It all began when... heck... as long as I can remember, I have always loved playing pinball. Whenever the family went on a vacation, I was looking for pin. I particularly remember the summers in Tenessee. There was a Playboy, Kiss, Harlem Globetrotters, Space Mission and a whole bunch of other EMs. For a few weeks we would also travel to Long Beach, Maine at the "Fun-O-Rama" by the pier. This big Kwanza-hut of fun featured games like Black Knight, Jungle Lord and one of my all time favorite pinball memories... Space Shuttle! I also remember walking miles to the local university student housing pizza joint when I was a 10-13 year old kid to play Lost World, alternating on the location was also a Middle Earth and a Flip flop. Other memories include visiting local bowling alleys, mall arcades, and the student shops at the university were the hot beds of games in my hometown.
Then came college. The dorm had an Earthshaker, Elvira and the Party Monsters and the neighboring dorms had a Swords of Fury, Strange Science and a Dungeons and Dragons. Other student lounges had a Hollywood Heat, Pinbot and my favorite bar had a Cyclone, Addams Family, Whitewater, Terminator 2, Fire, Jokerz, Batman and a few others that I have lost to memory. At this point I was on the lookout for pinball anywhere I went, but never even considered the possibility of owning one.
I didn't really find pinball in my life again until I moved to Colorado and had some spots here and there and then... Lyons Classic Pinball got me to playing all sorts of pinball and discovering that competitive pinball was a thing. I am always looking to play games I have never played before and inding a new game was a real joy (and still is: AUTOMATIC GOOD DAY!).As of the early 00's I finally purchased my first pinball game. A Judge Dredd with a broken Deadworld was my first game. I took the spinning gear to the local welder 3 times, took the game apart and cleaned off all the rust on the parts in Coca Cola. Since then, the "addiction" has only gotten worse and now I own somewhere around 50 pinball games.
Whilst my wish list has in some ways grown, in other ways has become much shorter and more focused. I know the kind of games I like to play, but am always open for learning something new about an old deck. And while I do appreciate a visually beautiful table, philosophically, I am about playing the best pinball that I can. I'd much rather have an ugly beater that has been ridden hard and put away wet, but still plays like a champ... as compared to a museum piece with weak flippers and technical / mechanical errors all over.
What it all really comes down to for me is: How much game, is in the game? If it is there, I'm playing it!
wtuttle
Tuttle Pinball
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Awesome story. If I ever manage to make it to Westminster, CO, I seriously hope to meet you.