Taf

Was mostly into video arcade games and foosball back as a teen but when I did play pinball it was Bonzai Run that I went to.

TZ and TAF

Cyklone and Whirlwind

BANZI RUN & BEST GAME EVER SPACE SHUTTLE

Bad cats for me . meow meow meow meow

Very interesting, but aside from @thelazybman, no one has a single pin mentioned in their collections. I don't either, I just found it curious.

For me, Fun House.

Time Machine from Data East, at Grand Slam Batting Cages in Monrovia CA.

I had played pinball before at a great place in Pasadena called Pak-Mann Arcade, in the late 90s. They had a good selection of the WMS games (plus the inescapable South Park), and I remember them getting Revenge from Mars and Episode 1 when they came out, which at the time I was too young to understand the significance of. I loved playing pinball then just for the kinetic action of the ball, and had no play strategy other then keeping the ball away from the drain. Getting the ball onto a ramp at all was the coolest thing ever and enough to constitute a good game for me.

Later on in middle school, I was looking for any place to play arcade games near me, and found Grand Slam, where Time Machine was the only pinball they had. It was the first non-DMD game I ever saw and the presentation of it was captivating. The great music and sound (especially that incredibly cool "singing" vocoder robot voice) drew me in, and the simple rules started turning gears in my head and got me to think about how to start and complete different scoring features. I remember looking up the different flipper techniques for the first time one day before walking over to Grand Slam to play, and I tried nudging for the first time shortly after. Time Machine is the game that elevated pinball from something I liked to play now and then into my favorite game of all (pardon the pun) time.

last action hero

High Speed.

The ball is the car. The roads are the shots.

I get it.

It wasn't until Whirlwind that I realized beating people was the most fun.
Hey, you cant beat the game.
EDIT: Although I had fun learning at one of the six local arcades with Centaur, Comet, & Gamatron.

Cosmic Gunfight! We bought it at a yard sale for about $50 when I was 8 years old... Good times

Cosmic Gunfight (resized).jpg

High speed in high school

BoP and F14 at the hotdog arcade place. Later on they got WCS and Junkyard. I miss Top Dog like you wouldn't believe

Aladdin's Castle.

When I regularly hung out in arcades, I always spent a lot of time at the banks of pinball machines, but I don’t really remember any specific titles from back then. The first pinball machine that I know I played was Spirit of 76. The first game I made a point to play all the time was TAF.

I lived in a small farming town when I was young. Didn’t see an arcade until high school. Luckily it was across the street next to the coffee shop. There was about 15 arcades and 2 pins that rotated out. It was the early to mid 90’s.

I remember learning that pinball was more then just flipping the paddles on games like fish tales, whitewater, World cup soccer.

I spent all my moneys on BK back in the day. My allowance and paper route money went really fast since it was the first 50 cent game, and I wasn't very good.

We ended up with a Big Deal '77 in the garage one day, when a guy who owed my father some money left it as collateral. He never paid, so it stayed there until my parents moved.

I have both machines in my collection today.

hocus pocus then i remember blackout.

Lights...Camera...Action! and Whirlwind, as a pair.
I was a kid of 9 years old, the location was a camping in France, the year 1990. The two machines were both very new and standing next to each other. Two much bigger kids, who I now realise were very good players, were playing them. This is the first time I saw things like post passes and drop catches happening. By watching these two wizards at play, I realised that pinball was very much a game of skill. And I knew that I wanted to be able to play the way they did. I also remember finding that WW a much more difficult machine to play than the LCA. Which, I guess, is still true

Also: Banzai Run, that pin of which nobody seems to know how to spell the name correctly. This pin was (and is) just outstanding in every way.

As of now, I've owned all three of these pins at least once. BR turned out to be the keeper of the bunch.

Ted Nugent

Rollergames, in a bowling alley on the highway that is now a car dealership.

It had a ball trough switch malfunction that gave me a never-ending game, giving me a new ball back every time I lost one.

I was five, and that was my gateway drug. Yes, I own one now.

Gorgar, Flash, FirePower

Had a lot that would keep me busy at an arcade. It's sad that we can't do today what my mom did for me back in the day. She would go to the mall and give me a couple dollars and leave me at the arcade. she would then go do her shopping and if I ran out of money, I just hung out there. can't do that today. so the games that I always went to-Cyclone, High Speed, Whirlwind, and Fish Tales. just always loved to play some games while I was there.

Indiana Jones (Williams)

In 1978 my dad brought home a super-flite. That was it. Until that point I was like others that had stated about just plunging and flipping. But since I didnt have to go broke learning the nuances and objectives, I was hooked. From that point on every campground, amusement park, restaurant, or shopping center that had a machine, I was playing it.
Fast forward to 1989 in the pizza shop I worked at. They had regularly rotated pairs (1 pin, 1 vid) so it was normal to have 4 of us in a spirited game of high speed or playing rush'n attack while waiting for f14 to open up.
Then one glorious day in November she showed up...
A brand new Elvira. I was in love and knew I wanted one. After 3 machines and 3 decades had gotten away from me, it finally happened

T2 and not a pin but roadblasters.

At the local bar my dad would take me to on the weekends after he picked me up. He would fill them full of games for me once a month or so.

T2 still plays great! Someday I’ll own one.

I was more into the arcade machines at the time and lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere so selection was very limited, but the only ones that I definitely recall were at the bowling alley: Black Knight and Firepower. Played them from time to time, but didn't care for BK then, still not a big fan of it, but do own Firepower.

Hard to pull me away from those new, flashy arcade games, but Black Hole was my gateway drug.

Fathom (dive again)

I don't remember seeing too many pins growing up. Not sure if arcades were mostly video games or that's all I paid attention to. Earliest I really remember is BK2000 mostly because of the sounds/music. Since I worked at an arcade that had one and had the keys, I would play it for free now and then. I had no idea about rules or strategy. The first game I really wanted to put my own money in was TZ. Even back then I could tell something was special about it. It had so many features, great sounds, and cool theme. TAF and FH were also very memorable. Those games had such personality and visually interesting playfields.

Whirlwind at Chuck E Cheese
Addams Family and Slug Fest at the bowling alley

Was not into pins as a kid in the early 80’s...video games were my thing. Played pins occasionally but was not my thing....but Kiss was my favorite band. Bought a Kiss pinball for $300 with my own money when I was 15....the ULTIMATE Kiss collectible at the time. Loved it more because it was Kiss theme than a pinball machine.....But enjoy pinball now!

In the 80's and 90's I was more into the Arcade games... funny enough it wasn't until after highschool (graduated in 2000) I went to a convention (MGC) and that is when I saw a prestine Creature. I was in love! But back then it was for sale for $2000.... who the hell had that kind of scratch to buy a pinball machine! lol

Bow and arrow 1976 Farrells ice cream parlor
Black Knight blew me away 1980 at putt putt in fern creek
Before I really got back into playing pinball the last one that
sticks in my mind was Rocky and Bullwinkle early 90s aladdins
Castle bashford manor mall. I remember JP and IJ being there also
but I liked Rocky and Bullwinkle better. Haha.

My local swimming pool snack bar had a TAF that I have fond memories of playing in the 90s. Looking back, I cringe at the thought of the number of dripping wet hands that probably played that thing! By the end of its life it was probably a moldy mess.

I grew up in the far north suburbs of Chicago. There was pinball in many places. However, my parents NEVER gave me, my brother or sister any money to play games. On the random occasions that we ended up at an arcade it was mostly video game arcades as the pinball was usually in a seperate room and my buddies were not into that. I used to walk by the room and stare at all the lights when I ran out of quarters.

One day my best friend and neighbors dad brought home a pinball machine and put it in his basement where he had a pool table and bar. It was a 1979 Brunswick Aspen... LOL. We played the shit out of that thing. Every minute, every day.

Team One and T2

FIRE! , High Speed, TAF, Fish Tales.

Changed over time — Meteor then Cyclone then Funhouse

Gottlieb Tournament, my grandfather had one of these at his house in the 80's, around six years old, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2613

Funhouse for me, the music/sounds and Rudy just drew me in!

Sinbad, while in high school and college. Thought once I found a perfect condition one I'd be set. Now, 16 pins later, still looking to purchase

For me it was WhiteWater sometime in the late 90s when I was barely tall enough to see the playfield. I particularly remember watching the ball whizzing up and down the Insanity Falls ramp. I was excited and intrigued because I've never seen that kind of ramp design before in a game.

It's now one of my favorite titles.

Eight Ball Deluxe

Black Knight

I remember going to the arcade with my uncle in the 80's, but don't remember any particular game. I just remember the sounds of all the pins. In college, my friend and I played The Getaway in between classes. I was never any good, but really loved playing.