Over 125 votes now. Starts to be significant. We can compare the age pyramid with this one... EM owners/lovers are a bit skewed towards 50+, but not by much.

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57

Starting playing in the 60's. Muscle cars and quality pinball machines - it was a great era.

Nowadays they would call that child neglect. Back then we called it good times.

52 and change. What I remember is that there were pinball machines everywhere, not just at the arcade. 7-11, the corner market, the laundrohut, gas stations, pizza places. I still remember the playing the Big Shot at Slick and Red's Pizza after baseball games. Then we'd play Duck Hunt.

I just love the em's of the early-mid 70's.

I'm 27, and have 4 EMs. I'm not good at repairing them yet, but plan to commit some time to learning soon.

100% The term is 'Latch Key Kids'. I was taught how to read a watch, use a key in a door. Then I was set. If a teacher asked why I had a key, the answer would be for the shed, to get my bike.

We lived in a semi-urban area which had some pretty bad elements not far away, so we had deadbolts on all the doors. I was a whiz at getting the keys in both locks and having the door open in about 6 seconds. If the weather was nice, we'd go outside anyway until after Mom came home and she called us in for dinner. It was a different world back then. The things we did growing up in a city back then. It's amazing we survived!

On occasion we would ride our bikes around town all night until the sun came up.

Turned 50 this year.

Last of the baby boomers.

Grew up right at the end of EM and the beginning of SS.

But I gravitated toward EM.

I like the logic of them and the ability to see cause and effect.

54. Grew up with EM's , currently own two. I remember seeing my first SS (Close Encounters) at a bowling alley in Maine in 1978. I remember standing in line to play a newly released Gorgar at the student union at the college I went to. Holy cow!, a pinball machine that talks!

I`d say.

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41-50 still leading the pack.

Pinball is a hobby, that if your interested in it. You do not have to actually have games in your own house to be involved in the hobby. Especially if there are places near by to play EM games, or local guys you can meet on the internet that have pins. That will invite you play them.

I had to sit at the table with all the cool kids.

ive got a hi deal....i fall in the 35 category...

I think 61 -70 would be cool. Chances are, they got to play woodrails on location, then the great 60's, and finish strong with the great 70's. What an era to be able to play em's!

Nobody over 70? That makes me kinda sad. Although I suspect they're just not on Pinside.

There was another poll on the other side of the house and yes there were some 70+ that responded. So, they're out there.

Same here, my first game was a Gottlieb Sure Shot when Iwas only 16
The machine itself would have been only 6 yo, which would make it one of the newest game iI ever bought (except for the NIB)

Yes, but back then they were just a pinball machine

Looking back, I would have played Fast Draw, centigrade , Sinbad, Playboy all new . but for a kid, it was just a game

1 have 2 EM only ; I am not fluent with this technology .

I understood the Gottlieb system, but didn't succeed with Williams EMs

The next EM machine i dream of ? Centigrade, or Royal flush.

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Very nice Canada Dry lb45. How far are you from Raphael Lankar's museum/collection in Paris?

Edit : I'm 53

30 minutes , i suppose. Was at Paris Montmartre this afternoon

But never been to the museum.
Here's the link :

http://www.pinball-gallery.com/

Very cool place from what I hear. Amazing games.

44 and still ticking. Its amazing ive made it this far with all the stupid shit ive done.

I remember playing EMs in the late 70s and loving them

--Jeff

I'm 62 and you just described my life. As a kid, in the late 50's, I lived near Coney Island, NY and my grandfather was in the arcade business. Played many woodrails, bingo machines and flipperless games. As a teenager during the mid 60's in Cherry Hill, I worked at the arcade in the mall and got familiar with all the EMs on site. I mostly cleaned them, replaced glass, gave credits for all the "lost" quarters that allegedly happened, and learned to enjoy many different titles.
Had SS games in the house for my kids growing up during the 80s and 90s.

Once my kids have moved out of the house, I divested myself of all SS machines, except one (Theater of Magic) and growing my woodrails (4), EMs (4) and also have a 1960 Williams Official Baseball, a pitch and bat (technically a woodrail, I guess).

Joel

I'm 55, been playing pinball since the late 60's, fell in love with it on a 1968 Williams Lady Luck that was in the cafeteria at the local high school, (won't see that today!!)

Started collecting with solid state games in the late 80's, didn't reacquire my passion for EM's until I went to the Pinball Fantasy show in Vegas in 1996, now I am most proud of my EM collection.

I'm 67 and still looking to buy a two player Gottlieb Paradise (1965). My wife gave me a Paradise pinball machine as a Christmas gift our first year together. Looking back I wish I wouldn't have sold the Paradise pin but space was at a premium.

Bill

Sheesh. If I had a "C-37*", I'd trade you for that "Canada Dry" in a heartbeat. We could meet like midway across the Atlantic.

I played a few woodrails on location when I was pretty young. They were not very easy to find, nor was I actually looking for them. Just came across them, much like you might come across EMs now in a place with DMD games. They were kind of oddities then. This would have been around 1965. By then, very few were left on location.

The fact that EM’s still hold their own is another one of the great aspects of his hobby.

1984 = 18 y.o.
Never Played an SS in that time period as Video games were started to take a hold.

On location at my Grandfathers store i had the best pinball layout as they were still some wood rails in the seventies/eighties that were still operating.
The following machines were there and me and my brother played they heck out of them when we visited.
Gottlieb ▐ Wood rails→ Ace High → Happy Days.
Williams ▌Wood rails→ Sea Wolf → Hong Kong → Hayburners → Spit Fire.

The rest were all non-wood rail.

Bally ▌Trio and another ?→ I remember it being the canopy glass type but thats as much as i know.
Gottlieb ▌Egg Head → Royal Flush → Atlantis → Duotron → Quick Draw.

There was a few more pins but memory doesnt help me.
Only three machines had survived the sell off my grandfather had done in the early nineties
Wish i knew he was gonna do that.
Me and my brother got the remaining machines.

_{Post edited by Pin-it: Egg head listed wrong}

Woodstock was held in 1969. I will cut some slack seeing the concert was an american hippie concert you may not have heard of.

But just in case.

1984 was a bad year in some respects though.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public possession of alcohol age to 21. States that did not comply faced a reduction in highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act....

65. Bought my first em in 1978 - Kings and Queens. Did not buy another game until 1994, when I moved, had to learn to take the game apart, and the Pinball Wizards Convention showed up in town as a gutsy pinball experiment by Brian and Denise Hein. I have now owned approximately 165 games - about 70% ems and 30% dmd games, but never more than 18 games at one time. I like them very old and very new. I prefer woodrails, currently have 10, but have owned 31 woodies.

When I can't move them any longer, I will know it will be time to stop, but I don't expect this to happen for a long time.

Harry Irvin
Macungie, PA

Get back to the Ems ,you will lose your mind with those new fangled contraptions.

I was under the impression that math was not going to be required here on Pinside.

54 and 27 EM pinballs.

I would prefer 27 and 54 EM pinballs !

The first pinball I played was a WORLD FAIR, I was 7 (in 1967)

Bought my first EM (Target Alpha) in 2006.

I am a real estate agent, the pinball in good condition but out of order, slept for 18 years in the lounge of a customer.

I bought for 200 euros ($270), when I opened the pinball and I saw all relays and wires inside, I thought "I just lost 200 euros...."

Ten days after (thanks to a French forum) my Target Alpha was full working !

---

Wanted : Dead or Alive - In any condition
Gottlieb CHARLIE'S ANGELS EM (not SS version or Fipermatic Brazil-Manaus) & Gottlieb SPACE WALK
You find, you win : REWARD USD 500 each !

I like your way of thinking.

I'm 39. I started collecting and was all about solid state machines from the early 80s. Even though my first machine was a wizard! I thought that was the way to go. After awhile my started to sway towars EM machines. Long story short I sold all my solid states (besides xenon b/c it's part my wife's) and now I have all ems. I really narrowed it down to 60s gottlieb and Williams machines.I love everything about them. I have nine machines and I'm lookin for about five more

Yes... Ditto for me...

Egg Head is a wedgehead not a woodie... Not sure what game you were playing... Distracted by the gals on the backglass maybe?

There was also a Gottlieb 'Sittin' Pretty' there that got a lot of play too...

I'm pretty sure there was a Williams 'Spitfire' as well... Although the memory is fuzzy on that one...

- jeff

Same

I'm 28. I've got a Sing Along, El Dorado, and Fireball!

If I could go back to 1984, I would change nothing. It was a great time to be 22.