I got back into pinball about 5 years ago and introduced my daughter and son to them. Both kids played initially however it wasn’t long before my daughter decide it wasn’t for her, only playing when her friends were over as they all wanted to check out the pinnies. One day as I was working on a Terminator 2 issue, she commented “they’re always broken” to which I replied “It’s great isn’t it! It’s half the fun”, but it was clear that my love for the silverball didn’t pass through to her. My son was more interested and would join me going to monthly pinball meets held at collectors homes across Melbourne, sometimes we hang out together checking out machines we hadn’t played before or other times he’d be off playing on the games with some of the other kids while I held the bar up. We became quite a pair and started doing interstate trips, sometimes a 9 hour each way roadtrip to pick up a machine or to an event like the Australian Pinfest. One year he told the Pinfest organizer that next year we’d bring a machine for the event, which at the time I dismissed but then as next year’s event planning got underway there I was putting my hand up to bring a machine. So we packed up The Shadow and off we headed to Newcastle over a 1000kms away, we had a great time as usual and my machine held up well to being played by the general public over the course of the weekend. We’ve also managed to sneak in some pinball time during a few European family holidays, with my son eagerly spotting pinball machines in cafes or bars as the rest of us are site seeing.

I find it funny that if we are on a game that we’ve never played or don’t know the rules, that more often than not he’ll easily beat me. Now often I’ll just have a bash, while enjoying the feel of the machine, the artwork, light show and sound effects; but he on the other hand will casually cast his eye over the rules listed on the instruction cards and then wipe the floor with me LOL! Unfortunately with my old eyes I struggle to read the instruction cards, so I always seem to be playing catchup. At home I still manage to beat him when we go head to head, but I play on the machine a lot more than he does. That said some of his ball skills, especially during multiball, far surpass mine so I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to be number 1 in the games room …

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I know what you mean, as my son is getting older he certainly spends far more time on the xbox or PC gaming so the interest in pinballs is waning, more so at home as he's still keen to go to meets and events, although it's been a long time since we've had those this year due to covid.

LOL had to double check that I said "in pinball"