Pinball life story

I was first intorduced to pinball when I was 9 years old, it was the early 80's, we lived across the road from a bowling alley in a small country town in Australia. They had loads of pinball machines and arcade machines. For some reason I was more attracted to the pinball machines than the arcade machines. I think the main reason for this is the abitlity to earn free games from score or lucky match to make my pocket money last longer. From memory the Alley had an Atari Superman, Bally Supersonic, Bally Lost World and many others. I used to spend too much time there and spend any money I would get as pocket money there.

When I look back they were old machines for the time. I remember going on holidays once with the family into the city and they had Haunted House and Black Hole side by side. I was blown away as a kid by these machines, to me they were so futuristic compared to the older machines. Multi levels and mulit ball.

My Dad even bought us kids (brother as well) a pinball machine to try and keep us out of the Bowling Alley, it was what we nick named a "Click Click" machine (EM) which didn't really cut it for us, we didn't play it that much. We were more interested in modern looking and sounding machines. He eventually traded it for a more modern Gottlieb Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind which was better. We moved shortly after that place along with the pinball which was sold back to the dealer. I have never really been a fan of Gottliebs, later on I realised Williams and Bally were the kings of modern pinball machines.

It wasn't until later in the 80's (1987) that we moved to a new area that was again very close to a bowling alley with pinball machines. I didn't realise how much I had missed pinball until I got to play High Speed and F14. To me pinball had come so far in such a short period, I was loving it. I have always hunted around different game palours as a kid to find different machines to play.

In the 90's I started full time work and in my breaks I would go into town and play the latest pinball machines, one of my favourites was WhirlWind which I managed to play for a couple of hours with 1 or 2 dollars (lots of replays).

It wasn't until 2000 that I managed to have the funds to buy my first machine, a 1990 Rollergames for $1000 (AUS). great machine, very reliable and entertaining, I know the theme isn't the best, but it is a classic Steve Richie design similar to HS which I also love. I gave it to my brother who still has it to this day and it is still going strong. It also helped him get into the hobby and led him to buy his first machine a little while ago SWEP1.

For a machine at home, to me it has to be challenging and that is why I currently have a BSD which I also love the dark theme. I remember at the arcades I put too much money into it because it is such a drain monster.

I live in a flat in the UK now, so space is tight but I have convinced my GF that we could squeeze another machine into our living room. Might as well go all out I thought and order a Metallica LE which should be due here mid July. it will be my first NIB which I am very excited about.

Hopefully my pinball life story wasn't too boring ;)