Pins? In your house???

A few years ago my girlfriend invited me to a Fathers Day gathering at her brothers. We had been together for a while, so it was only natural to go. I had met everyone already, and it was a good day to get to know them a bit better. She said her brother had kind of a game room in his basement... And then I walked in there. WOW. Right at the bottom of the stairs was a restored Asteroids game. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Then I turn the corner, and sitting big as life was a ST:TNG pin. OMG! You have a pinball machine... in your basement???? How is that even possible?

I had never played ST:TNG, and in fact had not seen a pinball machine in many years. And here one was being played for free in his house. He taught me a bit about the game, and I was just in awe at the whole thing. I didn't want dinner, I wanted to play! Before leaving that day I had a talk with him to ask where he got it, and how to get one. He gave me the name of a local guy he had bought it from.

A few weeks later I am walking into this guys shop. It was the kind of old style workshop with games and parts everywhere. I had a nice talk with Steve, and was asking about getting myself a machine. He walked around with me and showed me all kinds of games. And from everything I had said, he walks me over to a pile of Evel Kenievel on the floor. He untied the head from it, and showed it to me. Said it should clean up pretty good, and then told me the price. I bought it on the spot. He said it would take a few weeks to get it together and running properly. I said no problem, and left there quite happy and excited.

A few weeks pass by, and after a few phone calls, my machine is ready. I went there with my truck and walked into his shop. Sitting in the middle of the floor is my EK. He showed me a few things, and hits the button, and the chimes call out that the horse race has begun! I played a game on it, and I was just giddy over it.

Now I was a noob. And Steve knew it. He could have totally ripped me off. I was primed for it. But he didn't. Not a bit. He gave me a decent machine for what it was worth. I had no idea how different that is from a lot of other peoples stories. He showed me how to open it up, how to take it apart. Gave me the chance to actually learn a bit. I took it home and got it all set up in my house.

The next morning I woke up and went downstairs, and there was a pinball machine... IN MY HOUSE! I played and played. It was shocking to me to have this sitting right there. I could start a game any time I wanted.

I stopped by Steves shop to thank him, and that was when it happened. He had just taken in an Embryon. He showed it to me, running part way, and I just thought it was fantastic. I bought it that night, and again, had to wait a couple weeks for it to be fixed up. I was going to have TWO pins in my house!

When I went to pick up Embryon Steve was not at his shop. He had recieved a call to come get a Getaway out of a basement, and he was on his way back from that. He brought that into the shop and flipped it up on a dolly. It was a dirty mess, but he said it would clean up nice, and he then took a bit of Novus and cleaned a spot. Yeah, it would clean up nice. So I bought my third that night as I was picking up my second.

From there I was completely hooked. I love playing and I love working on them. It is just a great hobby. EK left in a trade early last year, but will be returning in a few months. Embryon is a keeper to me and Getaway lives at my girlfriends house. All this started because I found out you can have pins in your house, and now I have a bunch of them. I played that ST:TNG that started it all last weekend, and it was just as much fun as the first time I played it.

Now if I could just get Portal Multiball on my TRON, I would be a happy guy. Of course when I finally do I will start writing "If I could just finish it"... It is a good thing this story will continue.