I've been collecting pins for about 15 years. Up until the last couple years, the games have always been called "pinball machines" or "pins". Now I hear people calling them "tables"??? Not sure how the term "table" ever came about or how it started. It just sounds weird to me.
Before I play, I call it a pin or pinball.
When I am playing, I often call it MANY other things.
Chris
Quoted from Darcy:'I thought I was the Bally Table King"
That's what he gets for playing a Gottlieb! lol. They were called tables from as far back as I can remember (if you exclude the 70s of course).
Quoted from Darcy:'I thought I was the Bally Table King"
so it's a brit thing.
Quoted from girloveswaffles:Can't think of many "Tables" that have tops that are on an incline.
Quoted from Darcy:Might have to look this up. Orignally in the 1920's and 1930's pinball machines had no legs. They were placed on counter tops or tables. This may have something to do with the table reference.
and before they had flippers, they had pins to deflect the ball on it's way down.
This is strange to me also always has been!! 
To me a table is a flat surface that you eat off of...it does not have toys, flippers, ramps, posts, light sockets etc. on it anywhere (unless said table is being used to paint or repair pinball machine parts... 
) I do not eat off of my pinball machines...and it bugs me when people put drinks on them, (that is what cup holders are for). A playfield is a Playfield, not a table either...
I have gotten better though...now I cringe inwardly when people insist on calling Pinball machines tables...and I hold my tongue! 
Phoebe
Pinball table. It a table that the pinball rolls around on.
Or if you want to be even more specific, not too many pinball machines have "pins' any more. So that term would be obsolete.
Quoted from girloveswaffles:Can't think of many "Tables" that have tops that are on an incline.
Quoted from o-din:not too many pinball machines have "pins' any more.
sure they do, we call them posts and bumpers now.
Quoted from WOLF:sure they do, we call them posts and bumpers now.
I've got a machine with pins, posts, and bumpers, and I sure don't call the pins bumpers. I call them pins. But some might prefer to call them pinpostbumpers..
To me, a modern pinball machine looks a lot more like a table than one of these...
th-176.jpeg
But I call them what they are, a machine.
Quoted from Aurich:I feel like the table thing is a virtual pin convention that's leaked over from that community.
This.
In the virtual community they're typically called tables. Not sure why, but that's what I've seen.
Quoted from Aurich:I feel like the table thing is a virtual pin convention that's leaked over from that community.
Or maybe the other way around?
Seems like the term "table" came from other games: foosball table, air hockey table, pingpong table, etc. All of those are more table-like than pinball machines as well.
Quoted from Jean-Luc-Picard:front.jpg 24 KB
Well, that's one...
Quoted from o-din:... not too many pinball machines have "pins' any more. So that term would be obsolete.
Quoted from WOLF:sure they do, we call them posts and bumpers now.
I thought they just moved them into the back box and called them headers now.
Quoted from VDrums2112:I use the word "game" quite a bit in posts... It's a lot shorter than typing "pinball machine" or "machine".
-Steve Ridge
also a most legit term
I have heard "pinball table" sometimes used as far back as I can remember. Sometimes use the term myself. Also note that the Pinball Arcade app calls them tables ("my tables" in the main menu).
Quoted from canea:Seems like the term "table" came from other games: foosball table, air hockey table,
Quoted from Stones:I love Pinball Arcade, but weren't they calling their virtual stuff "tables?" I agree with others, calling something a table...I comprehend as virtual machine...and not pinball
You guys still don't get it, do you? Pinball machines were called tables long before any of these existed.
I hear "Deck" once in a while too, and it sounds just as bad as table. This is even worse than calling an arcade game an arcade.
Quoted from Nexyss:I hear "Deck" once in a while too, and it sounds just as bad as table. This is even worse than calling an arcade game an arcade.
Edit: Kinda on the same subject, how in the hell did "codes" start being used to describe source code?
Edit again: I really need to stop clicking on "quote" when I want to edit. lol
Quoted from o-din:You guys still don't get it, do you? Pinball machines were called tables long before any of these existed.
Foosball tables and table tennis tables predate pinball machines, as do pool tables. You got me on air hockey though.
Quoted from canea:Foosball tables and table tennis predate pinball machines, as do pool tables.
You got me on foosball. I didn't know that.
Quoted from Crash:Source code =/= instructions downloaded or burned to an EPROM.
Correct. Source code is (generally) human readable. What you burn on an EPROM is an image containing compiled machine code and assets.
Even on my favorite table, he can beat my best, his disciples lead him in, he just does the rest, he's got crazy flipper fingers, the digit counters fall.
That deaf dumb and blind kid... Sure plays a mean Pinball!!!
Er... The Who started calling them Pinball Tables. It's a know fact I just made up.
Tom
Quoted from o-din:You guys still don't get it, do you? Pinball machines were called tables long before any of these existed.
So...I should call them tables...I get it now......
Quoted from Stones:So...I should call them tables...I get it now......
I rarely call them tables. I usually call them machines or games. The point I was making is that the term table in regards to pinball did not originate with some virtual machine or some other recent contraption.
Quoted from WOLF:so it's a brit thing.
Yes. And if they want to check the oil in their car, they lift the bonnet. Makes no sense at all. d
I really don't care what you call it, just so long as you're not screwing around when it's your turn to play. The one that pisses me off is arcade. When I was a kid, arcades only had pins and maybe one or two skee ball's. These days, the kids think 'arcades' are commercial grade video games. WTF?
STOP TRYING TO REDEFINE A PERFECTLY GOOD WORD! ARCADES ARE NOT VIDEO GAMES!!!
and get off my lawn!
Quoted from Collin:"Table" is a STUPID word for a modern pinball, used exclusively by dullards.
Maybe for a modern machine, but the OP here didn't specify any era of machine. So would somebody that referred to an antique from the 50s as a table be considered a dullard? Or is anybody that even thinks about an old machine a dullard?
Quoted from o-din:Maybe for a modern machine, but the OP here didn't specify any era of machine. So would somebody that referred to an antique from the 50s as a table be considered a dullard? Or is anybody that even thinks about an old machine a dullard?
I was being facetious with my choice of words, in case that wasn't clear. Anyhow, that's why I explicitly said "modern pinball" in my post.
Quoted from Collin:I was being facetious with my choice of words, in case that wasn't clear. Anyhow, that's why I explicitly said "modern pinball" in my post.
That's cool. I think the term table fits the older games, because that was a common term back in the day. Newer machines not so much. That is the reason I didn't vote in the poll. Different kinds of machines are called by different names. Whatever fits.
Quoted from o-din:That's cool. I think the term table fits the older games, because that was a common term back in the day. Newer machines not so much. That is the reason I didn't vote in the poll. Different kinds of machines are called by different names. Whatever fits.
I'll call older games tables...cuz eating food off of them is more fun than playing them.
(I kid, I kid the older games...)
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