I agree. When we had the money to move from our first house with a postage stamp lawn in a bad neighborhood we looked a long time to find the one we have. It is the only one in the neighborhood with 3/4 of an acre (it was the only "mistake" as there was not enough frontage to build the other house next door). It's also on a nice quiet safe cul-de-sac.

We get them outside and play games. I just bought was of those old "dangerous" lawn dart/jart sets that are so much fun. We also play badminton, croquet, baseball, etc like when we were kids.

They still have their PC's and game systems but don't sit around the house all day on them and zoning out in front of the TV.

The pinball machines have been great. They play them every day. The only problem is their friends go home and nag the other parents to buy one .. hehe

My Haunted House is done with the refurb and the other one someone else did was delivered today. I gotta decide which one the collector gets for his $2800 he paid me already. I also talked the person with the old 1978 Williams Phoenix down to $150. It's not the greatest machine but for the price I gotta buy it anyway.

I came across a story about Spanish Pinball and how much faster it was when compared to other pinball machines of the era (late 70s - 80s???) In fact the Spanish Air Force was said to have games on it’s Air Bases to keep their pilots reflexes in top shape.
I’m not sure if this story falls under ‘urban mythology ’ or not, But after fixing up a dead Fandango EM made by Playmatic I must say the game is faster then other mid 70s Ems I have next to it from Gottlieb & Williams. But wouldn’t that be kind of neat - if true, that pinball had a part in the COLD WAR even if very small?

I've been able to get kids into pinball pretty easily. My nephews are 6 and 4 and they love the machines. If you teach them how to flip properly (not both buttons at a time and not the second the ball hits the bat), they'll actually be able to make shots and enjoy the lights and sounds of the game longer without getting bored.

The other age group that's easy to impress is the 12-15 crowd. I was fixing up some machines in my garage a few weeks back and I saw them out in front of my house kind of looking on with curious looks on their faces. I called them over and told them they could play the machines. They couldn't believe how fun they were! Of the 7-8 kids in there, only one of them had ever played pinball before. They played for hours!

The next Sunday in church some of their parents thanked me for entertaining their kids for a few hours and one of them is thinking of buying a machine off of me.

Wow $150!
yeah I'll have to admit , I'd get it too.
good luck on Phoenix

I've been doing the same. I have 8 grandchildren from 1-11. The 1 yr old hasn't shown alot of flipper potential yet, but he sure likes the lights and sounds. As I only have two machines (1em & 1ss), they get plenty of excercise fighting for position. The em is a 1 player game, so I had to implement the winner stays rule. I gotta say, the scores have come up lately. The ss is a 4 player, so I can keep 5-6 busy for quite a while. They even admit, "this is alot more fun than staring at television or some computor screen". Wish more parents could / would try this technique.

uhhhhh what does the original post have to do with getting kids interested pinball? sounds like a classic grandpa simpson old-man-yells-at-cloud rant to me.

bah, these kids today and their rock n roll music.

video games aren't the devil and aren't any dumber than whatever you were into as a kid, I guarantee it.

pinball is a wonderful game, but acting like it's way more educational somehow than video games is beyond a stretch. my 6 year old daughter basically learned to read by playing video games. show me the pin that taught a kid to read (more than the words "credit", "replay", and "jackpot" anyway )

I hope no one thinks I'm bashing pinball here. it is basically my favorite thing on earth! but c'mon, it's only pinball.

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This is a bit much don't you think? I played Joust, Centipede, Pac-Man, and every other video game of that era and I wasn't a stoner, nor did my IQ suffer from it. And as far as eye/hand coordination etc., video games teach you all the same things. And for me personally, video games got me into computers, which got me into programming, which got me into a career. That I can afford to buy a pinball machine today, can in some small way be traced back to getting an Atari 2600 for Christmas one year. Video games aren't evil or bad, they're just video games. Yeah some parents should make their kids get outside more often, but that would be true whether they sat inside playing video games all day, or stood inside playing pinball all day.

Which guy in australia?

Kids are not going to like anything their parents like or support.

If you want them to like pinball, tell them:

Stay out of the arcades! Those places are for druggies and losers.

Pinball is a waste of time and money. You get nothing out of it.

If you spent even 1/10 the time on your homework that you do on pinball, you'd be going to Harvard instead of "University" of Phoenix .

I guess I'm lucky then, my son and I started playing together when he was 10. Now he's in college in LA and when I visited him we hung out @ Pin and Needles and played a few with Pinball Molly. He went through a game console phase, but ended up selling all his games @ 15 because he was more interested in pinball. He also use to compete in FLiPs tournaments with me. Pinball is timeless and it's been a great father/son hobby. He's too busy to care about pinball now, but it's still something he appreciates/enjoys.

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