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Indeed. :D http://www.ipdb.org/
And on the Twilight Zone that I own, one of the programmers of the original software, made a "home" version of the ROM.

Just dropping in to say that anyone who names a company after a pinball game has my vote.

Plus I loved that machine.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cg...

They should try that inlane/outlane system in new games.

And baseball? The best fail 70% of the time, yet millions seem to love the game.

Similarly, beating a high score in a video game. We try a hundred, or a thousand, times, to get that one moment. [I still remember getting 10billion on the ST:TNG pinball game, and this happened at least 20 years ago. One of the hardest, and most enjoyable, pins I've ever played.]

There must be something different at work with these two examples because they are, I think, the opposite of the "Jackpot!" Vegas thing. They seem "healthier".

Hope that helps,
Floyd Maxwell

Hope that helps,
Floyd Maxwell

I know a place that has about 20 machines, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Finding those is rare indeed. It's even harder to find those older video-pinball games. Just try locating Caveman (circa 1982).

The new Tron pin is really fun - fast paced and right down the middle. The old "Who dunit?" game was too easy. I scored 13 billion+ and had to leave it because I was about to miss a movie. Theater of Magic can be a hard one. Some are just weird, like Haunted House - 3 playfield levels and one of them is backwards.

As far as becoming more common, I doubt it. These machines are too complicated to lower the price. Miles of wires are necessary for the lighting and the mechanical parts.

I know a place that has about 20 machines, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Finding those is rare indeed. It's even harder to find those older video-pinball games. Just try locating Caveman (circa 1982).

The new Tron pin is really fun - fast paced and right down the middle. The old "Who dunit?" game was too easy. I scored 13 billion+ and had to leave it because I was about to miss a movie. Theater of Magic can be a hard one. Some are just weird, like Haunted House - 3 playfield levels and one of them is backwards.

As far as becoming more common, I doubt it. These machines are too complicated to lower the price. Miles of wires are necessary for the lighting and the mechanical parts.

I always liked Whirlwind.

How's this any different tha the LotR Pinball machine?

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=4858

Used to play a lot of Xenon pinball machine back in '82 (while avoiding EE classes my first year of college)

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2821

Just loved getting the multi-ball and making the machine 'climax' by winning games. Maybe it was the voice synth, the sexy graphics, or the speaker aimed at my groin, but I really did love that machine... *sniff*

In my opinion, Xenon was probably the best of the early wave of reactive/interactive (voice synthesis) pinball machines, and it seems impossible to find any around any more. Damn shame.

I have been crameniating over the "23 skidoo" term and the myriad of possible origins. Although dead in language today, it lives on in the Bombardier "Ski-Doo" snowmobile, that monicker being used since 1960 and not disappearing any time soon.

Also note the 1932 pin table (they weren't call pinball machines yet), Skidoo "23".

I've been crameniating over the origin of this word/phrase cited by the OP. It's amazing how many claims there are for this phrase. And while the phrase itself may have faded, the Bombardier "Ski-Doo" (from 1960) I would think derived it's name from it and will live on for quite awhile.

Also note the 1932 pingame Skidoo "23".

I could play Rollergames endlessly starting with one credit. http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2006

That was the only pinball machine that I was able to "flip" the score back through 0. It gave another credit when it passed the setpont the second time but the final score did not count as a high score. I eventually started getting as close as I could to flipping the score and then tilting out. You would get more overall credits doing that as a new high score gave multiple credits.

My favorites or at least the ones I played the most were Funhouse, Time Machine http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2565 and Terminator 2. Twilight zone and Adams Family seemed to be the most popular but I only played them if there was nothing else.

I could play Rollergames endlessly starting with one credit. http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2006

That was the only pinball machine that I was able to "flip" the score back through 0. It gave another credit when it passed the setpont the second time but the final score did not count as a high score. I eventually started getting as close as I could to flipping the score and then tilting out. You would get more overall credits doing that as a new high score gave multiple credits.

My favorites or at least the ones I played the most were Funhouse, Time Machine http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2565 and Terminator 2. Twilight zone and Adams Family seemed to be the most popular but I only played them if there was nothing else.

I can't believe they showed Gorgar. I still remember playing that for the first time back in the 80's. It was the first game I can remember that "talked". Certain hits played a ghoulish voice.

When I was a kid, there were still a few arcades which had at least a few pinball games alongside the Street Fighter II's and NEo-Geos, and some of them were pretty bitchin,' like Funhouse and Slugfest which had backstories and were enhanced by digitized audio and scrolling LED screens.

In the case of funhouse, for example, Rudy the dummy occasionally talks. If you hit him with his mouth closed, he says, "ow!" and one of the objectives is to hit the ball in his mouth while he's talking or snoring(part of the plot is the passage of time, and when it gets late, he goes to sleep and snores).

When I was a kid, there were still a few arcades which had at least a few pinball games alongside the Street Fighter II's and NEo-Geos, and some of them were pretty bitchin,' like Funhouse and Slugfest which had backstories and were enhanced by digitized audio and scrolling LED screens.

In the case of funhouse, for example, Rudy the dummy occasionally talks. If you hit him with his mouth closed, he says, "ow!" and one of the objectives is to hit the ball in his mouth while he's talking or snoring(part of the plot is the passage of time, and when it gets late, he goes to sleep and snores).

Space Invaders: The Pinball Machine! -- Which, they really made. http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2252

They made 2 real pinball games as well!

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Super+Mario&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3427
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Super+Mario&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#2435

They made 2 real pinball games as well!

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Super+Mario&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3427
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Super+Mario&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#2435

And I've got one, too! More of a novelty than a seriously playable machine. It's got six flippers arranged in two columns of three, Here's the entry for Humpty Dumpty on the definitive pinball machine database - IPDB: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1254

It depends on your taste. If you want a more modern machine then you can't lost on almost any 90s Williams table. Twilight Zone is an obvious choice if you can find one in that price range. You can also pick up some newer Sterns that will be under warranty and play well, though those can be hit and miss. If you troll rec.games.pinball for a few hours it shouldn't take long to see what people think about games. You can also check out the internet pinball database (http://www.ipdb.org/) and look at their user based ratings which are fairly reliable.

Wasn't Pinball Fantasies but its predecessor, Pinball Dreams that got me into pinball. That and a table at university - Fire! by Williams. Just about a couple of decades then go by without me playing, and then Pinball Dreams comes out on the iPhone. I liked playing so much that I bought a real table, Gottlieb's Surf'n'Safari, for the home.

It's a massive hit - my wife likes it, my kids like it, I like it...it's great. Pinball Dreams is where it started for me though - the Nightmare table is massively playable and the music great.

Cheers,
Ian

Wasn't Pinball Fantasies but its predecessor, Pinball Dreams that got me into pinball. That and a table at university - Fire! by Williams. Just about a couple of decades then go by without me playing, and then Pinball Dreams comes out on the iPhone. I liked playing so much that I bought a real table, Gottlieb's Surf'n'Safari, for the home.

It's a massive hit - my wife likes it, my kids like it, I like it...it's great. Pinball Dreams is where it started for me though - the Nightmare table is massively playable and the music great.

Cheers,
Ian

One of my favorites of all time was Gorgar. Other of my favorites over the years include:

Comet

Superman

And of course, the multiball classic High Speed.

One of my favorites of all time was Gorgar. Other of my favorites over the years include:

Comet

Superman

And of course, the multiball classic High Speed.

One of my favorites of all time was Gorgar. Other of my favorites over the years include:

Comet

Superman

And of course, the multiball classic High Speed.

One of my favorites of all time was Gorgar. Other of my favorites over the years include:

Comet

Superman

And of course, the multiball classic High Speed.

But I find it interesting that two of the three games in the final round are from a company no longer making pinball games. Truly the era of pinball is coming to a close.

Well, considering that there's exactly one company currently making pinball machines...

Dude, the era of pinball ended more than a decade ago. I was there, working at Capcom Coin-Op programming pinball machines when the bottom fell out. All the manufacturers shut down within just a few years, between 1995 and 1999. Stern had shut down their line years ago, but they re-opened after everyone else quit. As I understand it, Gary Stern himself decided that someone had to keep making machines. I don't know if it's even profitable; it's a labor of love.

/me is the proud owner (and programmer of!) Big Bang Bar, due to be the next on the manufacturing line when Capcom got out of the biz.

When I hear arcade, my mind scrolls waaaay back to my youth, and the arcade down the street from my grandma's house. It had pinball, trampolines, a shooting gallery, mini-bowling, and bumper cars, for a start. I remember when they brought in the brand new video game! (Space Invaders, of course.) My older brother spent endless hours at it, but I was still content with my relatively new Triple Action pinball game.

That arcade is now a parking lot for oversized trailers. Sigh.

Which game did you get, and are you on RGP?

Surf'N'Safari. Your classic fun for all the family - artwork passes the wife'n'children test (in fact my wife was co-conspiritor in getting the game rather than someone I had to convince), game is fun and hard to do well on without being absolutely killer difficulty. All this and James Earl Jones starring as a shades-wearing alligator and telling me the Whirlpool Millions Are Lit in as cheesy an accent as you can imagine. Who can resist?

Am occasionally on rgp, though that's got to be the highest volume usenet group left on the whole of usenet I would have thought. Had fantastic help from the group - had a problem with the auxiliary sound board, one guy just posted his phone number up there to help me through it.

Cheers,
Ian

The Simpsons Pinball game is fantastic!!

The oldest tech gear I use on a daily basis is the MPU board in my 1980 Stern Seawitch pinball machine. The serial number is quite low, so it was made in 1980 at some point and still works like the day it was made. It's received some TLC over the years, but.. rock solid reliable.

Before that, my oldest tech would have been the MPU in my 1978 Stern Lectronamo. It's since been sold to make way for other machines.

Check out Seawitch:
http://ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&mpu=34#2089

I think the reason Pinball is dying out is purely the cost of fixing them.

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 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...

The Indiana Jones Pinball game was really the best of the few which I can remember playing. It had all of the movie scenes from Raiders to Crusade covered in the modes and the funny one-liners from the movie mostly made it into the game too, giving the humour a sarcastic, irreverent, and dry feel that was just perfect for the whole Indy theme. For example, you received 25,000 points for "choosing poorly" in the grail scene (complete with rapidly decomposing corpse). If I could own any Pinball cabinet of my choice then it would have to be Indiana Jones.

The used pinball table market is strong, at least according to my father who has recently acquired two tables. Craigslist pointed him to this little old lady who's husband used to own a few beachside arcades. She was looking to get rid of a few tables for cheap ($500-ish) From her he picked up a 1978 Star Trek table. One of the scoreboard displays was flickering so she gave him the number of a repairman who deals exclusively with pinball tables.
While dealing with him my father somehow got talked into buying a 1991 Ninja Turtles 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.

The used pinball table market is strong, at least according to my father who has recently acquired two tables. Craigslist pointed him to this little old lady who's husband used to own a few beachside arcades. She was looking to get rid of a few tables for cheap ($500-ish) From her he picked up a 1978 Star Trek table. One of the scoreboard displays was flickering so she gave him the number of a repairman who deals exclusively with pinball tables.
While dealing with him my father somehow got talked into buying a 1991 Ninja Turtles 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.

No, my friend, you've missed the boat on this one. The "arcade experience" was standing in front of Gorgar, with its immense vocabulary of seven words, and immersing yourself in pure physics joy. Other than Asteroids and Galaga, there really aren't many video games that can even remotely hold a candle to pinball.

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=lotr&search=Sear ch+Database&searchtype=quick
http://www.sternpinball.com/Lord-of-the-Rings.shtm l
and it is a good game you can play it on your pc with vp + vpinmame.

Here is a still living example of fanboys helping fanboys -- a FAQ for the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game. One of the greatest pins I have ever played, and complicated to say the least, this machine was in arcades a dozen years ago. I benefited from and ended up contributing to this detailed "How To" page many many moons ago, yet it is still accessible to Tibetan farmers young and old. Amazing.

You can still play pinball they even have a video pinball game (Ultrapin) that can play many different games on one cabinet.

Ultrapin features the Patent Pending U-Shock Board which allows players to interact with the cabinet for a totally realistic pinball experience. You can BUMP and NUDGE the cabinet to affect the ball in play - just like real pinball.
http://www.globalvr.com/products_ultrapin_intro.ht ml

I like real games as well and I have played many prototype and Rare games play The Pinball Circus if you can!
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4354

...and my favourite pinball machine too!

I thought is was spelled Doozie and was an old classic pinball machine?

:-)

Nah, Xenon was an old pinball game: http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2821&picno=3174/

Rock'n'Roll something or other??? (newer game, can't remember the name, had "creatures/vampires/etc" in it)

That was probably Monster Bash.

(Insert funny /bin/monsterbash joke here.)

I think my favorite pinball table of all time is Cirqus Voltaire which also was from Williams.

Sorry to learn, though, that all his machines now are tie-ins to movies and TV shows. Half the beauty of pinball in its heyday was its aesthetic, which ranged voraciously across Americana as each table assembled a kind of comic book on glass and wood: you got legends and history and fantasy, blue collar pasttimes, pool and racing and cards, techno festishism, social trends, anatomically impossible chicks, and just plain weird and self-referential stuff about pinball. The backglass and table designs were a unique form not without their masterpieces (look up the artist Jerry Kelly--the form's Picasso--on the delightful Internet Pinball Machine Database).

Correction.. It was Rollergames, not Rollerball.