I have a feeling the only new games that will be available will be made by small independent companies, if even that. Pinball has outlived it's relevance by about 15 years already.

I was born in between the baby boomers and the gen x ers, and even now I don't find much to get excited about the world of new pinball today. It's all been watered down IMO. The writing is on the walls so to speak.

Kid's aren't going to give a crap about pinball if they keep on doing grandaddy themes that's for sure. That is where pinball has lost it's relevance to ever interesting a new generation. Sure they might play their grandpas machines, but there is no way they are going to take it seriously.

So they are making themes that appeal to fat balding middle aged gen x rs and 4 year olds. Whoopee!

I'm not a boomer or a gen xr. I was born in between. Too young to hang with the old folks and too wise to live like gen xrs do. And I'm still younger at heart and soul than most of them.

Why? I watched the show 50 years ago. And have seen it hundreds of times since. Sure it's the best idea they have come up with lately, but if that's what it takes to keep pinball afloat you can count me out. Just like all the rest of these ancient licensed themes, I don't need them.

Honestly, I spent a lot of time living with the surf crowd. Dwelling in the past is not one of their past times. It's all about the next swell, or the next cool thing in pop culture. Get on it before it's no longer relevant. I love pinball and I have old games now. But have decided I would rather collect antiques than be one.

Not like I didn't try. But none of my ideas seem to fly. So they can keep on making games for whoever else. And I'll keep playing what I have.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/point-break-pinball-machine

Fortunately in this hobby, if none of today's licensed themes appeal to you, you don't have to go too far back to find an unlicensed one that does.

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I'd rather be immersed in an eight foot south swell with a slight off shore breeze. Now I'm talking out my ass. Time to sell all this shit and go on safari.

I'm not old and not complaining. Just stating facts.

In ten to twenty years you will be a 60+ year old man playing your Doogie Howser LE pinball machine. And still telling me I'm wrong.

No, I'm not making it. It will be one of the last licensed themed games ever before pinball goes under for good.

A real collectors item!

Dude, I am a pinball player that has bought machines new and old. If I am not part of their "target demographic" whatever the f#ck that is supposed to mean then I'm sure nineballs like you are.

Back to Doogie, I think he might sign sign on for this.

I guess I'm not one to believe a pinball player should be typecast. If those are the only people Stern wants to buy their pinball machines, then they will be out of business faster than than you can wipe your stinky ass.

Tell you what goat, I'm not going to argue with fools like you anymore. Feel free to put me on ignore. I will speak my mind whenever I please. How's that bucko?

It seems a lot of this generation is already brain dead.

I totally agree with that. Pinball has always been about making money. At one time they could do that and be cool all at the same time.
I don't see anything cool about the path pinball is on and do believe it is winding down despite big sales today.

College age kids aren't the demographic pinball wants. It will take them years to pay off those loans. And their parents? Nah, they don't have the room now that the kids are out of school and can't get a job and move out.

So that leaves the grand parents. Yes! That is the demographic pinball can work with.

I'm in total agreement with what you said. It is also true pinball is aging and catering to an aging generation.

Would the younger generation get more involved if there was something more they could relate to? Who knows? It may never happen. In reality pinball caters to only a small part of the population to begin with. So it's a fine line trying to be cutting edge and stay afloat at the same time. I bought several newer games but they lost me somewhere along the way.

Some say the younger people only want to play video games, but remember it was a generation of 80s video gamers that are big pinball enthusiasts now. Because they found pinball themes they could relate to.

I'm just trying to make some sense of it all. The days of going to an arcade and being wowed by every new machine seem long gone.

Ten years from now we can build a wall in front of our houses with all this scrap wood, and trade the copper for food and water.

.

Games like that Fashion Show were built to last! Now there's a timeless theme. That game's fun for young and old.

Sure are a lot of people still pumping money in vending and food machines. Wouldn't be surprised if quite a few of them are pinballers too.

I'm guessing sometime in the next ten years we will finally be getting that Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band pinball machine.

I'd be looking at the baywatch of plenty area myself. You think I could trade my shack for beachfront there?

They already are. At least the ones made prior to 1990....

We'd be just like the MIT blackjack team.

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Lumping all EMs in the same price range is more ridiculous than saying all DMDs are worth the same, because they made hundreds if not thousands more different titles and the era lasted more than twice as long.

So yes , you will see many common ones in bad shape come up for cheap all the time. That's because most collectors of this era don't want to bring that kind of game home. Those are usually starter games for newbies.

I've been involved in this long enough to know there are EMs that collectors will pay as much if not more than some of the highest priced modern DMD games to get that gem they have been looking for.

Will we all be wearing the same hats?

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It's popular among those that collect wedgeheads but not a real high priced game. Can get decent money for good condition though.

There are a few EMs that in collector quality condition would get five figures easily. And priced at $10,000 would sell instantly. Some are-

Mermaid
Charlies Angels
Evel Knieval
Glamour

To name a few...

Heck, rough examples of any of those could sell for 10k.

They are part of the solution to my retro theme woes.

Between Thunderbirds and Batman I'm starting to warm up to the idea.

Dragonette is another high dollar game. It's got a certain coolness about it. But I'll just keep Frontiersman and let the high rollers deal with this one.

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This one certainly wasn't a $500 and under game. But with what I did pay I may be married to it for a while. That's OK because they do not make them like this any more.

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Thanks guys! I knew of this game before I actually knew somebody that had one. It was one of those things that if I didn't buy it, somebody else would and I would never get another chance. That's part of what this hobby is about. Knowing what you want and trying to get it.

Geography must not have been the artist George Molentin's strong suit. And these are real monkeys in those capsules too.

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I'm not sure if I'm in the majority or not, but the more a pinball game becomes like a video game, the less interested I am.

Dave, you could sell somebody on a day trip a season pass!

Not a lot of people saw it because a lot of this crowd wasn't playing pinball until recently. Some that think they know a lot more than they do.

It looks pretty cool.

But when I read stuff like "we had never seen this before" I would expect that person was actually involved in pinball at the time..

I'll give you a for instance.

The first time I saw Fireball. Although it wasn't the first game with the feature, I was wowed that you could have three balls in play at the same time.

But I don't go saying " we were wowed by Balls a Poppin as we had never seen that before" because I wasn't playing at the time it came out.

Or as Bob Marley said "you can fool some people some time, but you can't fool all the people all the time"

Hey Levi, take a look in the mirror buddy. You out bitch everybody on this website.

In 10 years we may find that there are a whole lotta pinball machines out there, with really no where to put them all.

What a fool....

Pinball must have sucked before Markmon and Rarehero arrived on the scene.

No Ramps- check
No Toys- check
No Multiball- check
No good?-

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Yes, and my early rage in this thread about outdated licensed themes and nothing else has been answered with TNA.

Now I'm a happy camper!