Roller Rinks, Brain Wash and the Unexpected Blog

The Roller Rink Years

I litterally grew up in a roller rink. My mom was a roller skating teacher and she brought me along while she worked. Sure, I brought my own toys, but the lure of the video game room was too strong. Luckily, the rink operator was nice enough to open up the game room and give me a few free plays every once in a while.

The Rolladium had all the normal video games at the time (Street Fighter, Offroad, Mortal Kombat, Operation Wolf), but they also always had at least one pinball machine. I can remember Cyclone and Diner for sure. Those were probably my first pinball machines ever played.

High School

My friend dave and I got the taste for Pinball while in High School. But, most of our favorite machines were in bars. So, we snuck in. Yep, we didn't want a beer, we just wanted to play Addams Family and Tales From the Crypt. And we did just that. Even into college, as Dave moved to SLC, we would always play pinball when he got back home or I went to visit him and go on a ski trip. This was 1999 and our favorites by then were Attack From Mars and Medival Madness.

The Lull

There always seems to be a time with many pinball stories where there is a lull. During finishing college and starting my carrer as a Motion Graphics Designer and iPhone App Developer, i rarely found the time or oppertunity to play.

Laundry Mats, Chicago, Sweden and the Comeback

While I was working for Hipstamatic in San Francisco, I decided to play Terminator 2 while my laundry was drying at the local Laundry Mat called Brain Wash. Well, an hour later, I had the high score for the game and I was hooked again. Almost every night after that, I was finding new games around the city to play.

Back In Chicago, I found some machines around my house and played some more. The bug was still with me. I had to travel to Stockholm Sweden for a week and, as luck would have it, my friend out there was a pinball nerd too. He showed me all the local machines and I ended up playing pinball all week instead of seeing the City.

Expo 2011 and a New Pinball Blog

After a few months of obsessiing over pinball, I decided to go to my first Expo. It wasn't too far away, so I got the pass for the weekend and had a blast. Well, I'm hooked. The people, the games, the tournament, it was all a lot of fun. So fun infact, that I started a pinball blog and am trying to get a Chicago Tournament started. I'm even on a training schedule to get ready for PAPA. I want to compete and play well. Are there pinball teachers out there?

Anyway, that's the story so far. There will be more I hope. I am looking to buy my first game and start a collection. I also have silly dreams to do some sort of animation for a pinball machine and mix my passions for Motion Design and Pinball. Not sure where this pinball passion will take me, but I'm ready to blindly follow it as long as I'm still having fun.

You can continue the story by reading my Pinball Diary and Blog at http://quickmultiball.com/