Inspired by The Who’s Tommy, I wonder what distinguishes a skilled pinball player from an amateur. There doesn’t seem to be too much space for enhancing your technique. Essentially, all you can do to influence the game is pushing those bumpers. You don’t even have the option (at least that’s how it appears to me) to modify the intensity with which the bumper hits the ball, since (correct me if I’m wrong) the mechanism controlling the bumpers is insensitive as to how hard you hit the button. The slingshots can’t be controlled anyway. But surely there must be more to it, so what’s the skill element with pinballs?
The flippers are levers, so naturally hitting the ball near the end of the flipper delivers more force than doing so near the pivot. A major skill (arguably THE major skill) is timing, using the flippers to whack the ball back up the playfield with enough force and accuracy to hit the higher-scoring targets. Additionally, knowing how to nudge the machine with enough force to keep the ball out of sure-death zones (like the pathways at the lowers corners and straight down the middle) without causing a TILT.
There actually is some skill. My parents have a pinball machine, and I can attest to the fact that after many hours of playing I got much better. Some of the tricks include ‘aiming’ the ball to go where you want it (on some games there’s actually some strategy involved in racking up the points) by hitting the ball off of different parts of the filpper.
Also, on some games (at least on ours) hitting the fillper button half way would cause only the bottom one to flip.
So yeah, there is some skill involved.
Hmm, just off the top of my head:
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Learning how to aim the path of the ball coming off the flipper. Good pinball players don’t just bang away at the flipper buttons whenever the ball comes near. Much of the time, you’re trying to “catch” the ball on the flipper, and aim your next shot.
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Being able to predict the path of the ball coming off playfield targets, bumpers, etc.
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Knowing how the scoring system works on the particular table you’re playing, to try to aim for certain targets to maximize your score. Modern pinball machines can have very intricate scoring systems. Which targets you hit in which order makes a big difference.
I miss pinball. I used to be pretty good, but I don’t get the chance to go to arcades much anymore, and pinball machines are becoming pretty scarce these days in favour of those newfangled video games. 
I’ve actually talked to some guys who were really, really good pinball players, and learned a lot about some basic skills. First - When a ball is coming down toward the flipper (not through the drains, but through the playfield) - if you hit the flipper so that it reaches it’s top point right as the ball also reaches that point the ball will “freeze” on that point of the flipper and you can bring it back down in a paused state for a few seconds. Learning to do that, in addition to holding the flipper down until just after the ball rolls onto to it from the side drain to “bounce” it over to the other side, are absolutely essential skills to getting any high scores on a table.
Then, after you’ve learned the techniques of how to control the ball, it’s down to the table itself - what are your goals? How do you score points, how do you add to your bonus multipliers, how do you score an extra ball - what ramps in what combinations give you bonuses, and how do you lock balls to get to the multiball stage… each table has completely different rules and mechanics.
It’s a game that can be played as a button mashing free-for-all, or as a game of skill and hand-eye co-ordination. It’s too bad so many pinball machines are being displaced in arcades…
I’m a pretty decent pinball player. There’s a Star Wars table (one of my favorites) in the place were my kids get their hair cut and I usually leave behind 4 or 5 free games.
People have already mentioned most of it. It takes precise timing to consistently hit the high-value targets. You can also use the flippers to kill the ball’s momentum, allowing you to catch it which makes aiming easier. Jerking the table at the right moment can keep the ball from going down the side gutters, but you have too know how much you can get away with without tilting. Balls going down the center can sometimes be saved with a little jerk coupled with a rapid 1-2 on the flippers in the right order.
It’s very dependent on the table. With some games the best you can do is just bang away. But the really good tables let you work them. Great fun.
Sure you do. You can trigger the flipper before the ball contacts it, at the moment of contact, or slightly after contact. This changes the elasticity of the bounce. You can also strike the ball with the face or the edge of the flipper, although the latter is tricky if you haven’t played for a while. That lets you impart spin to the ball. By properly passing a weak shot from one flipper to the other, you can make the ball go up through the side ramps, or crawl up the lower bumpers and down through the side ramps. Once the ball is back on the flipper you can deliver a carefully aimed shot.
Then there’s the whole issue of nudging the table as the ball hits a bumper. Do it right, and you can rack up many points. Push too hard and you’ll tilt the machine. Of course, nudging is kind of unclean.
There is a lot of skill involved. I don’t have it. KellyM does, or at least did at one time. She could play an entire afternoon on one quarter and on a good day I could play nearly five minutes.
Of course, you can always slide a big magnet across the glass and make the ball go exactly where you want…
Since everyone has given real answers…
In my experience, nothing boosts pinball skill like being in a hurry. I don’t know how many times I’ve dropped a couple of quarters when I had five minutes to spare, and ended up calling over a bored-looking kid to finish out my free games. But while I’m being flip (no pun intended) I do think there is a modicum of truth in that - the more relaxed I am, the better I tend to play. Maybe it gives my reflexes more room to do their thing without me overthinking it.
I used to be a pinball junkie. I suppose I still am, but with pinball machines going nearly entirely extinct, I just don’t get the chance to indulge my addiction. If I saw one today, I can guarantee you I’d scrape together every quarter I could find!
Are pinball machines really that tough to find these days? All the arcades in the nearby malls that I know of have them. Pinball is about the only game I can play in arcades anymore.
Others have noted the importance of timing. Duration also matters: a very short tap can result in a weak flipper motion, often useful (for example, to pass the ball to the other flipper, or to catch it).
We had a KISS pinball at work (in 1994! 
). It was cheap and cheerful, and was a classic design. I got good at it. Really good. So did a few of my friends. If I had some spare time, I’d just go there and pop the maximum eight free games and leave the credits up for somebody else to use, because by then I was getting bored.
But did that make me a pinball wizard? No, because it only made me good on that one machine. When they replaced it (because for some reason there wasn’t much money going through. I wonder why?), the next machine had me at bumbling newbie level. I suppose it is possible to increase general pinball skill, but I found it was very machine-specific. I never put that much effort into subsequent machines, and now if I went to an arcade and tried to play, I’d just be mashing the thing with the twelve year-olds probably doing better. But if you practice on one machine, you can really own the thing.
They’re not hard to find, but they don’t dominate the arcades like they used to. I remember [entering OLD FART mode] the game room at UNC-Charlotte, that had at least 16 machines down the length of the room. That was common.
I kinda wish I could go back to the early '70s, to the grill at Ocean Isle Beach. Not only did they have a fabulous pinball machine with a skiing theme (send the skiier down to the finish line on the backboard and you won SIX games, woo hoo!), but it also had a dinky little machine that was rarely played, call pong. If I was only more aware then, that I had seen the future and didn’t realize it.
TheLoadedDog makes a very important observation. You’ve got to work that machine until you own it. You can develop certain skills that will accelerate the learning curve on a different machine but familiarity with a particular machine makes all the difference. Even two machines that look identical can have a different “feel”.
I used to love pinball. An arcade with a bunch of shoot-em-up videos is depressing to me. The new pinball machines got so tricked-up to compete with video that they seem to have lost the soul of pinball.
Anything that can be done to bring back pinball is progress to me.
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Different machines play differently, sure, and sometimes even the same kind of machine (for example, Kiss or Black Knight or Evel Knievel) plays differently, depending on how it has been played over the years, and in what settings.
But what you need to do to be good on all games, I would suggest, comes from being able to do the following:
– Know where gravity will be a factor before you even start to play. Is the machine level? Leaning to one side? Sloped more than you are used to? A skilled player can tell these things, and will take a chance or not. I once won a bar bet by winning a free game on points on a leaning table.
– Understand what the machine wants you to do. Complete a sequence of letters, numbers, or colours? Drop all the targets? Spell a word? Light all the cards? Shoot up a ramp multiple times? All of the above? A seasoned player can often look at a machine and see these goals (or at least, some of them), just from what they see on the playfield.
– Find the big points, and the required shots to make them, on the playfield. Sure, you can get the machine making a lot of noise, but how many points is all that noise worth? Here is where the skill in trapping and shooting comes into play. Aim and shoot for the big points you have identified.
The physical skill, mentioned in the posts above, is extremely important and is necessary if one is to gain any kind of mastery of pinball. But just as important, I’ve found, is the ability to look at a machine and figure out how to play that machine. I’ve played more games of pinball than I care to remember, but the above principles serve me well no matter the machine nor the location.
There have been some great posts with some good tips. First and foremost in my opinion is making the shots count. By that I mean have an idea of what you’re going to be aiming at when the opportunity comes. A lot of it is knowing the machine and what you’ve done so far on that ball and what remains to be done. You should be thinking all the time what you’re going to be shooting at on the left flipper and the right flipper because some shots are going to be much easier on one than the other.
Develop “backhand” shots, in other words be able to hit the ball near the pivot end of the flipper so that on your right flipper you’re aiming to the right side of the table and vice versa.
Some things are simple. If the ball is quietly rolling along a rail to your flipper, hold the flipper up for a minute to hold the ball. Survey what you want to do, take a breath, and wait till you’re ready to resume play. Sometimes you have to “ice” the ball like hockey players ice the puck. If you’re making save after save and the ball is going fast, have a place where you can aim the ball where it’s going to stay up for a while and give you a break.
The two flipper save is essential. If the ball is going down the middle, sometimes you can save it by hitting it say at the very tip of the right flipper followed a millisecond later off the left flipper. Developing the reaction time and coordination to do the flips takes time and quarters.
Lastly, be vigilant for the “Lazarus ball”. Sometimes a ball drains down the middle and takes a bounce and finds itself back on your flipper. Don’t be cussing and having your hands off the buttons when the ball drains because one time in a hundred, it’s going to come back to life.
Played a game with Mr. Pinball, well he played, I watched. Hate that guy. The first time I’ve ever seen anyone play multiball like that. He would keep three balls trapped in the right flipper. Flip one over to the left flipper when he wanted to put it into play.
Also don’t forget the wrist action. Best to learn this on a flipperless pinball, the ole bingo games. Hitting the machine with the base of your palm just as the ball hits a pin will relay the energy to the pinball. A back and forth force without activating the tilt or slam switches and a down force is required.
There’s also the “Death Slam”. This is akin to pulling a tablecloth off without spilling the dishes.
I’ve also noticed that the very first games I play on a new pinball game are usually the best scores I’ll have for a long time. Once I get the first couple of games under my belt, I start trying to make certain shots or hit certain targets to attain goals, and I start scoring much lower. If I have opportunity to play consistently for a month or two, then the scores start coming up again, and the games last longer…