Quoted from Dantesmark:Thank u for sharing that. Sounds like pinball has been a big part of your life in the good times and bad.
Post back with pics once u get that worlds fair!
You should put a post up with your story... bet one will show up! Good luck!
Pins have always been a part of me. Seems my generation was 1st real home video console game generation. I couldnt get into the playstation/xbox. Nintendo/Super nes is as far as I went. I'd play street fighter in arcade but thats about it. College you played madden, Mario kart or bond golden eye in the dorms.
Growing up bowling alleys/bar restaurants had pins. We had a game room in town that had pool tables/arcades/pins. From that place I have a soft spot for black knight 2k. As that was our high school hangout. I'm still hounding the family to sell me the machine as it's in storage since place is long closed.
When I went to college, I used my quarters at the student union instead of laundry. We had 3 machines in the student union along with ping pong/ pool/fooseball. It was very competitive location. We would wear machines out. The vendors loved how competitive we were. Week of finals sr year, my high score on diner finally got beaten. Took guy all year to finally knock me off. I missed my final to reclaim my high score.
After college I still played but machines were not as common to find. However there is a resurgence of interest with barcades and pinball muesems in area. Some have been around for a while- I just didnt know about it. Hell, Pittsburgh Is home to papa and I didnt know until 3 yrs ago.
I was so misinformed my race car was getting its cage installed by shop next to papa when it got destroyed in the flood. Had no clue that stuff went on around here let alone right there. I recall somewhat the ruined machines when I went down to see my car.
You can see my car in background of papa's flood pics.
During college I started working on cars because couldnt afford to have people do it. It is now my profession. Working on high tech euro cars makes wiring/computers relatively easy on a pinball machine. 8 months ago I was timid to jump in having no experience. Now it's no big deal to me. Even help out at the 1 muesem fixing pins for experience plus I enjoy it. Especially like working on the em machines.
Being around mix of em and ss, I have an affinity for both. The only issue I have with new machines is lack of originality. Everything is more or less based off a band/movie/character.
Outside of the wf, I really want a bk2k, SolarCity/target alpha, bally's bmx. Also hunting for bride of pinbot for my gf as that's the machine she likes.