Quoted from pinzrfun:

I loved playing pinball as a kid/teen, and when I got older it never occurred to me to buy one for my house. One day my sister points out an ad to me in the paper (remember those) about a KISS pin for sale. At the time I was in a KISS tribute band. So I went and looked at it, guy had about a dozen games. He showed me how to take the glass off, all the newbie stuff, and said it was a collectors item, I shouldn't really play it that much (probably accounts for the outrageous $800 price tag lol).
At the time my daughter was about 7, and her and her friends were all OVER that thing. So I called the guy and said, Hey, that game is getting played 24/7, I need a decoy, whadda ya want for that Space Invaders game you had there? So $400 later I sat Space Invaders next to it. And those were the only 2 games I had for a few years.
One day a buddy calls and says "Hey, theres a Terminator 2 pinball machine for sale at this little sandwich shop where I live".....so $800 later I sat a T2 in between KISS and Space Invaders. T2 is obviously way more advanced than either of the other 2 - ramps, speech, music, multiball, light show, and THAT woke up the 13 year old kid in me that used to love pinball - and I was off and running. Within a few years I had at least half a dozen A list games, all but 1 of which I still own. We're at about 25 games now, more or less - the core collection and then some others that float in and out. In fact, the basement/game room was a big factor in the house we chose when we moved 7 years ago - many were discarded out of hand because of weird layouts/dampness/etc. We were lucky enough to find a house we liked, in a neighborhood we liked, and it was totally bare concrete. We were able to plan the design and lights and electrical exactly how we wanted.
The short version - never planned on having a game, but if I only had room for one, I would probably have one. If I had room for another 25, I would have 50.
(P.S. The photo on the amp and the wall behind it are from my KISS band days). Sorry such a long post, brought back some good memories -
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