I am a pinball addict. Me and my quarters are soon parted if there is a pinball machine in the vicinity (I hear the bumpers ringing, and I start twitching.) However, my flipper-lust has been growing lately, and I’ve been dying to play a good four hours of pinball.
Except I can’t find any machines. Arcade at the mall? None. Arcade at Picadilly Circus? Zero. Arcade anywhere I go? No pinball machines anywhere.
Where the hell have they gone? I mean, I realize this is the new millenium and all, but they can’t possibly be obsolete, can they?
I… must… play!
Last week, to pass the time, my son and I stopped in at a place in NW Tampa called McDivot’s. We were waiting for a meeting and he finished his chicken fingers, when I noticed there was a Simpsons pinball machine. I had the $1 it cost for two plays, so I challenged him to a duel. Now, he’s only six and has never played pinball before, so he struggled a bit, but I helped him. We both won free games on points and we matched once, so we won 3 free games. Not bad for the first time playing that machine. There were three kids looking at another machine (Golden Tee?) and since we had to make our meeting we gave them the games.
Yes, sadly, the pinball machine has pretty much passed into the land of myth.
Of the major manufacturers, most have quit making new machines, and in some cases parts for old ones, which makes repair difficult.
I believe Sega and Williams are still making a few machines, but even so, they’re not the same. They’re all electronic and by-wire rather than mechanical like the older machines. The ball launcher isn’t even a plunger any more.
This part I don’t get. It seems to me there would be more maintenance work on those “button plunger” games than a regular, run-of-the-mill plunger. But hey, technology marches onward, and unfortunately leaves pinball machines behind.
Stern used to make pinball machines as well, but have since fallen off the map. IIRC, the last one they produced was the Austin Powers game.
Last time I played pinball in the local mall, it seemed to me that the arcade operator had rigged the games to encourage people to play video games instead.
You have a Picadilly Circus in Conneticut? 
I became addicted to pinball back in college. 8-Ball Deluxe was my game.
I can’t think of any decent machines that have come out in a while. Probably the last one I liked was South Park. My wife’s cousin has one in her basement.
Nooo I went to Picadilly Circus in London, silly. Two levels of arcade; no pinball machines. Plenty of gambling machines though, sheesh. At least they had air hockey, because no visit to an arcade is complete without me getting my butt unceremoniously whomped in air hockey.
To warehouses, every one.
When will they learn?
When will they ever learn?
Great, now it’s stuck in my head.