The Last Pinball Machine Factory 240
The New York Times is running a story about Stern Pinball Inc., which they say is the last pinball factory left worldwide. The story describes working there as a "game geek's fantasy job." The company president, Gary Stern, acknowledges the lack of demand, but he plans on sticking around. He also expects the industry to rebound within the next 10 years. We've previously discussed a slightly smaller version of pinball.
"Corner shops, pubs, arcades and bowling alleys stopped stocking pinball machines. A younger audience turned to video games. Men of a certain age, said [Pinball Hall of Fame operator Tim Arnold], who is 52, became the reliable audience. ("Chicks," he announced, "don't get it.") And so for Mr. Stern, the pinball buyer is shifting. In the United States, Mr. Stern said, half of his new machines, which cost about $5,000 and are bought through distributors, now go directly into people's homes and not a corner arcade."
Nostalgia (Score:2, Interesting)
Shit. I just remembered that I played through the original Zelda last week. Oh well, at least that didn't cost me money or take up an enormous amount of room in my apartment like a pinball machine would.
Playing out of spite (Score:3, Interesting)
We were back there every week feeding coins into it until we all mastered it.
I can't say I have played pinball a lot, but the machines I seem to get addicted to are the ones that are incredibly difficult and don't give you a score of a few hundred thousand points for only like 2 minutes of play. Those machines I just get angry with and keep feeding money till I beat them.
The easy machines I am bored by the time my first turn is done. My friends were the same, we all got so angry with this one machine we made it our mission to beat it.
I know everyone is different, but I think pinball still would have a market if people were motivated to play it, it can get pretty competitive.
Re:Pinball is too expensive... (Score:5, Interesting)
A mechanical game breaks all too often. Video games don't, and even damaged CDs are dealt with by downloading a cracked download. It's a shame -- hardly any pins anywhere any more.
Machine cost means only the richer types could afford _one_, or they were in a public place but set very difficult so the owner & renter could recoup their investments.
The Future Of Pinball [imdb.com] just came out on DVD but I've yet to see it. Looking forward to it when I can. Pinball was the solitaire of physical sports. I miss it.
Re:stern pinball sucks (Score:1, Interesting)
Golden age of pimply-faced youth spending allowance faster than they made it. Games in attract-mode singing their lonely tunes. "Gorgar, eat me!" proclaimed the bilabial-lacking newcomer with the fancy new speech synthesizer. The horribly out of tune golf game.
French fry machine. Pink lemonade. Red quarters for the few elite.
But not the elephant. Not the mall. The only real store was downtown.
Re:Pinball is too expensive... (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean you pay 50p for three balls. Or 20p for three lives in most other arcade games.
Pinball fails on the last two qualities. A pinball machine is outside the budget of casual gamers, so most people have to go to an arcade to play pinball. On the other hand, a gaming console sits conveniently next to their TV at home, allowing them to game whenever they have time.
Pinball has no cooperative component; it's a "single-player" game. Looking at the popularity of multiplayer and online games, I'd say gamers these days value an experience in which their friends can participate. They don't get that with pinball.
I personally love pinball, but it doesn't provide what contemporary gamers want.
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, I love it. It is a game that combines skill with the flippers, and some luck. To me,that's what keeps it interesting. While I love the old sounds of the real bells and gears on an old EM machine, the newer digital ones have so many challenges. This is a bit old of an example, but, the old Funhouse machine is a blast...you have to hit certain things to 'move the clock' to midnight, which puts the talking head, Rudy, to sleep...while he snores, you have to try to get a shot to land in his mouth...doing this, which isn't easy, a number of times...opens up bonus points, specials...etc. Some of the machines are actually a little too complex for my liking....the Star Trek Next Gen machine is one example. You have to do so much...it takes away a bit of the wild fast play....
But, recent machines, the Simpsons...is a blast. Just the right mix of fast play...with hitting special things in succession...multi-ball play...etc.
I loved the old arcade games...I still think Robotron is one of the best games every devised, but, pinball holds a special spot in my heart. Heck, in the old days....if you only had one quarter left..you could still play with a friend...each of you takes a flipper....
Where have they all gone? (Score:5, Interesting)
As with any first job, there Was a Mistake Made. Mine was to trouble shoot a Williams shoot 'em up game that used a rifle and a sensor board to detect where the rifle was pointed. Several wires had been cold soldered and were just hanging around without being attached. Since I don't come equipped with a third hand, I put the solder coil in my mouth so I could use my left hand to guide the wire to it's proper place, my right hand weilding the soldering iron, and by moving my head around and using my lips, guide the solder to the pad to secure wire to circuit board. (Let's leave aside for the moment the wisdom of putting 60% lead wire in one's mouth. Explains quite a bit about my later life though....)
The only problem was that I had not powered down the game to make my repairs. If you think a fresh 9 volt battery makes an impression when you lick the terminals, let me assure you that 24 volts AC leaves an even more lasting impression.
For the NEXT loose wire, I used a alagator clip. It took longer to get everything situated, but was much less painful.
A week after that, Atari came out with "Asteriods", and we put it in the current "hot spot" for pinball games. Two days later, the business where it was set called to say it was on the fritz. I went out, and found that due to the construction of the game, and the amount of quarters pumped into it, the coins had over flowed into the power supply and shorted it out.
If I remember correctly, the bucket to hold quarters was far larger and deeper than any other game to date. I don't know how much money was in the game (the techs were not permitted to empty money or to count it from the games, that was the work of the owner of the game company), but I suspect it was more than the rest of the games combined. After that, we visited the place of business daily for the next six months to empty the game.
Reliving this brings many more memories to mind, but none involve Stern games other than to note that while they were not the most trouble prone (CapCom earns that easily), nor the most money (Bally and later Atari had that tied up), Nor the most reliable (Williams had that tied up), they were like the plodders in the world. Never the best, never the worst.
One thing I remember from that time was cleaning the games. The owner of the game company was always saying "Make it shine like a diamond in a goat's a$$!". We used a glass cleaner called "Glass Wax", which went on as a pink liquid and was removed with vigerious use of a rough rag and newspaper. I can't find it now, even using Google, but it was the BEST product I ever used to clean glass and make it shine.
Pinball games give you free games unlike video gam (Score:5, Interesting)
Too hard (Score:5, Interesting)
That just goes with the game, but that's why I don't play pinball. There's something unfair about losing that way.
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:3, Interesting)
The Star Trek Next Generation game is my favorite pinball game of all time. I love the launchers and the borg multiball -- real pressure and excitement. =)
Re:Pinball is too expensive... (Score:3, Interesting)
It makes me wonder if there could be a way to make competitive pinball -- a double-ended table made more like a hill than a single slope.
Or cooperative pinball with multiple sets of flippers and catchers, where you had to cooperate to fire the balls simultaneously or pass balls to eachother. =)
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:4, Interesting)
Bump the machine to move the ball just right, but not enough to trigger TILT.
To a 10 year old, that's an invitation to cause havoc.
Re:Pinball is too expensive... (Score:5, Interesting)
One thing I always wondered about is why pinball machines almost always seem to use regular bulbs still. I hardly ever see LED lights in them, which is dumb. The "retry" light - the one at the bottom between the pins and you get to shoot a ball again if you lose it within the first 30 seconds or so of play - burns out so fast because it's running in flash mode so much, and I've never seen a machine where it's an LED bulb.
Coin-op videogames also disappearing (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm building my own MAME cabinet just because I miss those games, and this is the only way I'll get to play them anymore. (Or play them properly, I should say. A mouse and keyboard just isn't the same.)
Arcade games have declined mostly due to home console games and inflation. Serious game players have gravitated toward sophisticated computer and console games -- that takes many hours to play. A lot of the old classic and popular (and profitable in their day) coin-op games were the sort we would now sneeringly dismiss as "casual games". As for inflation. . . The components that go into a game machine haven't changed much, they still cost money to build. Meanwhile the quarter you plunked into a Pac Man machine in 1980 would be worth about 55-60 cents in today's money. Yet, people remain resistant to the idea of putting in two coins for only one play.
And pinball? Same thing only worse. Pinball machines are more expensive and much harder to maintain, take up more space, and have, I would say, probably a more seedy image. People still like to play pinball, but the economics are working against it.
With regard to image. . . The lady who runs the local coffee shop heard about my MAME cabinet, and now tells me she wants a cocktail-table videogame for her shop. She wants a Ms Pacman, Lady Bug, Frogger, Donkey Kong, or Arkanoid. . . something nice like that, not a Defender or SF2T machine scaring people away. I doubt whether she'd accept an upright cabinet, and although I haven't mentioned it to her, I suspect a pinball machine is right out of the question (even if she could afford one, which is also out of the question).
Re:stern pinball sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
We all love to play the 'top rated games'.. but there are still a grip of great pinball machines out there. Dismissing Stern is just voiding yourself of pinball, you are not going to find anything else. Play some Spiderman, Family Guy, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, even T3.. good games. I just wish they'd make original themed machines instead of licensing everything.
>at least vpinmame will save pinball.
good lord that is a scary thought.. talk about missing the point.
Used Table Market (Score:1, Interesting)
While dealing with him my father somehow got talked into buying a 1991 Ninja Turtles [ipdb.org] table. This guy also told my dad that he knows of many other people in the New England area who have used tables for sale and trade and to get in touch with him if he was ever interested in adding to his collection.
The Star Trek one is really neat due to the old, yet somehow in perfect working condition, circuitry. The lady who sold it to him also gave him the original owners guide which has has fold-out circuit diagrams and self-test code lists. Really interesting stuff.
The Ninja Turtle table has this annoying spinning pizza on the board that constantly messes up rail combos.
Stern / Chicago Coin (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Shove the machine (Score:2, Interesting)
Competitive Pinball ... Joust Pinball! (Score:3, Interesting)
It makes me wonder if there could be a way to make competitive pinball -- a double-ended table made more like a hill than a single slope.
This has actually been done. However, only one game that I am aware of had such a feature, and it only had a production run of 402 units. Which is probably why no one knows about it...
Joust Pinball [pinballrebel.com]
The machine features a double-ended table. The two players play across from each other. They are able to pass balls back and forth. When I've managed to track one down at the various pinball and classic arcade expos, I've found it to be a fun and unique experience. But so few got created that it is near impossible to find one.
While it is possible to create a competitive pinball machine, it doesn't look like the idea ever really took off.
Feels More Like Gambling Than Gaming (Score:3, Interesting)
The one thing I can tell you though is that there are a lot of pinball addicts at my company and those machines break A LOT. I've seen the brand new game break down more than a couple of times within a few months. The surfaces are roughed up and within a month you can't tell the difference from machines that you see in bars. I've seem them get repaired and there is A LOT of electronics and moving parts inside, easily rivaling a PC.
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:5, Interesting)
The combination of horrendous under-playfield ball storage, shearing joints with wires passed through them, buggy software, and a single fragile drop target that crippled the machine when broken made for a maintenance nightmare. Don't get me started on the ball trough opto channel that would warp its own PCB from overheated resistors, or the power supply that was so underpowered that you had to configure the transformer for 100 volt operation to get enough juice to keep the thing from rebooting in multiball.
Don't get me wrong, when the game is running it's one of the more entertaining games from the golden era of Williams pinballs. Unfortunately, it was far too much innovation shoehorned onto a platform that just wasn't up to the task.
You want to see perfection? Go play a Medieval Madness or a Twilight Zone.
I'll save my thoughts on the Stern family for another rant.
This is an extremely dangerous subject (Score:2, Interesting)
Bringing up this painful topic about a device that almost ruined my entire life is pure torture!
I learned pinball in the basement of my fraternity house with a game called 'Royal Flush'. It was a simple game and the 'old guys' showed us how to really work the thing. After that, it was 'Target Alpha' - another simple game that really taught precision and dexterity. The end result was a very good understanding of what the limits were - and how far you could push a game.
Nothing, but nothing compares to being able to get absolute control of a machine and master it to the point where you can play all night on a roll of quarters. The problem was that I ended up doing just that. I'd find myself at 3:00 in the morning thinking "just one more game..."
A couple of years ago, I was on a road trip with my 16 year old son and we took a break at a truck stop that had two great machines: Terminator 3 and Playboy. Two hours later, my son (who never new of my addiction) looked at me in complete disbelief and said: "Dad, I realize that you have four free games but, for the last time, we HAVE to go!!"
To me, today's video games just never give you that 'feel'. There is
a) no sensory feedback loop and
b) you only win levels, not games.
That's what kept me hooked for so long. That said, I hope Mr. Stern is recognized as a 'dealer' and does hard time for continuing to 'push' this very, very addictive and questionably ilicit product!!
Re:stern pinball sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
you will never know the joys (Score:4, Interesting)
Even though the ball is smooth and featureless, you can tell how it is spinning and can predict how it will rebound.
The feature rich machines which have emerged since the late 80's like the Addams Family and Twighlight Zone (a notoriously unreliable machine) are brilliantly realized fun, but for me the subtlety of the old 60s and 70s mechanical machines is just as fascinating. And the mechanical sounds are great. The replay "thwack" was produced by a solonoid knocking on a metal plate. Every manufacturer had a different component making this sound, so every machine was different.
Another great thing about pinball is that skills are transferable. There never was a good pinball player who was only good on one machine.
I spent 1000s of hours playing pinball in my teens and 20s, and I can honestly say that when the game is going great and you have saved disaster over and over and feel you have the machine under your control, you feel like a god. It's obviously not the very best feeling in the world, but I think it's comparable to what it feels like to be onstage if you are a performer. Not many video games can ever give you that feeling.
And of course, the next ball goes straight down the drain. And you miss the replay by 100 points... But then get the lucky number.
I pity those who don't get pinball.
Marty's Playland (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pinball is the video game for old people (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll admit it. I'm an old fart (60) that grew up with the real thing in the back corners of the local bowling alleys and to me pinball has always been more enjoyable than most video games in part due to the real physics AND the physical feel, sound and even smell of the machine. My Dad bought me a used "Derby Day" machine back in the late 60s and I kept it running for another 25 years or so when I finally gave it to a guy who had a collection of machines. I can still remember the smell of the wood, oil, toasting insulation and ozone when that baby was fired up and cookin'.
Yes, I was an addict (Score:2, Interesting)
The physical, tactile nature of the machines is something lost on the last couple of generations. Shaking the table, hearing and feeling the solenoids, getting that syncopated double flipper-tip save! These machines taught a generation of geeky misfit guys about physics. Today's physics-based computer games are so coarse in comparison; they don't even come close to having as many possibilities of actions / reactions as a real pinball table has.
Oh well, everything dies, and pinball is pretty much dead these days. There are just a few poorly maintained tables left in my town. I can still amaze people when I play them. It's a skill that never really goes away once you've spent / wasted your youth learning it.
If just a single table didn't get horribly boring after awhile, I'd probably buy one for my own home. I like the fact that a different, albeit still poorly maintained, table shows up once or twice a year in the places that still have a pinball machine (usually when the current machine breaks beyond field repair).
But, I don't play enough for anyone to make any money off my habit anymore, so, I'm as responsible as anyone for killing pinball.
Re:Pinball is too expensive... (Score:3, Interesting)
Amen, brother. I worked for Capcom's pinball division during the big crash around 1995, when all the major manufacturers packed it in. Maintenance cost was one of the driving factors. A pinball machine is a complex piece of equipment, full of finicky parts with tight tolerances. It takes constant tweaking by someone who knows what they're doing to keep it in good shape. A video game? Any high-school dropout can wipe down the screen and empty the cash box once a week.
Plus, when a video game gets old you can swap in a new board, give the cabinet a new coat of paint and a new marquee, and you have a brand new profitable machine. You can't really rehab an old pinball machine. Well, you can, but it costs as much as buying a new one. Williams tried to make an upgradable cabinet with their video/pinball hybrid games, but I doubt they ever sold many conversion kits.
Ah, well. At least I got to work in the industry for a while. The summary is right, it really was a dream job. I had my own office with a pinball machine [ipdb.org] which I could play any time I wanted. The only catch was I had to make it work first. And get this -- they paid me! Ah, those were the days...
Hercules machine (Score:2, Interesting)
Long live the Pinball machine (Score:2, Interesting)
I still miss some of the classics (Score:2, Interesting)
An Arcade Owner's Perspective (Score:2, Interesting)
As a result, fewer kids develop a love of pinball, which translates into fewer adults playing pinball. Fewer kids and adults means a smaller customer base and fewer machines sold.
The pinball manufacturers spent 30 years combating video games. First they moved to cpu control, then increased complexity, added DMD displays, and finally, Williams tried adding a CRT with their Pinball 2000 machines. After producing two different P2k designs, they dropped pinball for video poker. For me, that's a pretty sad ending for my favorite manufacturer.
One thing they were never able to do was make pinball machines appreciably more reliable. I have a 1973 Gottlieb that's more reliable than most newer pins, probably because it has fewer playfield parts. For an operator's perspective, that's a fatal flaw. Pinball machines require constant service. Video games require the occasional retightening of a button or joystick or the resoldering of a switch. Replace the marquee lamp every year or two. By the time the monitor needs re-capping, the game has probably been replaced with a new one. This is what encouraged operators to switch from mechanical games (not just pinball) to video games, as much as the popularity of games such as Pong, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.
I co-own Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade [groundkontrol.com] in Portland, OR, and AFAIK, we operate the most pinball machines west of the Pinball Museum in Vegas. I'm discouraged that I don't see more kids playing pinball. But I do see a lot of people in their early 20s playing. Many of them say pinball is a recently acquired taste. So I'm hopeful that the decline in the number of players has stopped. I don't foresee a resurgence like Gary Stern does, but I'd be glad to be wrong.
I hope Stern can survive, because without them, pinball is doomed.
Next time you're in Colorado (Score:2, Interesting)