Black Knight and Firepower pins right next to each other at Time Out in Massapequa, NY. Many quarters spent playing tandem 2-player games with my buddy Geoff and switching back and forth mid-game between the two.

In the early 80's I played my first Multi-ball machine which was most likely called Firepower. All I remember is the machine had speech that said Firepower 1, Firepower 2, Firepower 3, etc.. right before the balls was released. I probably played a few machines before that, but was so young I just don't remember what they were.

The first pinball machine I have memories of playing was Bally Freedom in 1976. It was in a local pizza place, and I played it with my dad and brother while waiting on our pizza. I was 10 years old. I think I probably played that machine a dozen times over the next few months.

I'm sure I probably played pinball before that, but I don't have any memories

I honestly thought it was just about keeping the ball alive, I never realized there was actually a game with story lines and you can choose how you want to play , until the one night I was in a pub and played LOTR for the first time, I was amazed and just new after the first game "wow, theres got be something behind this!! and that was it , game over I was hooked!!!

Harlem Globetrotters for me in chip shops in the Netherlands when I was growing up....

Then my first pin was Twilight Zone, followed by Theatre of Magic....

And then many more, oh this disease....

Just snagged a Safe Cracker yesterday and let the price slip to the partner, the replies were;

That could buy us a nice induction hob, clear the house credit card, do the fencing, replace the sofa.

In my head 'you can't play any of those'....

Yes dear.

Bally's Paragon at Brock's Ice Cream Parlor. A butterscotch marble ice cream cone and a few games on Paragon was a great way to spend an afternoon!

Gorgar was my first. He seems to have popped many cherries

The game that really got me into pinball was Secret Service. After a falling out with the day care I was going to after school, my mom decided it was cheaper to just give me an extra $3-5 with my lunch money to play at the bowling alley across from the school. They had three pins: the aforementioned Secret Service, Road Kings, and High Speed. There was an old guy that smoked a lot that used to play the High Speed. But the best part of all of this, is that the replay score on Secret Service was a paltry 400,000. They say it was "stuck" there for some reason. (A more typical replay score level would be 1.1 to 1.5 million.)

The sad thing is I only went to this school for about three months and this arrangement only lasted about the last 7-8 weeks of them... At one point years later I went back to this bowling alley and the best game there was a Bally Game Show with no feature lights working at all.

F-14

The one I remember more than any was TAF. I know I played others, but my local hangout had all vids and TAF was the only pin there. My buddies all were going nuts with Mortal Kombat, and I just remember spending countless quarters playing TAF.

Haunted House!! Lets face it its a awesome game. I find myself playing and not even looking at the score.

HH Score.jpg

GORGAR!!!

Funhouse and TZ. I don't have specific memories of Funhouse but it always stuck with me as what pinball should be. TZ was the game I remember playing the most in college and feeling good playing it. I wasn't too into pinball back then but those always stuck with me. Someday I would like to get one of them but for now I am enjoying a variety of different pins.

Haunted House in the early 80's at Disney (Fiesta Fun Center in the Contemporary) and High Speed in the mid-80's up by Weirs Beach (not at Funspot, but the old arcade at the double mini golf place later to become Surf Coaster Water Park)

First pin I played was Gorgar.

Then F14 and space shuttle really got me playing pins more up the STTNG,T2,TAF,FT,SW,IJ era. Then I stopped

Barnacle Bill!!!!!
My dad bought three machines when I was about four years old. One of them was Barnacle Bill (1948)
he sold the other two, I can't even remember their names. He fixed it up and we always played it........always. At family gatherings my brother and I would eventually find ourselves in the basement playing it. They still have it, and we still play it, although it needs a bit of attention now. I just played it last Sunday. I never get tired of it. By the way, I'm 53 years old. I've been playing that machine almost 50 years!
Holy cow.....I never thought about that before!

Eric

I didn't play a lot of pin growing up, it usually was a bit more than the arcade games to play and I wasn't all that good. I preferred to spend my quarters on the vids. I've been collecting arcades for 8 or so years and finally decided to take the plunge into pinball like a year and a half ago and scored a Pinbot. Now I can't get enough pinball in my life and have started selling off vids to purchase pins

The one pin I played a ton of as a kid tho was Whirlwind. I loved that game and will own one someday.

Tales of the Arabian Nights at a resort in Arizona when I was 14 years old. Making that lamp spin was REALLY cool at the time.

When I was first starting to get beyond flail-playing and actually learning how to aim-n-shoot, the games mostly available were the early Gottlieb solid states. I remember specifically playing Close Encounters and Totem, and Card Wiz and another western theme with a roto-target. All of those early Gotts cultivated the player in me and I got good enough to win games occasionally. I was around 11 years old.

Then I met Bally Eight Ball. Cool, Fonzie on the backglass and - WHAT? A KICKBACK? Is that what I think it is? A drain ball saver? No way! I was hooked but good. That single game taught me how to shoot and prioritize objectives.

I've never owned one, and don't really want to after finding out 8BD exists, but it will always be that special game for me. Still love playing that game when I see it.

Surf Champ

Gorgar, Pinbot, Centaur,and Firepower probably ate 90% of my allowance in the early 80's.

Gorgar at local 7-11 like many others have said, but was more into space invaders, asteroids and missile command back then. It wasn't until my friend got a hold of a cyclone around 2002 that I started to get into pinball.

Funhouse and Earthshaker... I finally have them both and they will never leave

King Rock

I remember games like Comet, Black Knight, TAXI, then went heavy on Earthshaker, Whirlwind, DE Simpsons, Phantom of the Opera and Funhouse. When TAF came out, it blew my mind, it was the biggest toy under glass and I, (like many) couldn't get enough.
It tattooed my brain and to this day tugs at my heart strings anytime I see one.

Paragon

CYCLONE!

Lol I'm bringing it back!!

About 2 years ago, SWT.

First game I owned was Jokerz! (2004)

First two games I remember playing in the 80's were Pinbot and Cosmic Gunfight.

TAF in the mid-90s in a small ice cream shoppe near our lake house. My dad would take me up there, we'd buy milkshakes and I'd play as many games as he'd feed me quarters for.

I hit the arcade instead of going to school, played Joker Poker, Hi Deal and Wizard. After that vids kinda killed off pinball until I helped a friend work on Lady Luck 5 years ago and I started buying.

Another 1 for T2...glad I am only getting into pins now...as a kid I just kept it in play...really loving learning all the different games rules now.............Joey

DINER

Very late 70's.... Gorgar (4 years old)

Bally Playboy when I was 15.

My friends dad was an operator and we would play the games when new going on route or in for repairs. The Playboy was new out box and I remember the light going on among other things when I figured out there were rules and goals to the game. In two weeks I was master of the Playboy mansion

My parents bought me this game for my 12th birthday and I just loved it. They knew how much I loved pinball so I was a great gift. Now that I look back on it what a terrible game it was (lol) but none the less it helped fuel the passion I still have to this day.

Earthshaker did it for me too! I remember watching a guy play and when the machine started shaking you could feel it in the floor!!!! I thought I was going to fall over..that was a super advanced feature for the time!! Pat Lawlor made history with that inovation!! So needles to say that was the first of my collection. I would love a funhouse its just hard to find one at a reasonable price now-a-days!

a 400 pound black girl named bubbles on a pinbot machine
roger

Back in the 80's Bonzai Run was pure fun. Bought ACDC NIB in 2012 plus TPA and that's all she wrote hooked on pinball!

I had a blast playing Tommy when I was 10 or 11. I remember having good games that lasted.

South Park

F-14(own) First game ever played on location. Tough cherry to pop...still plays "hard to get".

WH20 First game owned

Probably Dungeons and Dragons. I had a summer job as an actor, playing one of the fathers of confederation. We spent a lot of time around the dressing rooms, which were in the basement of a community center. We either played cards or played the arcade games in the lobby. I got hooked on Dungeons and Dragons.

After that summer, there was no pinball anywhere around here for 10 years at least, so the cherry grew back. But about 10 years afterwards, when I moved to Toronto, I found an arcade in Union Station that had a TAF. TAF re-popped it.

I saw a broken down game in a garage when I was about 5,... Don't know what it was, or if it even worked, but have been dropping coin ever since.

Funhouse at the local gas station

1978 Bally Playboy around 1990 as a 12 year old. My friends Dad brought her Homer and we had our way.

This is the game that started it all for me. I was 5. No lie. I LOVED this game.

ebay.com link: Vintage 1975 Ideal The Junkyard Target Game with pinball action Junk Yard in box

I can't even begin to count how many hours I put on this thing when I was a kid.

Come on, there are others of you out there that forgot about this game!