(Topic ID: 59251)

What has caused the resurgence of pinball?

By rustybomber79

10 years ago


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    There are 210 posts in this topic. You are on page 4 of 5.
    #151 10 years ago
    Quoted from DCfoodfreak:

    Lined up for LEs before but going pro when the next table I like comes around like I did with Metallica.

    And why not? Smart move......

    #152 10 years ago

    Resurgence? Hmm I always was a fan of pinball way back when. Many arcades in my area Closed down and tables did get on the pricey side to play.

    What got me back into pinball was Zen pinball and Farsight's pinball Arcade. It brought me some nostalgia of playing the old tables I grew up with. However playing these pretty good visual sims of tables is nothing like playing the real thing.

    Now I'm trying to find leagues/tournaments and meet-ups to play real tables here in the phoenix Area. There is a league here but there is a waiting list. How long? I don't know. I just went to Castles and Coasters yesterday to play some real machines and many of them needed work. I think 4 or 5 of tables played well. There were some that had stuck flippers, Weak Flippers. Balance was off.

    If I could I would have bought a table already but I don't have to funds for 1 right now. I'm looking at the X-men pin but $5000 is a heavy investment for one new to starting a collection.

    Any-way I've been playing Zen and TPA a lot but it's nothing like the real thing.

    #153 10 years ago

    i don't see any resurgence up here. maybe collectors but not the regular peoples.

    40 years old + asking ''whats your hobby?''
    collecting/fixing pinballs.
    ''what! you can get those?, where? and it still exist?''
    yep, new pins come out every year and not hard to find.

    20 years old +/- : whats your hobby?
    collecting/fixing pinballs.
    what's a pinball?

    saddly the new generation (almost all of them) don't give a damn about it, including my son!
    now ask them about the new playstation, they know everything about it.

    no pins to be found anywhere except maybe one or 2 places around here (total of 3 pins)
    so the new generation and the 40 years old + don't know what's out there.

    #154 10 years ago
    Quoted from Fanatic:

    I don't think "resurgence" was too strong at all.
    Recently, I was gifted a pin.

    ???

    Congrats on the gift, but I'm not sure you receiving a 30-yr-old pinball machine (Bally Spy Hunter) really supports that there's a "resurgence" occurring...

    A neighbor gave me an old intellivision console and several boxes of games the had found in their attic. This probably has about the same street value as a SpyHunter thats in need of a full restore. would you say this signifies a resurgence in Intellivsion Consoles?

    Are there dramatically MORE pinball machines available to the public than there were a few years ago?

    Are there more machines being manufactured and "entering the space" than those aging out and dying?

    #155 10 years ago
    Quoted from lowepg:

    A neighbor gave me an old intellivision console and several boxes of games the had found in their attic. This probably has about the same street value as a SpyHunter thats in need of a full restore. would you say this signifies a resurgence in Intellivsion Consoles?

    The intellivision console for the baseball game was the greatest game EVER! I still have it in storage.....

    When I was in college at Texas we used to have tournaments with the baseball team in my dorm room (I was basketball) and it was the best EVER!!! Early 80's.....

    #156 10 years ago

    1000% Ipad and pinball apps on handheld devices....why? Because disposable income has always been around (for a lot of ppl). The economy has had a few boom and bust cycles in the past few decades but pinball was still on a down trend. Popular machines have been around since the late 70's (assuming that's when machines became very collectible) that makes the average collector's age around 50-60..that does not add up why the last 3 years or so pinball collection has gone through the roof. I bet the poll will show the average collector here is at least a decade younger than those numbers above. The only thing that changed 3 years ago that was different from the generations before was the advent of the Ipad and good game apps.

    #157 10 years ago
    Quoted from lowepg:

    Are there dramatically MORE pinball machines available to the public than there were a few years ago?

    Are there more machines being manufactured and "entering the space" than those aging out and dying?

    Good questions that leads to the half empty/half full perspective.

    Is pinball all the way back to the early 90's?
    No, not even close. 20k TAF built in 1993 ends all arguments.

    Is pinball in the same state it was 4 years ago?
    No- it is much better. Without having Stern's production numbers you can still see that it has grown. They have rehired and expanded staff versus the layoffs they had to make a short time ago. There is also another manufacturer making 50 pins a week with other small boutique shops popping up every day.

    There are more shows emerging, again not as many people being exposed to pins as the hey day of the arcade era, but still a lot better climate than 5 years ago. Plus you are seeing more barcades emerging, Hall of Fame venues being planned, and cottage industries (modders, suppliers, part makers) revolving around the growth.

    The hobby has gained in popularity, just not to the heights of pinball 20 years ago. The OP has a good question when wondering why the growth.

    #158 10 years ago

    ^^^ Agreed. Prices have increased in the past two years because of an increase in demand. It isn't what it was twenty years ago, but neither is it what it was five years ago.

    #159 10 years ago

    However you slice it, more home buyers is not a pinball resurgence, it's growth of collectors. A resurgence would be arcades that earn a profit from machines. Are there a few, yes, maybe. But not like the 90's.

    #160 10 years ago
    Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:

    However you slice it, more home buyers is not a pinball resurgence, it's growth of collectors. A resurgence would be arcades that earn a profit from machines. Are there a few, yes, maybe. But not like the 90's.

    Yes, you made the point i was struggling to make.

    I think the home collector market has grown.

    However, I think FEWER people are playing pinball. More machines are moving from the wild to rec rooms....

    Now, I hear about "barcades" flourishing in some limited locations, but mostly, I see fewer and fewer machines in the wild.

    #161 10 years ago
    Quoted from lowepg:

    Now, I hear about "barcades" flourishing in some limited locations,

    We see them opening up. And some with classic video games.

    None have stood the test of time yet. Usually the bars do better than what is in them.

    LTG : )

    #162 10 years ago

    There are more diverse environments where PINS are sheltering these days as well but only in relatively small numbers, burgercades, pizzacades etc and they make appearances at various conferences (aside from comic/pin confs) where stalls and manufacturers want to "attract" people over to view their wares. I was even talking to some Vodafone marketing people about commissioning a PIN with a SIM card in it to a) attract people over to our product stands and b) demonstrate machine-2-machine communication possibilities. Near Field Communications to pay for a game, self ordering of battery's and pinballs every year, self-healing.......

    Everything will be connected at some point, what is known as the internet of everything vision of the not too distant future, then PINS will be able to find their friends and meet up to exchange high scores etc. At this point real machines will be talking and competing with the digital and virtual machines on leader boards in real-time.

    All depends on someone actually being able to bloody work out IPv6 of course so I'm out.

    -2
    #163 10 years ago

    Moral Dilemma

    If there was too much of a resurgence and more youngsters and youths were playing PINS would that mean that the governments and press would start blaming increasing crime rates on PIN playing, some themes can be a bit violent like WoZ for example, killing witches and bashing targets. Video games like resident evil and GTA seem quite tame in comparison.

    Careful what you wish for, more anarchy from PIN playing will just lead to pinheads being ostracised by society.

    #164 10 years ago
    Quoted from Sly_Old_Devil:

    There are more diverse environments where PINS are sheltering these days as well but only in relatively small numbers, burgercades, pizzacades etc and they make appearances at various conferences (aside from comic/pin confs) where stalls and manufacturers want to "attract" people over to view their wares. I was even talking to some Vodafone marketing people about commissioning a PIN with a SIM card in it to a) attract people over to our product stands and b) demonstrate machine-2-machine communication possibilities. Near Field Communications to pay for a game, self ordering of battery's and pinballs every year, self-healing.......
    Everything will be connected at some point, what is known as the internet of everything vision of the not too distant future, then PINS will be able to find their friends and meet up to exchange high scores etc. At this point real machines will be talking and competing with the digital and virtual machines on leader boards in real-time.
    All depends on someone actually being able to bloody work out IPv6 of course so I'm out.

    what about wireless rip off pricing will OP really want to pay say $10-$15 a game a month just for an 3g / 4g / lte hook up?

    #165 10 years ago
    Quoted from rustybomber79:

    Hello All,
    I am new to the hobby and have been hanging out on Pinside taking it all in. I have seen alot of forums about how prices have jumped and that the hobby is experiencing a "bubble". I am not trying to start another discussion complaining about high prices.
    What I am wondering what has caused the bubble of interest in the hobby?
    Is it that Stern and JJP are making such cool games people are taking notice? (just an example, not tooting sterns/jjp horn or putting them down)
    Is it that more local tournaments are showing up?
    Pure nostalgia?
    A bunch of rich people with "too much bloody money"?
    Some weird shift in culture?
    What do you guys think could be causing it?

    It really comes down to the internet. Before then people did not have the access to information, manuals, parts, and games. Combine that with older folks with disposable income and you have a pretty nice movement. I do believe the flow of information and availability of parts has been a big part of it. Also all of the people who have provided reproduction materials, art, etc. It is an amazing change of events from when I was into it in the mid 90's. Parts were near impossible to find and getting ahold of people was tough.

    #166 10 years ago
    Quoted from Joe_Blasi:

    what about wireless rip off pricing will OP really want to pay say $10-$15 a game a month just for an 3g / 4g / lte hook up?

    OPs and home users with collections would/could have a hub set up so that only one connection (even via the xDSL account wirelessly) would be doing any transactional activity, or not, it is their choice to participate in real time world leader boards etc I guess. Choose a provider with the deal that works for you/them.

    Erm lets not go OT with a provider bashing if poss just talking ideas and possibilities especially as I have no idea how the landscape works in the states. I take your point about not wanting any extra costs though if your an Op.

    #167 10 years ago

    All three kids have moved out, so we are empty nesters. We stayed in the same house so now have the space and the disposable income to spend on pins. I think there are more 50 somethings and 60 somethings lurking out here than many Pinsiders realize.

    #168 10 years ago

    ^^^

    there's a lot of us "50 somethings" here...

    #169 10 years ago
    Quoted from Sly_Old_Devil:

    OPs and home users with collections would/could have a hub set up so that only one connection (even via the xDSL account wirelessly) would be doing any transactional activity, or not, it is their choice to participate in real time world leader boards etc I guess. Choose a provider with the deal that works for you/them.

    Erm lets not go OT with a provider bashing if poss just talking ideas and possibilities especially as I have no idea how the landscape works in the states. I take your point about not wanting any extra costs though if your an Op.

    It's easy for home use... But on site OP will have set it up for each site and if the site changes there WiFi setup say changes the password. Also dealing if WIFI system that use web pages to login to get on line may be hard to do as well issues with ports needing to be open.

    There is a lot of tech stuff to it and you can get more info at places like dslreports and other tech sites.

    #170 10 years ago

    as it would be virtually impossible to set up machines identically, it's hard to envision a scenario where "online competition" would work...

    the actual communication is the least of the worries, and would be very easy to do... it's far from rocket science...

    #171 10 years ago

    I believe that it has been a combination of all of the above. There is no real way to tell what started it... nostalgia, virtual pins, market or a new way for pinheads to connect, but the fact of the matter is that it did happen. No matter how it came about, the hobby is where it stands. Even if you hate the virtual pins, if you hate the licensed new pins, hate the old EM machines or even earlier... every person who commits or has a connection to any of the earlier mentioned pin outlets has their own reason for loving them.
    With that said, i have noticed that with the renewed interest in pinball, alot of old barn, basement and warehouse machines have come available. Most of the time these are basketcases (like my sorcerer) but they are again seeing the light of day and I think that no matter the reason for it, we are happy to take in these basketcases and make them right again. Doesn't matter if you are a gamer, if you were a kid of the 70's or 80's, happened across it from a friend or craigslist or any other means, this is what we do and I only hope that it continues on to the next generation.

    #172 10 years ago
    Quoted from ccotenj:

    as it would be virtually impossible to set up machines identically, it's hard to envision a scenario where "online competition" would work...
    the actual communication is the least of the worries, and would be very easy to do... it's far from rocket science...

    Yep agreed new standards would have to be introduced and settings would have to be categorised and audit-able such as tournament, hard, medium, easy, with sensors to know if the glass was removed or magnets used etc. complicated but doable and potentially costly. Just not realistic short to medium term yet so would only be high scores JFF like showing screen shots or posting them on a pin forum. Being able to do updates or order more beer automagically is appealing though, the actual comms is easy to achieve and is ubiquitous today.

    Cheers.

    #173 10 years ago

    What got me into pinball was a pinball party... organized by a pinball CLUB. From there.. I was totally hooked. In less than 9 months I went from owning 0 pins to owning 6. Then I realized that the experience of physical pinball is what makes people fall in love with it... so I decided to start creating events myself... for my area... to make free pinball accessible to new comers. At this party I just did a week ago, we had 140+ people come, of which 70% were non owners...

    For now.

    #174 10 years ago
    Quoted from Jared:

    What got me into pinball was a pinball party... organized by a pinball CLUB. From there.. I was totally hooked. In less than 9 months I went from owning 0 pins to owning 6. Then I realized that the experience of physical pinball is what makes people fall in love with it... so I decided to start creating events myself... for my area... to make free pinball accessible to new comers. At this party I just did a week ago, we had 140+ people come, of which 70% were non owners...
    For now.
    » YouTube video

    I don't disagree that generally people like pinball when they play it. I was at a movie theater and they had 3 machines, there was a young mother playing junkyard and laughing etc. But, did she seek out the game, no, it happened to be there when she was early for the movie. Now, if more people seek out pinball publically, then I'll be onboard with a resurgence. But for now, I'm happy it's still alive in some form or another.

    #175 10 years ago
    Quoted from Jared:

    What got me into pinball was a pinball party... organized by a pinball CLUB. From there.. I was totally hooked. In less than 9 months I went from owning 0 pins to owning 6. Then I realized that the experience of physical pinball is what makes people fall in love with it... so I decided to start creating events myself... for my area... to make free pinball accessible to new comers. At this party I just did a week ago, we had 140+ people come, of which 70% were non owners...
    For now.
    » YouTube video

    Hey Bakushan, that is one of the best posts I have ever seen on Pinside! Congratulations and thank you for spreading the cult of the silver ball! Because of you, your friends and all those like you pinball lives on.

    #176 10 years ago
    Quoted from Sly_Old_Devil:

    Yep agreed new standards would have to be introduced and settings would have to be categorised and audit-able such as tournament, hard, medium, easy, with sensors to know if the glass was removed or magnets used etc. complicated but doable and potentially costly. Just not realistic short to medium term yet so would only be high scores JFF like showing screen shots or posting them on a pin forum. Being able to do updates or order more beer automagically is appealing though, the actual comms is easy to achieve and is ubiquitous today.
    Cheers.

    also table condition having some parts broken / not working right can lead to easy high scores.

    order more beer automatically sounds cool but I think most liquor laws will not let that happen.

    #177 10 years ago
    Quoted from txstargazer3:

    Hey Bakushan, that is one of the best posts I have ever seen on Pinside! Congratulations and thank you for spreading the cult of the silver ball! Because of you, your friends and all those like you pinball lives on.

    Just doing my part.

    I think if everyone would step back and understand their own importance as "Pinball Ambassadors" instead of just deal chasers, value collectors or craigslust hawks we could really grow this thing in a hurry.

    If we want pinball to grow, its up to all of us to find innovative and creative solutions to make that happen.

    #178 10 years ago

    I think the rise in the number of persons who have pins in their homes has created a virtuous cycle. At least a hundred people have played pinball in our house this past year, not one of whom has played a pin in the wild in years. In fact, the great majority of them would have walked right by an arcade (which they probably haven't done in a decade or more anyway). Being here gives them the chance to be reintroduced to pinball in a welcoming atmosphere, with some helpful instruction, and at no cost or risk. As a result, many are now enthusiasts, and a few are buyers.

    Also, it would not even have occurred to most of them that individuals might own their own pins. Now they have an example to emulate. I know that seeing a couple of outstanding home collections inspired me. Seeing the same pins in an arcade (bar, restaurant, etc.) would not have had the same effect.

    #179 10 years ago

    We can start talking more seriously about a "resurgence" when JJP and Heighway sell 10,000 units of a title, have to go back into production on it, thereby inspiring further startups and giving Stern some cause for concern.

    But I think Craig and Bakushan are on the right track.

    #180 10 years ago

    I think we can forget 10,000 units. Looking back at a day that we can't recapture isn't productive. The victory is that we got this hobby off of life support and it is actually growing. People are coming back to pinball, people are discovering pinball and we have multiple choices of manufacturers. I'm very encouraged.

    #181 10 years ago

    I don't care why, but it's the Spores that makes us need to own all of them.

    #182 10 years ago

    The home market in conjunction with a newer great pins is expanding this from arcade based. The expansion of service and repair Tecks. Is of equal importance. People will buy fun and expensive toys as long as they can be serviced.

    #183 10 years ago

    For me it has been directly a result of the Pinball Arcade. Playing that reminded me how much fun I had playing real pinball in the 90's. So then I went out and found some real machines to play and I was hooked again. Now pretty soon I'll be starting my collection (as soon as my house closing finishes and I get moved in).

    Having disposable income available now and feeling like console gaming in general is getting a little stale for me are definitely contributing factors too, but TPA was the main thing.

    #184 10 years ago
    Quoted from Jared:

    What got me into pinball was a pinball party... organized by a pinball CLUB. From there.. I was totally hooked. In less than 9 months I went from owning 0 pins to owning 6. Then I realized that the experience of physical pinball is what makes people fall in love with it... so I decided to start creating events myself... for my area... to make free pinball accessible to new comers. At this party I just did a week ago, we had 140+ people come, of which 70% were non owners...

    For now.

    Great video! Makes me wish I was there!

    #185 10 years ago

    No single cause in my opinion. You have the older guys who grew up playing pins and now have the cash to buy them, you have the younger guys who may have played afew pins or played the 90s arcade games and have gotten into pins through re discovering those, you have the addition of visual pinball and pinball arcade and the last big thing I see is that you have the internet which allows people to find pinball machines and find support for them.

    Myself I got into them last year, growing up a friend of my dad's had a jacks open I'd play abit but I mainly played video games, I started getting into mame and picked up a lowboy cabinet and from going back into arcades I ended up playing their 2 broken pins whenever I got a long lunch from work. From there I planned on a visual pinball cabinet as I didn't think I could justify the cash on a real pin but I kind of got hooked and said f*** it and just bought my space jam, from there I couldn't say no to the next 3.

    #186 10 years ago
    Quoted from Sly_Old_Devil:

    Moral Dilemma
    If there was too much of a resurgence and more youngsters and youths were playing PINS would that mean that the governments and press would start blaming increasing crime rates on PIN playing, some themes can be a bit violent like WoZ for example, killing witches and bashing targets. Video games like resident evil and GTA seem quite tame in comparison.
    Careful what you wish for, more anarchy from PIN playing will just lead to pinheads being ostracised by society.

    2 thumbs down, sorry if my sarcastic post was lost in translation or unfunny or both. If it wasn't lost on you and you actually believe that a pin like WoZ (the most family friendly theme there is) could cause detrimental behaviour and increase crime rates then thank god you are a long haul flight away from me and my family.

    sarcasm - look it up.
    Edit: not worried about the thumbs down just sad if people are so literal.

    #187 10 years ago
    Quoted from EricR:

    Having disposable income available now and feeling like console gaming in general is getting a little stale for me are definitely contributing factors too.

    Feel the same, been a gamer all my life (well from age 10) and even ran a BF clan that at one stage was 14th on clanbase for BFV but continual sequels and gimmicky consoles etc has dampened my gaming enthusiasm. That and continually getting pwned by kids and everyone else these days

    #188 10 years ago

    Seeing the Duo Pinball Controller pop up on Engadget peaked my interest. I wanted to play games from my youth so when I found Pinball Arcade and started playing that, I was hooked.

    I had three machines years ago but sold them after we got married. Seem's I am obsessed with pinball now. Good thing as my bride enjoys pinball and never cared much for the car thing. Pinball is less expensive than my car obsession too. Bonus!

    #189 10 years ago
    Quoted from EricR:

    Having disposable income available now and feeling like console gaming in general is getting a little stale for me are definitely contributing factors too

    Eric, good point about console gaming getting stale. I feel that too. I know the production values are better and the graphics are too, but I always get that "been there, done that" feeling with console games now. I don't have that with pins for some unknown reason.

    I'm not knocking consoles; I played them for years. They just don't do it for me anymore.

    #190 10 years ago
    Quoted from Sly_Old_Devil:

    2 thumbs down...sarcasm - look it up.
    Edit: not worried about the thumbs down just sad if people are so literal.

    If you haven't by now, you WILL learn how thin-skinned people are around these parts.

    (Especially when it comes to anything related to JJP.)

    #191 10 years ago

    I had three machines years ago but sold them after we got married. Seem's I am obsessed with pinball now. Good thing as my bride enjoys pinball and never cared much for the car thing. Pinball is less expensive than my car obsession too. Bonus!

    Great idea, tell your wife you are going to collect something over the top expensive, like boating, Tiffany lamps, elephant tusks or rare venomous snakes. Then when she freaks out she will compromise and let you get a much less expensive ACDC Premium instead!

    #192 10 years ago

    The cake is a lie.

    There is no resurgence.... there is inflation.

    #193 10 years ago

    If there was an actual resurgence going on then you'd see more games on location and more people playing them. The home/collector grew a lot in recent times but the operator market continues to shrink especially now with pins costing a lot more than they did even a couple of years ago. There's no realistic way to get a ROI on a pin that costs over 5 grand when it takes in maybe 50 - 100 bucks a week and that's before the location split for street locations. It's just not possible in most cases for those games to ever pay for themselves before they either break down and cost more in parts and labor or the operator dies or goes out of business. They pretty much have to sell them after a year or two to try and make their money back. Back in the later half of the 90's less and less operators wanted to buy pins because they didn't earn enough vs what they cost to buy and maintain and that's when the end user cost was around 3400. When I worked at Williams operators would tell me all the time how they didn't want to buy pins anymore and only did if a location insisted on a new pin because they didn't want to lose the account by not fulfilling their demand. That situation hasn't changed and the coin-op market is even smaller than it was back then. There's exceptions to every rule and some operators have bought WOZ and new Sterns but those numbers are pretty small, especially in the big picture.

    What is really happening is the collector market has grown quite a bit in recent times but that's risky because at some point, like all collectibles, people lose interest and move on to other things, or people run out of disposable income and drop out of the hobby, or the market becomes flooded with product and is unable to sustain itself. It happened with sports cards, comics, beanie babies and any number of things. The market today has been supportive of 8000 dollar games, boutique games, expensive pro models and even more expensive LE models but at some point that well will likely get run dry as there's only so many multi thousand dollars you can get out of people before they run out of space, money, and desire.

    I'm not trying to shit all over this hobby that we all love or the business and believe me I love that there's all these machines still being made and even more parts than have been available in over a decade but to call it a resurgence is just an unrealistic description.

    #194 10 years ago
    Quoted from Fatsquatch:

    If you haven't by now, you WILL learn how thin-skinned people are around these parts.
    (Especially when it comes to anything related to JJP.)

    yeah I did wonder if it was all just down to certain three letter acronyms, wtf for example

    #195 10 years ago

    A resurgence doesn't have to mean games on location in arcades, actually - although you ARE seeing more of those. This isn't happening in all parts of the country, but in my area, for example, Pinball Wizard opened just over 2 years ago. That's about 100 more pinball machines in my locale than there were 3 years ago.

    And even if we don't see a full-on return of arcades in every town, I personally don't think that eliminates the concept of a resurgence. Even if it WERE just the home collector... so what? Why doesn't that count as a resurgence? Especially when home collectors get together and put on a party like THAT ONE Bakushan posted (still in awe)? That's simply a new evolution in how pinball is popular. It's also a way more conducive to pinball, because home collectors keep their pins dialed in and playing hot. Leagues and gatherings of people coming together to play home collections is just as legit a resurgence, in my opinion. It still means pinball is growing.

    But actually, there ARE more arcades/barcades/venues opening up:

    http://losalamitos.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/family-restaurant-and-arcade-to-open-in-place-of-finbars

    http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/15/5568422/rancho-cordova-to-contribute-6.html

    http://blog.al.com/gulf-coast/2013/07/whats_new_at_the_beach_fat_dad.html

    http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130718/ASHEVILLESCENE/307180030/Hot-Sheet-Pinball-Museum-open-downtown-Asheville

    http://www.nola.com/bar-guide/index.ssf/2013/07/barcadia_bar_grill.html

    #196 10 years ago

    I know the pinball league I am in has grown quite a bit (I'm one of the new guys). I checked their historical records from past seasons:

    May 2013: 66 total players for season.
    May 2012: 54 total players for season.
    April 2011: 51 total players for season.

    That works out to 23% growth over 2012, and 30% growth in 2 years since 2011.

    #197 10 years ago

    For me, it was Visual Pinball. Or perhaps Pro Pinball.

    Some history: I'm 61 as of August 11. I played a few pins when I was growing up. I can't remember the first time I played a pin, but in 1963 we moved to a rental house that had an old pin in the basement. I don't remember what it was, but I feel safe in saying it was a wood rail. My cousins would come over and we played it some. But most of the time I was on the streets running wild. But probably, that basement pin was my first. I dod remember my dad saying the house were were moving to had a pinball in the basement.

    I recall playing one in a roadside restaurant. This would have been in '64 or '65. My mind leads me to think is was Slick Chick. I also remember playing Moulin Rouge in a bowling alley. There were a few others, but whatever they were is lost to time.

    I do remember when they went from 5 balls for a dime and mechanical plunger to being 3 balls for a quarter. That sucked.

    Sometime in the mid-late 70s, there was a Satin Doll in the tittie bar was was pissing money away in. I remember having some good (drunken) sessions with Satin Doll.

    Around 1980, there was a Williams Fire in the local gas-n-go that I hit on after getting of my 2nd shift job. That is the last machine I put money into for many years. And I remember it being kick ass fun to play.

    In the 90s, I walked passed a few gas stations pins. All the wires rails and double play fields left me cold.

    In 1998, I bought an iMac. In 1999, I stumbled into Pro Pinball's The Web. Soon, I has all four Pro Pinball games. Played them for hours. With that, I thought I would seek out a real table to play again. I found one at a local pool hall. I sunk a few quarters but did not have much fun. That would have been around 2002 and the last time I fed any pin. Not too long after that I put my Pro Pinball games away ( to this I will add that I knew about other pinball games in the internet but they were for PCs and not Macs).

    About a year ago, I started seeing these visual pinball tables on You Tube. It took me awhile to figure out how this was being done. Once I figured it out that this was being done with a flat screen TV monitor I knew I had to have one. Then I found VPForums.org. I was hooked. Last September, I bought a PC and I built a visual pin mini-cab. By April of this year, I stepped into the real world and bought a Bally Playboy.

    And that is how I would up on Pinside.

    So, am I contributing to this "resurgence" that is being discussed here? I don't know, but I don't think so. It looks my old Playboy spent some time living in a barn (there are mud dauber's nests in the back box). An old machine came back to life with a new owner; It did not add a new machine to the marketplace. One owner went away and a new owner came on board. I suppose I could be considered as a new demand in the pinball world. But does that contribute to "resurgence"? That is an interesting question.

    I do know I now have the bug (addiction?) to get a couple more pins. Given my age of 61, I gravitate to the older machines I grew up around. I like bells and chimes and for the most part the talking machines do not do much for me.

    After watching many videos at PAPA.org and You Tube, plus the games I have downloaded to my visual pin cab, my desires are leaning towards Joker Poker and Mata Hari and the Williams Italian Yukon as pins I would like to live with. These pins are in my price range. As an aside, I would LIKE to have a Scared Stiff, but for the prices these are bringing, SS will remain on my "like to have" list.

    So, if I buy an old Joker Poker and/or a Mata Hari (or SS), is that a resurgence? Or is it just one owner selling to a new buyer? If the old owner sells to me and gets out of the hobby, then there is no net gain, other my me being a new fish and paying too damn much for an old machine.
    If the previous owner sells to me and goes and buys a different old machine, then you add me as a new count to the hobby.

    Then the question is how much is new fish going to pay for an old machine? Am I going to be a fool and drive prices higher? Let me put it this way: If shipping costs weren't so high I would have already probably suckered myself into paying too much, too soon after getting into this hobby. And I probably would have wound up with something I would have tired of quickly. Shipping prices (NAVL) have made me cautious of where and how I spend my pin dollars.

    I may anger the original poster when he said he was not interested in what is driving prices but was more interested in the "resurgence" because I do think he is really wanting to know what is driving prices. ( To original poster---if I am reading you wrong and mis-speak, I apologize, but I ask you that if prices were not going up, would you have even asked the question in the first place?)

    What got me here was Visual Pinball, Pro Pinball, craigslist, and search tempest. I'm definitely adding demand to a fixed base of old machines. More new fish like me could considered as price drivers, but I don't think we could be considered as a resurgence.

    I've rambled too long; I'll stop now. In closing, my opinion is that visual pinball is the big driver, as well as all the parts and repair resources available on the internet for 30 and 40 year old games.

    One last thing: A few months ago, I bought some parts for my mini-cab from PBR. No internet connection at that shop. I bought my parts from a lady over the telephone. She says, "we will send you the parts and a bill. When you receive your parts please send us a check along with our copy of the bill."

    I asked if that was not a a little dangerous for PBR. She said, "We have over 30,000 customers around the world. We have no problems with people paying".

    I'm like WOW !!. That is not a small customer base. And they do business with a "telephone handshake" !! Nobody does that anymore. My check went in the mail the day the parts were received.

    #198 10 years ago
    Quoted from txstargazer3:

    Eric, good point about console gaming getting stale. I feel that too. I know the production values are better and the graphics are too, but I always get that "been there, done that" feeling with console games now. I don't have that with pins for some unknown reason.
    I'm not knocking consoles; I played them for years. They just don't do it for me anymore.

    That's exactly how I've been feeling lately. I end up sampling a lot of games just to find one here and there that catch my interest for a while. Outside of pinball games its mostly been indie stuff that I've really enjoyed recently, not the big AAA titles so much.

    I guess it just goes to show that the best graphics and gameplay in the world are just no substitute for a physical real-world games like pinball.

    #199 10 years ago

    It was the PinBall arcade software that got me into it. I am probably younger than most at 25 so never really grew up with PinBall. In fact until recently when I went out LOOKING for pinball machines I had only seen a few in my entire life.

    The PinBall arcade opened up a whole new world for me and impressed upon me just how fun PinBall could be. From there it got me out and around my city looking for locations where I could play real pinball machines and I have now bought my first machine and am looking to buy more.

    You know its an odd thing. There are obviously not many physical machines out there because the customers are not there to support it but at the same time I cant support the machines if they dont exist. Catch 22 I guess. Had I had the luck of randomly running into a machine before onsite my obsession may have developed earlier than it did.

    *edit*

    It also helps from a personal collection point of view that I am old enough now that I am at a point in my career where despite the lack of available on location machines I can afford to indulge in my hobby from a collectors point of view. Something even two years ago would not have been possible for me.

    After reading the posts above too I must concur. I have been a console/PC gamer since 93 and sitting down with the old Apogee/ID games but the last few years have been slowly losing my urge to sit down and play anything for any length of time. PinBall now seems to have taken its place.

    #200 10 years ago

    I recently read an article on an economic blog that talked about a coming backlash against virtual things, what I simply call a "revenge of the real". Think of how many things happen in cyberspace now - massive movements of money, dozens of "friends" on Facebook, even forums like this one. All these are great, but there "ain't nothing like the real thing, baby." Going to PAPA really drove that home for me. I loved being around so many pinball people.

    We all crave real human interaction, and doing physical things in the real world. Short of actual contact sports, there's nothing more physical than pinball. And if you usually play alone, you're missing out on the best part of pinball, which is comeradery and friendly competition.

    There are 210 posts in this topic. You are on page 4 of 5.

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