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The Last Pinball Machine Factory
The New York Times is running a story about Stern Pinball Inc., which they say is the last pinball factory left worldwide. The story describes working there as a "game geek's fantasy job." The company president, Gary Stern, acknowledges the lack of demand, but he plans on sticking around. He also expects the industry to rebound within the next 10 years. We've previously discussed a slightly smaller version of pinball.
"Corner shops, pubs, arcades and bowling alleys stopped stocking pinball machines. A younger audience turned to video games. Men of a certain age, said [Pinball Hall of Fame operator Tim Arnold], who is 52, became the reliable audience. ("Chicks," he announced, "don't get it.") And so for Mr. Stern, the pinball buyer is shifting. In the United States, Mr. Stern said, half of his new machines, which cost about $5,000 and are bought through distributors, now go directly into people's homes and not a corner arcade."
Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
We used to bring a HD magnet down to the pin ball machine in high school. The owner of the Lamp Post pizza didn't mind as long as we kept buying drinks and pizza... he thought it was pretty clever :-)
:sigh:
(Pinballs are basically big steel bearings... place HD magnet at the bottom pass the flipper and voila! Unlimited life.)
Never did manage to leverage that little tidbit of knowledge to get a date...
Oblig #1
Fry: I can't swallow that!
Professor: Good news! It's a suppository!
Oblig # 2
Zoidberg: Hmm. We'll need to have a look inside you with this camera.
(Fry opens mouth)
Zoidberg: Guess again.
Nah. The problem is that there is no grind. They just need to make a table that has no no drain. That way anyone can just sit all day and grand away hitting the ball into a target. That way they can feel good that they are doing well.
That's all well and good, but if geeks with girlfriends are required to sustain the pinball industry, it's basically doomed. The cost of the machine, the power, renting the space, etc, is to be amortized by the number and frequency of users, and if they are small in number the marginal cost per game will go up. Would pinball be such an attractive date option if it cost $5 a game? $10? Arcade games, too.
I think, if pinball or arcades are to survive, they must start to appeal to young adults. Think about the popularity of video game poker, trivia, golf, hunting, whatever in bars: if you can find a way to make pinball appeal to those people, it can have a comeback in a major way.
Of course, if I knew how to do that, I'd be sending a resume off to Gary Stern right now.
John
You realize that there are now, being booked, flights from around the world that will have a layover in that airport for no other reason than that machine...
Don't you?
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump