Fireball. Not the first game I played, but I found the artwork, multiball and spinner very exciting.

It all started at putt putt golf and games.....bride of pinbot and funhouse!!!!

Same here, gorgar and sorcerer. Ed

Bride of Pinbot!

The early 80s beauties like Xenon and Centaur drew me in, but it was Eight Ball Deluxe that got hit me hooked as a pinball fan. Real life women somehow lured me away for many a year, but then a couple years ago I stumbled upon a Cirqus Voltaire and I was blown away! I had to have a pin, and it was Marilyn's familiar cooing "ooh Taxi" that got me to take the plunge!

Space mission, that moving target was cool
Fast Draw, my ball got stuck, the operator removed the glass and let me play the game with the glass off

Gottlieb Big Hit in northern Michigan. And I remember a kid named Ken Reese schooling us on that machine. We were all around 12 yrs old. Wonder if he is (still) a pinhead????

And for what it's worth, I have been jonesin' for a BH ever since.

Same as Jumping-Box: Firepower- had an awesome game in a Vegas hotel arcade many years ago and was hooked on pinball for life.

At my first job at a bowling alley, i played CFTBL all the time while on break. Loved that game, they replaced with it with a IJ and Flintstones. I also played a WH20 when not playing SF2 or MK2 at the local arcade. Needless to say, Bigfoot kicked my ass.,

High Speed. My friend's parents had one in there restaurant, and we used to play it all the time. I don't know if they ever made any money on that game.

Fireball was the gateway game for many people because it was the only game back then that was not Cards, Clowns and Cowboys.

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Fire gods FTW!

Pinbot

Firepower hooked me because it was a very fast-playing pin especially compared to the Ballys I had played and locking the balls for a multiball was very satisfying. I have two FPs that are in so-so shape with PF wear. I am using them plus a new repro cabinet and a CPR playfield that I bought uncleared and had it inspected, adjusted and cleared by Brian at HSApinball along with a bunch of repro and NOS parts to make a really nice one. I could never get the money out of it that I am putting into it but I don't care. I just want to play Firepower on a brand new playfield whenever I want to. I'm a Steve Ritche junkie and have an F14 and a BK2K in my collection. I do like fast-playing pins best.

Bill

Was in the arcades back in the day primarily for Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. T2 and JP are the only pins I have vivid memories playing. The T-Rex eating the ball was the coolest thing I'd ever seen at the time.

As a kid, Space invaders! There was one in our local pool hall and it faced the door as you walked in. It was mesmerizing with the mirror light backglass!

As an adult, Elvira and the Party Monsters! It was my first ever pinball purchase. Still have Elvira in my collection, but never found a Space Invaders...

Rob Bell
Robsgameroom.com

I honestly don't remember, as I was 4 or 5 years old. I was hooked instantly.

It was sttng for me (together with IJ, TAF, TOM and WCS). I acutally could play for free in an arcade (the op was my neighbour). And that was the line up at that time.

I was 13 years old, and I still remember that whenever the ball was in the cannons on sttng, I tried to shoot the romulan vessel, ferengi or borg.. (not realising I had to shoot the ramps, loops, targets, ..)

TAF, TZ,& No Fear. I still own these after many others pushed out & replaced. I'm going through a gameroom rework as we speak but none of these are on the chopping block!

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A nib lotr

i was 16 at the time the bride of pinbot came out , loved it , later t2 , ... and the rest is history .

High Speed

High Speed, it was in a room at a bowling alley. It was set up next to Operation Wolf and Rastan vids - I still think that was a pretty sweet lineup even now

Cyclone

A trip to the Langley arcade and some EDB and Pinbot for me.

RoadShow that was put in on location at WalMart. That was the first and last time I ever saw a machine at a WalMart. It got me hooked and then I went off to college and slapped around a TAF and MM in the bowling alley of my school. Dirty Harry was even at the dry cleaners. Those were great years for pinball and what really got me hooked.

High Speed. Dad brought it home from work when I still needed to stand on an overturned milk crate to play. Took the manual to elementary school studying the adjustments, electrical and mechanical drawings. <3 High Speed... if only I can clear enough space and time to get going with this playfield swap!

Ah, if only it was. But it wasn't. Bally's Star-Jet and Capersville, both produced in the 60s, had multiball. Fireball also had it. Firepower was far from the first.

For me, I played a lot of games so there is really no one game. One game that I played a ton, though, that got me into getting my first game for home, was Williams Ding Dong, released in 1968.

At first it was 8 ball or if lucky, Playboy. We loved the new solid state world. When Flash came out, however, it took all our pinball quarters. The background music increasing in tempo would almost cause a stroke as we got higher and higher scores. Looking back, it must have drove the guy behind the counter at the 7-11 crazy to have to listen to this all night.

As a big fan of KISS, I always considered the pinball machine to be the Holy Grail item for my collection. Once I bought one and got it home, I realized that I really enjoyed playing the game of pinball. A year and a half later, I'm hooked and own five machines.

Alien Poker!

That took guts to say. Respect.
-mof

CFTBL, I hadn't played pinball since I was a kid, played this game as an adult and something just clicked....

Funhouse
And I have yet to own one

TOTAN!
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Local video/pinball arcade had alot of games but played theater of magic them most really hooked me

1979 Flash.

I was born in 1964, and started playing pinball as a kid. My father also liked to play, so any time we were on vacation, or passing by an arcade we would stop and drop in a few quarters. I can still remember very clearly back in 1979 when I played a Williams Flash for the first time. I was used to playing EM's - so I was completely blown away by sounds and lights of Flash. It made a HUGE impression on me.

1980 Firepower.

To this day, I can still clearly remember getting my very first multi-ball. It was on a Firepower at the local Aladdin's Castle in the mall. I played the crap outa that game, and it became my 'grail' machine. Other's I remember fondly include Eight Ball Deluxe, Flight 2000, Paragon, Black Knight, Centaur, etc.

Space Shuttle, primarily because I regularly competed with a friend on it. It is the only pinball machine I remember spending significant time on because of the sheer dominance of video games in arcades. I didn't think of pinball for another 20 years, and that was only after visiting an impressive private collection.

I stayed at a campground for a week when I was growing up that had TZ, AF, and Tales from the Crypt. That was my first exposure to DMD pinball and I thought it was a blast, especially Tales from the Crypt. I never saw that many in the wild or played that much pinball after that. Before buying my first pinball, I don't think I played a single game of pinball in the previous 15 years and I sort of bought that machine on a whim more than anything. I think that if my first machine was something crappy like Street Fighter or Lethal Weapon, I would have bailed on the hobby right then.

It was the same for me as a kid, but the first specific game I remember playing a lot of was a Williams Triple Strike in the local kids gamesroom of a bar as a teenager.

FUNHOUSE without a doubt...........

Black knight. I was very young and very much into knights and dragons. I just remember being mesmerized. Didn't play much pinball growing up, though as I was a teen in the mid 90's. My wife and I really fell in love with pinball a couple years ago.

Attack from Mars!
A friend of mine picked one of these up and I was hooked immediately.

I remember first playing T2 at a pizza parlor called Ball Park Pizza in Laguna Niguel. They also had the pitch and bat baseball game which awarded cards. Also my Dad got me my first pin which was the Williams original First electronic Word Cup. And for bar arcade was TFTC. Remember it back in the day at pool hall in high school and the show. Can't get enough of the Cryptkeeper.

Jokerz was the game I had my first "great" game on when I was about 11 or 12 and got me on the path to being a pinhead.

Lost World and Paragon. Flash from a bit later on probably made the most impression with its sound and light show.

Mata Hari and Power Play when they were new and I was 12. Simple but challenging.........

SWDE way back when it first appeared on location. It was the first pin I ever won a free game on and forever diverted my attention away from vids at the arcade.

For me it wasn't any particular title but a location. A convenience store named Quicktrip. They would always have two games back-to-back and it was there, cramped between the back machine and the bagged ice freezer, is where I was lured into the lair of pinball. EM's and early SS's eagerly accepted every quarter I could scrounge up. The stores always rotated games out with each other so if I really liked a game I could always ride my bike across town to play it again. If I had to choose one game from those early years it would probably be Tri Zone. It was the first machine I purchased and after owning it many years I sold it to a friend who placed it back on route. It makes me very happy to see others enjoying it again and I always save back some coin to drop in my old friend.