Ccc it’s here !!

[Dave Bishop]

In the US, with alot of arcades/ barcades and pinball owners a lot of kids are exposed to Pinball..
In the UK I would say that the venues that have pinballs are few and far between compared to the US.

That being said - with the popularity of games rooms, people are looking for arcade games and searching that brings up companies like GRC, Williams Amusements & Liberty which then do sell pinballs.. or Ebay.

In the UK, I would hazard a guess that The young players that attend/take part in league meets are children of parents that have pinball machines, and so have grown up with them.

Maybe they can chime in and see what their observations are when their child’s friends come over - are they interested in Pinball?

What about @Chief - do you have a “school rush” after school of kids coming in and crowding round a table like in the 60’s,70’s etc? And at Flipout.. do you get groups of teenagers coming in without. being dragged in by Dad/mum taking the kids to a new place under the pre-tense of a different place to try, secretly longing to relive their youth

 

[mission65]

I have four children aged 19, 22, 28 and 30, with up until COVID over 20 pins at the house. 10 inside and 12 in a cabin.
they all think they are cool, and so do their friends but they will very rarely play them.
I do not try to push them as I believe that is counter productive but I have asked why they don’t play them regularly.
The answer is that they are too busy and that’s my thing !

I was surprised when I was in the states in 2019 and visited maybe 10 barcades in New York, philly, Washington and Chicago and found them heaving with young people all playing pinball, very cool to see

 

[Jsyjamie]

Any idea when the first games will be landing @philpalmer ?

 

[steve brum]

In all honesty local kids here prefer using pinball for hide and seek so we try to keep the games they do play near the entrance ie video games and the grabber

Family groups from further away especially Dad and Son ones can be seen playing pinball together but these type of customers are the ones that have vanished since covid .

Saying that its the family friendly pins Simpsons Party and Shrek that are most popular so go figure. Id like to try Flintstones but my brain still sees that as a cheapie having struggled to sell them for £200 in the past

 

[VeeMonroe]

Then an Amiga commodore second hand cos I'd asked my parents for a computer. Didn't know what i was doing most of the time except games on it like Zool, Pinball Heaven(?) cannon fodder, alien breed and the like.

I also enjoyed Cannon Fodder on the Commodore Amiga (and the song was appropriately contextualised). "War, never been so much fun! War, never been so much fun!... Kill him with your gun, leave him dying in his uniform lying in the sun. War..."

In the UK, I would hazard a guess that The young players that attend/take part in league meets are children of parents that have pinball machines, and so have grown up with them.

Maybe they can chime in and see what their observations are when their child’s friends come over - are they interested in Pinball?

I'm hoping to bring my four year old to a tournament at some point. However, he's not had friends around due to the pandemic, so I can't judge the reaction of other school kids (yet), especially neurotypical ones (my four-year-old son is autistic). However, I noticed there weren't many kids playing the pins at the new Brunswick Arcade both times we went - just the occasional guy in his 30s - despite there being loads of families there. The closest we got to teenagers playing was a group who stopped to watch my son - presumably because he'd got a multi-ball on Mando.

 

[M4carp]

I have four children aged 19, 22, 28 and 30, with up until COVID over 20 pins at the house. 10 inside and 12 in a cabin.
they all think they are cool, and so do their friends but they will very rarely play them.
I do not try to push them as I believe that is counter productive but I have asked why they don’t play them regularly.
The answer is that they are too busy and that’s my thing !

I was surprised when I was in the states in 2019 and visited maybe 10 barcades in New York, philly, Washington and Chicago and found them heaving with young people all playing pinball, very cool to see

Pretty much the same as you here!

Ive had pinballs for a bit over 20 years, my 4 kids are 20 to 30 years old. They are not really interested I’m playing them, was more into video games. Even my 2 oldest grandchildren of 6 and 7 are not interested playing them, we play Fortnite when they visit now and preferred playing MAME over all the pins.

 

[Paul]

Well, back on topic.... I want an LE, and i cant get one. Any suggestions??

 

[Dave Bishop]

Have the LE’s been put up yet?

 

[Paul]

Have the LE’s been put up yet?

Nope,. but as per Phil above, Sold out before it's even available

 

[Dave Bishop]

Ouch!

 

[AlanJ]

Le sold out

Looks like they're all spoken for @Dave Bishop

 

[Dave Bishop]

Wow! That was fast.. feel for those who didn’t get an LE.

 

[M4carp]

Once you have seen the LE I don’t think you can go for the SE, but maybe you can pimp it up with a topper etc at some stage and save some money in the meantime?

 

[Paul]

Wow! That was fast.. feel for those who didn’t get an LE.

Hence why asking if anyone has a clue as to where i may be able to get one from

 

[David_Vi]

The teens and kids into pinball topic is quite interesting, it's a shame the thread went off topic, is it too much work to split it?

Nope teens not interested in pinball:

Twitch

Twitch is the world's leading video platform and community for gamers.

clips.twitch.tv

I haven't seen anyone like that in the UK or even in the few euro streams I've watched. And that's one person?
I don't remember many teens at all at pinfest unless with parents who already seemed to be into pinball. Same at flip out, every time I've been it's mostly older folk or young kids with parents.


What are the stats for ages at comps in the USA?

In all honesty local kids here prefer using pinball for hide and seek so we try to keep the games they do play near the entrance ie video games and the grabber

Family groups from further away especially Dad and Son ones can be seen playing pinball together but these type of customers are the ones that have vanished since covid .

Saying that its the family friendly pins Simpsons Party and Shrek that are most popular so go figure. Id like to try Flintstones but my brain still sees that as a cheapie having struggled to sell them for £200 in the past

I noticed that on Sunday, you had what looked like nearly 50 kids or non adults in the main bar area, but if the pinball area for the 5 hours I was there I didn't see one child or even teen playing pinball.
I did see them crawling under machines and being a general menace though!

 

[Doggard]

Zen studio’s have recently released pinball party on iOS, there is 4 Bally/ Williams tables, but the rest are cartoon themed. So obviously aimed at kids. Although not real pinball, and only digital, but nonetheless, zen must must know there is a market out there, for youngsters playing digital pinball.
Which in turn could maybe encourage those kids, to actively look for real pins as they get older

 

[JustLikeMe]

I have four children aged 19, 22, 28 and 30, with up until COVID over 20 pins at the house. 10 inside and 12 in a cabin.
they all think they are cool, and so do their friends but they will very rarely play them.
I do not try to push them as I believe that is counter productive but I have asked why they don’t play them regularly.
The answer is that they are too busy and that’s my thing !

I was surprised when I was in the states in 2019 and visited maybe 10 barcades in New York, philly, Washington and Chicago and found them heaving with young people all playing pinball, very cool to see

Pretty much the same as you here!

Ive had pinballs for a bit over 20 years, my 4 kids are 20 to 30 years old. They are not really interested I’m playing them, was more into video games. Even my 2 oldest grandchildren of 6 and 7 are not interested playing them, we play Fortnite when they visit now and preferred playing MAME over all the pins.

At 35 I'm not much older than some of your kids, and younger than most on the forum. My dad loved pinball back in the 70s and 80s, so when I was a kid he'd get me to play them with him when we saw them in arcades. They disappeared over time and we mostly forgot about them until we ended up reminiscing over beers one evening when I was 18, which led us to eBay - and soon a Twilight Zone came home, followed by many more over the years.

I've been pretty much obsessed ever since that first TZ arrived, but with a wide network of friends over the years none of them have really 'got it' in the same way. I have one mate who now has a machine of his own and looks after a couple of mine, another who plans to get one when he has space, a couple more who look forward to new games I have coming in and will stop by just to check them out, and a few more who are interested enough to have a couple of games when they come over. The vast majority think that they're cool looking things, appreciate them as mechanical art, but just aren't really interested in playing them even if they're switched on in the next room.

Anecdotal I know, but even as I get older I don't see any increasing interest in people I know around my age. I do think things are different in the States to some degree, but I wonder if there is enough interest in the younger generations to keep the £7k+++ home purchases going on a similar scale over the coming decades.

 

[SpiderPin]

So I'm the Gen Z that seems to have caused quite a stir on this thread and here are my thoughts:

1) Nobody knows what pinball is. I've spoken to one person that's seen a pinball machine before, and that's because they lived in Birmingham and happened across tilt one day. Never played it again mind, but at least they knew the concept of a pinball machine. The issue is there are no pubs or arcades that have pinball machines anymore. I suspect the vast majority of you here started playing pinball by finding a machine in a pub or an arcade, but arcades have closed (and even the ones that are open generally don't have pinball) and pubs don't have pinball machines anymore - the only vaguely arcade games they have are fruit machines. Even in a major city, I know of 5 tables on location, of which 3 are only here because they're at a specific arcade bar. Pinball on location is nothing like it was when I guess the vast majority of forum users frequented location play, thus the gateway drug is removed. The only reason I got into pinball was my Dad nagging me to play the clapped out old Spiderman in the corner of the arcade!

2) I enjoy Pinball most in the home, and there's absolutely NO way I could even dream of affording a pinball machine that I'd actually want (And I'm a mid 2000s Stern lover!) within the next 8 or so years. With NIB prices going up I suspect that timeline may be increased indefinitely, so there would be little keeping me in the hobby were it not for infrequent trips to flipout and the prospect of a project machine that I may actually be able to afford. Missed out on a seriously unbelievable deal this week (Guy got there before me with a van!) and something like that means my ticket to pinball ownership is tougher to get hold of.

3) Pinball is £1 a play for the modern machines, and with how complicated machines are getting the average consumer get's frustrated quickly. I watch PAPA videos for tutorials, but someone who's never seen a machine people will obviously not bother, and they get frustrated when they cant play the game. Why would they pay £1 a pop just to drain straight off the plunge 3 times? I was at the arcade bar a couple of weeks ago, and two people gave up on a JP2 as they couldn't work out how to put 2 players on it, let alone actually get to a paddock (Not that they knew what that was!)

Pinball is in a tough spot now, and the increasing prices and DLC model only make it a less enticing prospect.

 

[VeeMonroe]

The teens and kids into pinball topic is quite interesting, it's a shame the thread went off topic, is it too much work to split it?

I’ll see if I can start a new thread…

I noticed that on Sunday, you had what looked like nearly 50 kids or non adults in the main bar area, but if the pinball area for the 5 hours I was there I didn't see one child or even teen playing pinball.
I did see them crawling under machines and being a general menace though!

Wow! That would explain why Neil was so weird about the idea of us bringing the Flipper Beast (and Pi-Bo Wizard) to the FlipOut tournament...

The Flipper Beast is (evidently) very focused for his age. When I took him to FlipOut, he played MM and CV for two hours solid, with a short break when I convinced him to play TAF because I was trying to replace a battery holder on the CV

3) Pinball is £1 a play for the modern machines, and with how complicated machines are getting the average consumer get's frustrated quickly. I watch PAPA videos for tutorials, but someone who's never seen a machine people will obviously not bother, and they get frustrated when they cant play the game.

Yeah. I kept trying to explain this to… well, Neil again. My Flipper Beast is competitive score-wise with adults playing Space Station on the Williams pinball app. He’s just about grasped the rules of LoTR because we have it in the house and he plays it a lot. No way is he likely to be competitive with adults playing modern Sterns; he simply can’t understand the rules well enough to get a very high score.

 

[The seeker]

I have people over and show them the arcade , naturally the first question is do they work the next Is “how much “ tbh some are surprised and the cost , sometimes I have a moment and thing Jesus these are fricking expensive- what am I doing , other times I just think that’s just the price they are.

 

[VeeMonroe]

New thread here:

The future of pinball/kids and pinball

This is a continuation of the CCC thread that had been taken over by people talking about kids and the future of pinball, if anyone wants to bring the discussion over here…

www.pinballinfo.com

If anyone wants to leave the CCC speculation to this thread

 

[David_Vi]

I’ll see if I can start a new thread…



Wow! That would explain why Neil was so weird about the idea of us bringing the Flipper Beast (and Pi-Bo Wizard) to the FlipOut tournament...

The Flipper Beast is (evidently) very focused for his age. When I took him to FlipOut, he played MM and CV for two hours solid, with a short break when I convinced him to play TAF because I was trying to replace a battery holder on the CV



Yeah. I kept trying to explain this to… well, Neil again. My Flipper Beast is competitive score-wise with adults playing Space Station on the Williams pinball app. He’s just about grasped the rules of LoTR because we have it in the house and he plays it a lot. No way is he likely to be competitive with adults playing modern Sterns; he simply can’t understand the rules well enough to get a very high score.

Might have misunderstood, I've seen young children at flip out but usually with family


And I still don't understand the rules on lost modern sterns... I can walk up to nearly any B/W and grasp what I have to do after a game or two

 

[mark9]

Nope,. but as per Phil above, Sold out before it's even available

I also tried to order an LE on sunday, wasn't expecting the 20 allocation to sell out that fast, before the UK price was even confirmed! Just shows that the home market is more popular than ever right now.

Going to wait now to see what the feedback is like from new owners before deciding on an SE. The topper and wooden apron look great but the SE still looks pretty a pretty good buy. The only thing missing gameplay-wise is the topper mini game.

I'm especially interested in the Lyman code update, will give us the chance to see what it's actually like and how much extra it costs .

 

[philpalmer]

Any idea when the first games will be landing @philpalmer ?

Hope to have a sample SE before Xmas.... who knows.

 

[J.C.Rox]

Ref topper being available for SE Doug from Cgc posted half hour ago on pinside..

"As publicly announced at launch, we have not decided if we will sell the Wild West Shootout Topper separately. I have had related discussions with most of our dealers and a number of customers. I will provide a clear answer on topper sales within the next two days. I fully recognize either decision will result in a number of people being upset.

Resale value of our games is important to us which is why we haven’t released LE features on previous projects. This is the first time an LE feature has affected the experience of game play which is why this decision requires additional consideration.

We work hard to deliver great product at fair prices to people that love pinball. I am troubled by scalpers and a few dealers holding back inventory to later sell at a higher price. In the future, we will do a better job getting LEs to loyal customers at intended prices. A number of your suggestions were helpful and will be used.

It takes great effort and a large amount of capital to develop and manufacture pinball machines. Many days of my life and the lives of all of our team members went into this project. We could have shipped CCr nearly a year ago but took the additional time to make this game to the very best of our collective abilities. Hopefully this effort is apparent. Because we have expended the effort and risk the capital we are afforded the right to make decisions on how we sell our products.

I appreciate having the opportunity to read most everyone’s opinion on both sides, it has been helpful. I need to disregard the few posts that border on bullying as I believe they are not representative of the pinball community."

 

[The seeker]

I have my topper at the ready if I do pull the trigger on an se

 

[Dave Bishop]

The write up says that the topper
Is “included” in the LE price. Not “exclusive” like it says in the MM Royal edition write up, and we all know those toppers can be bought.

 

[The seeker]

Said it from the off the launch has been fumbled by second guessing the market , they are now doubting that they sold the le to cheap , in my opinion 9500 is ALOT of money anyways , tbh I think after seeing a rather lacklustre cowboy spinning his arms with what looks like a very simple mech leads me to believe it won’t be as ( must have ) as some may believe , still disappointed they skipped or dropped the classic , but still tempted by the se …. Either way if they release the topper to all they are in for a world of pain by the le men

 

[The seeker]

I have my topper at the ready if I do pull the trigger on an se

Actually imagine a kicking mule for the knocker ….. sweet

 

[jagman]

it depends on how much the topper will be as a separate item i suppose