WOZ

I played a lot of pinball in the 90s at bowling alleys while my parents bowled. Fast forward 2009 going through divorce questioning life. Came back to Utah to visit played Medieval Madness at a bar with my dad. Best time I had in years!!! That game and moment gave me hope that everything was going to be ok. Vowed one day I was going to get Medieval Madness and finally did.

MM

Aztec in the 70s, TAF in the 90s and WOZ in the past decade. I’m a bit of a tart obviously

The epic journey that is Lord of the rings! Such an awesome machine <..>

the new Stern Star Trek got me back into it. I played it on location at Hotel Hershey. Didnt even know they made new pinballs anymore. Finally just got my own Star Trek Vault Premium.

I've always played and owned 1 pin at a time over 30 years. Buy once I played metallica , I was hooked. 31 pins in 3 years now here, only room for 7. Have 4 keepers and like to rotate other spots.

I hadn't played in years, then I ran into a Ghostbusters at a movie theater. That day I decided I was going to get some sterns. The flipper gap sucks and the coding isn't the best, but I still think GB is a good one with a lot of fun factor. I Never got a GB because I prefer others, but it definitely kicked it back off for me.

TOTAN on Pinball Arcade, and on location, Iron Man. Previously, I only played at events like Midwest Gaming Classic, but never enough to get hooked on a single game because I had no skills.

There was an arcade in the lower level of Cinderella City..an amazing shopping mall in Denver.It was 1972.I was 10.Fireball was brand new.And I was hooked.

Humpty Dumpty when it first came out! JK

Aquarius

When I was 10, at JM Fields in Natick Massachusetts, I played pinball. Some EM space themed pinball machine. It was amazing. Just the noise and the fun.

GTL Buckaroo was the first I remember playing - mid 1960’s in a roller skating rink in Wichita,KS.

I was a mall rat and hung around the arcade as much as possible - the truancy officer always knew right where to find me.

I was more interested in video games but TFTC got me hooked on pinball. It only took three decades before I wised up and started bringing them home.

HSII

I was 12 years old, and on a cub scouts camping trip one summer weekend at a lake.

It was swelteringly hot, and I had horrendous sunburn—so I really couldn’t find more relief swimming. It was just all around miserable.

The campground had a little storage container turned into a makeshift arcade. It had a gumball machine, claw game, and a Whirlwind. There were 3 things that hooked me: the fan felt AMAZING that hot day, the music the machine pumped out was invigorating, and little 12 year old me *really* wanted to know what would happen if I shot the left ramp when it was lit for the jackpot during multiball (spoiler: I never found out that day because I ran out of quarters).

Since then, I never cared too much what my collection consisted of, just as long as I had a Whirlwind in it.

I've always enjoyed finding neat old stuff thats broken, worn out or neglected
and restoring it. Over a third of a century ago, a Gtb Spiderman showed up
in the classified ads and thats all she wrote. Have been hooked ever since. It helps
that my wife enjoys playing as much as I like restoring and playing.
Steve

I played pinball in the arcades when I was little but never really appreciated it until just a couple years ago. For me, its not just playing pinball, its repairing machines that are 50, 60, 70 years old. I love that I can tinker around with a game and modify it if I so desire. I guess playing the first TMNT in the early 90’s helped a lot as well. Love those turtles!

Fishtales

TOTAN at our local arcade.

Space Shuttle and Pinbot

I was probably 8 years old and my grandpa pulled a chair up and set a roll of nickels in front of me and let me play a bingo pinball and the EM pinball next to it. The year would have been 1976. It wasn’t the specific machine it was just a complete fascination with that steel ball bouncing around under the glass!

It wasn’t until 1989 that I owned my first machine.

BOP and FH at Putt Putt golf and games!

TAF and MM

Bow and Arrow

I can't remember which games I liked back when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. But it was WOZ that dragged me kicking and screaming into this sickness.

The first pinball machine I played was a Williams ding dong at an old theatre. Ding dong sparked my interest, but Tron was really the game that got me into pinball.

Nice.

For me it was Space Cadet on windows 95 in 1995. I was 8 lived in the country and had no video games or cable, just stock windows 95 games. Our bowling alley we had for a few years before it burnt down had an Adam's family I got to play a few times but that was it till I was an adult when a local place got an EST and it got our of control then.

It wasn't necessarily a specific pin as much as enjoying the ones that were at the bowling alley every Wednesday night of my Dad's bowling league. Sinbad was one I remember by name I guess, but what hooked me was just having a chance to play pinball.

King Rock

WWE

Whirwind

Bally Strikes and Spares

Elvira and the party monsters

Harlem Globetrotters! First game I ever won a free game on. What a feeling when you only have one quarter to your name.

Motordome!!!!!! Absolutely not.
In college, pizza place had Fire! Got me hooked. Started working, moved for jobs a lot, started attending TPF in the early 2000s when relocated to Dallas, wanted a pin. Transferred to Houston and found Poison Girl with a bank of pins when spider-man came out. Justified coin drop and beer cheaper than owning. 2017 SMVE first purchase and never looked back.

1978 Playboy

1995:

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I played a lot of EM pinballs in college 1972 (Melbourne Florida) Pizza place. I can remember them costing a quarter and making alot of bell sounds (tink, tink, tink). However, I really got into pinball after graduation. The one I played the most was in a rock n roll live music bar in Houston TX called DOME Shadows. The machine was a 1978 Playboy. I probably put enough quarters in it to buy it.

F14 Tomcat was the first. Bought it used in 1991. Stayed up all night with my little brother and played till my fingers were sore. Went to bed when the sun came up.

Bally circus
Brought back memories of playing pins

There was a Creature from the Black Lagoon in the lobby of my dorm freshman year of college. I spent most of my laundry quarters there

Aladdin's Castle at the Myrtle Beach board walk in 1977. I was 11 going on 12. Which was just old enough to be able to process what I was looking at

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I was into retro-gaming on my NES and SNES back in 2014 and came across a game called "Super Pinball: Behind the Mask". It had three different playfields to choose from. I took a liking to it over the course of several months and found myself always coming back to play that game. It is what inspired me to give real pinball a try and the rest is history. Never was into pinball when I was younger and now I know what I was missing out on.

As a kid, Paragon, which my Dad had in our home.

Later, Data East Simpsons and Twilight Zone.

Then Addams Family, TOTAN, and Hook.

Finally, after a pause, TSPP, LoTR, RBION, and then WOZ.

Now have nine at home and played (pre-COVID) in leagues and events. Can’t wait to get back to that.

Giddyup!

That’s the one. My uncle had this one in his basement. During holidays I would play this machine, much to my mother’s dismay. Then he moved, and the next thing I knew there was a Twilight Zone and a Funhouse instead. Needless to say it was mind blowing to play both games. And I asked him, if he ever thought about selling them, to give me first dibs. Now the TZ is in my basement. TZ in the family since 1993.

Woz, prior to that I dormant for years. Primary game was Pin Bot, then T2.

Don’t have huge memories of playing as a kid but pinball started creeping into my life about 20 years ago. Played a South Park at the Bellagio arcade and then in 2006 a Striker Xtreme at hotel bowling alley. But the games that really got me hooked were at our favorite pizza place about 10 years after that... T2 and Funhouse. Hitting Rudy in the face to get a reaction, Arnold call outs and pop bumper sounds and music on both games are still my favorite.

Original Black Knight slayed me first.