The lights the sounds, the smells. Me and four mates playing four-ball, the contrasting styles. Laid back, hunched over, cigarette clenched in mouth, in between fingers or perched on the glass taking drags whilst holding the ball in an upturned flipper. The “CRACK!” of the free game.
Ahhhhhh, happy days. All gone now of course.
Or are they?..No they are not.
Of course I’ve played pinball on games machines before but found them strangely unsatisfying and could never find my favourite classic tables. However, on an off chance I idly searched through the Google play store and sure enough I found a pinball simulator that allowed me to download various famous tables for about £2 a pop. Pinball Arcade is the name (I shan’t put a direct link in but you can search for it easily enough)
The physics seem pretty spot on to me and running it on a seven inch tablet is just right.
Three things are now apparent.
Firstly, the Nexus 7 in portrait mode is the perfect pinball tablet,
second “Bride of Pinbot” is still my favourite
Third, I still rule!
I used to really love pinball. Then this deaf, dumb and blind kid came into the local arcade and demolished all my best scores. Even on my favourite table. I never really recovered from that. I had to stop playing.
Seriously, I have a lot of time for pinball and wasted quite a bit of time at college playing on the tables in the local area. This is a good tip. I will have to have a look into it.
About 10 or 15 years ago, when myself and all my siblings still lived at home my parent’s got us a pinball table for Christmas. My mom must’ve really liked the idea of it, considering this is the one she got us. To this day, I still can’t believe she allowed it in the house. I assume it was the only one they could find.
I got really good at it for a while. Spending hours learned strategies instead of just hitting the ball everytime it came near a flipper. Which gates to hit in which order etc.
Then I learned how to program the machine (10 balls instead of three/replay at 50,000 instead of 500,000 etc) and set the high scores to some pretty unattainable numbers before setting everything back to the default.
What a coincidence, I have the same simulator, and “Bride of Pinbot” is also my favorite. Playing that table in the University Center all day is probably why my grades suffered so much for my sophomore year of college.
I also used to love a table that had a biker theme, but it’s not the same as the “Harley-Davidson” one in the simulator. I’ll keep looking for it.
You have good taste. It has an elegance and (relative) simplicity to it which appeals. Linking loads of loops together can be somewhat hypnotic and sinking the billion shot never gets boring.
But Las Vegas’ Pinball Hall of Fame is open (and going strong). I still stop in regularly for pinball and to make sure my high scores are still up on Robotron 2084.
I used to participate in the Toronto Pinball League which generally plays at the houses of private collectors. Some people have really impressive home arcades!
Fun fact: Medieval Madness pinball features the voices of Scott Adsit and Tina Fey from “30 Rock” (and the dialogue was written by Adsit).
I have a friend who has three tables installed in his garage and hosts a pinball party every year or so - it’s great fun but of course we are no competition for him. There are a few tournaments you can go to though, apparently - I’m nowhere near good enough to consider entering, but if I had the space and money to get a table I’d seriously consider it.
Some of the locations are not that close to Toronto proper, though (e.g. one guy has a fantastic basement arcade, but it’s in Georgetown). That’s the main reason I stopped going.
Alas, I have yet to sink the billion point shot. I do love hitting the heart ramp over and over, though. THUMP THUMP, million. THUMP THUMP, million. THUMP THUMP, million.
A couple of spots in the Bay Area to visit for your pinball fix: The Pacific Pinball Museum and Playland Not-At-The Beach. Pacific Pinball has more games while Playland has lots of neat displays relating to amusement parks and circuses.
A friend and I made my coffee table from a discarded pinball machine. So if you look under all the clutter, you see Airborne Avenger The Ultimate High!
Something you might not have thought of. I know someone who has Alzheimer’s in the middle stages. The person LOVES to play pinball. Can’t get enough. The noise, the lights, the hand-eye coordination is very therapeutic. When I mention it to the neurologists and the therapists they are all for it.
Gorgar was, and always will be, my favorite pinball machine. I used to rook money out of my mom’s purse to play it (and Missile Command) when I was a shitheaded kid.
