Pinball been around for decades and was quite big when i was a kid in late 70s and early 80s.
the birth of solid state during late 70s and popular video games were taking the world by storm.
at one time in late 70s and early 80s pinball was banned for children citing is as a bad influence on childern
in some markets.
i loved pinball as a kid probably more so then video games in arcade played a many of quarters in machines at time. my favorite was this one in 1979 by williams pinball .they later left pinball started making video lottery terminals to this day which was a great loss for the scene.
video game market was dying out in 80s . alot of arcades peaked out around 1986 and closed shortly after
some think cause of home console market with nintendo and sega.
many machines still had life in late 80s and early 90s every corner store or 7-11 had 1 or 2 machines.
and some of the best pinball machines were created in the 90s. but went up in price from 25 cents to 50cents.
i was always low on cash in thoughs years and lost interest in pinball because cost more to play.
eventually the arcades closed there doors and pinball and video games died a slow death with advancements in gaming from consoles to pc gaming in 90s was in its glory years.
here is a picture of addams family pinball machine released in 1992
over 20,000 units of this were made.
there was underground community of computer simulated pinball out with visual pinball
in early 2000s then in 2012 with the release of The Pinball Arcade brought new interest to the hobby
old machines were redigitized to their former glory. then few months later Zen pinball came out these 2
companies were bringing interest back to the hobby. though to be fair zen kinda made up there own tables
based on licensing of movie and tv rights. The Pinball Arcade was only one restored the old tables we loved as kids
and brought them to life on their platform on xbox,ps and pc along with android and ios phones and tablets.
think this is where resurgence came back and people started to try find machines to play this is a phone app tells you
pinball location and a database of collectors and where to play with https://pinside.com/
Stern only pinball maker left making machines getting more popular again. other new makers like Jersey Jack Pinball enter the scene with introduction of pinball machine based on wizard of oz.
jersey jack himself
new machines are not cheap $7000.00 to $10.000 now alot sold to private homes in mancaves.
There is now Big Tournaments put on my PAPA.org professional and amateur players compete for large jackpots
and trophies rankings and bragging rights to who is best player in the land.
Barcades have opened up across north america with new titles from stern on rockbands have led the way
like Metallica Pinball , AC-DC Pinball, Aerosmith Pinball and Movie titles into machines now.
Retro Gaming is big now people have made home units of pinball machines lets face it most of us cant afford to own
these beautiful artforms.
and Expos have been popping up with dealers in different cities across north america spend 40 bucks all games are on
free play and play all day for 3 day pass its like stepping back in time to a time warp and being a kid again when attending expos. i went to 2 now in Edmonton Alberta Canada.
hope to attend the 3rd one in may of 2018.
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