In the summer of 1966 I visited my grandmother in Hastings, Sussex for a couple of weeks. And I discovered The Olympia, an amusement arcade in the Old Town. In one room were the dodgems, in the other two lines of pinball machines. I started playing and I was hooked! I spent many hours over the two weeks playing them all and regularly left loads of replays for lucky people when I had to return for meals (usually late!).
My digs at Uni three years later were at Clacton-on-Sea just around the corner from several arcades so my degree was not the best...My favourite machine was Doozie but I have never seen it since.
Later on I have owned several machines. The first one was 8 Ball Deluxe - lots of fun, then Bad Cats. Now I have Bride of Pinbot and Revenge From Mars - two great machines.
Pinballs are now really hard to find. It took me an entire weekend to find one in The World's End in Brighton (the city once had hundreds) and there are two in an arcade near me in Weymouth. Oh for the old days...