The way home

Until my early teens I wasn't even aware pinball machines existed as they usually resided in arcades that had an age limit of 18 due to the slot machines and bars that had an age limit of 16 (in Germany) due to alcoholic beverages consumed inside.

My way home from school lead past a bar with a huge window that had a pinball machine in full view. By early afternoon the establishment was well frequent by customers who enjoyed a beer and a game of pinball. My buddy Thorsten and me took notice of this wondrous machine. Every time the machine was in use we would stop and watch the silver ball chase over the play field. It was easy to lose track of time. Our parents would get really upset since we were always late for lunch and of course they worried something happened to us.

While watching was fun actually playing would be even better. We tried a few arcades but we didn't last 10 seconds before the attendant showed us the door. Eventually we tried the bar that was on our way home. The bar tender didn't say anything. Cool! We were in! 7 games for 2 Marks was not exactly cheap taking into consideration my financial means at the time. We already knew how to operate the machine from countless hours of watching other people play. A push on the credit button, the typical EM noise and the launch for our first game of pinball. Our skill level was decent considering it was our first game. We had imagined playing many times and had watched some very skilled players before. Especially that bald guy with the long beard was really good, he was the local pinball wizard that could make some impossible saves.

Once we had run out of money we hung around for a while hoping some other people would come by so we could watch them play. We got luckier that we could have imagined. The pinball maintenance guy showed up and opened the machine to replace some burned out bulbs and fix the gate that wasn't scoring. This guy must have been a genius knowing his way around inside such a complicated machine. Thousands of wires, coils and mechanical devices. I was baffled by the complexity of this machine.

After he was done he put about 10 games on the machine and asked us to try it out. Jack pot! We got to play for free for almost another hour. We now were serious pinball addicts and eventually located some other machines accessible to 12 year olds. Later (early 80s) when I was in high school a "pinball only" arcade opened up just a block away from school. Faced with the difficult choice of German literature, French or some boring social sciences I usually preferred Gorgar, Fathom, Joker Poker or Eight Ball Deluxe just to name a few favorites from my youth.

With the friendly assistance of some pinsiders I was finally able to figure out the name of that machine I played my first game on. All I remembered were the various naval vessels with explosions and some submarine theme to go along with it. The game is called Underwater by Recel made in Spain in 1976. It must have been brand new back then. I never saw that machine again in real life as the Recel brand most likely didn't make it to North America.