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How did you get into pinball?

Sometime in the 90's in a small bar in a village in France near Richelieu somewhere in the loire valley, the only place my parents went on holiday to. Unbelievably they had an Adams family gold, for many years I thought all Adams looked like that one and had a buy in button. I then spent most lunchtimes when doing my a levels playing lethal weapon 3 and sttng in the fruit machine place in Twickenham. Fully got into pins when lotr came out, worked near Tottenham court road, the arcade at the top had 3 or 4, used to go at lunch or after work, played LOTR so much I managed to get to Valhalla, although with UK skill posts activated. Became obsessed in 2000's buying an Adams but never had the space. When Avatar came out lost all interest in pins 🤣. Funny when I discovered the Adam gold owners list on line, one of the owners said they purchased a 💩 box Adams gold out of a bar in a village in France, must have been the one I used to play!
Went to an early pinfest in 2012 and nearly bought a lethal weapon 3, but after walking around changed my mind, no space ☹️ remember a guy and Phil from pinball heaven with a spectacular mint restoration of a creature from the black Lagon for around £4k, might have been £5k. Remember thinking god that's nice but that's alot of money, how times have changed think one now at pinball heaven is £14k
 
When I was a kid about 10 I used to get dragged with my sister who was 13 around the Sunday Market in Cleethorpes which was not too pleasant at that age. After constant moaning we were allowed to stay in the amusement arcade each Sunday and given 50p each, this was late 80s. I soon realised that 50p went nowhere so I started watching people on fruit machines and learnt to play them enough that I could stretch my 50p to last the whole time my parents were on the market. On the times when it didnt last I would have to go watch people again and as I was getting older the lads who knew what they were doing would stop me watching them so I ended up watching Pinball one time which was Elvira, I had no clue who she was but the game was wicked. I remember each time going up the monster ramp and it's sound improving stating 'oh yeah' I had a few plays here and there but it gobbled my small play money so I stuck to fruit machines to make cash go further. As I got older and still frequented the arcades and played fruit machines, on days when I had little or no money would go in Smiths and check the Pinball for free credits, I started enjoying Pinball then, used to earn specials too so credit lasted longer. When streetfighter Pinball came along, I would play it everytime I went to the arcades, I loved it and would happily play for hours on it, sometimes with my best mate who lived it also. When I left the area I didnt play for time until settled in Blackpool and whilst playing fruit machines in arcades, I went into happy days arcade and noticed a monopoly Pinball in there, I think it was a £1 a play, it may have been 50p but again I fell in love and would play for hours. After that I went away for some years and rarely played, on visits to Blackpool or Cleethorpes they wasn't any Pinballs that I was aware of so didnt really play again except at the Norbreck on Play expo or when the arcade club opened in Blackpool. Now happy there is so many places appearing where they can be played and pleased to have found this site, feel I'm only on the beginning of a new chapter of Pinball in my life
 
Saturdays used to consist of going to Sega World then Cinema... This is probably my first interaction with pinballs...

Didn't really see any in my college years but when I went to uni I met my friend James who loved pinball so we connected on that and used to use pin map whenever we were off on our travels to find them...

Favourite memory walking across Stockholm to a hotel that had a AFM, turned up and it had just been moved into storage but the bar guy let us in and even ran the beers to us!

There was always a couple on location in Northampton where my friend had moved too, IDJ and MM from memory

Then Tilt happened... We had a agreed to open a craft beer bar and I pushed the pinball aspect as I'd been to the US multiple times and seen the barcode scene booming out there
 
What a wonderful thread! The randomness of these introductions mirrors pinball play beautifully.

These are the phases of my pinball journey. As I’m 60, I’m going to write it in chapters.

1. The introduction (ca 1974, age 9)

My family met up with another family we knew from Manchester at a campsite in North Wales. Their daughter rushed up to me and said, ”Stef, there’s something called pinball you have to see!” The rec room had a short-flipper single-player EM. It absolutely kicked our asses and swallowed our 2ps and it was definitely not love at first site, but the spark jumped across. Addiction level: 1/10


2. Altringham ice rink, Manchester. (age ca 15-16) A whole horde of us went ice skating at least once a month. The rink cafe had a Gtb Wildlife. It’s a simple game, but the 3“ flippers allow for much greater ball control and I gradually acquired some basic flipper skills. Addiction level: 3/10

3. Inner city arcades, camping holidays in France, first trip to Germany, Blackpool, first own game (Age 17-18)

A little band of us would regularly take the bus into Manchester city center specifically to visit arcades. There were two arcades opposite one another (Pleasure Pastimes and ???) This is my 2nd favourite pinball phase of my life because the games were literally everywhere and the technical development was fast-paced. The 70s EMs were still being routed while the latest generation of EEs were hitting locations. I put in a lot of time practicing and realized this was something I was good at. My dad bought me a Gtb Melody, which was the final step towards full-blown addiction. Our local pub (White Swan, Fallowfield) had a brand-new Centaur; the Didsbury Campus of Manchester Poly bar had Haunted House. A local eatery had Pinball Champ. These games were within a short bike ride. I was mainlining pinball and became so good I could play some games effectively forever with one credit. Unfortunately, I was seriously neglecting school and other duties. A-Levels failed, Addiction level: 10/10
 
First experience of pinball would have been from computer games in the early 90's. Then I played a few in the arcades but don't remember much about that. Then I wasn't so bothered for a while.

It was Pinball Arcade in 2012 that got me into it properly. After playing the recreations I needed to play the real thing.

Now I've played just over 300 machines and been wanting to get my own for a while but they're a little expensive.
 
The next installment

4. 1984 - 1999 The pinball wilderness years

In about 1982 or 83, the games started becoming less interesting. When you have been on a diet of Fathom, Flite 2000, EBD, Black Knight and Black Hole and are served games like Super Orbit and Black Pyramid, disappointment is certain. Plus I had to repeat my A-Levels and then left Manchester to do my studies and in 1989 I emigrated to Cologne, Germany. I always played pinball if I saw a game somewhere, but the hyper-passion had abated. In particular the DMD in the 90s games didn’t light my candle when they first appeared on the scene. From about 1994 games were gradually disappearing from bars and arcades in Germany and for about 3 years I didn’t play a single game of pinball! Addiction level: 0/10
 
This will be the last installment for a while. Back to work tomorrow 🙄
2000 - 2009: rediscovering pinball/ collecting madness

In 1999 I was sharing a fairly large flat (rent was very cheap in Duisburg then) with my GF. She got us internet access and one day I decided to try and find pinball machine I had owned in my teens. I couldn’t remember its name, but thx to the utterly brilliant Pinball Portfolio book that I used to own, I remembered the name of its replay sister model, Sing Along. While browsing I came across numerous sites selling used games. My GF agreed to having one game in the flat and the hunt was on. I bought a filthy, but working Supersonic. Most of the lights were out, but it cleaned up nicely and replacing bulbs and light sockets is not hard. Having a classic EE at home was brilliant and games were really cheap back then. Annoyingly, my GF refused to have additional games in the flat.

At the same time my local garage had a DE Playboy and a Gtb Jungle Queen. I pestered the owner about selling me the JQ every time I was there, but in vain. However, he gave me the name of the old-timer who had originally sold them the pins. I called the guy , who told me about his pinball and jukebox operating experience from the 60s to the 80s. He also invited me over to his home where he showed me his amazing jukebox collection. He also had a Fireball and a Goucho plus a game he was repairing for a friend. He mentioned that he could source and repair most multi-player EMs from the 70s. A tempting offer, but there was still the problem of the intractable GF.

However, her parents had a huge house and they kindly let me put games in one room. At the same time, my business partner caught the pinbug and offered me 500 dm to put games in his house. Then, in a final twist of pinball fate, I split up with my GF, but as I was then employing her sister, her parents still allowed me to keep games in their house. So now I had a large flat all to myself, two additional sites and some disposable income.

Feeding frenzy

You guys have probably experienced this at some point in your pinball careers: collecting madness. Most games were plentiful and cheap back then and there was no voice of sanity to slow me down. At each site I created a different collection: Gtb 70s EMs, early EEs and Bally/WMS DMDs. I also got into tournaments and living close to the Netherlands and Belgium there were plenty to enter. I began collecting flyers and books. I was now obsessed with pinball again: addiction level 11/10
 
I can't remember when I first saw a pinball machine, but I remember being facinated by them, as I was with arcade machines, when I did see them when I was growing up in the 1980s. Nowhere in Preston that I frequented at that time had pinball though so I mostly remember playing arcade machines. My first definite memory of playing pinball is at an arcade in Brighton or somewhere in the vicinity in what was likely the mid to late 1980s where I spotted one or more pinball machines and talked my parents into letting me have a go on one, but I'm not sure what it was. It didn't last long. My first definite memory of playing a specific machine was a Star Trek: The Next Generation in the small bar on the ground floor of a hotel we stayed in on a family holiday in France in the mid 1990s. Again, my games didn't last long. I studied at The University of Edinburgh in the late 1990s and remember playing a variety of machines (Dr. Who, Jurassic Park, Revenge from Mars, and others) in The Sportsman Bar at Teviot Row House, the Student Union. I don't think I was much better, but I remember having some semi-decent games during that time, if not troubling any of the high score tables. I would then play when I spotted a machine during the next couple of decades, with the collection in the basement at HMV on Prince's Street in Edinburgh being the location that I remember with the most machines. I also increasingly got into playing video game pinball during this time via Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade, although I had been playing since the 1990s with the likes of Pinball Dreams. Sadly, I have found that my relative skill at video game pinball barely translates into any particular skill with the chaos of real pinball! I did briefly consider acquiring a pinball table prior to the COVID lockdown, but didn't get myself organised and that moment passed. Then in summer 2024 I came across the Pinball Map, which helped get me into pinball properly given the opportunity to actively seek out locations with machines. I ended up having a random chat at my local, Mortal Kocktail in Edinburgh, with a couple of Scottish League players who were friendly and encouraged me to attend a meet, which I finally did in early 2025. I made it to half of the meets that season and ended up low to middling in the season rankings, but crucially not last, which was my main goal... On arriving on this forum after my first Scottish League Meet, one of the first posts that I saw was for the sale of an almost new Labyrinth which I almost immediately fell in love with, the film having been released at a formative time during my childhood. I enquired about it, but didn't buy it. This repeated itself a few times over the course of the year (my DM history is only about Labyrinth sales!) until I eventually bought Jib's in October. I have been away a lot since then due to my dad's ill health unfortunately, but when I have been around I have played a few games every day and I am gradually improving. It will be interesting to see where I rank in the Scottish League this year. I'm not predicting any major improvements, but more consistently middling would be a satisfying improvement, on the whole...
 
Although I should have said that I was primed to be interested in pinball as a young child by the amazing counting animation/song from Sesame Street!
 
Pinslot said:
This will be the last installment for a while. Back to work tomorrow 🙄
2000 - 2009: rediscovering pinball/ collecting madness

In 1999 I was sharing a fairly large flat (rent was very cheap in Duisburg then) with my GF. She got us internet access and one day I decided to try and find pinball machine I had owned in my teens. I couldn’t remember its name, but thx to the utterly brilliant Pinball Portfolio book that I used to own, I remembered the name of its replay sister model, Sing Along. While browsing I came across numerous sites selling used games. My GF agreed to having one game in the flat and the hunt was on. I bought a filthy, but working Supersonic. Most of the lights were out, but it cleaned up nicely and replacing bulbs and light sockets is not hard. Having a classic EE at home was brilliant and games were really cheap back then. Annoyingly, my GF refused to have additional games in the flat.

At the same time my local garage had a DE Playboy and a Gtb Jungle Queen. I pestered the owner about selling me the JQ every time I was there, but in vain. However, he gave me the name of the old-timer who had originally sold them the pins. I called the guy , who told me about his pinball and jukebox operating experience from the 60s to the 80s. He also invited me over to his home where he showed me his amazing jukebox collection. He also had a Fireball and a Goucho plus a game he was repairing for a friend. He mentioned that he could source and repair most multi-player EMs from the 70s. A tempting offer, but there was still the problem of the intractable GF.

However, her parents had a huge house and they kindly let me put games in one room. At the same time, my business partner caught the pinbug and offered me 500 dm to put games in his house. Then, in a final twist of pinball fate, I split up with my GF, but as I was then employing her sister, her parents still allowed me to keep games in their house. So now I had a large flat all to myself, two additional sites and some disposable income.

Feeding frenzy

You guys have probably experienced this at some point in your pinball careers: collecting madness. Most games were plentiful and cheap back then and there was no voice of sanity to slow me down. At each site I created a different collection: Gtb 70s EMs, early EEs and Bally/WMS DMDs. I also got into tournaments and living close to the Netherlands and Belgium there were plenty to enter. I began collecting flyers and books. I was now obsessed with pinball again: addiction level 11/10
Click to expand...
Really looking forward to the next installment!!!
 
On last chapter before going back to work.

2009 - 2012 Collection Optimization /The crash

At some point every pin-junky runs out of space. I never slept under my games like Pinball Geoff, but I was forced to sell games in order to get space for new ones, so I focused on upgrading my collection. Jewels were MB, MM, IJ, WW and STTNG or hard-to-find (in Germany) one-player EMs like Eldorado and Kingpin. I even acquired a 4th location and was infecting friends, who bought games from me, effectively creating additional space. But then came the crash.

From all the playing, in particular nudging, I had developed agonizing golf elbow. Playing competitively was impossible. My ex GF’s sister quit and my business partner and I parted ways, leading to the loss of both external sites. The Gtb EM and mixed EE collections had to go 😥. Even worse, my company took a massive hit in 2008 and the valuable DMDs were sold to keep me afloat 🥶. The golf elbow persisted for three years, which prevented all but the most cautious play, so I was seriously questioning whether it was worth keeping even the last four games: Surf Champ, Torch, Harlem Globetrotters and STTNG. On multiple occasions I nearly sold them. And then, in 2013, I met my future wife to be. To be continued.
 
From the early 90's my pub culture was a few pints and playing pinball until they replaced them with dart boards which then became my new hobby, followed by pool tables and you guessed it that became my hobby it was also what I was best at and was made team captain and I was pub champion, if only they hadn't got rid of the pinball machines (star trek next gen / Addams family) I would have been the UK champion by now.

I always wanted to own one but I only ever rented my accommodation and moved a fair bit so I literally waited until I was 50, brought GZ and then a house to keep it in which now sounds a bit extreme but never the less that's what happened.
 
Similar. late 80's early 90's, went to pub with mates, got ****ed, toured the mansion over and over again on Addams, and visited pubs based on their pinball line-up.

At the time, the main games (I can remember) TAF/TZ/FT/CftBL/T2.

Some odd games cropped up every now and again like Rocky and Bullwinkle/ Ninja Turtles (some people don't even realise the stern one wasn't the fist) and BK2K.

Very fond memoires of great times
 
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