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Non pinheads prefer older machines

Sgt GrizZ

Sgt GrizZ

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I say this because this week had a non pinhead buddy over and he was disappointed that Skateball wasn't set up. ' That's the best one' he said.

I have had this many times over the years, with the older solid state games proving more popular with new/ non pinhead players.

From my experiences non pinhead friends generally find DMD era games 'fun' but also baffling, difficult, frustrating etc. You can explain a few basic things to shoot for but their lack of skills often makes this near pointless.... and the stop/start nature of things, balls locking, balls disappearing down scoops and subways just leaves them bemused.

Add in Ball saves, extra balls, blink and you miss it help on the dmd ( which they never ever look at) and it's no surprise they often prefer the more stripped back pleasures of an older game.

Do others find this?
 
Yes I agree with this..particularly initially...non pinheads just do not get the whole thing.
My sons friends were the same at first, being more drawn to say fathom, spy hunter, vector etc. And just being plain overwhelmed by the whole dmd deeper rule thing. Then we got a sttng and things changed. Because they were so interested in the theme they stuck with it and now they totally love the later games, and are beginning to understand things, and after many hours of freeplay they have gained the skills necessary to keep a ball in play for more than 20-30 seconds! Pinball is a real education you know, my aged father describes it as "a precise science". Perhaps he has a point! :thumbs:
 
Yep my Uncle was the same. Loved Gorgar, hated everything else I had (think it was TZ and Batman Forever at the time). He said the new ones are more confusing and he just likes knocking the targets down

But hey, who doesn't love knocking targets down
 
to non pinheads often its an EM they are drawn to as that is what in the publics mind a pinball machine looks like
games after 1991 did have a tendancy to become more and more complex offputting casual players.
Jokerz was played as much as anything else at EGX as it was easy to understand and had long ball times
occasional players are drawn by theme rather than anything else
newbie owners are blinded by dot matrix
in the past there was also strong Williams bally bias - new buyers wouldn't touch other manufacturers but with Stern last standing for some time that's now changed
pinball is like music in a way , you are always going to have a soft spot for machines you first played as a kid. in my case early 80s .
a true pinhead will appreciate games of all ages , loved playing Sing A Long at Dreamland recently but personally I cant cope with games where the flipper aren't in the usual position! Im not that hardcore lol
 
Yup.

People who come round who have never played pinball before prefer my 50's Gottliebs to TWD etc etc.

Instant feedback, rewards, simple rulesets, and that 'I was really close to winning ' feeling so they keep playing.
 
we all like a simpler game at times
enjoyed breakshot last year at NLP and at home always up for a quick relaxing session on EBX - which is probably the all time casual players favourite game
 
I grew up on Gorgar, Flash and Vector (in my memory they were all around at the same time) and loved them. Then (again in my memory) the "Golden age" of pinball - Addams Family, White Water, Indiana Jones, Demolition Man, T2, , STTNG, LW3, etc. all of which I also "remember" as being around at the same time.
The main thing about the DMD ones, at the time, was Multi-Ball -everyone likes a multi-ball - and the interaction from the machines - it talks to you, tells you what to do, etc. Yet they were still "simple". Since then and thanks to Pinball Arcade I have an appreciation for the deeper rules on games like STTNG - I had no idea there even were Super/Legend Modes or you could get to Warp 9.9.
With the new ones, it took me a while on an AC/DC to work out what was going on - deeper rules again, but now that I have I "get" them but was initially expecting them to be just like the early 90's ones.
With me, playing them over a number of years, found it relatively easy to learn along the way as new things were being added. Can understand how if you are non-pinhead the new ones could be very daunting.

My feedback on non-pinheads is my Strange Science, whenever people are round - of any age - it's played non-stop. Everyone loves it, it's simple, has flashing lights and just fun. Over the summer had friends and family round and the kids preferred the pinball to FIFA!
 
I'm relatively new to pinball, having been drawn to it after discovering a friend, @Hiro996, had a garage full of machines. I'd not played pinball as a kid so my introduction to pinball was TZ, STTNG, CV and SS. Obviously I was instantly bitten by the silverball bug, but when I started trawling eBay, and then IPDB, I quickly realised that it was the slightly older machines from the late 70s and early 80s that I was being drawn to, and I think this is because they have a similar look and feel to video games of the same era that I did play a lot in my youth. There was also a bias towards older machines because I simply couldn't afford even unpopular DMD titles from the 90s!

But now that I've been part of the scene for more than 3 years it's still the old games that I like best. I probably don't play enough pinball to get good enough to play games from the 90s onwards to a sufficient level to make it worthwhile to learn the deeper rule sets. I have put extra effort in for a couple of games to learn the rules beforehand, TRON being a prominent example, because I love the theme, think the game looks great and the game play is mental fast. But even then, without regular playing I forget, so the simple games have instant appeal because the basic rule is:

KEEP THE BALL IN PLAY AND HITTING ANYTHING EARNS POINTS :p
 
My early playing days were in the 90s. Maybe that's why earlier games don't really do it for me. Unless I'm building something in the game then it just feels like I'm hitting targets which is ironic, cos that's all I'm really doing in DMD games I suppose !


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I loved arcades in Soho when i was a lad , never played pinballs as i was obsessed with Galaxian, Pheonix, defender, space panic and Kung fu Master at the time, but I remember the pins with their lights flashing and call outs, but i got more bang for my bucks on the arcade machines ( couldnt afford them much either ) and so had to settle for just oggling their awsesome light shows and cool graphics.
I was too busy working and with kids for the 90/s and so the dmd era passed me by, only when i got back to arcade machines and their collecting that i found pins of all eras.

and long windedly i was that newb, but when i played a dmd machine for the first time, i was back in awe like i had been all those years ago when a kid, totaly awesomeness in a box ( AFM ) , so if not into arcade kit maybe older stuff, but with people who may be into the scene defo dmd
 
Aged 49 now and an 80's arcade kid I was also mainly into video games, and as post above stated, more bang for the bucks (10p's)..
I got quite good at Space invader part.2 & Moon Cresta, and GORF, Galaxian was a good game but a little tricky to master after around 10 levels, but I did see some real experts on it that didn't half get their 10p's worth. Also saw a few talented guys on Missile Command...

Also loved the old JPM & Bell Fruit bandits, especially Eachway Shuffle & Light a Nudge... Happy Days.
 
Yep, 'er indoors' favourite amongst my games is the oldest I own. The great Paragon
 
Yeah my dad just glazes over when I try to explain what to do on any of my dmd pins......but then again he used to glaze over when I'd try and explain how to work the vhs recorder. Thank god he has sky plus now.


I'm hoping "glazing over" isn't in @Will 's urban dictionary :eek:
 
yup agree, at least to start with, wife prefered BOP but now got into Monster Bash, mostly because of the simple ruleset on both.
 
Fish Tales gets most love from visitors to mine, though in fairness I don't have anything much older.
 
I think a lot of it comes down to the players ability. The older games are more instantly rewarding and the objectives are pretty obvious. These type of games reward players that are less experienced because they can see what is happening as they bash the ball around.

As a player gets better and learns ball control and more accurate shooting the newer, more complicated games open up to them. Take Walking Dead for example. It's a masterpiece of modern pinball but a casual player would never start multiball and probably not even start a mode. Whereas something like Taxi it is obvious that you have to pick up passengers and on Bugs Bunny's Birthday Crapola it is obvious you have to burn it to the ground.
 
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