I live in Brighton area …..wouldn’t take long to play them all on site now

I like the sounds and the lights are pretty and I have this weird psychological condition were I get nervous and jittery if I have too much money in the bank, so my doctor said I should get into pinball.

Yeah it does seem like literally every time I turn a machine on *something* is broken. And the something usually costs a minimum of $40 to repair. Plus shipping.

I have always like pinball since I was a kid, and I always figured that someday I would own a machine. Then as arcades really started to decline I kinda lost interest. Then out of total boredom one day I installed The Pinball Arcade on Steam and started playing old Williams games (before they lost their license) and not only did I remember how much I liked pinball, but I actually started to really learn the rules, then I just started buying real machines.

It unites my family in an enjoyable experience.
Pinball gets my kids off their phones.
I enjoy the hunt for my next pinball machine.
It’s fun to learn how to maintain, repair and mod the pinball machines to the way we want it to look.
Pinside has an amazing community with great stories and helpful people to learn from.

Attempting to tame and control a 'wild' silver ball, and impose your will upon its movement....plays on our primeval instinct to conquer and rule using force, aggression and cunning strategy.

That's the phycological explanation.

I have played pinball for years, before video games were a thing in arcades. When video games first appeared in arcades, I purchased a pong game for my TV at home and an Atari 2600 which I played for hours. I still played pinball machines first at arcades. Nothing can replace the feel and movement of the ball on the playfield with nudging and action/reaction that you get with the flippers and pop bumpers. Now, arcades are very rare in my area (almost gone) and people have playstation or other game systems at home, not to mention computer based video game systems with hundreds of people online. Virtual pinball is like another video game to me, so I still go to the regular pinball machines first, if I can find any that work properly.

It is a damn cool hobby!!!!!

you find a pin,

bring it home,

make it better than you bought it,

play the game/learn the rules,

sell it for more than ya got in it,

meet great people!!!

WTF . is not to love!!!

This.

In an arcade video game like PacMan, you can eventually get good enough where every time you play you survive long enough to literally break the game.

PacMan and games like it train players to play the same way. There were books on exactly what to do.

#operation-thunder has a more fixed rule-set for a pin, but a player can't play the exact same way as the last person did because of the physics above.

Many reasons for me. Got into the hobby on a lark, seeing a pinball machine
(needing work) in the classified section of the local newspaper. Never played as
a kid but enjoy restoring interesting and elaborate electronic & mechanical
things. New and old. Pinball was the perfect way to scratch that itch although
I didn't realize how deeply I'd get involved initially. Finding, restoring and playing
machines I've put a lot of time into is pure magic.

Pinball was (and still is) a very good way to relax and forget about bad
stuff which we all have to deal with. For years it was a very stressful job.
Finally, its the history and artwork. There are times when late at night
I'll power up a row of pins and just marvel at the color and wide
range of art.
Steve

As a kid, I was drawn to them. My dad was Air Force, all bases had teen centers with machines and I gravitated to them. Walk into a store, I went straight to them. When one was broken, I called the repair number and waited for the repair guy to show up (they always did on the base). It was natural for me to play them, to get one, then many, to repair them, and get more.

People asked, why didn’t you get into the business? It was always fun and an escape. I didn’t want to ruin that experience. Here I am, at 64, downsizing. I’m down to eight machines, turning down offers to buy, and to go out on repairs.

I love the game, and it’s always been a part of my life. I didn’t choose it. It chose me.

Mostly I like to play with balls