What got you in to pinball an what keeps you in the hobby?

[pinball_tom]

I enjoy to play them of course.I also like to work on them to.The
social part of it is fun also.Had a lot of fun over the years just
meeting an talking to people in the pinball
hobby.www.pinballcountry.com

[I Love Pinball]

My brother worked in an arcade in 1980 when I was 11. I used to hang
out with him while he was at work and he would load the pinball
machines up with free credits. I was there when the arcade brought in
games like Xenon, EBD, Black Knight, etc. My parents bought me a
pinball machine (Bally EM Hi Deal) from the arcade for Christmas that
year. I discovered C.A. Robinson in Los Angeles when I needed rubber
bands and light bulbs. I got on their mailing list and was soon
notified when they had their auction (back in the day when you could
really buy stuff for pennies on the dollar). Bought and sold a few
and have been into the hobby ever since. I have probably owned 500+
machines in the last 30 years.

[Pinballed]

I always wanted a pinball machine. I used to think it was way out of
my reach to own one. Then one year I had a gig that was supposed to
take me to the middle east for a week and play military bases. Then
two days before we were supposed to go, there was some conflict and
they cancelled the trip...but we still got paid!
Since I considered it 'found money' I promptly went and spent the
cheque on a DE Tommy and havent looked back...11 machines later.
Thats what got me into the hobby...what 'keeps' me in the hobby is the
sickness!

[Promo Joe]

Like Pinballed I thought they were too expensive, but always loved
playing them over most arcade games. When my coworker (TyEdit) bought
his first machine, which I now own, we started talking about our
favorites as kids growing up. For me, it was and has always been
Firepower and he showed me that they were not that expensive. Found
one locally that really was a POS, but the price was right to try
tinkering with it. 2 years and 5 pins later, I'm loving every moment
of it!

[FredMaine]

I think I've told this story before here but when I was young (12
maybe) I delivered newspapers and every Saturday after collecting, I
had a bag full of coins. With the coin that was mine, I'd run down to
Mike's Rec, a pool hall in Caribou, Maine. Played a lot of pinball.
One day a kid I knew showed me a machine in his basement that wasn't
working at all and sold it to me for almost nothing - $25 I think.
Spent the whole summer teaching myself how it worked and finally fixed
the thing. Still have it, and one other EM.

What will keep me in this hobby? Well, nowadays it's much more novel
than it used to be, I like that. Still like working on them, I
especially like the mechanical logic of EMs. And really enjoy
watching others play after all of my hard work.

Fred

[Taylor-VA]

I played arcade and pinball growing up with my brother. (born in '72)
Going to college, in 1990, I was lucky to have several arcades around
campus with the newer W/B games
as they came out. I spent way too much time playing.

Well I continued to play on location whenever I came across a
pinball.
My brother and I always talked about buying an TAF, as we both played
a good bit of it in the early 90's.
Well I get married and both my wife and I have decent incomes and she
knows about the conversations
about this pin. My wife calls me to tell me about a local that is
featured in an online article and suggest that
I call him. Long story short....I still have that TAF.

The TAF had a bunch of issues and in the first two weeks of owning it
I bought an IPB repro plastic
set to replace a light assembly and loved tearing into that machine.
This was the beginning of my
hobby. Now with 6 working pins, one getting a full restore in the shop
and an EM game in the gameroom
I find the process of finding, restoring, and playing a pinball all to
be very key components to pinball
as a hobby for me.

I really do enjoy the social aspect of the game and try to have people
over regularly to play.
I've met a bunch of great people at shows and always try to drop an
email to anyone from VA
when I see them post for the first time.

Having a child has changed a lot and obviously there is not as much
time to spend on it but
I look forward to sharing the hobby with my kids when the get older.

I've had moments of doubt, wondering if it was a waste of money, or
time and
then I just grab a beer and step into the game room, dim the lights
and play away.
Usually stops any seeds of doubt very quickly.

[Steve]

I bought my first machine because (1) had just bought a
larger house and had always dreamed of having a gameroom,
and (2) had a stressful job and needed something to help
with that.

Didn't take long to get hooked. Now, 22 years later, I'm into
the history apsect and restoration. I'm a decent player as
well but for me that a minor thing.
Steve

[llabrevlis]

I've was fascinated as a kid with pinball, can remember when they
switched from 5 balls for a dime to 3 balls/25 cents/2 plays!! (Man
I'm getting Old!!) First ones I clearly remember were 4 Million BC
and Gold Rush. Used to go up to the High School and play the 68 WMS
Lady Luck that they had in the cafeteria, this was when I was in Grade
6. When I went to the same high school, they had a variety of games
while I was there, including Ding Dong and Domino. After that I
played anytime I found the games on location, then in 1988, we had an
operator put a couple of video games into our video store, then one
day I decided to try buying my own. Got a Space Shuttle and a Big
Game, plus a couple of videos, well the pins did so well, I could then
afford another so I bought an F-14, then a High Speed, and the rest as
they say is history!! Ironically, I probably owe the large pinball
collection I have now to a couple of video games, Street Fighter and
Mortal Kombat, they made so much back then, that I was able to buy
more pins!!

Today, I collect just about anything pinball I can get my hands on,
poster, backglasses, translites, books, etc, and my game collection
spans 1934 to 2007. I consider myself basically a collector now, I
enjoy working on the games, fixing and restoring, and on the
occasional time when it all just becomes too much, something always
seems to come along to re-pique my interest.

Dale

[Pinhead!]

I have always enjoyed playing (off & on since '79), but restoring
these classic machines (2 years now) is what got me hooked. Taking a
machine that some would consider parting out & making it look new
again, what a sense of accomplishment!

Norman

[pincorrect]

When I was young, I would sneak out after school and hit a local
arcade. Since I pretty much raised myself as my parents were divorced
and my mom worked full time, pinball was my friend, and I used to have
a paper route and the money I made went into playing pinball. Then
later I got into video games, which motivated my interest in computers
which gave me a career path. I worked in several arcades in amusement
parks. I always wanted a pinball machine and at some point, I decided
to keep my eyes open for certain machines.. then once I got one, I was
bitten.

[Jack Grenuk (The Kid)]

My Dad got me into pinball. When I was a couple months old he took a
picture of me inside of his TAF. I have been playing ever since and I
love it. I have 5 working games and am really proud as I restored 2 of
them on my own. My friends at school make fun of me but I still think
its really cool. I think pinball will be with me for a long time.

Jack Grenuk (The Kid)

[Lloyd Olson]

I don't really recall early memories of pinball. What got me into it besides
having an op for a Father.

What keeps my love for the game is when I fully shop a pin. Stand back and
admire it, in all it's glory. A wondrous, enticing, beautiful work of art.
That you can play. You can interact with it and be one with the people who
made that game possible. Designers, artists, even owners. There is a long
list behind each pin.

The greatest painting in the world doesn't hold a candle to interacting with
a pinball machine.

Harry Williams was right. The ball is wild. LTG :)

"pinball_tom" <tallman...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e84e0ac4-3b30-48a8...@a31g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

[World Class Pins]

On Nov 21, 9:24 pm, "Lloyd Olson" <l...@ssbilliards.com> wrote:
> I don't really recall early memories of pinball. What got me into it besides
> having an op for a Father.
>
> What keeps my love for the game is when I fully shop a pin. Stand back and
> admire it, in all it's glory. A wondrous, enticing, beautiful work of art.
> That you can play. You can interact with it and be one with the people who
> made that game possible. Designers, artists, even owners. There is a long
> list behind each pin.
>
> The greatest painting in the world doesn't hold a candle to interacting with
> a pinball machine.
>
> Harry Williams was right. The ball is wild. LTG :)

Lloyd and his wisdom keeps me in the hobby.
:)
GodSpeed LTG!
K.

[badbilly27]

Growing up I loved (still love) video games. Mattel handhelds, Atari
2600, Intellivision, opening up a PC Game Magazine and typing in code
in DOS on my IBM PC Jr - I was hooked. Party at the Axel roller rink
- take my skate rental money and go straight into the arcade and play
Tempest, 10 yard fight, Satan's Hollow or Dragon's Lair. Arcades were
better than a candy store for me. My intro to pinball was a used home
sized stand up pinball machine my Mom picked up at a garage sale for
us. Didn't know the rules but played that thing like crazy. Then one
day few years later it was gone. Mom sold it in our garage sale while
I was at school. Bummer. I then recall playing pinball on a vacation
in the hotel lobby, Black Rose, with my older brother for hours. My
parents couldn't pull us away from it. I was amazed at the cannon.
Over the years I would look for a pinball machine at arcades before
playing video games - I wanted to see the different toys on each game
and make the dot matrix do something different. Watching that silver
ball bounce around was just relaxing and exciting. Years later while
in college during classes in the campus arcade Funhouse became my
stress reliever. Rudy and I had many a tussle. Right after college a
co-worker (who later became/is a good friend) and I found an arcade
with 10 pin lineup. Every day after work we played for an hour on the
pins. Always seemed to take the stress right away. Over the years,
pinball just seemed to always be there accompanying key moments/
memories in my life.

Growing up I watched Silver Spoons and envied Ricky Schroeder for
having that arcade in his house (and that cool train). One day I wish
I can be so lucky - one day - that dream I hope I can make come
true.

7 years ago I'm surfing the net unable to sleep and stumble upon a
website of someone's home gameroom located just a few cities away.
Small home but killer gameroom from the pictures I recall. On a lark I
send him an email asking "How did you do that? No offense but are you
rich? I'm so jealous!" He sends me an email back and informs me of
the resell world of games and refers me to two local resellers to
network with and get started. 13 pins, a twin racer, Chexxx hockey,
MAME machine and antique slot machine later - I made one of my dreams
come true. I now have a Silver Spoon. Glad to have something to
relieve the stress from high pressured job and bring back the fond
memories of my youth. I thank my lucky stars (and my wife) every time
I come up from the mancave.

[frankMi]

I have six brothers, and as kids our parents used to
take us on vacation in this old motor-home.

One year we went out west for three weeks, our
longest vacation ever. Being on the road that much
meant doing lots of laundry so we had this drawer
that my parents would keep coins in for the stops
to the laundromat.

Our motor-home seemed like it was always breaking
down so one time when it was in a garage we found
a pin to play in a nearby store.

After my brothers ran out of their coins I said, "I'll go
get some more". My brothers didn't question my source
(I'm sure they knew where I got them, yet they knew who
would pay the price so they kept quite) and we just played
that pin for hours.

I didn't know it at that time but that's where the addiction
started. The next time we went to a laundry mat,
someone was in a world of trouble, and it wasn't the other
six. They turned states evidence so fast, yet I didn't care.

That winter I asked for a pinball machine for Christmas
and got one of those toy ones. It was destroyed in a
matter of weeks and at that time I told my self, "Someday".

Now my basement can only hold one more without a remodel
and even though I hate the 90 degree turn on those stairs
I still get excited every-time my boys and I cart one down.

frank

[m6onz5a]

I've been playing pinball since I was about 4 years old at the local
bowling alley while my mother bowled. I've always wanted a pinball
machine. My parents said it was too expensive and bought me a Pachinko
machine instead from Sears for $50 back in '76-78 (born in '67). I
played the hell out of that machine. Still have it too. Then in '03
when my father passed away I moved back home to help take care of my
mother. She let me start to fill the house with my pinball machines.
Now if I can only get rid of some more stuff of hers, so I can bring
more machines in. ;)

[Jonny O]

Great question!

I got into pinball in the early 90s when Street Fighter 2 got big and
got arcades going again.

I grew up in arcades. I spent a lot of time at the local 7-11 playing
video games and going to all the seedy arcades back then. By age 10 I
was a master at old school games. I could beat Rush 'n Attack, Heavy
Barrel, Ikari Warriors and several others.

A regular Street Fighter hangout got a Hook and I loved it. Most
everyone played it.

We would play pins as an occasional diversion from Street Fighter.
But then one day Gametown on College Ave in Oakland got a new pin that
was just different somehow. Twilight Zone. That game hooked me on
pinball. I played it a few times and didn't do well, and was like
"screw this". Then, by some luck, I got battle the power and my
friend shouted "HIT THE FLIPPERS HIT FLIPPERS". That was the coolest
thing I had ever seen. Then my friend said, "That's nothing - if you
do all the modes you get 'Lost in the Zone' and the game goes crazy.
I saw some guy get it." (That guy, by the way, was Hal Erickson, old
school legend). I was just hooked after that. Had to see it for
myself.

PAPA did some sort of arcade-level qualifiers and I entered in to that
tournament. I ended up winning for Gametown and still have the medal
in a box somewhere. I was still in school and couldn't make the
regional qualifier, or whatever it was.

Hal was so good at Gametown that after he left for the night, Tracy,
the operator, would reset the machine to clear all the credits Hal had
earned so people wouldn't get a bunch of free games.

Anyway, fast forward to about a little over a year ago, and I saw a
flyer for the pacific pinball expo at Merritt College. I checked out
the website and found Lucky Ju Ju, in Alameda. I had already missed
the expo but ju ju was just 10 minutes away so I went to check it
out.

And what do I see... but Twilight Zone. My old love. I played it
like a fiend for a couple months. Unfortunately, Ju Ju's TZ was never
in the best of repair states, though. The flippers were always a
little weak or the playfield angle off. I pleaded with the owners to
dial everything in but they are mainly EM folks. They were cool with
my requests but clearly their focus was on the older stuff. The EMs
there are immaculate (and now they have a huge collection of
woodrails, too). I think my best TZ score was around 400M, but when I
played a random machine at Pin-a-go-go, I got 450M on my first ball.
While I love Lucky ju ju and go there often, I hope they'll dial in
their DMD era pins.

After that, I discovered Playland Not at the Beach. I found my other
lost love - Creature from the Black Lagoon. And the condition was
excellent. Played superb. And PNATB is so much more than pinball.
If you're ever in the Bay Area, you should really check it out!

In an nutshell, I consider myself lucky to have two really great
pinball places to patronize. Between Playland Not at the Beach and
Lucky Ju Ju, the east bay area of CA is like a pinball mecca, I
think. And all I want to do is just beat high scores. :-)

[Sparkup]

From primary school on I was addicted to pinball's, every corner store
seemed to have a pin at the time. As I got older the machines became
more complex and my interest grew. I bought one machine about 5 years
ago then the sickness kicked in and I now have over 20. I enjoy the
technical side of it and love restoring a pin. I also find it very
social having a few friends around to drink beer and play pinball, I
also get a kick out of my young kids playing my games and seeing their
friends faces when they first see the collection. The kids of today
might have their PS3 and NDS, but they still love pinball.

[Ron, (Boatcat)]

Pinball gave me something to do when
I was young and the family went out of town to visit
relatives. I usually got pretty bored, didn't know
anyone in their town, so went down to the local
drugstore to jam on the machines the whole time.
Played a lot more later on when I joined bowling
leagues, etc.
College Days had me working 1 day a
week handing out change in an arcade, and on the
holidays, working for the op who owned it. He
taught me a lot about EM logic, repairs, etc. Had
a machine in my dorm, etc.
Years later, (87'), wifey comes home
from doing the yard sale thing, tells me, "Theres
2 pinball machines in a yard sale about 4 blocks
over!" I took a ride. There they were, a Xenon and
Lost World, non working. I got them both for $50.
I was working as a electronic tech at the time, so
fixed them both and sold them very quickly and
thought, I wonder if I could find more. Back then,
seemed like I was the only guy in town interested,
there were tons of games out there!
One day, a customer asked me to take
his Slick Chick Game in on a trade for something
newer I had, I took it. On a rainy day, I threw it
together and jammed all afternoon. Now, my
collection is mostly '60's Gtb's and Wms. Takes
me back to my younger years.
Helping people with repairs, and meeting
new people at the shows primarily keeps me in this
hobby, along with the "Thrill of the Hunt."
The Down Side: Throwing parties in my
sports bar - game room that used to wrap up by
1-1:30AM, and now, can't get them outta here until
around 5AM...(Just too much to do in the
gameroom, LOL).

[Bob]

I wanted to build a Mame machine! Looking for info on Web, I found a
group for coin-op machine but most oriented on pinball machine. Since
a friend of mine really wanted a pinball, I found one really cheap for
him and after that I bought a dead Meteor and really love to fix it!
I keep buying projects from different brand to learn how to fix them,
too see how they do it. I still have to worked on a EM Gottlieb,
Williams pre-sys11, Gottlieb sys1 and WPC to complete the big three.
And I'm looking the restoration part now so I still have a few years
before looking for another hobby... The cabinet for the Mame machine
is still in the corner on the garage, untouched :)

[fordiesel69]

I have to laugh at how dumb I was when all I owned was my first 1976
Bally Freedom (EM). I thought there can't be very many titles out
there. Well 11 machines later here I am. I have sold a few too.
This will make you guys laugh real hard, I was in 3rd grade when I got
it, and opening the coin door I could see all the relays and stuff
inside, I said, "how is anyone going to reach that stuff should it
ever break?" I never knew the playfield lifted up until I was
watching Walker Texas Ranger on tv and saw some bar owner working on
his with the playfield up.

My fascination is with the Bally EM's and early SS games.

[Fred Kemper]

I now believe it was Satan...

--
Fred
TX
CARGPB#8
******************

"pinball_tom" <tallman...@yahoo.com> wrote

[Les Manley]

I loved the competition and the randomness of the game. I love vids,
but you can memorize so many things that are always the same, not so
with pinball, there is a randomness and thing change. I played in
arcades all during my child hood, but really got into pins in what I
consider the hey day of pins, the mid 90's. Playing at the Coffman
Union gameroom at the Univeristy of Minnesota was like playing in an
all-star league. It was the same with Mortal Kombat and Killer
Instinct, people came from all over to play there because the players
were the best.

I loved getting high scores and beating others. Now, nostalgia and
competition keeps me going. It was a great time in my life and I like
to bring that feeling back as much as possible. I really miss the
days of going to the arcade and beating 50 people in a row on Mortal
Kombat or playing for hours on a single credit with pins and putting
up all the high scores.

[Psyco]

I was always in the arcade growing up, but this was during the video
craze and of the 8-10 pins they had at my local Aladdin's Castle half
would be off and the others usually had some kind of mechanical
problem (dead flipper, ball stuck in VUK, etc.) so I rarely played the
pins. Several years ago I picked up some old video arcade games and
cleaned them up, and my game room got started. I came a across a
Bally Medusa that had a few minor problems and thought "what the hell
I could learn how to fix that and the game room could use a pinball".
Opening that baby up was the beginning of the end for videos in my
game room. I was floored by the dizzying array of esoteric switches,
coils, mechs and wires that I couldn't begin to comprehend. I started
learning by doing and haven't looked back. What really keeps me in
the hobby is the satisfaction of restoring a pin from route garbage to
something I would be proud to have in my game room. Especially if the
game is generally unpopular amongst collectors. The AFM, MM, TZ, and
TAF are getting restored sure but who's restoring that Hook, or Shaq
Attaq or Hoops. It's deeply satisfying.

Adam

[Jonny O]

This strikes a chord in me because it was the same thing with Street
Fighter II (and its later incarnations) for me back then. The
"randomness" factor of facing an unknown opponent, dissecting their
strats and abusing their weaknesses was a constant and addictive
challenge. Then telling them afterward, "if you stopped doing this,
you might have beat me". Then the other guy goes and practices what
you told them and up's his game.