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.

Comments

It's not just pinball

[qurob]

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.....

Re:It's not just pinball

[Saige]

The point is that with the incredible advances in technology, arcade games no longer have that large graphical "edge" over home consoles and computers that they once did. Think of the differences between Gauntlet at the arcade, and on the Nintendo, back in like 1986. Compare that to now - name one arcade game that is graphically significantly beyond anything at home - there isn't anything.

The arcade games need something else then to attract people in. The various shooting games can do that, especially those with unusual equipment, like Silent Scope. Huge moving racing consoles like Daytona 2 and Indianapolis 500 offer unique features - building a moving platform at home would be way too expensive. Fighting games still have some of the social aspect, though not nearly as much as they used. For me, there's really only even one game that gets me to trek down to my local Gameworks on a regular basis - DDR. Beause it creates an experience not easily duplicated at home, especially when there's a crowd on the machine.

Arcades won't die for a long time, since there are plenty of people that grew up with them enough to keep going. But if they don't find more games with unique features to bring people in, they will get more and more sparse.

Re:It really is a sad state of affairs

[Issue9mm]

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-

Old News, and unavoidable economics.

[The Optimizer]

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