remember when?

mrgone

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remember when pinball was more popular than video games? when you could go into a pool hall and play. where some of the older games were 2 games for 25 cents or even 10 cents a game. you could go into 7/11,the bowling alley even a safeway and find a pinball.

we need to go back to those days again.
 
remember when pinball was more popular than video games? when you could go into a pool hall and play. where some of the older games were 2 games for 25 cents or even 10 cents a game. you could go into 7/11,the bowling alley even a safeway and find a pinball.

we need to go back to those days again.

Ha! Man, I wish! :( :)
 
Pinballs got replaced in the corner stores by video games. Then location video games faded, as well, and now you don't see them there anymore either.

As a child of the 80s, I grew up with video games. LOVE pinball - don't get me wrong. But I miss the days of corner convenience store. Sadly, I don't think it's ever coming back. Bars are where pinballs and the video games are nowadays. Both are an older man's game.
 
I disagree. Kids will take to anything they are exposed to. If you go to a game expo, there are several kids that can't wait to play. My nephew is 13 and likes his xbox, but he loves pinball.

Agreed. My nieces and nephews all under 12 absolutely love playing my pins. Something seems to change though when kids get older and they lose interest. Weird.
 
how true! many pizza places and theatre's have pinball near where i live. and a few burger places. get more out there and the youngsters will catch the fever. its all about marketing.
 
younger kids love playing the pins/arcades, no doubt...i have a 5 year old that's addicted to old-school video games on my multicade and every pin i have.

but it doesn't matter.

by and large, the younger generation is NOT gonna be exposed to vids/pins in the wild. it just ain't gonna be like it once was. home arcades? sure. but they're few and far between. and with only one pin manufacturer left, it ain't getting any easier to bring that type of stuff into the foreground.

we just have to hold on tight to what we currently have.....IMO, it's not gonna get any better (i hope i'm wrong.....but i don't think i am). we've seen the top of the mountain, boys....it's all downhill from here.
 
this type of thing has been the hot topic of late,the end of pinball. just like drive ins they seem to be fading into history. the answer to this,i belive we need to group together and start our own pinball company. after all, if you build it they will come.
 
Ha!! Pinball. They take you back to a time. What ever one you favored brings you back to the time when you had your first kiss, got layed, a great movie, TV dance show's. I'm 54 now. How I remember the ones that stole all my money and was glad of it. They will be part of out history forever. Thank you Williams, Gottleb and all the others. It's my Privilege to find and restore all the ones I can.....
 
I was born in 1972, so I was just a boy when video games first came on the scene. I remember that I would try to convince my parents to go to restaurants that I knew had some machines. Whenever we first checked into a hotel, the first thing my brother and I would do was go exploring to see if they had a game room. To us, it was just about the most exciting thing we could imagine. There really is no comparable thing for kids these days. Technology and the internet has brought everything into the home. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I just feel lucky that I was around to experience the video arcade phenomenon.
 
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I was born in 1972, so I was just a boy when video games first came on the scene. I remember that I would try to convince my parents to go to restaurants that I knew had some machines. Whenever we first checked into a hotel, the first thing my brother and I would do was go exploring to see if they had a game room. To us, it was just about the most exciting thing we could imagine. There really is no comparable thing for kids these days. Technology and the internet has brought everything into the home. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I just feel lucky that I was around to experience the video arcade phenomenon.

Want to listen to some music? Download it. Tired of your new Iphone game after about 1 minute. Download another. Want to watch your friday night movie but you don't feel like going out to the movies. Download it.

Download this, Download that. Thats all people "want".

Soon enough if you could download anything, anywhere, anytime. It takes the nostalgia and uniqueness out of everything. The world will be a boring place with people that have low quality entertainment and lameness.
 
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I was born in 1972, so I was just a boy when video games first came on the scene. I remember that I would try to convince my parents to go to restaurants that I knew had some machines. Whenever we first checked into a hotel, the first thing my brother and I would do was go exploring to see if they had a game room. To us, it was just about the most exciting thing we could imagine. There really is no comparable thing for kids these days. Technology and the internet has brought everything into the home. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I just feel lucky that I was around to experience the video arcade phenomenon.

+1

born in 1975 and had a cheap star explorer pin in the basement along with a pingpong table and full size air hockey table. My dad would take me to sluggo's the crazy smoke filled druggie arcade weekly. That is where we fell in love with Pinbot. And when I finally got my first machine it was pinbot.

There were so many places to play arcade games in my neighborhood. Pinball Pete's was awesome on wednesdays. As long as you bought some food you could play in that arcade for free all night. My parents would leave after eating and we would play all night. Swing in mini mart was my fave place. The owner would play with me and we always battled for the high score. He would reset it when I beat him. Hot dogs, fountain pop, and a few quarters and I spent 4 hours a day there. When he got a pinbot I was so happy. He had Fire that I totally owned. So miss places like that.

Now that I can get into bars I am known as the guy who tips well and plays pinball. When I walk in I get a drink and they ask how many quarters I want.
 
I was born in 1972, so I was just a boy when video games first came on the scene. I remember that I would try to convince my parents to go to restaurants that I knew had some machines. Whenever we first checked into a hotel, the first thing my brother and I would do was go exploring to see if they had a game room. To us, it was just about the most exciting thing we could imagine. There really is no comparable thing for kids these days. Technology and the internet has brought everything into the home. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I just feel lucky that I was around to experience the video arcade phenomenon.

Born in 73 and was the same way. Fortunately for me, my dad spent a lot of time in the pool halls and gave us a bag of quarters for games so he could concentrate on his game.
The 80s era was the best time to grow up through and was so simple. We had no cell phones, internet, only 3 tv channels with an antenna and an atari 2600. I would hoard every quarter I could get my hands on when I knew a trip to an arcade was in the near future.
 
born in 65, my wife and i have weekends where all 21st century tec is shut down.
we play board games picnic,go to the drive in,(the closest one is 2 hrs away.)
we teach our kids to play and enjoy the simple things in life. we all love the internet. but should never loose sight of real person to person interaction that pinball,pool,air hockey,etc bring to our lives. my oldest son ,daughter and i have also been playing airsoft for about 6 yrs. real person to person interaction.
 
I know its been said probably 100 times but I think if anyone can come up with a low cost simple pinball system and can crank out cost effective fun games that are easy to maintain, I could see it coming back in a small way. I find it difficult to believe people woke up in 1995/96 and decided they were not into pinball anymore. Especially now with everyone carrying iPhones and laptops, its almost like you need pinball to break up the technology with a physical game, thats how I feel about it I guess. And it shows too, all the bars I go to that have pins still, they all get tons of attention. Its too bad Stern's games have to be so bloated with expensive effects and toys and complex software, not that I don't appreciate the 1 pin a year they make but I really could do without a screen and toys on the playfield and all that stuff if that meant churning out 3 or 4 games a year at lower cost. Ah well I just have a hunch it won't be gone forever quite yet.
 
has anyone ever contacted stern? let them know what real pinheads think.
lets face facts,MONEY TALKS! if stern does care what their target demographic thinks then they might listen.
 
This thread reminds me of a picture I saved a while ago because I thought it was cool. Not sure where it came from.

PoolArcade.jpg
 
that photo reminds me of a place i used to go as a kid. it was called spankys.
every town had a place like that in the 70,s /80's.
 
This thread reminds me of a picture I saved a while ago because I thought it was cool. Not sure where it came from.

PoolArcade.jpg

I think this is that place slightly southwest of Minneapolis-

ahh- search- poke- find

http://www.ssbilliards.com/

I visited there about 5 years ago. Pretty neat. He still had some old pinballs and 80's games in there. He had newer stuff too though. Nice to see he's still hanging in there.

It doesn't look much different from the photo you posted. The woodgrain paneling and low ceiling make the place instantly recognizable.

Kerry
 
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