is where this mishchief began.

Mine was Evel Knievel at an old factory, then they got GORGAR and i was really hooked.

While I had played a lot of pinball when I was younger, it was Pinbot and High Speed that got me hooked. I was in high school when they came out, and the miniature gold course across the street from my house had both of them. My friends and I would hang out there for hours dumping quarters in those two games.

Gold Wings and Pinbot. The GW was right down the street in my local deli. The Pinbot was in a Pizza Parlour a couple of miles away and there was one in the mall. I played the GW because it was close and easy so my $1 would last a while. But Pinbot really got me hooked. To this day, when I think of pinball music, I think of Pinbot's score.

It all started with a quarter...

NimblePin said:

It all started with a quarter...

Yes and a bunch more after that

The first pin I spent a lot of time playing was a 1979 widebody Laser Ball. It especially didn't hurt once I found out that the middle coin slot that was designed to accept Susan B Anthony $1 coins (and gave 5 credits) couldn't tell the difference between a SBA and a quarter. 5 credits for $0.25 was quite the bargain!

Can't remember which game started the love for pinball,it was long ago. It was likely a 70's EM game because it was pre 1977. The game that impressed me enough to start buying games later in life was Eight Ball Deluxe. I resisted the dmd stuff until last year, but now I'm hopelessly hooked on them too!

More than one here.
A Lethal Weopon 3 in a local arcade got me interested. Then I bought a Gameshow, quickly followed by Demolition Man.Those three got me hooked on modern games. Later I bought a Centaur hoping to make some money. It was cheap, local and I knew that it had a good reputaion and to my surprise I loved it. It introduced be to the wonderful world of the older games.

Lord of the Rings, there was one in cape cod that i played the hell out of every year on vacation. every year i looked forward to playing it. that did the trick, now i've got one and pinball is a part of my life.

I grew up with a Sky Jump from 1974 in my parents house.
In 2007 being 3 blocks from Shorty's in Seattle totally got me into pinball again.

I was a straight-up vids guy at the arcade(street fighter 2/Daytona USA/Virtua Cop/House of the Dead), but the one that turned me on to pinball was Terminator 2. From the cannon to the dot matrix to Arnie's quotes, it was just perfect in my mind.. I really enjoy Steve Ritchie's games and picked up a No Fear just shortly after I grabbed my T2 in January, which lead to a Revenge From Mars last week, it is a sickness, I tell ya...

I was also a straight up video game guy. I played pinball but was just a casual player (comet, cyclone,Funhouse,BOP,SFII) where my favorites. It wasn't until I played Twilight Zone that I became addicted. After Twilight Zone I discovered Medeval Madness,Adams Family, and Attack from Mars. Twilight Zone is where I turned from Video game guy to Pinball guy. After I seeked out pinball every where I could find it.

jarjarisgod said:

My only chance to play it has been on the Williams Pinball HOF game for Xbox. Not quite the same as playing it for real I'm sure

Not the same thing at all. Real TOTAN is way much harder.

My 1st Pin was a EM,, a 1972 Bally " Hi Lo Ace " I found Pinball more interest-n than Vid's..

, I paid $ 450.00 for it in 08, and the guy drove 4 1/2 hr's to deliver it. ( he Needed the $$ )

.. and I can't add it to my History here.. Can't pull it up !! Hmmm

Attack from Mars. The great sci-fi martian theme and artwork drew me in, and it was the first time that I had ever bothered to realize that pinball machines had rulesets and objectives and strategy. From then on, I dove head first into the seas of silverball addiction.

The first game I owned, WWF Royal Rumble

BLACK_ROSE said:

My 1st Pin was a EM, a 1972 Bally " Hi Lo Ace " ... and I can't add it to my History here.. Can't pull it up !! Hmmm

Pinside is SS only.

gweempose said:

BLACK_ROSE said:

My 1st Pin was a EM, a 1972 Bally " Hi Lo Ace " ... and I can't add it to my History here.. Can't pull it up !! Hmmm
Pinside is SS only.

Yeah I had a similar problem with my Gottlieb Masquerade, I was wondering what the deal was..

There were a few of them but BOP was a heart throb.

I had almost forgotten about the family trip in 1983 or 1984, where the Holiday Inn we were staying at had three pins, a Bally Gold Ball, a Williams Laser Cue, and the well-known Gottlieb, Haunted House. Now I own two of those three!

Party Animal got me started when I was a youngin.

Pinbot & Jokerz. They sat right next to each other in the local arcade and were joined briefly by Elvira & the Party monsters until she was replaced with a Funhouse & a Whirlwind. I must have put $1500-2000 into those machines over a period of three years.

Vanquish09 said:

Party Animal got me started when I was a youngin.

Me too
Rules were easy and i loved to hit the jukebox, no points for that shot though

Sorry for diggin' up an old thread....but it's a good one IMHO.

Like others here, I started playing pins back in the EM days - but none of those would really qualify as the one that got me 'hooked'. That disctinction belongs to the 1979 Williams Flash. To this day, I can still remember hearing the 'thunder' and seeing the flashers for the 1st time. For someone who was used to the bell/chimes - it blew me away.

I was hooked from that point forward. In the early 80's I spent a good portion of my teen years (and $$) playing Firepower, Black Knight, 8 Ball Delux, Flight 2000, Paragon, Space Invaders, etc. I never took to the video games, and hated that they pushed pinball from the arcades.

I grew away from pinball in the late 80's and missed most of the DMD era. Sure, I'd play occassionally, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I rediscovered pinball. I blame that on the IPDB. Being able to view pictures of all the machines I played in my youth fueled my desire to play again. It wasn't long after that I purchased Flash. ...then a project pin (Black Jack), then High Speed.....then Paragon...then Firepower. You know the drill. Now I've got my sights set on getting a nice LOTR - need to make up for some lost time on those DMD's.

Party Animal.

Bally Medusa ... paid $85 and a Tektronix oscilloscope in trade.

TOM

EM Surfer

Rekindled with Dr Who

Spy Hunter in 86. Just turned 16 and had my first car 66' chevelle and went to the arcade at the mall. "Aladdin's castle" at the Citadel mall in Charleston. Dumped many of quarters in that unit. Now I got my own.