Pinburgh is going to have a larger attendance than ever. I'm wondering what is causing the resurgence of pinball? I'd like to think it's something more than just pure nostalgia.
(Topic ID: 38889)
Aurora, IL
None of those. I grew up and got a job so now I can (kinda) afford it.
Never was out from a playing stand point.
I was definitely out for years. Personally what got me back into it was playing funhouse on the ps3 but I feel like I'd be in the minority.
Not sure what happened to my first reply but anyway...
Like the above said a lot of people that grew up playing pinball now are maturing and have the financial resources to purchase their pins.
There is a similar trend in classic Nintendo collecting where games can and do reach tens of thousands of dollars. That hobby has exploded as well I don't think it's a coincidence the high value games are from almost the same era . That is where my roots are and what ultimately led me to buying pins...
For me it was moving into my "grown up" house and having the room to be able to have one. Playing the virtual tables certainly kept my interest up and helped get my husband into it since he'd never seen a real one. We moved in March, and by June had our first pin. Now we collectively (my house and my parents house) have 5, and are already making room for more.
Villejuif
Quoted from MinusWorlds:Not sure what happened to my first reply but anyway...
It was on a duplicate post that I edited
Beecroft
Quoted from EvanBingham:It was on a duplicate post that I edited
Oh haha I was like man I really have to figure this site out...
You need an option for arcade. I got into pinball playing them as a kid in the 80's arcades. High Speed and Haunted House were my favs back then
I owned a Bally Lost World for 8 years and never really felt a need for more machines in all that time as I was an arcade guy. I went to California Extreme in San Jose/Santa Clara in July of 2011 and played several pinball machines for the first time. The ones that stood out for me were TOTAN and Starship Troopers. Fast forward to Thanksgiving Weekend of 2011. Went to Vegas with my wife. Decided to walk to the Pinball Hall of Fame from the strip. While there, my wife played and fell in love with TOM. Told me she'd like one of those and would play it much more than the 30 arcade games I had in the gameroom. I wanted her in the gameroom more so I went on the hunt for one but couldn't find one locally. Did a little research and found that TOTAN was designed by the same person, and I knew I liked that one from playing it at CAX. Coincidentally, a TOTAN popped up for sale locally in early December 2011. Made a deal (steal) and picked the machine up on my 39th birthday. Got it home, played the hell out of it for a month, then it sat idle for a month. Got an offer I couldn't refuse and agreed to sell it. Looked for a JP to replace it, couldn't find one, so I contacted a local guy I knew who had a Congo (both jungly pins based on movies that were based on Michael Chrichton books). We made a deal (steal) and I picked that up. Started selling off some of my arcade machines. After I'd sell 2 or 3, I'd go on the hunt for a pin. Now I'm up to 4 of them and always looking to upgrade with trades.
Oh, forgot that like JLM33 I had to buy them myself in order to play. There are none on route or available within 2 hours of my house.
My husband started us down this pinball road. He had fond memories of playing in the candy store in his neighborhood as a child. We had the room in the house & one day said he wanted to get a pinball machine. Now we up to 7 and still looking. My family has embaced pinball also. Just had a gathering Sunday at our home, everyone is into it, especially my 16 year old autistic niece. She loves POTC.
I grew up playing pinball all the time.
What got me into collecting was finding an arcade at a flea market in Downingtown, PA. They were getting ready to close down and I asked if they wanted to sell the Haunted House they had. Owner said "Sure, how about $200?" From there, it just spiraled out of control.
What got me BACK into the hobby was seeing all my machines sitting in the basement collecting dust. My wife told me I need to stop working so much and stop helping everybody else with projects and get back into my hobby . . . So, here I am.
I loved playing them all in the early 80's and playing TAF at a local horse track in the early 90's. About 10 years later, when my daughter was about 4 years old, I said I wanted to try to find a pinball machine that we could play together as I had such fond memories of playing them. Had no idea what they cost. Did a little research on TAF because that was the game I remembered most fondly and bought one. Traveled 10 hours round trip to DC to pick it up and bring it home having no idea what I was getting into. Have never looked back.
The financial means to acquire them coupled with poor impulse control.
My original plan was to buy one pinball machine to put in my gameroom with my pool table and Donkey Kong JR. Within a year I had built a brand new room to house my arcade.
Weyburn, SK
stayed in a hotel that had three beat up pins, played them as they were and thought , what would they be like working? My buddy suggested we should buy one to play a working game like we did as teens. Started looking and bought some and learned to fix them .
Quoted from krupa:The financial means to acquire them coupled with poor impulse control.
My original plan was to buy one pinball machine to put in my gameroom with my pool table and Donkey Kong JR. Within a year I had built a brand new room to house my arcade.
+1
I bought my first pin about 20 years ago. I never dreamed anyone ever owned more than one pin. Then about 2 years ago I found out lots of people own multiple pins. So after a few months of begging my wife I was able to purchase more. I'm up to 8 now but that is about all that I can fit in the basement. Now I need to beg my wife to start putting them on the 1st floor 
Played a ton of virtual pinball for years.
EA pinball construction set (anybody remember that gem?)
Basically any computer/game platform I've ever owned had some form of pinball game that I loved playing.
The Farsight stuff was huge!
Last summer I was talking to a long lost friend who I was re-united with at this benefit in my hometown. He's a pinball nut, too.
He told me that I could pick up non-working EMs for cheap and fix them up. Not rocket science.
That's all I needed to hear...
Been a wild ride since then, for sure!
Throughout the years I occasionally had thoughts about pinball and how much I enjoyed it. On a long weekend in Philly my wife and I went to a really cool restaurant, http://www.norththird.com/, and they had an Iron Man pin there which we played several games on. After that, I began to search around the outerweb for pinball sites and found out about PAPA, the broader pinball community, and documentaries like Special When Lit. I had also been playing Pinball Arcade since it was released on PS3. Before making any purchases I wanted to play a lot of pinball to help me get an idea about what pins are out there and how they play. So I drove to the National Pinball Museum and spent several hours there. It has been downhill since.
I will have to agree with the you need another option!!
Played them as a teen in the arcades in the 80's (met hubby in a bowling alley arcade playing Space Shuttle), got married had kids, never dreamed you could actually have one in your house...Got a house with a dedicated "arcade" basement, got the first one of course a Space Shuttle....then as you all know it snowballs from there, cause you cain't have just 1!! 
Now the dedicated "arcade" is pretty much the entire house...furniture and pool table is all in a storage unit and pins are in it's place! 
Phoebe
After playing pinball heavily as a kid during the 70's and 80's, I hit my twenties and had to work for a living. I got married, paid bills, blah, blah, blah. One day I see a billboard for the Pacific Pinball Expo while driving down the freeway. It's 2008, and a lightbulb goes off. Pinball! Wow, I used have a lot of fun playing pinball. I should call my friend that used to go to the arcades with me and see if he's interested. Long story short, he was, and we played all three days of the Expo that year, from the opening bell until they turned off the machines. By the time Sunday evening rolled around, our forearms were aching, and we were hooked, big time. I've been to every PPE since, and currently own 5 pins. The only thing I'd add is that, almost universally, the fellow pinheads I've met have been really friendly and helpful. It's a great hobby.
I always preferred pinball to any other coin op, and when I moved to LA (12 years ago yesterday methinks) I craved the flippin' access that I'd had living in Ohio during college. But nope! Nothing but blown out, GI-less, dead-flipper ratpiles set at $.75, many of which didn't even start up. Bought my first game (Flash) shortly thereafter...man ya just never forget that first-pin feeling. I have a pin! In my HOUSE!
Then that became two. Then three. Bye bye kitchen table, four. Bye bye couch, TV, dresser, five six seven. Sorry mom, you can sleep under Rollergames, eight. I started meeting folks and dragging them over to play in my weird pin-hoarder apartment...I think I had up to ten games in there, and some salty, salty neighbors.
A few years in, there still wasn't a good place to play. There were a ton of big time home collectors, but none willing to contribute much of anything back to the hobby, and while they had neato stuff, they were only really doing themselves any good with it. I traveled to a couple shows, and to a couple cities, and I started to see what awesomeness happens when an actual pinball community develops...Portland, Pittsburgh, Seattle...and I just thought it's be so cool to have that where I lived. So I gave 'er a shot. With the help of the inimitable KME and a few friends, I took all my games and moved into a small shop where I'd do my sewing work and let people play on the pinballs while stitching. We're my games nice enough to do this? No. Did I have the money to pull it off? Hell no. But I became so obsessed with the concept of providing decent working "pinball for the people" that I went whole hog.
Now our League is at maximum capacity, I'm finally starting to get some more desirable titles (though I'm the first to admit I've got some obtuse tastes) and people are often lined up outside the door when I arrive to open up. I'm as hooked as ever, and I don't plan on cutting out any time soon!
Out one night with my adult kids & they wanted to play foosball, I said let's play pinballs instead they were like "what?, no foosball", then I said try pinball. Well, three hours later and quite a few quarters spent, they were hooked. I mentioned to my son I would love to have one at home if they were affordable. The next day he was helping a friend move his girlfriend and her mother had one setting in the corner of the garage. My son asked the status of the pin & she said when I kicked my cheating ex to the curb this was left and I'm willing to sell it. My son offered her $450 (VND, HUO, one owner)she was happy to take it and I'm guessing it was a little salt she could rub in her ex's wound (being she sold it so cheap, cause she was with him when he bought it new in '98). Well, now I'm up to 4 & my son is at 2 now. What a monster I have created & there is no turning back. Bill
Quoted from badpenny61:Out one night with my adult kids & they wanted to play foosball, I said let's play pinballs instead they were like "what?, no foosball", then I said try pinball. Well, three hours later and quite a few quarters spent, they were hooked. I mentioned to my son I would love to have one at home if they were affordable. The next day he was helping a friend move his girlfriend and her mother had one setting in the corner of the garage. My son asked the status of the pin & she said when I kicked my cheating ex to the curb this was left and I'm willing to sell it. My son offered her $450 (VND, HUO, one owner)she was happy to take it and I'm guessing it was a little salt she could rub in her ex's wound (being she sold it so cheap, cause she was with him when he bought it new in '98). Well, now I'm up to 4 & my son is at 2 now. What a monster I have created & there is no turning back. Bill
Good story! Sometimes someone is hooked with a single game...
The pinball resurgence is very simple. The kids who were playing them in the arcades during the biggest pinball manufacturing boom ever (early 90s) are now grown up with houses and jobs. I'm 32. Got married a year ago, looking for a house, and looking for my first pinball machine to go with it.
If you watch the "Special When Lit" documentary, that wasn't made very long ago and at that point they painted a bleak picture. Everything is cyclical though. All you old guys just needed to wait until us younger folks had a little cash to spend for your machines to skyrocket in price! Haha! I just wish I could've afforded to buy a machine or two before everyone else in my generation drove the prices up!!!
I was out for about 10 years.
I had an old well used F-14 that kept breaking down and a NIB (2003) LOTR.
Sold the F-14 (not working) for $500. Looked at my LOTR and decided that I couldn't have just one pin. That and I had recently bailed on a Telescope hobby.
Decided to do a two for one trade on the LOTR. So selling the F-14 and trading my LOTR is what got me active again.....that and looking for a hobby that would last......for once.....hopefully.
None of the above.
I bought a Cyclone in 1996 at an auction in Indianapolis and played it quite a bit with friends at my place. A few years later my granny died and I had a lot of my things in her attic that needed to be brought back to my place. Those things got stacked on, under and around my Cyclone and my game room was no more.
Jump to early 2009 and I had the time and place to get my things stored elsewhere. I was so happy to get the Cyclone unearthed that I decided to have it fixed up. So after e-mailing a couple of folks in my area about where to get a pin restored, I introduced myself to Phoebe (Butterflygirl24). I had her and LAR tear my Cyclone down and she touched up the playfield and they clear coated it and worked over the mechanics. I also bought just about everything new you could for it at the time.
The work on the Cyclone was going to take a while so I then decided I wanted a NIB game. I thought I would splurge just one time to get a new one. After looking around I found something I liked from a shady local dealer (I didn't know he was shady at the time). After a bit of trouble with them they finally delivered my new Black Spider-Man for $6000! Can you believe that? Who in their right mind would pay $6000 for a new Black Spider-Man?
Anyway, my Cyclone was returned, looking and playing as good as a new one. I still have my BSM and I have had some other games shuffled in and out from time to time. I did sell my Cyclone last year to get my X-Men cash gathered up and I'm holding out on an update to see how long it is going to stick around.
I like having my game room back and I hate the idea of ever selling off my games, but I honestly doubt I would stay in "game-mode" long if it weren't for the great friends I have made since meeting Phoebe and Larry. So many great local, and not so local, people that I never would have met if it wasn't for them and pinball.
It was the internet. Or more specifically, finding the IPDB on the internet.
I was a huge pin-head in the 70's and early 80's. I went to college in '83, and subequently lost interest. About five or six years ago I stumbled across the IPDB. When I saw pictures of Flash, Firepower, Eight Ball Deluxe, Flight 2000, Paragon, Black Knight and all the other classics - I was hooked again. It wasn't long after I was bringing home my first pin.
Quoted from EvanBingham:Pinburgh is going to have a larger attendance than ever. I'm wondering what is causing the resurgence of pinball? I'd like to think it's something more than just pure nostalgia.
None of your poll selections. I've always wanted a pin and it wasn't till I bought my current home (10yrs ago) and got my current job, that it was possible.
I chose better games because of this reason.
I have had a EM pinball since I was a kid in the 70's.
played all the 80's machines at my local bowling alley.
But it was not till I went to a conference in Orlando with my wife that I found an Addams Family.
I played for hours while she was in her meetings and have been hooked ever since.
Summer of 75.
My buddy and I would ride our bikes to the student center at the community college. We played pinball and air hockey everyday. We also rode to the General Cinema to tease the concession girls and sneak into the theater. On hot days, we hid in the seats to stay cool and watch Jaws all day long.
Been hooked on Jaws, pinball, air hockey and boobs ever since...
I'm a bit younger then your average pin player but grew up with a family friend who had an old pin in their place and played a little at a bowling alley near me but not too much and the only arcade near me had redemption games and light gun games by the later half of the 90s. I did play a lot of mame and emulators through my late teens to get back into stuff like nes, snes, sms that i had as a kid and from there ended up setting up a mame cabinet after finding out on the internet it's not as difficult or expensive as I thought. After that I started messing around with virtual pinball and found out an arcade near me has a lotr and tf (that are both constantly breaking and stealing your balls) that i got hooked playing during my lunch time at work, i've now bought my first machine and just won an auction on a second. Need to stop myself buying any more until next year though which will be hard!
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