Pinball is Booming in America, Thanks To Nostalgia and Canny Marketing 39
Twenty years ago, pinball seemed to be circling the drain. In the 1980s and 1990s video games stole market share from the mechanical sort, and home games-consoles stole market share from arcades. By 2000 WMS, the Chicago-based maker of the Bally and Williams brands of pinball machines, then the biggest manufacturer, closed its loss-making pinball division to focus on selling slot machines. Yet today, pinball is thriving again, both at places like Logan Arcade and in people's homes. Economist: Sales of new machines have risen by 15-20% every year since 2008, says Zach Sharpe, of Stern Pinball, which after WMS closed became the last remaining major maker. "We have not looked back," he says. Next year the firm is moving to a new factory, twice the size of its current one, in the north-west suburbs of Chicago. Sales of used machines are more buoyant still -- some favourites, such as Stern's Game of Thrones-themed game, can fetch prices well into five figures. Josh Sharpe, Zach's brother and president of the International Flipper Pinball Association, says that last year the IFPA approved 8,300 "official" tournaments, a four-fold increase on 2014.
What is driving the boom? Much of it is nostalgia. A generation raised on pinball in arcades in the 1980s and 1990s are now at an age where they have disposable income, and kids with whom they want to play the games they played as children. Marty Friedman, who runs an arcade in Manchester, a tourist town in southern Vermont, says that he and his wife opened their business after he realised it would allow him to indulge his hobby. "I compiled a list of the games I felt were essential to a collection you would deem museum-worthy," he said, and went about acquiring them. But canny marketing is also drawing in fresh blood. Newer Stern machines are now connected to the internet, so players can log in and have their scores uploaded to an online profile. Both Sharpes suggest that the mechanical nature of the games appeals to people bored with purely screen-based play.
What is driving the boom? Much of it is nostalgia. A generation raised on pinball in arcades in the 1980s and 1990s are now at an age where they have disposable income, and kids with whom they want to play the games they played as children. Marty Friedman, who runs an arcade in Manchester, a tourist town in southern Vermont, says that he and his wife opened their business after he realised it would allow him to indulge his hobby. "I compiled a list of the games I felt were essential to a collection you would deem museum-worthy," he said, and went about acquiring them. But canny marketing is also drawing in fresh blood. Newer Stern machines are now connected to the internet, so players can log in and have their scores uploaded to an online profile. Both Sharpes suggest that the mechanical nature of the games appeals to people bored with purely screen-based play.
Of course (Score:2)
Re:Of course (Score:5, Interesting)
Mechanical failure has always been a problem with pinball - broken machines usually don't generate revenue, and they break down a lot because well, mechanical stuff.
It's why arcades swapped out to videogames when they could - why deal with frequently breaking down pinball machines when you could go fully solid state videogame machines where the failures are usually due to buttons breaking or other things.
The problem these days well, videogames have gone home - so there's no real reason to go to an arcade to play videogames - the home console have graphics and performance that rival the arcades (most home consoles in the past were cut down arcade machines).
So pinball is back - it's unique, it's something that can only be poorly emulated as a videogame, and balls hitting physical things feels more real than simulated game physics.
As for telling what is wrong - this has been technology since the 90s. Heck, Williams machines back in the day compensated for failures - they detect if a switch hasn't been hit in around 30 games or so, and if that's the case, they start compensating by using alternative switches to provide signalling that something happened (which can result in oddball things like certain shots awarding things even though normally they shouldn't). When you enter the service menu the machine lists every fault it detected. It also indicates the fault condition using a dot after the credits (e.g., it would say "Credits: 0 ." if there was a fault)
Of course, given modern pinballs are using SoCs similar to ones in phones, full color LCD screens for DMD and such, as well as having network access for high score tables posted on the Internet, it's expected that the machine should have an easily accessible web page listing all detected faults as well.
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I tell my customers, "If you don't play them they won't break." They're like cars--the more you use them the more they'll need maintenance and repairs. No one seems to mind much getting them repaired and few people want to learn how to fix them because they're so complicated. I've been fixing them as a side job for over 30 years and every once in a while I run across a new problem I've never seen before. I feel bad for the new guys who get stumped by lots of stuff that's not all that hard.
The funny thin
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It's why arcades swapped out to videogames when they could - why deal with frequently breaking down pinball machines when you could go fully solid state videogame machines where the failures are usually due to buttons breaking or other things.
Actually they went to video games (and then to ticket games) because that's where the money/profit was. If the pinballs made money arcades wouldn't care about having to fix them. When a pinball is $6k and it only makes $10k a year it is hard to justify the space and maintenance for it when a stupid game like Flappy bird or Fast and Furious XXV will bring in 5-10 times that. That's why arcades usually only have 1 or 2 token pinballs in the back corner, not because they are hard to fix. The difference is that
not so much "failure" as "wear" (Score:2)
It's not so much "mechanical failure" as that so many of the parts are consumables, and wear by the act of usage.
Kind of like your car's brakes needing to be serviced rotate4d, and eventually drums or disks replaced.
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"If it ain't broke, it ain't pinball"
Don't forget Jersey Jack Pinball (Score:3)
Don't forget Jersey Jack Pinball. They're almost as prolific than Stern is these days.
Pinball is fun. (Score:4, Interesting)
I hung around a lot in arcades in the 80s/90s, but never really got into pinball - only started liking it as an adult... not a lot of nostalgia. For me, it hits the same buttons as a good video game - the joy of improving skill and mastering a system - but from a different angle and with a very different sensory experience. The games are usually easy to start, which makes them fun to have around and have people try when they visit.
"Internet connected" is not an important selling point for me. I want a good layout without too many "cheap feeling" drains, some progression, and a few good gimmicks/multiball/events.
The only feature I'm interested in at this point is "lower price". A good table has a lot of re-play potential, but not infinite - and they're a huge investment in money and space and effort.
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Have you tried the video pinball machines, which are basically a TV screen where the board would be? Are they any good?
They seem like a great idea if the feel is right. An endless supply of new tables, including lots of free ones, and recreations of old ones. That's the question though, do they feel right? Or do they feel different but enjoyable anyway?
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I have not. I've tried a few pinball video games - didn't grab me. For me, they tend to feel more like "a bland video game" rather than "a cheap way to play pinball".
But perhaps the form factor (and other features) of "digital tables" works better? I'd like to know too.
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Thanks, it's nice to hear from someone who has tried it and is a pinball fan.
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it's just not the same without the real mechanical interaction.
I'm overdue, covid I suppose, to visit the Pinball Museum.
Yes, Las Vegas has an actual museum, south of the strip, of functioning, playable, machines, from the earliest ones with mechanical scoring reels, to the latest.
They obtain them, fix them, and then rotate them through.
And it actually is licensed by a museum. In the months it turns a profit, it is donated to another charity (Salvation Army, iirc).
I think they could get storage and revenu
People like variety (Score:1)
After staring at screens for so long, the physical game-land of pin-ball machines feels fresh. Kinda like p0rn ;-)
Only one thing to say: (Score:2)
SHOWTIME! [youtube.com]
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One of the best tables I've ever played. Although the most stress-inducing multiball is Apollo 13, which has a 13-ball multiball! PINBALLS EVERYWHERE!
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You never ran into a Hyperball machine [pinside.com], then. Williams didn't make many of them but if you got in front of one it was an experience.
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Never seen that one in person, but I want to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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and that can jam the game up.
Heist has more and does spit them out in an better way.
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Not STUPID amounts of money yet, but good luck keeping one working 100%...
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About $8-10k USD for a fully restored one. There were a lot of Addams made so there's a ton of them out there.
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Not really a pinball guy per se, but I would rather play Cirqus Voltaire, Tommy, the Star Trek: TNG table, the Dr. Who table, and eh I dunno what else.
The Who's on First (Score:2, Offtopic)
Ever since I was a young boy, I've played the silver ball...
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Fond memories (Score:1)
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if that game is not holding the scores then the battery need to be change before they leak and destroy the boards.
So many quarters (Score:2)
If I had a dollar for every quarter I dropped into the Skylab pinball machine, I wouldn't have been working for the past few decades.
That was the only pinball machine I ever really got into even though I played others. I could hit the ramps like no one's business.
Even though the article talks about nostalgia, I would like to see milennials and Z try their hand. The first challenge, finding a quarter and inserting it into the slot.
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Stern is not the only one but the biggest one (Score:2)
Stern is not the only one but the biggest one
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Stern literally saved pinball. JJP would not be in business if Stern had folded. At the end of the day, we have Data East to thank. Gary Stern was head of their pinball division, when they decided to close it they essentially turned it over to Stern.
Booming up 100%! (Score:2)
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they had games with 6 can play.
Now Scooby Doo does have 5 player play but other games are still capped at 4
True confession (Score:3)
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the paid emulator for pinball sucks.
big time centership of the games / roms
no settings menu
no home roms
no hacked roms
no modded roms
no prototype type stuff
no multi version roms.
But the free emulator has all of that + more as well very rare games that have there roms dumped.
It sure is! (Score:3)
Build a diy pincab can be fun too, here is mine it (Score:1)
Size sometimes matters (Score:2)