Pinball & Pizza : My First Pinball Memories

Being born around pinball's decline and having only played Space Cadet and Sonic Spinball prior, I never really bothered with real physical machines when I was really young. I've seen a Flintstones at Tumble Drum (a local Chuck E Cheese-like) and a Stargate at a Pizza Hut, but then I saw a Terminator 2 at this local place called East Coast Pizza and that's when it kinda struck me. Sure I didn't play it, but it's what ultimately got me interested in playing if not owning pinball machines.

Around the time I was 9, we went to this St. Louis style pizza place called Bino's Pizza for dinner. My first time in there I noticed a Ms. Pac Man cocktail cabinet in the dining area. But a small spot by the bathrroms in the back was where it was really at: a couple arcade games (Final Fight, Phoenix and Altered Beast) and 3 EM pinball machines which were a Card Whiz, some Billiards themed one which I recall having a 3 slot coin door, and what I would assume was a Williams Grand Prix (I explicitly remember the backglass having buildings in the 'horizon').

One of the last times we have been there, there was a cocktail pinball machine called "Night Moves" where the Ms. Pac-Man used to sit. I've played a lot of games on this machine when we were there. I didn't know the name of it back then, I simply remembered it as a cocktail pinball machine with a dance club theme and a set of blue displays built into the playfield, which was enough to find out what it was via the internet much later. Even if it is a rather simplistic game given the cocktail cabinet design, I still wouldn't mind having one simply for nostalgia's sake. Bino's is no longer around anymore, last I heard they merged into a mexican place years back and then the owner eventually retired.

While I've kinda settled on a cheap pincab for home and frequenting bars and arcades that carry the real deal, I can't rule out that I might dabble with operating a machine myself one day if I ever spare the investment.