11–20 of 23 posts
$15 for an all-access pass to over 100 machines, all on free play -- you can get lost in there (and I have). It's awesome.
Slightly offtopic since not really about the article, but if you're even a little bit into pinball and you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you owe it to yourself to check out the Pacific Pinball Museum[1] in Alameda. $15 for an all-access pass to over 100 machines, all on free play -- you can get lost in there (and I have). It's awesome. [1] http://pacificpinball.org/visit
I've been collecting pinball machines for nearly 20 years now and the recent resurgence in popularity has really breathed new life into the industry. It was a dark time for pinball after WMS closed their pinball division in 1999, leaving second place Stern alone in the market, at a time when their quality was nowhere near what WMS was doing at the time. Now there's a new breed of collectors who exclusively buy brand…
I wish I had space to start a collection, but even if I did I would the casual competitiveness of the golden age. No one gives a shit about your high score on your home machine, but the time I got Lost in the Zone twice and scored 6B on the TZ in a bar in London (The Pipeline FWIW), that turned a few heads.
Slightly offtopic since not really about the article, but if you're even a little bit into pinball and you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you owe it to yourself to check out the Pacific Pinball Museum[1] in Alameda. $15 for an all-access pass to over 100 machines, all on free play -- you can get lost in there (and I have). It's awesome. [1] http://pacificpinball.org/visit
Slightly offtopic since not really about the article, but if you're even a little bit into pinball and you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you owe it to yourself to check out the Pacific Pinball Museum[1] in Alameda. $15 for an all-access pass to over 100 machines, all on free play -- you can get lost in there (and I have). It's awesome. [1] http://pacificpinball.org/visit
Does it get crowded playing?
I highly recommend buying an old pinball machine and refurbishing it yourself. You'll learn a ton about how these great machines work. I got an old Creature From the Black Lagoon (1993) [1] and stripped down and rebuilt all of the playfield and the cabinet. There's lots of info on the web about how to fix them, and many companies sell spare parts. [1] http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=588
The article isn't really covering the modern pinball scene. While Stern is definitely the major manufacturer in play, Jersey Jack is growing and there are several more boutique manufacturers including: Multimorphic - Offers the P3 pinball system integrating a full LCD panel with motion tracking into the playfield (as opposed to the backbox like JJ.) They also offer the P-ROC which allows replacing the CPU (a 6809/ASI…
The prototypes they once showed were using MAME running on a Beaglebone Black to emulate the old Williams hardware.
Slightly offtopic since not really about the article, but if you're even a little bit into pinball and you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you owe it to yourself to check out the Pacific Pinball Museum[1] in Alameda. $15 for an all-access pass to over 100 machines, all on free play -- you can get lost in there (and I have). It's awesome. [1] http://pacificpinball.org/visit
Also if you like Pinball and are near the bay area, come to California Extreme July 18-19th. It's fantastic, hundreds of pinball games and classic arcade games for one glorious weekend each year in Santa Clara. http://www.caextreme.org
Kind of surprised it didn't really talk about the modern pinball "emulation" scene. Here's an example of a custom build https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hP9RipKg0 And some software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Pinball