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How did you get into pinball?

M

mac49uk

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Joined
Feb 6, 2025
Messages
221
Location
Birmingham, UK
Hey folks

The question is the title really - how did you get into pinball?

Background:

I got thinking about this after reading the is pinball in trouble in the UK thread.

I am just 50 and have only got into pinball in the last 18 months by pure fluke really.

I think I was loosely aware there was a pinball bar in Birmingham for several years but never quite knew where. Reality was it was tucked away a bit and despite walking within 100 metres of Tilt 5 days a week on my lunch walk I never went in until...

I started seeing ads for Jaws pinball. Probably targeted at me as a huge Jaws movie fan. This got me thinking about the pinball bar in town a bit. Then, on a date night with the wife, saw the A-Board for Tilt and stumbled in and fell in love with Monster Bash.

A bit of marketing for Tilt + Jaws plus some pure chance.

On that first visit, we were a bit tipsy and largely hopeless but there was a guy in there that we got chatting too who was just amazing - kind of showed us there was a whole other level here beyond our drunken button mashing!

I then started popping in at lunch, then more date nights, weekends etc.

I started playing a bit of virtual pinball and joined a virtual league that helped me kind of get to grips with how things worked a bit.

Finally picked up the courage to go to the league night at Tilt, and went to a few comps and here we are 12 months later, have six tables in my office, loads of new pinball friends, trying to help get a club going - ultimately, super addicted like an 80s crack fiend!

So, that got me thinking that pinball is a strange one.

It is a great hobby, very addictive, very friendly, but maybe a tad hard to get into if you have never played before (like me) and all you have access to are super complicated modern stern machines.

I just could not get on at all with Stern's to begin with - just too hard and too complicated. Only after renting a Jaws machine and having free play did the penny drop and I am still very much only getting to grips with games like Godzilla, King Kong etc - and I am lucky enough to play with some folks who are really good so I can watch and learn (if not replicate).

So, the point being, I think as a hobby, in the UK at least, there are some problems.

- complexity
- price
- size of machines
- geographic access
- a lack of awareness
- a lack of nostalgia for folks < 50
- etc

But, here we all are - so, out of interest, how did you get into pinball?

Cheers
Marcus
 
I've a vague memory of playing a single game of Pinball on the Isle of White when I was around 10. Drained instantly so massively disappointed I'd wasted my money.

Played digital Pinball on the Amiga, but what really hooked me was Pinball Arcade around 2014, and I've never looked back since.

First Pin was a NIB Walking Dead LE, and I've had 22 so far over my journey.
 
Over the road from my house was a fish & chip shop that (looking back) always had the latest machine.
Sinbad, Flash, Superman, played them all fresh off the boat.
Anyhow, I was playing Mustang (Gottlieb EM) and my ball got stuck. The shop owner had the key, took off the glass to free the ball, and encouraged me to touch all the switches. And probably gave me a few free games.

I was hooked
 
1978 at school, the 6th Form Centre had 2 pinball machines, one was an EM and the other was more modern electronic so I guess an early Bally/Williams/Stern SS. No idea what either of them were. Played them often in the 2 years I was there. Then off to Manchester University, the Halls of Residence had a space Invaders and a Galaxian and a Pinball Machine. I was space Invaders mad and played it every night, until I eventually clocked it and then lost interest. A bunch of 2nd and 3rd year students were always on the pinball. They always seemed to be having so much fun, so I joined in - it was Paragon, and I became quickly hooked. Such a great game to play on pay, as there was (is) 5 ways to earn a replay. 1. Score Threshold, 2. Paragon saucer Special. 3. In-line drops Special. 4. Waterfall Special and 5. Right hand drops Special. Of all of them, no. 3. was the most coveted and was rarely achieved. I managed it once. You have to knock down all 4 in-line drops, then hit the top saucer behind twice (once for 5X bonus and again for Extra ball), then the in-line drops reset, and you have to hit them all down again then finally collect the Special at the saucer behind. I played so much pinball that I forgot to go to uni lectures. Needless to say, I didn't last beyond the first year.
 
I used to go for a week's camping trip to Pitlochry with the Boys Brigade every July when I was a kid, in the late 80s early 90s. Most nights they'd shuttle us down to the local arcade to spend a couple of hours playing video games.

They always had 1 pinball machine. At first it was an Addams Family which was later swapped for a Dracula - both complete money grabbing bastards but I really enjoyed the gameplay. When I started going to bars - they occasionally had working machines in them - Star Wars was pretty popular.

Years later when I bought my first house I found a CFTBL on ebay for 750 quid and bought it on a whim, for fun.

I kept it for a few years then sold it when I moved but always enjoyed having a machine.

Got back into it a few years ago when I moved back up north. Things had really moved on in the pinball world while I hadn't been watching.

Gameplay hasn't changed but complexity has increased to improve longevity rather than 90s games style difficulty.
 
Remember them from all the arcades in malls, service stations, ski resorts, cost cutters! EVERYWHERE when I lived in the states when younger. Have been interested in them since then. But not playing them, much prefer to fix them.
 
I was born in 1986 so grew up in the 90s. Whenever we went bowling or to an arcade, my dad would insist that we played some pinball as he’d fallen in love with it back in the 70s when he lived in Florence for a year. Then as we all know, pins disappeared from the arcades and we kind of forgot about them too.

We were having a few beers together one night when I was around 18, so circa 2004, and somehow got onto the topic of when we used to play pinball together and wondering what had happened to them. Had a search online only to discover that some people had them at home which was a revelation and before we knew it we were shortlisting games and looking on eBay.

A few months later my dad ended up buying a nice Twilight Zone which was delivered with the warning that they tend to multiply which we both laughed at - but within six months we had a second and within a couple of years we were up to six.

I’ve now taken over most of the buying and selling but we’re both still at it 21 years later.
 
pinball was quite public when I was a kid in the 70s. Ice rink , bowling alley and our local youth club had a Bally Hi Deal ( which I ended up ramdomly owning 20 years later)

my greatest exposure though was through my grandparents who lived at Burnham on Sea where I spent many holidays. When I got too old for sandcastles (about 10) I'd get 50p to spend in the arcades so it had to last! early videos like space invaders gobbled my coin whereas pinball let you win free games. From Flash through to Space Shuttle I got first taste of games here . The first new out the box game I played was Black Knight . The tech guy let me try the first game. Games that ate my coin became life long enemies - I'm looking at you Gobstoppers! One off the front arcade only had Gottliebs set with low replays so I got good moneys worth on otherwise lacklustre pins like Totem Torch and Buck Rogers

my Dad conceded to letting me have a fruit machine in the shed when I was 15. I got quite pally with the guy who co owned Happy Hours arcades in Birmingham and when he told me he was going to get a new ,albeit second hand pinball, (Mr and Mrs Pacman) and needed Zac Earth Wind and Fire out the way I was sorely tempted but didnt have the space and £150 was a lot of money compared to £40 odd for a bandit. I went to my first trade show with him and his sons in January 1986

due to seeing it promoed on BBC local news , I rolled up excited at the 1986 POA show in central Birmingham where I joined the POA and did very pooly in the competition (as usual)

October 1986 I found myself at Loughborough Uni where High Speed became my flippered opponent. Met a fellow POA member Warren McCulloch (who had FOUR pinballs at home - wowwee!) and with others set up a uni pinball club . We were originally allowed to have machines set up in the union building but the site operator wasnt too keen (fair enough) and we were given a club space for about 8 machines but by then I was in a shared student house and machines both pins and vids found themselves migrating there. In 1988 we hosted the annual POA convention and because the space was free it was a very successful event.

the last 40 years are a rollercoaster and probably need a book. I have some great chapter titles already. The Princess and the Millionaire. The Black Knight and the Cornish ditch. Watch this space.

first picture shows a charity event we did for Comic Relief. my games left to right , #4 7 3 13 12 and 11. 3 I still have.
second an overview of POA show 1988. The video exists somewhere but my copy is lost!

uni pinball 1988.webppoa show 1988.webppoa 1986.webp
 
When I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s we spent a lot of time in arcades. Back then I had tried pinball but didn't get the appeal at all. It seemed old hat compared to Out Run and Street Fighter 2 etc. Fast forward to about 9 years ago and the pub across the road from my house got an Addams Family. Me and a friend ended up chucking a load of money into it one night. My profile pic on here is me playing the game that night. When I left the pub I knew I wanted to buy one. Ebay searches followed by Google searches led me here. I put up a wanted for 3 games and ended up with a really minty Flintstones for 1300 quid. I was so new I had no idea what I was doing when it arrived, Martin's brother in law helped me set it up. 9 years and 25 odd games later and I still love it.
 
2011 when my dad retired to Bexhill on Sea. I was having a look around the town and found a little arcade on the front. At the time they had a T2 and ToM inside. Started playing the T2 and that was it, hooked still 15 years later. Had a T2 and ToM myself since then and many, many other games over the years.

Think both games are still there, but walled up behind other machines. They have no interest in selling either. Place apparently is a front for money laundering according to locals.
 
JustLikeMe said:
I was born in 1986 so grew up in the 90s. Whenever we went bowling or to an arcade, my dad would insist that we played some pinball as he’d fallen in love with it back in the 70s when he lived in Florence for a year. Then as we all know, pins disappeared from the arcades and we kind of forgot about them too.

We were having a few beers together one night when I was around 18, so circa 2004, and somehow got onto the topic of when we used to play pinball together and wondering what had happened to them. Had a search online only to discover that some people had them at home which was a revelation and before we knew it we were shortlisting games and looking on eBay.

A few months later my dad ended up buying a nice Twilight Zone which was delivered with the warning that they tend to multiply which we both laughed at - but within six months we had a second and within a couple of years we were up to six.

I’ve now taken over most of the buying and selling but we’re both still at it 21 years later.
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Well that's a lovely story given I play with at least one of my sons. :)
 
Local arcade had a RoadShow me and a friend would play.

I bought a load of vids off an operator in Guernsey about 2003 and he had a load of pins so I took the lot.

I was slightly gutted I didn't ask about what was in Jersey which I later found had some better titles.
 
1970 aged 12 me ‘n Col, the lanky Trot you see me with at Pinfest, would go to Frank’s newsagent. Frank’s was an odd place, mainly a typical newsagents but had a weird sideline in musical instruments, mainly guitars and 4 or 5 Gottlieb/Bally EMs.
We graduated to the local bowling alley, stand out pin there was a Williams Derby Day, we loved that machine.
As alcohol reared it’s ugly head, we’d only be 15/16 but nobody bothered back then we went pub crawling, about a quarter of pubs had a Got, Bally or Williams in them so we’d drink, play darts and pool in the others.
After ’76 with me working and Col going to Leicester University for further indoctrination there was a hiatus, I’d have a quick blast if I saw one in a boozer and one or two night clubs had one in but clubs were for other things really.
Around’87 I’d bought a house, I’d moved to Newcastle with work, and working in South Shields running an opticians where one of the punters wife had a second hand shop that was really a front for handling stolen goods. (I seem to attract some dodgy people through pinball, Vance Miller is another one, google him). Anyway he spent half his time in Durham nick where he’d break his spex so I’d sort him out and if he got an EM in he’d give it to me.
Couple of years later I bought an EBD followed by Barracora from a couple of local amusement suppliers.
Col’s travelling up from Chesterfield in a couple of weeks, mine and Pinfest are the only times he gets to play nowadays.
 
Born 1968, used to play pinball with my meagre pocket money in the local arcade. End of Eighties I bought a Xenon with a friend at a boot sale which “turned on” (GI lit) for 150 DM. We figured out after taking it home that it was missing the CPU and audio boards. After finding those (you could still buy spares from Bally back then) and doubling our layout which really hurt us poor students, we had a working machine. It all went downhill from there, I started picking up machines from arcades, refurbing and selling them until I moved to the UK in 2014 when I sold off everything including tools as we didn‘t have a basement here. Helped a friend refurbing a Star Trek before Covid and bought one again, now have four sitting here in my office. It is a slippery slope indeed…
 
Early 80’s an apprentice moose was talking with a tradesman that mentioned he had a pinball machine. It wasn’t working and I think his wife was encouraging him to make it disappear. £50 later and proud owner of a non working Gotleib Incredible Hulk. Broken traces and some very dodgy edge connectors were some of the problems I remember. Anyway as an electrician in training I persevered and got the bugger working. My friends and I had had endless fun in my terrace house. Those that know me know of the sad demise of this pin but I will very soon be picking up another that actually has my original back glass in it. A few years later after moving into a bigger house an Addams and twighlight moved in and many more followed until the house could take no more hence building the mooseshack. A 12 year project that is also now a memory lol.
 
I started around age 6 while on a caravan holiday with my parents where there was a World Cup Soccer which just blew my brain out and I was completely obsessed with playing it the whole holiday. I remember playing a LOT of Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey and Timeshock on the Playstation One to tide me over until I found my next machine. I always loved arcades and lived near Southend-on-Sea where we would regularly go and I'd spend pocket money on any pins I could find there. Fast forward a few years and a bowling alley where I used to regularly bowl league and comps at had a Roadshow, I inevitably started working there from age 13-20 so I became that Roadshows top customer very quickly.

An Elvis then appeared in a local snooker hall were I would play pool with my Dad and later then a Grand Prix - I adored both of those and would spend more time playing the pins than pool.

I'm not sure quite why or how it came about but one day I bought a machine from a guy off eBay when I was 20, then another, and another - this caused a huge argument between my parents and I and I moved out, I started putting the pins in local bars and pubs which allowed me to buy more games as it free'd up space. My whole life very quickly became learning as much as possible about every machine I could and after a while people started contacting me asking if I could help with their games, after a few years of that as a side hustle while I was working for Namco I eventually left Namco and became a self employed pinball tec.
 
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HHH said:
If anybody wants to revisit and copy and paste what they wrote in a thread I made a while ago and add it to this thread then here is the link:
https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/getting-to-know-you-the-nostalgia-zone.60993/

👍
Click to expand...
Gosh, that's a great read. My story is similar but more through the home consoles to complete disinterest in Xbox, ps5 etc.

The community piece is so right. Pinball is like the arcade you always dreamed of as a 10 year old but in your 50s.

Magic. :)
 
Came home from school one day (‘88 ish) to a garage full of machines . Never forget the wonderful smell :)

Games were

Mr & Mrs Pacman
Gorgar x 2
Devil Riders
Robot
Farfalla
Time Machine (no head)
Pinball Champ (no head)


I was 12 & hooked, the rest is history... :)
 
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My first experience of playing pinball was in a pub in Manchester where I was a student. The pub was right opposite the main uni building and was called Jabez Clegg. Sadly long gone. They had a DE Star Wars and a Lethal Weapon. Back then I had absolutely no money and was living off £40/week for all my food, booze and er… uni books. Ok not the books, I never bought any lol. But I would always pop a few quid in to these machines and was hooked.
Later on I too used to play Timeshock on the PS1. Fast forward 30 years and I can now buy a few choice machines having spent the last few decades thinking I would never have the space or money to do it. And loving it. This community on here helps as I’m clueless when it comes to electronics.
 
Ryker said:
My first experience of playing pinball was in a pub in Manchester where I was a student. The pub was right opposite the main uni building and was called Jabez Clegg. Sadly long gone. They had a DE Star Wars and a Lethal Weapon. Back then I had absolutely no money and was living off £40/week for all my food, booze and er… uni books. Ok not the books, I never bought any lol. But I would always pop a few quid in to these machines and was hooked.
Later on I too used to play Timeshock on the PS1. Fast forward 30 years and I can now buy a few choice machines having spent the last few decades thinking I would never have the space or money to do it. And loving it. This community on here helps as I’m clueless when it comes to electronics.
Click to expand...
Timeshock was a great game, had it on my mac, was so much better than any other computer pinball game before
 
Played in arcades on holidays, enjoying it, but not obsessed. Didn't have many holidays between age 12 & 18, then went to uni - Monte bar had 3. but can only remember Firepower. West ref had Centaur, Space Invaders & Silverball Mania; coffee bar had Harlem Globetrotters, Medusa, Flash Gordon, Big Game, Mr & Mrs Pacman & Xs & Os - I too missed lectures because of pinball, but managed to stick it out to rag a 3rd.

Then played in pubs til the early nineties, then pretty much nothing until 2001 - went for an interview in Lytham & was asked about arcade games - had to admit I had arrived an hour early so I could go on the pier before, think that got me the contract. Went to a party at the IT manager's house where he had a load of arcade machines, fruities & a couple of pins, but I didn't have room for a pin at that time. Picked up a couple of arcade machines & later went to an 8-Bit Flip event near Northwich, met @DAD & found out about the league - never looked back.
 
For context I'm 57 now . I remember always heading for the pinballs in arcades when I was a child but can't remember the games . Then when I moved to Peterborough late eighties there was a pub near me with basically no rules that became my regular for a bit . You could build a joint on the bar , plenty of live music and always a pin, always Gotts I think . Only title I remember for sure was Victory so want to own one of those one day for the nostalgia (if you have one you'd like to sell even if temporarily let me know). Then came the early 90's the pinball heyday for me as there seemed to be pins in most pubs here , TAF, TZ , LW3 FT etc etc . TAF I played for ever and was my grail pin and would never sell mine . Fast forward to 2014 by which time I'd forgotten about pinball and hadn't seen one in the wild for ages . On a family holiday in Mallorca sat outside a restaurant and went in to use the loo and tucked in out the back outside the toilets there was a pin , can't even remember which . Went outside and told the family I could be a while ! Being on holiday with time to think and now having some spare cash I got to thinking if it was even a 'thing' to own one of these (feel stupid now!) . A few googles led me to this forum and also to find Mark Squires lived near me and arranged to go and see him and discuss . He was so helpful . Bought a Ripleys from him and that's where the madness started .
 
Potted history.

Initially playing at Student union bar with friends in late 1980s and then in pubs in early 1990s when every pub seemed to have a machine to play.

Moved to Singapore 1997 and no pinball there for 3 years. Moved to Hong Kong 2001 and found the odd game in arcades there. My lovely wife became pregnant as we moved to Hong Kong and she suggested that as our partying lifestyle may become a little curtailed on arrival of kids that I should buy myself a pinball machine for the home ( so she only has herself to blame 😀).

As we all know these things also seem to breed, so on leaving Hong Kong for Malaysia I had acquired 10 which came with (and were smuggled into Malaysia as they were considered gambling machines that you needed business licence and premises for.

Left Malaysia to return to UK in 2007. Me wife, 2 kids, doberman dog, 2 cats, and two 40ft containers (one of which was a high top) for the household contents and 16 pinball machines plus the parts from about 10 I parted out for spares. Oh and another 40 ft container with 2 cars. And our live in filipina helper also joined us in uk for a year when we returned. It was a big move.

Too busy with work family and kids to get involved that much with pinball but over the years quietly bought a Taf cftbl tz shadow and wcs94.

Kids went off to uni in 2021 so became born again pinballer, joining northern league that year and pinfest and.lots of other meets and.overseas trips. Plus acquired more machines so now up to about 30.
 
Born in 1962, I grew up in a village on the Norfolk Broads, which had a couple of riverside Pubs with children's games rooms for the boat traffic. They had pinball machines there, along with the usual fruit machines and early video games. As a young teenager I remember playing a Williams Space Mission, a Captain Fantastic & most of all my favourite, a Williams Triple Strike machine, which I finally managed to obtain for my collection earlier this year after a chance conversation with Pete Heath at the Daventry show.

My first experience of pinball though was in the late 1960's whilst on summer holiday. The place had several arcades with rows of Gottlieb Wedge Heads, and I remember playing those rather than the fruities as I could make my meagre pennies last a lot longer. I was fascinated by all the flashing lights, sparks from the slingshots, and the rotating reels and chimes.

Once I was (nearly) old enough to drink, the pinball games changed in the Pubs to solid state ones such as Dolly Parton, Silverball Mania (my avatar) Time Warp, Gorgar and Flash amongst many others. Of course I also started playing videos like Space Invaders and Defender which appeared along with games of pinball whilst having a pint or two.

1982 I got married, and pinball was forgotten for a while. I enjoyed playing Pinball Dreams and Pinball Illusions on the Amiga computer at home, as well as Kirby's Pinball Land on the Gameboy. I occasionally played a quick game of pinball in arcades if I ever saw one. A memorable occasion was when I walked into an arcade (I think it was in Hull) saw a Bally Space Invaders there and started playing. It all came together and I managed to roll the game winning five or six credits or more. A crowd gathered to watch, attracted by the sound of the knocker firing. I walked away afterwards leaving all the credits for them - my pinball wizard moment which I very rarely repeat these days. :(

I was blissfully unaware of the glory years of the early 1990s as pinball was forgotten about and my other hobbies pursued, until in the summer of 2009 I was sitting in the office at work on a quiet afternoon thinking about that pinball game I used to play as a teenager with the triangle of roll-overs (Williams Triple Strike). I discovered IPDB and Pinside on the web, and I also noticed that there was going to be a pinball show soon with lots of games to play in nearby Northampton. I was intrigued, so decided to pay the show a visit.

Well I walked into the Show at the Northampton Saint's Rugby ground and was totally gob struck! All those wonderful machines available to play for free, including all the ones I used to play when I was younger! I left that show with the aim of buying a pinball machine of my own. Six weeks later had I bought my first machine, a Fish Tales on Ebay. It was missing the fish topper, and had lots of other faults, but I enjoyed getting it to work again. A Silverball Mania followed shortly afterwards along with loads more (you cannot own just one machine), as I filled up my place with pinball machines.

I've managed to own over fifty games in the last 15 years, and I have met loads of wonderful people in this brilliant hobby. :thumbs:
 
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