Is Pinball Dying?

Hipgnosis pointed me to a story on MSNBC about what how the age old game of pinball is dying. I'm a pinball junkie: I can't resist throwing quarters in a machine whenever I pass one in an arcade or airport or something. Gotta admit this one kinda makes me sad not just because of Tommy, but the countless hours I spent as a child enjoying games, and watching others play. I even bought my own pinball table (Jackbot) a few months ago ... there's something about those little flippers and pinballs that makes the game seem so much more tangible then the N64 or anything on my PCs.

Comments

GameSpy's Top 10 Pinballs of All Time!

[antdude]

http://www.gamespy.com/top10/pinball_a.shtm

A good article related to this. :)

Re:Physical pinball may be out...

[Masem]

At least with Pro pinball, you can nudge the machine in 'four' directions and you can incur a tilt mechanism. You *can* hit the ball off the glass, as well as jump certain barriers.

The good thing about digital pinball -- it ends up costing a hell of a lot less than all those quarters :D

It has been for a long time.

[mbadolato]

Those of us that collect Arcade machines and Pinball machines have known the sad truth for a long time. Pinball machines have long been dying.

There was a resurgence in the early 80's when machines like Gorgar came out (first talking machine), and games like High Speed and Pin*Bot (both of which I own now) really caught on.

But in the end, people went to video games.

The saddest part is that last year, Williams finally gave up and closed their Pinball division. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin.

--mark

Becomes part of the machine

[The Famous Brett Wat]

I thought that this article had more soul (found on Fark last week).

It's sad but understandable that pinball is going the way of the dodo. A good pinball machine is a masterwork of engineering and art, and a good game of pinball manages to be captivating in a way that I've never experienced with a video game. For all that, they are insanely complex mechanical devices with a tendency to break down under normal use. Solid state has a lot going for it, and a pinball machine is the ultimate in electromechanical. How solid state can you make a solenoid?

<NOSTALGIA>
Pinball and Tommy (the rock opera version) played significant roles in my childhood. Pinball was my first experience of affinity with technology. It was something that I could relate to and watch with endless fascination. As a sub-teen child, pinball mesmerised me. I recall a time that I was playing Gottlieb's Hit The Deck (a circa 1978 machine, so I was probably around the 10 mark myself), and I was One With The Machine. I was only dimly aware of the others that gathered around me to watch this young pinball wizard do his thing. After a couple of decades' pinball experience, my all time favourite machine is Williams' Fun House.
</NOSTALGIA>

Oddly enough, I visited someone today, and noticed a new piece of furniture in the corner: they had acquired a Hit The Deck pinball machine! It was in fairly poor condition, unfortunately: my conclusion was that it had developed an advanced degree of cantankerousness that affects many old electromechanical devices, and it will not be truly playable without a major overhaul, which is probably not possible.

While there, however, I did get to study the interior of the machine and its circuit diagram. That's when All Was Revealed: pinball machines are just big finite state machines! Well, duh! But really, even though I suck at electronics, I could understand this circuit diagram. It was just relays, switches, solenoids, and lights! It was a hard-wired computer program; a series of ANDs and ORs that I could grok immediately.

A friend of mine suggested building a pinball machine as a project, and I told him that they are too complex. But having seen this particular machine -- an old and simple one, I grant you -- I feel that I could at least take on the task of reconditioning one with new relays and things. For some reason, this fact makes me feel a whole lot better about the future of pinball. I don't know if new machines will ever be built, but I feel assured that I could grab an old, broken machine and get it back up to a playable state if I ever needed to.

Hell, not just pinball

[fluxrad]

everything non-sedintary is dying. Foosball, Pinball, Table Tennis, you name it. All the fun games we grew up with are being replaced by Q3A and UT. It kinda sucks...i always thought computer games were a very good suppliment, but *definitely* not a replacement.


FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

If They Weren't So Lame . . .

[Seumas]

If they're dying, it's probably because most new pinball games are just so damn lame. The old games (reads, late seventies, when I was barely a toddler) are the ones that I enjoy at arcades. These days, they're just rip-offs of really bad movies and television shows.

Terminator
The Simpsons
GhostBusters
Adams Family
Twister
Jurasic Park
Batman
Friends

And then there are the obligatory Amusement Park variations of Pin-Ball. There must be three hundred of those games, where a clown laughs, a barker taunts you and you smack the ball around a makeshift amusement park or thrill-ride.

If they'd try to make some genuinely interesting pin-ball titles, perhaps they would stick around longer. Pin-ball isn't dead in people's hearts -- it's just not as prevalent in society. If there were a pin-ball machine in half the locations that arcade machines are (your local grocery store, your gas-station, your cafe and mall, etc.) people would naturally pop more quarters in, and a lot would probably grow semi-addicted. As it is, I'm sure there are a lot of grade-school kids who wouldn't be able to describe to you what a pin-ball machine is, let alone ever played one.

This also reminds me of a great story I read in a Science-Fiction/Fantasy anthology (I wish I could remember the title of the book or the authors), called Dante's Inferno, all about this guy addicted to this pinball machine in an arcade. I haven't read the story since I was about twelve, but I wish I could find it again. It was such a great tale.

Now that I'm making a handsome salary, I need to consider buying a vintage pinball machine for my apartment. Every eccentric geek needs one.
---
icq:2057699
seumas.com

Yep, It is

[cancrman]

Think about it for a second. Pinball machines are big, heavy, expensive and insanely complicated. Not just electronically complicated (which they are) but mechanically complicated. All of those ramps, balls and bumpers are going to break or get stuck from time to time. Now think about this: You are an arcade operator. Your goal is to maximize your earnings. To do this your machines must be up 100% of the time. Pinball machines are never up 100% of the time, they can't be. So the dead machine is taking up valuable floor space where a much more lucrative Tekken 3 machine could be (Fighting games also get two people to pay to play at the same time) Also operators generally don't have the expertise to fix them when they break. So they have to pay someone to come in and fix it. Walk into pretty much any arcade these days and you will find four types of games: Fighting, gun type games (Time Crisis), racing games and the occasional classic (Galaga or Centipede). Maybe, maybe you'll find a neglected pin or two but that's about it.

I also remember reading somewhere that Williams/Midway recently said that they would be ceasing pinball production entirely. They tried to simplify the operators experience with their Pinball 2000 cabinet (one generic cabinet with easily swappable playfields and ROMS) but they only produced two of those (Attack from Mars and Episode 1). It really is sad. I guess I better snap up a Twilight Zone and ST:TNG machine before they all end up in other people's hands.

Pete

Pinball from my point of view.

[RonaldReagan]

For pinball to grow, companies absolutely have to develop the inexpensive architectures. It's so clear that a horizontal market in pinball -- never before so advanced -- provides an indication of resource-leveling platforms; we are convinced a leadership position continually is not the momentum needed to bring pinball out of its slump.
These, the visions of what pinball should be, are never easy to fully accomplish. If we can foresee the benefits of technology, then the customer-compliant drop dates will assure us enterprise-wide deliverables. Third party research tells us that the drop dates repose methods of empowerment for the pinballing community.
The customer base *MUST* be galvanized in order to assure that the task-oriented piball machine will dominate the market, and to be certain that the price-intensive sponsorships are going to help in the concepting of new multimedia for the machines. The deliverables will knock your socks off, notwithstanding that the architecture really signs up for a quality-oriented new generation of technology. As always, the task-driven pinball design team will provide SUPPLE support for paradigms, and bring pinball back to life.

That's just *MY* two cents on the issue.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, TILT!

[Wintermancer]

Pinball.

Yes, it's a breakdown-prone analogue device. So what? Life's not solid state, you know.

Unlike most reflex-twicth games, (ie: if it moves, {shoot, kick, avoid} it), pinball is directly kinesthetic in nature. The joys of a subtle table slap to full-on, tilt inducing hip check are uniquely pinball. Not to mention that pinball uses real world physics, not an approximation found in digital arcade games. No trickery or savvy programming here, folks. Just hard Newtonian rules and a dash of chaos theory to keep it fresh every time.

That's the fun.

Not to mention that I feel like a lab rat pressing a lever to get a food pellet every time I play a digital game for hours, and I know that I'm not alone in this feeling. Pinball won't die, but it will be relegated to a niche market (and this is not a bad thing).

Pinball is Dead! Long live Pinball!

Unfortunately, yes

[Reality Master 101]

I'm 35 (it's not that old dammit!) and grew up just as the video game revolution was coming into full swing. Just before that, pinball machines and other games were fully mechanical (i.e., solonoid powered). I used to go down to the Balboa Fun Zone in Southern California, and loved playing them for hours. 3 games for a quarter, 5 balls / game!

When video games began to "invade" (pun intended), I started playing those a lot. But I still loved to play pinball. The thing about pinball is that it takes all the reflex talent of video games, but it has a mechanical unpredictability, and liveliness that a video game just never has. I never managed to hold a record in my local video arcade, but I held several pinball records (the typical arcade back then would keep the names of the local kids who held the records on the wall -- gotta encourage people to keep spending quarters!).

It's funny that this came up today... just yesterday, I played a pinball machine in a video store for the first time in a few years. Won a game the second time I played it. HA! I still got it. :)

--

Physical pinball may be out...

[Masem]

The physical pinball table is getting big and clunky; it takes up a lot of space, and it is one where the newer boards require less skill and more luck; too many flashy lights can also be a problem.

However, I suggest that for those with win-enabled machines to check out the series of pinball games from Pro Pinball (Empire games). The series is "The Web", "Timeshock!", "Big Race USA" and most recent, "Fantastic Journey". The boards are very similar to today's tables with lots of overhead ramps, more 'mechanical' features, and generally play as well as many of the recent physical tables. In addition, the physics and gameplay of the Pro Pinball series is super enhanced compared to anything else, with very tight gameplay and nearly bug free.

Pinball the physical game will be phasing out soon, but pinball is certainly not dead.

Re:Physical pinball may be out...

[Seumas]

Sorry, but pinball videogame style is just really pathetic. You might as well sit and watch television or listen to NPR or, for that matter, read Cosmopolitan magazine.

There is a lot more to pinball than pressing a left and right button to nudge a couple levers. But in a digital version, that's all there is. I want the audio pointing in my face and the scoreboard glowing in my eyes off the backplate. I want the plink! and smack! of the sliver ball whacking the glass when flipped too hard. I want to see things spin and whirl and launch the ball around. I want to be able to throw my weight into the game and control, for just a little while, that 200lb piece of wood, metal and glass.

I don't imagine I will ever touch the digital version anymore than I'll play a football or baseball videogame. If I want to play football, I'll go find some friends and get the pigskin out. I'll play videogames when I want to fire a plasma rifle at stinky aliens and start wars with other countries; things I can't do in real life.
---
icq:2057699
seumas.com

Re:Designers

[mbadolato]

Unfortunatly, Williams owns Bally and Midway so there is no chance of those companies picking up the designers.

Gottlieb had been sold off to someone else, but may be back on their own now. I don't recall.

Williams always had great games (some under the Bally name though). In the last few years, Medievil Madness, Monster Bash, Attack From Mars, and Tales of The Arabian Nights

Classics from the 90's also included Addams Family and Twightlight Zone.

And of course, others like High Speed, Pin*bot (and the 2 sequals), Fun House, Cyclone, Comet, etc. They made GREAT machines.

My next house I buy will have sufficent room for me to make a massive gameroom, which will have at least 10 pins...

--mark

Pinball on the PC

[Guppy]

Well, if you can't afford to buy/maintain your own table, there's always the computer version...

Pinball page at Softseek: List of a whole bunch of downloadable pinball games.
Epic MegaGames Pinball: My personal favorite. Especially the Android table.

Part of a more general deterioration

[Greyfox]

I think the entire arcade industry is hurting pretty badly. These days a coin op arcade is an arena of sameness, with the same coin op game cliches that haven't evolved since the late '80s. At least the pinball tables were trying to innovate to stay alive. Here's to hoping the rest of the industry finds itself in this position pretty soon. Maybe we'll actually start seeing some creative games appear on the market again if that happens. Until them, well I'll just stick to Lokisoft games and save my quarters for the ravenous mountain dew machine (of traal.)