Born 66 and I'm a late computer nerd and video gamer, 80s and diner times bunking off school to play defender, PAC, galaxian (my fav) et el and never remember seeing a pinball machine in the arcades at that time. Fast forward to the pub (91-2) as my local got a new T2 in and I played it to death when it left the pub pinball stopped for me until 2012 although video games has stayed with me since the 8 bit NES and I have or had every console and handheld along the way, except Wii-U what a let down for the money.

I was after a new hobby and while looking on auction sites I saw a T2 for sale and had a flashback to my local pub in the 90s, after thinking about it I bought a Fish Tales (of course) in 2012 and have been getting it back up and running.

For me it is the ultimate boys (and chicks) toy, it's a game in its own right, it is electrical, it is mechanical and you can mod them to death, so many dimensions to "just a pinball machine" awesome. Lets keep it to ourselves though eh T2 is on my most wanted list now.

Long way of saying old nostalgic git with a bit of disposable dosh uses Internet (auction sites) buys pin and recaptures youth

Machines in the wild (when you can find them) have to be set up correctly which is quite a challenge and responsibility for the operators to get the balance right, in some regard the future of pinball is in there hands as well:

They have to be priced and set up so that kids/casual players with say 5 bucks don't have a series of 30 second drain experiences and move over to the video machines and never look back. They also need to be well cared for so that the lasting impression is also a good one, what is worse than having a dirty, faulty 30 second drain-a-thon. If it is a well maintained, clean experience then even if the first few games are short it becomes a challenge rather than a chore.

Of course sadly the ops have to make a living as well.

Disposable income and cost of sale are the more of an issue to sustainability of the business, while right now prices are increasing most businesses tend to fold rather than adapt and flex when things start to decline. I hope that stern and JJP have a model already in place to be able to cope with the peaks and troughs to come.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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