Pinball machines can still be found in some arcades!
Before there were video games, pinball machines were a staple of seaside arcades. There used to be a number of companies that produced the machines and they would issue a number of new games a year. Most of these companies have gone out of business or have moved on to other products. Video games have become king and even moved into the home.
I used to play pinball all summer long during that time when it was more popular, spending a lot of my time in arcades in Seaside Heights NJ. My friend and I were good, we could sometimes play a single machine for many hours with one or two quarters. We would become good at a particular game and, once we had it mastered, would be able to win many free games for every game we played. We regularly walked away from our favorite machines with there being many free games left on them.
Occasional I get to play pinball and I am surprised that I can still play pretty well. A testament to wasting so many hours of my youth “practicing” I guess. Just last week I visited Seaside Heights and played for about an hour. I was surprised to discover that my fingers hurt once I was done. I was just not used to smacking the flippers around like I used to.
Related posts: