Sorry for diggin' up an old thread....but it's a good one IMHO.

Like others here, I started playing pins back in the EM days - but none of those would really qualify as the one that got me 'hooked'. That disctinction belongs to the 1979 Williams Flash. To this day, I can still remember hearing the 'thunder' and seeing the flashers for the 1st time. For someone who was used to the bell/chimes - it blew me away.

I was hooked from that point forward. In the early 80's I spent a good portion of my teen years (and $$) playing Firepower, Black Knight, 8 Ball Delux, Flight 2000, Paragon, Space Invaders, etc. I never took to the video games, and hated that they pushed pinball from the arcades.

I grew away from pinball in the late 80's and missed most of the DMD era. Sure, I'd play occassionally, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I rediscovered pinball. I blame that on the IPDB. Being able to view pictures of all the machines I played in my youth fueled my desire to play again. It wasn't long after that I purchased Flash. ...then a project pin (Black Jack), then High Speed.....then Paragon...then Firepower. You know the drill. Now I've got my sights set on getting a nice LOTR - need to make up for some lost time on those DMD's.