Pinball!

[Hepcat]

Are you a pinball enthusiast? How much pinball have you played? Do you still play?

Does anyone on the board actually own any pinball machines?

 

I for one am a big fan of pinball machines and have most certainly played my share. I remember them as a young fellow but they were outlawed in Ontario in 1964 or so because they were thought by the authorities to be potential gambling devices.

Nonetheless, five pinball machines were included in the games room of the new student center at the University of Western Ontario in the fall of 1971. The Gottlieb 2001 was the one that captured my fancy - and quarters:







I just loved the drop targets but I never succeeded in knocking them all down. Twice though I knocked all but one down.

The presence of these machines soon attracted the attention of the local gendarmie. An officer was sent to investigate. After playing them for two or three hours, he determined that, yes, they were indeed sordid potential gambling devices and they were impounded the next day.

 

[Hepcat]

The ban on pinball machines in Ontario was lifted sometime in 1974-75. The York Hotel across from the train station in downtown London installed two machines in separate rooms. One was Bally's Pinball Wizard:





I had that machine absolutely mastered. I knew exactly what to do in what order and could do it more often than not. One day I played the machine for well over an hour on one quarter. I built up my free game total to eighteen at one point. Two things ended my run. One was fatigue. The other was that I was with my father after a trip to the farmer's market and it was time to drive him home.

In the other room was Gottlieb's Royal Flush:





It was the scene of my best game ever. I'd hit everything. All targets were down but I just kept hitting. My timing with the flippers was dead solid perfect which had me hitting with so much power that the ball was bouncing off the covering glass with almost every flip. I kept hitting and hitting for minutes on end and still just would not lose the ball. I had racked up about four free games but I wasn't even trying to coax the ball into the lit free game hole. I just wanted to keep hitting.

But a young hippie was standing by the machine and watching with incredulity. So amazed was he at my magnificent run that he leaned over to get a better look - and in so doing bumped the machine with his knee and TILTed it! I wanted to belt him.

 

[Scatter]

LOVE pinball!! And I WILL own one someday. Oh yes I will.

[Unknown Primate]

I used to LOVE pinball and played a couple of different ones fairly regularly way back when - always wanted to try the Creature From The Black Lagoon - wanted to own it, too!

[Hepcat]

I've never actually seen one of the Bally Creature from the Black Lagoon games myself.







It evidently featured music from the fifties including "Summertime Blues" and a hologram of the Creature within the playing field. It's now highly prized by collectors.

Monster themed pinball games have always been quite popular. Elvira gave birth to two, the first of which I've played a number of times:





Other monster themed pinball games have included Phantom from the Opera, King Kong, Loch Ness Monster, Addams Family, Escape from the Lost World and Attack from Mars.

 

[Illoman]

I, too used to cut class in college (my psychology class more than any other!) and go the student union and play this machine:



I played so much I got pretty good! I have always loved playing pinball and would love to own one some day.

[Flower]

LOVE pinball!! And I WILL own one someday. Oh yes I will.

Me too!

[neonnoodle]

I really love pinball games and there is nothing like being in one of those grimy old-fashioned arcades with the rows of blinking, ringing machines and all the hustle and bustle of the people.  That's a real experience, and there seem to be fewer and fewer places like that.

When the mood strikes me, I will also enjoy one of the many good digital versions that can be played on computer.  Not a substitute for the real thing by any means, but pretty cool if the real thing is nowhere nearby...

[Unknown Primate]

I've never actually seen one of the Bally Creature from the Black Lagoon games myself.

A theater I use to go to had one - the theater's not there anymore & I sure wonder what happened to that machine!

[Hepcat]

It's highly unlikely that the machine was owned by the theatre. It was most likely placed in the theatre by an individual or company that owned and serviced pinball machines that they placed in locales such as theatres.

 

[Hepcat]

This is the machine that I probably played the most in the arcades along Yonge Strret in Toronto in the late seventies:







I can't say that I truly mastered it the way I did Pinball Wizard and Royal Flush though.

 

[Hepcat]

Here's another pinball game that I liked to play in the arcades along Yonge Street:









 

[Hepcat]

Now I'm no great fan of KISS as a band. But I did enjoy playing the KISS pinball game in the arcades along Yonge Street:





It was a well designed, very playable game with excellent graphics.

 

[Hepcat]

This was another game I played in the pinball arcades around 1980 that combined an appealing concept with good play characteristics:







 

[judd]

I once worked for an arcade and I got in trouble for playing the Creature From the Black Lagoon game.

My favorite pinball was Haunted House.   It had three levels and two sets of flippers. 

I also like the Doctor Who pinball machine.