The chicks.

It started back in the late 70s, my buddies and I would to go to the bowling alley and arcades all the time to play. I bought my first machine, a Stern Galaxy in 1984.

Nothing wrong with that! This topic puts all the great stories in one place!

You sure?

I’m a child of the 80’s. I grew up pumping quarters into arcade machines (Donkey King, Ms PAC Man, etc) and playing Atari / Nintendo games most of the day. I’ve always been into games / video games but it was a trip to AZ to visit a relative in 2016 that got me into pinball. He had a Fish Tales and we spent several hours talking, drinking beer, and playing pinball. I was always hesitant to buy one due to the cost and having to do repairs. He let me know that, over time, you can learn to repair most things on a pinball. It was at that point I decided I was going to buy one. In 2017 I bought TAF and taught myself how to work on it. I love learning how things work and how to fix them as well. Pinball has been a good way for the family to hang out and have fun together and I have zero regrets after picking up my 4th pinball machine a few months ago.

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I’m 49 now. By the time I started to hit the arcades as a kid the video craze was here. EM’s were still operating and I would play them on occasion but only as a change of pace.

As I became a bit older I would ride my bike to an arcade at the Hyatt hotel in Rosemont, and Aladdin’s Castle in Harlem and Irving mall in Norridge IL. Video games were still the thing.

I love old stuff. Ever since I was I’m my grandpa’s basement in Chicago as a little kid, looking at things he had that I had never seen before, I was hooked. Fast forward to my mid 40’s and I started to collect anything old that caught my eye. Several years ago I attended the Coin Op show in St. Charles and decided to buy an EM (old, beautiful, and I could do more than just look at it!). A week later I bought my first machine (a Target Pool off CL).

You might find this odd, but I don’t recall ever playing a SS pinball machine.

The 70’s

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If you've kept it to just one in the house, then where do you keep the other 55?

Played at the local pizza place, bowling alley, laundromat as a kid.. My neighborhood flooded and My neighbor asked us to help carry an old EM out of her basement.... that was the first “you can have your own pinball machine?” moment.

I went on a trip for work and played a whirlwind, like I played as a kid.. a fire was lit

There weren't many places in my town for kids to hang out without getting into trouble. My dad was a drunk so the local arcade was my place to escape. At this time, early 80's, it was the heyday of the best pins and video games ever made IMO. I played F2k, EBD the most. There were also, Black Hole, HH, FP, Xenon, Hyper ball, Black Knight and a few others. My favorite vids were Defender, Stargate, Galaga, Space Duel, Ms Pacman. Robotron.

One day in 08 I was bored and fiddling around on Ebay, I don't know what made me do it, but I searched for an F2K and found one. F2K because that one stood out to me, I guess because of the multi-ball and the space theme. At this time I had enough space to accommodate several pins. A few days after owning the F2K, it started giving me trouble. Once I hit the internet and found that so many people had pins and so much info was available, I was hooked. Once I joined the pinball groups and learning how small the pin community is, I felt an instant connection. I think meeting people in the hobby and becoming friends is the best part.

In my 2nd year in the hobby, I realized that I like repairing and restoring pins more than playing them. The games and the amount of parts that I accumulated in the last 10 years blows my mind. Pinball has actually had an influence on the home we just purchased like the size of the basement and adding a stairway to get games in easier and also adding a sidewalk that leads from the front of the house to the back! Nah, I'm not obsessed lol.

Always played a little in the arcades as a wee lad in the 80's but it was the joy of skipping high school and smoking hash that allowed it to really evolve in the 90's. Good Times.

Bitches. Bitches love pinball.

When I first played a game and got a replay I was hooked. Up until then I was playing arcades and just pumping quarters into them. Now I could take 1 quarter, and if I did good or matched I could get another game for free? Sign me up.

In 1990 i was living in a small town and they put a pinbot and a fire in our video store. Fire broke down the first day and never did get fixed but pinbot became my obsession. What really drew me in was I was good at it. When you'r 12 years old and beating the older kids after school it becomes a fix.

Thankfully my parents moved back to city and lived by two big malls with arcades. Plus every strip mall quiky mart had a game or 2 it seemed. Everyday I'd stop and play multiple times up until about 1997. In 1998 I met my now wife and kind of forgot about pinball. I bought a few arcade games for cheap and we always had a fooseball and air hockey table but never thought of owing a pinball machine.

Fast forward to 2009 and my wife had some appointments in Edmonton so I was wondering around west Edmonton mall and saw the circus circus arcade. Figured why not. Haven't been in a arcade in years and have a hr to kill. Found a stern Family Guy. I remember laughing and thinking why did I stop playing pinball? Also i blew right by the hr I had.

A year later I was back and they closed the arcade. Fuk now what? From that point on everytime I would go to the city I'd drive all over hunting for pinball to play. It never clicked over dawned on me to buy one but was happy to play pinball for a hr or 2 every few months when in the city.

In about 2014 I was buying and selling video games and saw a ad for a south park pinball machine. Thought damn wouldn't that be cool to have my own game? I didn't have a job or much/any money so decided at that point to sell some of my video games I wasn't playing anyways and buy a pinball machine. Thankfully the south park sold before I had the funds so I placed a wanted ad looking for a working game not needing repairs. Got a response back about a week later from a lady with a teed off for $1000. 3 hrs later i was home with my first game. Rest is history.

My parents owned a bar growing up and had 2 six card bingo's I played a lot along with an old EM (can't remember now which) and well that put me on the road to ownership and obsession. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Patti Maguire on a backglass and I had a quarter in my pocket.

Wow, I’ve been looking in all the wrong places!

Being stuck at the bowling alley as a kid waiting for my Dad’s league games to finish. I had one task to stay out of the way and
Pinball games lasted the longest with my limited quarter supply. Lol

Started the summer of 2018. My brother in law moved near us and took me to a local coffee shop that had 26 machines! I kept going back and my wife got hooked. My four year old loves to play it too he can trap up and everything! (He beats is sometime).

My wife joined the Veela and Chimes chapter and won 1st place in the division b class on the day before Mother’s Day this year. And then on mothers’ day I told her that I had just worked a deal locally for a our first machine which is being worked on by the local repair Man.

So we are just getting into it.

The place is What’s Brewing Coffee Roasters. It’s near the airport. We were there just a couple months ago. What a great place to get a cup of coffee and play pinball.

https://www.sacoffeeroasters.com/

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In 1979 my father came home with a Gottleib Team One.

What came of it?

Ended up selling it a few years later.

This guy, and I'll let you guess what my first pinball was !

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When I was six years old my grandfather gave me a pachinko machine. It didn’t fully work but it was my favorite “toy”. It fascinated me to no end. One day, my parents threw it out without telling me because they were sick of the little balls getting all over the house. 30 years later, you have a grown man who owns several pinball machines.

I played a tiny bit of pinball in the mid-90s, but I was more of an arcade game guy and never really got the point of pinball, so I found it a little intimidating. But when the Pinball Arcade app dropped in 2012 I downloaded it right away and got sucked in, started plotting to buy an actual machine, then found this site and did a bunch of research before settling on The Shadow. I only planned to have one pinball, and I stuck with that for a sold year or two before they started multiplying.

Was an arcade rat back in the 70s and 80s

Discovered that competitive arcade gaming was a thing 10 years ago so I started attending tournaments and expos where there was both arcade and pinball

Saw Stern tweet about a pinball league in my area 3 years ago and have been playing competitively ever since

Bought my first pinball machine about two years ago

Now have 5 machines in my collection

I used to be a gym rat but now I'm fat from all the beer I've drank over the last 3 years while playing pinball

Das it mane

I agree

Just had a local news channel do a story on us covering this very topic.
Enjoy.
https://www.12newsnow.com/article/features/pinball-mafia-beaumont-family-proving-the-old-fashioned-game-is-on-the-rise/502-f1c68b5c-42b2-48b4-b662-581d8e123d86

I have a good friend who got me to play video pinball. Then he basically dragged me to the Michigan Pinball Expo and in the first 40 mins I was addicted. Told him I'd own 2 machines in the next 4 months, I didnt lie. Now my obsession has far passed his. He now looks at me like I have a problem, it's all his falut.

Got a good chickle from that! I'm a gym/exercise rat now; mainly because I'm living overseas without all my pins. I'll probably 'fatten up' when I return to the states!

So what got me into pinball is that, I used to Play The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, The Getaway: High Speed II, and White Water at Go-Kart Raceway in my Hometown (used to be American Raceway back in my childhood.). Also, used to play Jurassic Park, Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter II, and Super Mario Bros: Mushroom World at Celebration Station near Interstate 45 (I-45) back in my childhood as well. What awesome nostalgia!!