Lol, I know!

Its almost like different people like different things...

No where to play. No reasonably priced pins for sale. Fell out of the mainstream.

My GF / wife didn’t really like it till I went thru what some of the rules were on our machines. Now she’s kinda getting into it. Plus my ex Gf still has some of the high scores so there is also that . Girls are pretty competitive too

My whole family plays but I noticed most people think it’s a weird obsession. Of course, it’s our job to introduce them to it and hopefully spread the pinball obsession.

Ya! if they all only knew how cool all us pinheads were!

Look we're a small minority. I tell people that I restore pinball pinball machines from the 70-80's. "Oh that's cool"..... Then I'm a weirdo. Fine with me.

Took me getting both SS (she liked it on location, never played at home) and EHOH (didn’t tell her, just appeared one day, she LOVED it). Wish it wasn’t a Stern but it is one of the best games in years. Blows SS out of the water.

Pretty sure Kaneda has other reasons why that wasn’t working for him..

Worked for my buddy in Whistler once!! Took her home showed her his machine and sealed the deal

Nope. Never been mainstream. I'm born in 74 so my teens to early 20's were in the height of those golden years of 90 B/W and great System 11's still on route.
Loved it. Me and about 4 buddies in high school. Didn't know anyone else who played or gave a shit.

Shouldn't be beyond u, we all have different taste in hobbies. Jesus I went fishing once. Once

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It's just not true.
That shit actually worked for me on a girl. I was just fooling around at that time and testing out different ways to pick up girls. And she really went for the: "Do you want to come to my place to check out my pinball" line.

We even laughed about it afterwards.

We're weird bunch but a lot cooler than those air hockey guys
p.s. I love air hockey 2

We are not weird they are

Most things with mass appeal are garbage.

Kanye West is the perfect example of that .

If anything it’s way more popular than ever.

I believe it was definitely mainstream back during the depression before it became illegal. I think once it became illegal, it became taboo and never fully recovered.

Learned long ago just because I'm enthusiastic and even passionate about
something doesn't mean anyone else is.

Would most of us get excited about collecting Pez or Barbie dolls?

The pinball hobby is a heck of a lot of fun and feel sorry for those that
won't even try playing pins.
Steve

I once bought a woodrail project from a guy that collected Pez. He was pretty passionate about it. Even though it's not my thing I always have a respect for people that are passionate about something. So many people I know don't really have any hobbies to speak of other than maybe watching tv and/or drinking beer. That seems weird to me.

I'm sure there'll be those who disagree but I think the money pins command is the biggest reason for many people not gravitating to pinball. Look at the popularity of Arcade1ups, it's just not nostalgia that is driving sales, it's the price point and when it's a large amount people wonder why we pay so much for one and attribute it to weirdness.

I can see this being a factor for sure... Put it this way, I've gotten hundreds of hours of entertainment from my Nintendo Switch which only costs me $300. Don't get me wrong, I love Pinball but it's virtually impossible to ever see that same type of value return in terms of hours played per dollar.

Everybody is wired differently. I used to love sports and I still enjoy watching it. I see guys dumping enough cash on season tickets to buy a nice BSD and think of that as a waste of money. Then there are the ultra sports fans who expect me to be impressed with there collections of autographs on jerseys, helmets, etc. So I just nod and smile, the same people do when they see my pinballs.

If you are young enough to not yet qualify for AARP membership, being into pinball is not a necessarily deterrent to many women. And frankly, if you are the type of woman that looks down on someone for a pretty benign hobby like Pinball, I probably do not want anything to do with you anyway. My wife told me on the first date she had great memories of playing The Shadow with her dad at the mall when she was a kid. Most children of the 50's and 60's have a different view on Pinball compared to children of the 70's and 80's when pinball was in its prime out in public. Pinball is much more accepted among the younger crowd.

If you are a mouth breather that lives in your parents basement with a dozen machines and spare parts piled to the ceiling...I wouldn't blame pinball for the reason she isn't into you.

The one thing about Pinball is that you do not lose a ton of money when you decide to replace a machine or leave the hobby all together, so long as you were smart about things along the way. There are not a lot of other hobbies where you can say that. Obviously, you only have that $300 investment in a switch, so its not a big deal if you got thousands of hours out of it. This is provided you didn't drop thousands on DLC along the way.

On every niche forum about whatever niche thing, there’s a thread just like this one wondering about why so few people care about competition go-karting, or embroidery, or seahorse breeding, or ...

Don't you dare talk trash about my Competition Seahorse Go Kart racing league!

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For those that don't give a crap or are just clueless. A common response when walking up to my pins. "How much do one of these go for?" So common.

Nothing like breeding thoroughbred Seahorses.

Same, more than once. U have a girl over, drinks and what not then play a great game in front her, she digs it believe me. Keep in mind appearance plays a factor here, and judging by the one time I actually went to a pinball convention

Well I really wasn't taking depression era pinball into my analysis.

U know what else is common? those people never buying a pinball machine.

I have a house full of very expensive, and very heavy games. They take up ridiculous amounts of space. Let me repeat... GAMES.

I'm the idiot. Not them.

Most of the people who come to my house and end up seeing my machines look at me like im crazy. Meanwhile they buy luxury cars that last 6 years before shelling out a ton of more money for a new one.

To each their own I say..

Also with girls in my age (around 30, mid 30) i made the experience they are much more into playing pinball then playing any digital games. It seems to be more interesting because it's not digital. This is also what i love so much about pinball as an avid gamer.
The unpredictability of pinball just can't be reproduced by any software.

Ive found girls like them more than video games because they are simple to play...

It’s not a normal thing to be into. It’s a coin-op machine, not something you just casually buy at the store. To most people, it’s like putting a jukebox or vending machine in your house when you can just listen to music on your phone & put drinks in the fridge.

An old friend of mine just bought a pin for his dad...right away it has problems and things don’t work. They don’t know how to fix anything. This is why most people aren’t into pinball. It’s a pain in the ass unless you like to & know how to tinker.

For some reason, pinball has a dorky/negative stigma attached to it by the outside world.

Too late. In 1972 there were 3 machines at Woolworths, 2 at every curb market, 3-5 at Department Stores, the local Arcade which became a Foosball Parlor had 20 machines, all of the fishing piers had 3-10 machines, the Bowling Alleys had 5-12 machines Campgrounds had 1-5, EVERY local greasy spoon burger joint had at least one, EVERY Bar had at least 1.
It was difficult to go anywhere in the 60's and 70's and not be enticed to play pinball.

The simple answer is that people just don't know about it.

They were popular gambling devices early on, then later outlawed. Pins were found in bars, laundromats, and theatres and then they started disappearing from those areas. There was a resurgence of them in the 70s with "Tommy " and marketing via Elton John. The 80s saw an arcade boom and the early 90s saw a renewed interest as well. Pinball crashed in the late 90s, and it has only been in the last few years that it has seen a regeneration of interest due to nostalgia, arcades, and new pinball companies producing machines. Unfortunately, many of those that remembered playing have passed away or are too old to care. Those that grew up with them in the 70s and 80s make up most of the collectors/players today, and unless we pass it on...it will be forgotten.

It is very common for me to encounter someone that has no clue what a pinball is, or that gives me the "I thought they stopped making those in the 70s" line. Those that do know what they are often have no clue there are rules/goals to pinballs...they simply think you are batting a ball around randomly.

If we want this hobby to become more relevant and grow, it is up to all pinheads to share the hobby via talking about it, inviting people to play our games, explaining actual rules and play styles, opening arcades, bringing people to shows, and buying games.

Enh, not really. Non pin-heads that come over play a game or two and then stop. It just doesn’t click with most people.

Somewhere there is a guy who likes to clip a car battery to his ball sack in the garage while the family is sleeping, and in between jolts he's wondering why everybody else isn’t into his favorite hobby either.

Different strokes dude.

I enjoy pinball but its just a fun thing to do when I'm alone. I enjoy pinball when my wife is getting ready and I need to kill 30 minutes. I enjoy working on a machine in the evenings when I'm not too busy with work, its a nice distraction. It's the obsessive personalities that I find most off putting, it's not a pinball thing it's everything. The hard cores in every hobby are nuts. How anyone can take it so seriously is baffling to me.