It was late 1978 or early 1979 and the 7-11 about 6 blocks from my house got a Playboy Pinball and a microwave all at the same time. I was 13 and it was love at first sight...with the pinball machine. It also meant a real escape for me from the reality of my parents recent divorce. My friend Bill and I would walk to the store and help the owner, Mario, clean out the back room. He would give us a microwave pizza, a Big Gulp, and a dollar in quarters to put in the machine.
We went every day and got so good at putting the silver ball into the Grotto that some days we would leave with 99 credits on the machine. Later, the 7-11 added a Mata Hari and, we mastered both. Once in a while, we were lucky enough to sell all our credits to a truck driver or someone waiting to play the machines. Then, one day, an Asteroids video game arrived and replaced those two beautiful women in the middle of the glass with a game with very little beauty or soul. I think it was early 1980 and I experienced my first heartbreak. It wasn't from a women, but from the arrival of a video game.
To this day, I am not a fan of many video games, but I still love a great pinball machine. Pinball, to me, is not just a hobby. It is something much more; It is a place where I can escape into a world where I can solve all my problems, go on an adventure to exotic places, and never have the same experience twice. It helped this 13 year old boy to become a man.
RWH
Pinside member
11y 127K 8,866 2 10
Pinball is an experience all to itself, nothing I've done delivers the same thrill time after time like the silverball does....memories that last a lifetime.