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The Continuing Death of Pinball
angkor writes: "To me, the first video games were something like electonic versions of pinball machines, so it's sad to hear that pinball is apparently dying off." I'd really like to see a pinball game based on Zoolander, but I doubt even that would be enough to reverse the current trend.
Pinball is not dying off. What I see is that kids think that pinball is too easy and not challenging enough. That really isn't the case, I see that people want to do the cool thing and play those hefty 3d packed video games. I've also realized that a lot of arcades don't keep pinball machines since there is no competition with other players and games can last a long time. If pinball is dying, it is at the hands of the arcade owners, not the customers.
Arcades in general are basically dead.
Games like DDR breathe some life into them, but it's nothing like the Midway/Atari/Namco/Sega days of long ago.
Games are too expensive, they all seem to be 'imitations', and there's no arcade culture anymore.
Why there aren't/never were coin-op iD games.....arcade play against others all over the world.....
It's been a few years since I've been, but Hawai'i (Oahu, Kaneohe area) had TONS of video arcades when I was there. In fact, on the relatively small air force base that we were stationed on, there were at least five decently sized arcades. Granted, they were attached to other things, but at least two of the ATTACHED arcades in Hawai'i were larger than anything I've seen here in Memphis, Tennessee.
I imagine there's quite a great deal more overseas (China, Japan), but that's strictly a guess, as I've never ventured quite that far.
The local university has about the biggest selection of games around, and while I don't attend, I was up there with a friend of mine for the day once, and didn't lose once to any of the "hardcore" gamers stationed around it. I was quite pleased with myself, but after I realized that I'd just spent 8 hours in front of a stand up arcade on one quarter, and wasted the entire day away, I made a conscious decision not to go back. I've got real life responsibilities nowadays, and don't have the kinda time that sort of addiction requires.
-9mm-
First off, it seems like the last US manufacture stopped production about 3 years ago and there was a story here on /. about it. (I'll let someone else dig up the link).
Secondly, pinball machines couldn't keep evoloution-wise. They are too maintainence intensive compared to video arcade games (which break often enough as it is).
To the point: here at the office where I work, there are about 16 arcade machines: 15-video and one pinball. The video games include Lunar Lander, Space Duel, Assault, Mortal Combat 3, pac man, sinistar, soul edge, virtua fighter 2, xybots, crystal castles, a D&D game, Blitz 99, sinistar, and star wars.
The lone pinball machine is Star Trek: The Next Generation.
When it is working, The Star Trek Pinball machine is the most popular arcade machine we have (followed by Mortal Combat 3).
And that is the problem: It's been in a state of disrepair for more than 6 months.
Over the last couple years we have had it repaired 3 times. I remember watching the first repair sessions and was astounded by the large numbe of individual mechanical repairs that had to be made: Bumpers, solnoids, lights, track alignments, and whatnot. Not to mention the table surface then had to be waxed - which changed the play characteristics (until it was played a lot and worn in again).
And then there was a problem with the plastic ball storage holder underneath the deck. The balls had worn a small groove in it, which caused problems for the ball sensor to report no balls available when there really were. Since that custom molded piece wasn't available from the manufacturer anymore, the repair guy took it and filled in the groove with some substance several time - sanding between coats, to bring it back to new condition.
So my conclusion is that modern pinball machines have too many custom parts, and are too physically demanding on them to have the uptime to compete with video games. And not to mention the knowledgable repairmen are hard to find.
And that was in a private setting. In an arcade setting, the operator can not afford for the machine to be down half the time, producing no revenue, and requiring him to spend $$$ on repair guys. The economics just don't work today.
-Mp
they should make holographic pinball, they have the technology, transparant sheets of organic light emiting diodes,.. would be the first real use for holographic arcade game, would fix the repairage problem of real pinball and let them do cool ultra impossible stuff that'd be too fragile and all that, not to mention you could load in any table you wanted.
Too late in life I rediscovered pinball.
:^)
As a kid, I used to accompany my granddad or my mom to the store to get groceries and occasionally I'd get a dime (that's right, 10) to play a pinball game that sat near the front, near the magazine rack. That machine had a mechanical scoreboard, unlike the LED boards I saw later in life. I recall being absorbed by the lights and the idea of trying to keep the ball in play with those little bumpers (hey, I was easily amused). After a while my mom stopped going to that store and pinball just about left my life for good.
Flash forward 20+ years and a fellow grad student, Joerg, started going to get pizza at a little college-quality Italian place over by the campus. The great arcade next door had closed, mostly, but some of the games had stayed to soak up quarters from the pizza eating patrons. As it turns out Joerg was a real fan of pinball and he enticed me into playing and I got hooked. It was really cool to finally be a bit coordinated and to have the cash to spend to actually get to know a machine. In this case, it was The Addams Family, with little audio clips from the movie. ("The Mamushka!" was my favorite.) Although I never measured up to Joerg's mastery of the game, I found truly irresistible the tactile feedback and use of real, honest-to-physics english that goes into working the table. Sure, feeling the kickback of the gun in Time Crisis is cool, but not like pinball.
Now, that Italian place is gone and the games are gone for good. While I still plan to get a Robotron machine first, I'm thinking of adding a pinball machine to my computer and work room when we finally get time to get a real home. They really are awesome.
If you haven't ever played a pinball machine and you get the chance, just remember that those quarters are pretty well-spent, even if just to say that you played pinball for a bit. I bet you'll find you enjoy it, to boot.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
I love pinball machines. They're great. However, the arcades I visit either end up ripping you off or the machines are in such a state of disrepair that well, it's not fun to play.
The main reason is probably because arcade machines, tend to be generic. Short of the special-equipment games like those from Konami (DDR, etc), all an arcade operator needed was to replace the CPU module, or even just the ROM cartridge. Whereas for pinballs, they have to ship the entire thing around (Pinball2000 attempted to resolve this, but ultimately, died because Williams decided to get out of the pinball business). So instead of a relatively simple job on putting in a new game up, you have to ship this $5000 pinball machine around (shipping $200 typically), rather than order a $100-$500 ROM cartridge (shipping trivial), or a hard drive...
Now, there are recreations of various pins around - thanks to Visual Pinball. Combine it with VPinMAME, and you can play some damn close reproductions to the real machines. (Hint to those interested: avoid the forums, or just read them. There's so much pettiness and egotism and selfishness on them that it's not worth it. Just leech. Your mind will thank you. I was on the forums back when WPCMAME was novel and everyone "played" them, and 2002 was nothing but a disaster for pinball emulation. Plus, you gotta register, and if you want to post, you better not register using a hotmail account - they want *real* email addresses).
However, check out ShivaSite (www.shivasite.com) for some of the best pin info ont he web!
You are a cruel person.
And stop comparing apples and oranges: Chess boards and pieces are cheap and easy to make, pinball machines are big expensive things. Chess is a game of thought, pinball is a game of dexterity. Pinball is a BALL game, like baseball or football, except that there's no running, and you play alone. Chess is not a ball game.
Pinball is not a living entity either, so lay off the darwinianism a bit.
You can't take the sky from me...
...actually, I'll take part of that back. The machine makers helped a little by introducing the "shoot again if you lose your ball quick" feature, and that made things a little more fun...
agreed :( its a vicious cycle. .. (early 80's) I used to go to an arcade in my local area .. and admist the handful of 'popular' coinops (rampage comes to mind) that people used to crowd around .. were pinball machines.
..
.. because one day I asked him why he was always cleaning them. And (for whatever reason .. boredom .. thought i looked interested .. whatever) .. he TOLD me.
:
.. no one will be playing it in a few months .. and it cost me ($1800)(?) .. This pinball machine has been here for 3 years .. and as long as i clean it .. and fix broken parts .. it will make me money. not as much as that (rampage?) machine, but when you think that people have played it for 3 years, it is probally the machine that *paid* for that machine over there. So I clean it everyday.'
.. as I began to buy up pins (because they were getting harder and harder to find) this guy became my hero.
... one who maintained all his machines .. and I would buy it .. just because I knew by looking at it .. that it didn't matter if it had been operated for 10 years .. the playfield was clean and glossy, which told me someone knew its value. :)
When I was a teenager
I *ALWAYS* saw the owner of the arcade cleaning them etc
thats probally why I love them so much
He said something along the lines of
'Well kid, those machines over there make me some money. But that Rampage(?) machine, well
YEARS later
Every once in a while I would come across a pin that was handled by an operator like this guy
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!