Audio By Carbonatix
Guiding a silver ball at speeds as high as 90 mph through a maze of ramps, loops and bumpers to reach the ultimate “wizard award” still sounds exciting, but the opportunity to do so is about as rare as hunting a water buffalo or spotting a dirigible. At pinball’s height of success in the ’70s and ’80s, the machines were everywhere, technologically advanced and visually stunning when placed next to the foosball table. One wouldn’t think (and very few did) that another table game–this one simulating a ball game–would challenge pinball for arcade dominance. It didn’t really, though. Pong was successful, but not enough so to drive pinball to near extinction. Instead it was the new breed of games that evolved from Pong–Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pac-Man and Gorf–that squeezed pinball out of the arcade habitat. Before then up to five companies made pinball machines. It dwindled to just one: Stern Pinball Inc.
As when anything becomes rare, pinball machines have become collectible. The Association of Pinball Owners and Players is set up as a resource and outlet for collectors and anyone else who enjoys the silver ball. It hosts the first Pinballrama Pinball Festival this weekend in Arlington. The festival includes tournaments, contests, vendors selling parts and supplies, raffles to win items such as a full-sized pinball machine, a selection of games from the 1930s to the present for sale and play, and a technical seminar from Stern Pinball Inc.
The festival hopes to stir up an interest outside of the cult collections, beer joints and pizza parlors in which most pinball machines are found at this time. Nowadays, home computers and gaming systems compete for the attention and time against arcade games that offer alternate realities in which players can fly, kill, drive like a maniac, pilot a spacecraft and save the world or destroy it. That’s a lot of entertainment value and tough to compete with, but–like listening to music on a vinyl record–for some there will never be a replacement for the appeal of pinball. Nostalgia’s not just a small part of it.
“Often, it’s what people remember from when they were younger,” says Craig Hassell, who is on the board of directors for the APOP. “With arcade games, it’s the same thing every time. There is a pattern it follows if you can figure it out.”
With pinball, each game is different: You may kick ass, or all three balls may roll straight through the flippers. It’s a game of luck. It is also organic, unpredictable and, for those very reasons, oftentimes very frustrating. In other words, pinball’s much more like real life, which makes it an increasingly tough sell in the current competition for the public’s entertainment dollars.
