I'm a leftie and have never noticed anything odd.

My brother is left handed and he plays pinball, but he doesn't complain or tell me anything.

Nope. I'm a southpaw. Haven't noticed any favoritism and this is something I typically like to point out to oblivious right handed people. What was the stat on chainsaws? 90% of chainsaw injuries involve left handed people. Our something like that...

I'm also left handed but have no problems with it playing pinball (although I fear it makes you want to collect odd games ).

Steve

The only part i could see being biased is the plunger. Do lefties plunge with the left hand for increased accuracy?

Lefty here too. Never felt pins were against me. But lots of other things are! Scissors for sure!

I should HOPE it is. Freaks... :-/

Lefty as well, no issues. No issues on the plunge either.

Some machines seem geared toward lefties like Twister. But none of my Steve Ritchie games. Twister caused my left flipper finger to swell up hitting that ramp. I'm a righty.

Eartshaker may be another one that most shots come from the left.

Get a GnR plunge on the left.

I was checking out the audits on my TWD and I flip with the right substantially more than the left (I think it was 20% more). I know that I always lane change with the right flipper but was wondering if it was the opposite for lefties.

I don't think it requires too much coordination to use the shooter lane, even with the wrong hand. Funhouse's left shooter never seemed too awkward.

Screw 'em.. Lefties are the work of the devil.

When I use my left hand it feels like someone else is flipping...

Flanders_Leftorium.jpg

My pinball machines have a flipper button on both sides so I use both my hands.

I write left handed but do most else better with my right, I'm more ambidextrous though I can play tennis with either hand/shoot basketball/kick footballs etc with both sides close to equal. I can write right handed but my hand gets sore really quickly compared to my left.

Of the top 50 to 100 ranked pinball players in the world, approx. what % are left handed?
Is the % about the same as the general split between left vs right-handed people?

Ummm.......thanks?

I've never felt being a lefty was a disadvantage. Thinking about some of the more difficult shots I've encountered, being a righty would seem to be the disadvantage.

lefty here, and no. not biased at all.

Pinball is only biased against one-handed people.

And blind people.

And stupid people who don't know how to start a game.

Actually, I think that lefties have an advantage when it comes to working on the front side of the head (EM or SS), because most light boards are hinged on the left side. As far as I know, most or all Bally, Williams, Stern, Data East and Sega games are hinged on the left, making it easier for a southpaw to lean over the playfield and work inside the head with their better hand. A righty must reach over his body and basically work back-handed. Gottlieb and Game Plan machines are hinged on the right, making it easier (IMHO) for a northpaw (?) to lean in and and use their best hand.

Anyone know why there are two different styles?

I'm left handed and can't even figure you why you're asking this question!

I always found it odd that most arcade video games were biased toward lefties... The traditional layout has the stick on the left and buttons on the right. Only games with very simple controls offered up the choice to the player with duplicate buttons on the left side.

Add Alvin G & Co. to the list of those who hinged them on the right. So, it seems to be a pretty even split between the US manufacturers. Spinball of Spain had a brilliant backboard hinging system where you could open it from either side. I love that set up!

Regarding the OP's original bias question, I'm left handed and have never once thought any games were set up to favor righties in any way....

My husband, son, and I are all left handed and all pinsiders. We currently own 7 games and have owned many before. I can't think of one that I found that felt " right handed."

Matt, will all due respect, I have to disagree. Considering that AGC made only 8 games with production over 100, and with 2,544 units TOTAL produced between all games, those numbers would hardly move the split more than .1%. I see you're an Alvin G. guy, so I understand where you're coming from.

Seeing as how only Gottlieb of the three majors, and GamePlan of the smaller companies hinged their lightboxes on the right (as far as I know), I would say that at least two thirds of all American built machines were left hinged.

not Defender pinball. Left hand manually timed out-lane ball-save. Right-handers, beware...

To clarify, I am not talking about number of pins produced....just stating that there's a pretty even split of manufacturers that put them on either side. We might not ever know why any one company chose what they did, I'm just adding to your list pointing out who did what....

I have red hair as well. 100 years ago I would have been burned at the stake.

Well I was going to say... We're talking about pushing a button... Not drawing doodles simultaneously with both hands. (Lefty here)

Thank god I am amphibious

Yes, huge advantage to rightie's. I'm a lefty and I suck. Now I have an excuse.

I get pissed when games have too many tough shots from the left flipper....TRON!!!!!

Life in general is biased against lefties... so by default, pinball then is biased against them as well

All the best shots are to the right or straight up the middle, so I think it is biased TOWARDs the lefties.

I was left handed until the Nuns in grade school got ahold of me. Now, I'm better, and so am I! We haven't noticed any bias from the design of the pins.

I'm left handed. I have noticed when moving machines around, they are heavy as hell. Right handed people notice this?

I dont think pinball machines care, but 45+ years ago the school teaching NUNS sure did!
my left hand got slapped, smacked with rulers or pointers SOOO many times.. maybe its why I want to hide from goth girls who wear black, avoid funerals, and hate police cars? my psychoANALyst says that for a lot of people this is very normal behavior but I'm not so sure, the zebras dalmations and penguins are conspiring..

It's time for us "left-handed people" to rise up and fight the injustice and inequality! I think our government should step in and bring equality to all of us "left-handed people"!
Pinballs should have a CHOICE of left hand or right hand plungers
Pinballs should have a CHOICE of left or right hand coin door locks!
Stores should have to carry BOTH right and left hand can openers
Schools should provide left-hand spiral notebooks
The Dictionary should change the definition of "Left" to "when someone or something is correct- it is "Left" not "Right".

My father and daughter are one of "you people."

Somehow, the gene skipped me. Thank you, Zeus!

I do think it would be interesting (though quite a difficult task) to see someone rebuild a classic machine (like TAF) but completely reversed left-to-right, ala "mirror-mode" from MarioKart.

I recently watched a video where a guy added gears to his bike so that turning the handlebar left would turn the bike right and vice versa. It's amazing how long it took him to relearn how to ride a bike.

What was even more amazing was that after spending weeks learning how to ride the backwards bike, he was then unable to ride a normal bike.

Happy with this topic, I don't feel LEFT alone anymore.

Isn't it funny how we only lane change one way,sometimes it is quicker to do the one hit on the other side but because we are creatures of habit we must double hit the other button instead.

They want left handed players this is probably why they put the start button so far away from my right hand.

Totally biased and unfair.

Seriously the shot map and objectives vary from game to game.

why would it? controls are the same on each side except for shooter