(Topic ID: 226379)

Why Did Pinball Die In The 1990s?

By SantaEatsCheese

5 years ago


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    You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider crazylevi.
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    #48 5 years ago
    Quoted from Mitch:

    That's a ridiculous statement. A model t is a car and cars are still around they just got better.

    When it comes to the laziest fallacy of all time, the cargument, people just can’t help themselves.

    #49 5 years ago
    Quoted from benheck:

    I agree with the idea that the decline of arcades helped kill it. No arcades, no pinball. And bars at the time used all their space for Cherry Masters and other forms of grey area gambling. They weren't the hipster havens they are today.
    Arcades died because the home console experience technology caught up with them. "Helicopter parents" also became more of a thing and the idea of leaving your kid in a smoky room with strangers became unfathomable. That's why parents don't mind if their kids are zombie glued to a portable screen because it shuts them up (like arcades did for my generation) and they're always within sight.
    Speaking of home technology improvements I think movie theaters are in danger of dying just like arcades. Any halfway decent LCD has better black levels than an image projected on to a sheet, plus they're always in focus and you can pause to take a leak. Also theater prices keep going up as flat screens keep coming down - death spiral!

    My great grandmother lived in the Bronx. Not a a great part of the Bronx either.

    My dad thought nothing of sending me down to the street when I was 9 years old with a pocket full of quarters to go play video games at the makeshift arcade on the block.

    My mom apparently wasn’t too happy about it though.

    #59 5 years ago
    Quoted from rai:

    In the cargument terms pinabll is the stick shift (manual transmission) among the automatic transmissions of the world.

    This makes even less sense than your average cargument.

    I’m trying to massage this into something coherent...uhh..I think EM games would be the stick shift in this equation?

    #69 5 years ago
    Quoted from HighProtein:

    In a fringey way other than the TNA soundtrack.

    Super fringey.

    The cassette comeback, as tiny and limited as it is, is one of the dumbest in pop culture history.

    Cassettes sound terrible, are easily prone to damage, and have the worst artwork display format save I guess the minidisc? I simply cannot fathom what about them would appeal to real or imagined nostalgia.

    There was never an 8-track comeback when I was younger, for the same reasons. I guess all the old guys are rignt when they say kids ARE dumber than ever!

    #91 5 years ago

    I don't know what's wrong with you Doom-playing weirdos. I always liked pinball and never forsook it for some dumb PC game!!

    #93 5 years ago
    Quoted from benheck:

    Pinball could die again if they don't stop making dinosaur themes like Munsters and Grandpa Rock Bands.
    We need more young designers like Scott and Eric.

    Nah. Pinball will not die, obviously. If it survived 1982-1985 and 1998-2010 it can survive Aerosmith.

    Absolutely unkillable. Tired of hearing otherwise when it's obviously bullshit. The theory is just a springboard for the usual tired side-rants.

    #100 5 years ago
    Quoted from TechnicalSteam:

    What killed pinball for us was three things.
    #1. Being able to go to 7-11 and play pinball and hangout stopped happening.
    Vendors just put in video games and pinball was dead for the 18 and under crowd.
    Eventually the pulled those to.
    This killed comic book sales at 7-11 to . Interesting
    #2. Cost of pinball went from 25cents to 50cents a play. This was cost prohibitive to us
    3.75 or whatever minimum wage crowd. Rather play video game for 25 cents and not drain ball with better sound on stand up games.
    Sensory experience just not happening at 7-11 in full sunlight.
    #3. Operators started turning down the sound on the cool games. This still peeves me to no end. If I can't hear it I don't play it
    Taking away most of the sensory experience from playing really made me pause before dropping money.
    I think not being able to become immersed in games sounds is the #1 thing killing pinball. There has to be a solution to this

    So 7-11 killed pinball.

    Well, it's a new angle I'll give you that.

    #103 5 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    However, this is not 1999. Point I was making as Lloyd did earlier is game prices were going up in a relatively stagnant economy. I'm not sure what the P2K game cost new, but they had to cost more to make than the regular games. While some of the other machines were being blown out at fire sale prices.
    Players like myself had gotten used to seeing one regular game after another with more features and other entertaining elements that kind of peaked when MM came out. It was always like , OK what can they do next? The follow up games from them were spotty with games like CV and CC being almost unplayable because of code issues and whatnot.
    I played the P2K games, but it was always "nice, but when will we see the next real pinball machine?" It never happened from Williams, and I went on a surfing safari anyway, so was totally unaware at the time that pinball had almost died, as it had done this before and I wasn't really into researching it at the time. And there were still new routed games to play like South Park, but not as many places left to play them.

    You are correct. They added significant cost and weight to devices operators didn’t want to buy anyway.

    #129 5 years ago
    Quoted from ThatOneDude:

    Survive? I'd lay money on that. There is enough of an influx into the community that it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It will certainly outlive me.
    Thrive? Depends on what you mean. I think it's arguably "thriving" now.
    Rise up to its former glory? Probably not.

    Nobody cares about "former glory." None of us will EVER return to our "former glory," in that we'll never be stoned teenagers in the 70s and 80s again with low body fat, lots of hair, and zero obligations and enough free time and money to spend our days at the skanky arcade smoking cigs, goofing off with our friends, and trying to convince everybody we were getting laid. That shit ain't coming back for anybody or anything - it's a different world. It's 2018 now.

    Pinball IS thriving. It's kicking absolute ass, more than it has, ever, since I started collecting in 2002.

    The idea that "the bubble will burst," or some kind of reckoning is on the horizon that will blow up pinball like a nuclear blast is absolutely ridiculous and based upon nothing but wishful thinking by people who have managed to convince themselves that someday soon they can get a TAF for $1,500.

    AINT GONNA HAPPEN.

    Pinball is back. It's here to stay. It aint going anywhere for a very long time. The current model is sustainable in the hobby and the industry. It may change, there may be bumps one way or the other but the proclaimations of doom are laughable and have been making people look stupid for well over a decade.

    So hey, keep at it!

    #140 5 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    Wouldn't want to get anything gooey on those lovely hands, now would she?

    I think that's a bandage you fuckin' perverts. She's like 14 also.

    #142 5 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    So was I. The 70s had their own rules anyway that most now would not not understand.

    Yeah but you don't live in the past remember?

    So as it is you are a disgusting old man oggling a 14-year old.

    That is a great book though - really the only good pinball book ever put out in my opinion. Great writing and photos.

    #150 5 years ago
    Quoted from adol75:

    Hard to tell if it's a bandage, and hard to tell if she is 14.
    Google found the picture, it's the cover for a song Little Debbie. The band is Surgery, so it could be a bandage (but that doesn't tell us anything about her age !)

    Pic is actually from roger sharpe’s book Pinball! Highly recommended.

    Just don’t get anything “gooey” on the pages!

    #153 5 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    Let's just say there aren't many great pictures of how arcade life was back in the day. No digital cameras, no cell phones.
    Pinball machines were in bowling alleys, pizza joints, malls, boardwalk arcades, hardware and grocery stores, donut shops, rec centers, even schools had them. They were every where.
    And they were very attractive to any kid or anybody that had a little pocket change, which was about all we did have. It was also places where young people gathered in their free time.
    For me, just like everything else, it's better to have lived it and live it while it was or is happening, then to look back and say, "Boy, I sure missed out" or "I'll try to make up for it now".

    I’d love to say I LEarned some life lessons there but I really didn’t. Beyond “if you are going to leave a quarter on a game to reserve next game, keep your eyes on it.”

    #167 5 years ago
    Quoted from Rondogg:

    So you don't know if she's 14 but still call people out? Christ you're exhausting sometimes...

    Lol

    How the fuck was I supposed to know the exact age of some random underage girl?

    Take a look at the pic and tell me how old you think she is. Sorry the picture didn’t come with a birth certificate so you just gotta guess like I did.

    #182 5 years ago
    Quoted from SantaEatsCheese:

    So... how many pinball machines are being made today? I see numbers on pinside of 10k+ for the early 90s, but have no reference for how many modern machines are built other than guessing based off of LE production numbers. How many say... Deadpools, Star Wars, or Attack from Mars machines are being manufactured these days. Do you ever see them hitting the 10k number on a single machine again? Is this due to market segmentation or lower demand?

    These are industry secrets and you will not get an answer unless you get a job with all of these companies.

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