My significant other could care less about pinball. That being said she allows me to do what I want. She understands this is my hobby and I enjoy it thoroughly.

Nope. No spouse.

My wife has no interest in pinball, but if friends are over, she'll soldier through a game or two. I can't complain too loudly, as she hasn't given me too much flak about me buying pins!

My wife identifies games by sounds they make. I try to ask her what sounds the game makes just for a laugh! She just recently noticed my WH2O which I've had for months........I guess that's a good thing

My wife is playing her POTC right now

I'm going to marry my GF, because- although she doesn't play- she tolerates my collection and is the first GF who didn't tell me to sell off all or a portion of my pins. I think I can get her to eventually become a player. Recently she said they're "beautiful," which I find remarkable since I don't normally think of pins as artwork. But, I'll take it. She's very rare.

Cmon O-din, your left hand plays a shitload of pinball!

I'm coming after Rosie.

She plays ever once in awhile and likes that I enjoy it and in my pin league. She knows I want more and shares opinions on which one she likes.

My girlfriend doesn't play, doesn't talk about it and get mad when I whant to play as my NF is in my parents house...

Zero to slightly negative.

My wife plays as much as me I guess but that isn't saying much really.

I wouldn't have a pin right now if it wasn't for my husband being willing to do the heavy lifting. Three flights of narrow stairs in an old house on a snowy day! But beyond that, he's starting to say things like "I wouldn't mind if we got a TWD." or "I came home yesterday after a hard day of work and I really enjoyed playing a few games to relax!" Definitely a keeper!

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My wife talked me into this hobby. I had basicly forgotten about pinball to be honest. Now I'm hooked, it's her fault and she knows it. She goes to all the pin shows with me and always comes with when buying a pin. When restoring a pin she says she's my tester. When I put a machine back together she gets a note pad and starts to play. She writes down everything she notices that's not right. The list will have targets not registering, bulbs not working, ball getting stuck, etc.
She loves to find my mistakes, maybe more than playing pinball.lol
She's a keeper

My wife started off as 'passive' but now is a keeper She really likes her Avatar and enjoys playing most of the pins we have. I also caught her looking at mods once. It was exciting, like if you ever catch your wife or gf looking at porn haha.

She also prefers I spend time on pins rather than motorcycles. (WR250F, KTM Enduro 690R, TZ250)

mittens

My wife is slightly interested. I have machines but they're in the basement so she rarely ever plays them. It might be several months since she played a game. As a hobby, as long as I keep them in certain areas like the basement and garage that's fine with her. I have full reign there. I wish she was more interested in playing but at least she's tolerant and supportive. On the bright side, she is really excited in the new ghostbusters machine and keeps asking about it.

My wife is a keeper even though she is only passively interested.

She couldn't be cooler about my hobbies and I also respect hers.

My wife loves it when I bring a new one home, but she is not much of a player. She used to play years ago and she actually did reach Crypt jam on TFTC, and then she fizzled out.

That being said, she HAS walked up to AFM without me suggesting it. Will AFM draw another one in.....? Stayed tuned!!

She loves working on them with me much more than playing. That is the engineer in her .

I don't think my wife has ever played one of my pins over the last 25 years, she supports my hobby and never nags, in return I don't drag her to pinball shows, museums or waste time on vacation playing pinball like a obsessive moron. The only arcade games she has ever played in my collection is my Chicago coin big ball bowler and a EM Williams horseshoe game "Ringer. When we host a party the same with all her girlfriends, none of them play pinball, just the bowler.

I can never get my wife to play a game of pinball. That being said, she doesn't mind my hobby too much as long as she gets her spending money too (she's addicted to cruises). She really doesn't mind the money, it's usually the space that they take up. I have my own game room downstairs, so she knows that's my kingdom and as long as I don't clutter the place up, she leaves it mostly to me.

She never really complains when I buy a new pin, only when I sell them for some reason. I think she would really be upset with me if I decided to sell my WOZ not because of the pin, but because that was her favorite movie growing up as a child. I have a tendency to sell my pins at a lower price than what I paid for them and she just wants to make sure I don't get burnt in a deal. I sold my AC/DC the other day to help fund the GBLE pin. She said after I sold it, all she hears on the radio now is AC/DC songs (which makes her think of the pin). Maybe my local radio station will start playing more Kiss songs. (hint hint) MET is sure lonely down there now.

We met a lot of good people because of this hobby and I always try to have a get together to play the pins with my new buddies. Again, she doesn't play, but she always makes sure there is plenty of food and beverage around for my gatherings.

Well, let's see....I met my Hubby in a bowling alley gameroom playing pinball (32 years ago). We played alot while dating...When we moved into our house (2001) we got our first pin, and I restored it, and started doing restores for others. Now we have an awesome collection, some of the greatest friends you could ever want...are involved in our local pinball group (since 2007). I co-run our local league, we have pinball parties at our house as often as we can. We play pretty much every evening after work, and take games to shows so others can enjoy the hobby and play them too! So I guess we could say that we both have a keeper...which one is more into it is still up in the air, I would say more of a team than one being more into it than the other...

Phoebe

Krisitn doesn't play a lot, but she runs our company and she has pinball on the brain every day.

On a side note we even have driven around town searching for pins to play in the wild from time to time. We have fun finding these little dive bars etc. that still have pins in good and bad conditions. Have done it in a awhile so maybe due again.

Somewhere between zero and .000001% interest.

What's a "wife" or a "gf".

The wife and I enjoy doing that too! Although, it's been a lot tougher since we moved to the Orlando area. Not a lot to find and the ones we have for the most part have been in smokey bars. Ever since I quit smoking I just can't stand being in smoke filled places.

Some of you guys/gals are lucky .

However, it sounds like some of you guys are skating on thin ice spending so much time and money on silly pinball machines.
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Shit, she tolerates it. Maybe plays a game with me once in a blue moon. I'd love for her to take an interest but it prob ain't happening. More chance my daughters will than the wife.

Moderate, loves lord of the rings an medieval madness an super Mario , if she understands the game she's in, but she dosnt really play any of the other games I have except lord of the rings.

This pic says it all

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We're getting married at the end of the month and she pretty much hates my interest in the hobby. That said, she will occasionally play a few games herself and she seems to appreciate that our friends enjoy them when we have people over. I think part of the problem is that i got my first machine right as we got engaged so, to her, every dollar and minute I've spent on the hobby is somehow a dollar or minute "taken away" from the almighty-wedding-that-will-be-the-most-important-event-to-have-ever-happened-or-will-ever-happen-in-not-only-our-lives-but-the-entire-course-of-human-history. Yes, she's one of those.

Edit: perhaps i was being a bit unfair. She actually didn't have much to say when i bought a ColorDMD recently after i paid most of the wedding vendors' final payments, so that's something. She does seem to like the machines sometimes, she just hates when i work on or talk about them at all so I'm just hoping she'll mellow out after the wedding stress wears off.

I bring my wife to shows and she says they are a big nerd convention, so I spend the ride home defending us non-nerds....you're welcome by the way. She likes the bowler in my gameroom but the row of pins doesn't hold her attention. After 25 years together I thought things wouldn't change but there are signs she is seeing the light. To my fellow lone wolf pinheads: never give up.

My Bride could not give a darn about anything pinball . She is very supportive of my love of the hobby and never asks how much , how come or why anything .
She truly does not care . I can buy as many as I want or sell them all.

She is a keeper to me as I have a few friends that are married to what I call " Dream Killers " they bitch and complain for no reason other than they are just nasty unhappy people.

My 2c

Sir Brian of Ortonville

I've made a graph to illustrate the level of interest my girlfriend has in pinball. The y-axis represents amount of interest, ranging from "hate it" to "Love it!" The x-axis represents the amount of time we've been dating, ranging from "just met" to "present day."

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Note how her interest in pinball asymptotically approaches the present day.

My wife cares about my pinball machines as much as I care about her handbag collection.

It really works out well that way.

Was my wife's idea to make a game room and to include "a" pinball machine. I thought she was crazy. Now I have "7" pins and she thinks I am crazy. She played a little at first but not so much anymore. I always remind her that it's all her fault!

Bail now.

If she is a pain in the tail before the marriage, it will only get worse.

I think I it's very important that pre-nups spell everything out.

If I ever get married, mine will read "you have no say on my Camaro, Jets tickets, Devils tickets, game room, including but not limited to pinball and arcade machines, and the opening of any new star wars, Star Trek, transformers, batman and Marvel movie showings take precedent over any plans. "

This sounds exactly like every married friend I have.

My wife is somewhere between passive and moderate. She doesn't give me too much crap about my hobby, and every now and again, she'll play Tron.

I think it's very important that all men realize that 100% of all divorces are caused from being married.

I'd be more worried if we didn't have so many other hobbies in common. Also, my friends all like her and approve. Also, we do have a prenup.

But does your prenup cover the important things like game room? Free time? Movie openings? Etc?

All the stuff lawyers forget to cover.

This just goes to show how prejudiced I am. Prior to your story, I couldn't even imagine a scenario where the lady of the house was the one into pinball and the husband was the one with the "take it or leave it" attitude.

OK, but I find her view on your wedding frightening. It's a fine attitude to take if you're wealthy, but most middle class people can't afford a celebrity type wedding as shown on tv. Also, very few of your guests will care or even remember.

I wish you the best of luck and hope it all works out for you.

Thanks!

Oh, she's far she's far from a "bridezilla." Believe me I'd be running in the other direction if i thought that for a sec
I'm certainly not super-wealthy and the wedding isn't really that elaborate actually, its just really (really) important to her. You know, she's dreamed about every detail since she was a kid and so on and so forth. At the end of the day, I'm marrying my best friend and that's cool. It just happens that my best friend is prone to want to over-romanticize a single day and doesn't care much for pinball.....yet

That said, you guys who's spouses help you repair pins are oh so lucky. And, for those who've said something like he/she "doesn't care" or "doesn't notice when i get a new one," are all of your pins hidden in the basement or something? What's your secret? Gradual initiation into pinball like a frog in a slowly heated pot of water?

She's been dreaming of her wedding day since she was a kid?