My earliest pinball memory was at the age of 9 when, during a family trip, my uncle taught me one night that firing both flippers at once was not the best way to play pinball. I put that lesson into practice mostly on the Black Hole and Orbitor tables at The Golden Dome arcade that night.
I've enjoyed pinball throughout my life since then, but had drifted away from it as arcades and the popularity of pinball both waned. Finding a table wasn't always the easiest thing. My renewed interest in pins came through probably the most pathetic means - video pinball. Yes, I'm talking about Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade. For even longer than I've enjoyed pinball, I've also loved video games and am an avid gamer to this day.
As I spent more and more time "collecting" virtual tables and playing on consoles, tablets, and phones, I realized how much I still enjoyed pinball. Apparently, so did my wife, who, one evening after a particularly good glass of riesling, suggested I get a real pinball table as a father's day gift to myself.
So here I am, on the search for my first pin. I expect I'll need to learn quite a bit more than what my uncle taught me as I move into owning and maintaining my own table, but I'm very excited to get started.
