ost people I play pinball with have childhood memories of being placed on a step stool and flipping to their heart’s content. My frame of reference is different. While I’m sure my younger self had more thanM a few attempts at slaying the silver ball, my serious relationship with pinball began in 2008. That was the year I quit my job to travel the U.S. by train for two months, and when I got back my boyfriend and roommates at the time had discovered pinball. In less than sixty days they had become completely obsessed with it and scoured every bowling alley, laundromat, movie theater, and bar in a twenty-five mile radius to compile a list of “pins” in Tacoma, Wash. We quickly discovered Shorty’s and Skill Shot, both located in Seattle. Shorty’s is a Coney Island-themed bar with sixteen pins, while Skill Shot is a DIY pinball zine which keeps a list of pins in Seattle much like the one we put together for Tacoma. Within six months of moving to the Emerald City, I found a full-time job at Full Tilt (a pinball and ice cream bar), became a member of the Seattle Pinball League, and joined the staff of Skill Shot as a writer and editor. My friend Tim Tournay puts it best: “Before I joined the pinball league I was a normal person. I had non-pinball friends, went to non-pinball bars, and participated in non-pinball activities. All of that has changed now.” The same adage holds true for me— many of my decisions on bars or restaurants I go to are driven by whether or not they have pinball. Fast forward to today. I’m still living in Seattle, where pinball is absolutely thriving. We have a pinball museum, casual tournaments six days a week, two Seattle leagues, and a total of 424 machines across 119 locations in the metro area with even more spots in the works. Many modern pinball machines have an attract mode that grab most people’s attention with flashing lights, sounds, and colorful artwork. It’s how they get their hooks in you. By the end of this guide you will understand why quarters aren’t just necessary for laundry, busses, or parking meters anymore. Originally printed in Razorcake #85, April/May 2015 N.Y. POLICE USED THE WOODEN LEGS TO MAKE 2,000 BILLY CLUBS FOR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT to the machines and dumped them in PINball’s HISTORY: the Hudson river. That is some serious MOB SHIT AND OUTLAWED mob shit right there. They also used the wooden legs to make 2,000 billy clubs The basic concept of pinball was for local law enforcement. created in the 1700s in France with a Enter Roger Sharpe in 1976. wooden contraption filled with actual Sharpe proved to a New York judge pins that a ball navigated through, that pinball is primarily a game of skill called bagatelle. This same concept with a small percentage of chance. is also what inspired the pachinko Two machines were brought in so there machines in Japan. was a back-up available if anything It wasn’t until 1947 that designer went wrong with the primary. New Harry Mabs invented flipper bats for York officials got suspicious of the the game. You hear that? Flippers second table and brought it into play. have only been used for a mere sixty- On a pin that Sharpe had no experience seven years and pinball is over three on, he called his shot and executed it centuries old! perfectly. This Hail Mary skill shot At the height of pinball was essential in saving pinball. End of manufacturing in the early 1930s argument. Ban lifted! there were around 150 companies L.A.’s ban was thrown out in making pins, mostly in Chicago which 1974. However, the city of Oakland became the hub of the game because only legalized pinball this year after of David Gottlieb. He was a traveling over eight decades! The law there was businessman based out of the Windy rarely, if ever, enforced until 2014 City, pushing his hugely successful when someone got pissed about a game Baffle Ball. Meanwhile in nearby pinball party disrupting their California, Harry Williams was adding sleep. The city of Alameda, California electricity to his pinball tables. Word still has a ban—this despite it being of his advancement spread faster home to a fantastic, chronologically than the tables and soon they were organized pinball museum. being emulated in Chicago. Williams relocated there to keep up with the competition. With lumber, wire, and OLD SCHOOL VS. steel in abundance, plus ports in Lake NEW SCHOOL Michigan and railroads, the games were manufactured easily and spread Pinball continued to evolve from a across the nation quickly. Fourteen basic game with pins, wood, and metal manufacturers remained by the mid- balls over the years. 1930s, with companies like Gottlieb, Between 1933 and 1977, the Bally, Williams, Data East, and Stern type of tables available to play were leading the pack. electro-mechanical (EM), meaning Pinball dominated in most American they operated on scoring wheels and cities as well as in Japan with Sega and relays. These tables have bells, clicks, Data East. However, some spots like chimes, and buzzers as the sensory New York and L.A. decided to ban experience and play at a much slower pinball in the ‘40s because it was seen pace. There are generally only targets, as an illegal gambling opportunity. New spinners, and saucers (a recessed circle York’s mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, and that usually increases your bonus when police went so far as to raid the city for the ball falls into it. Once your score thousands of pins, took sledgehammers collects, it is kicked out of the saucer). are five dollars, or you can get the whole collection (issues 1-33) at skill-shot.com. Drop Target Zine is run by Alec Longstreth in California and Jon Chad in Massachusetts. The two comics met at college and discovered their affinity for pinball at the same time when meeting at a pool hall for a project. With most of the U.S.A. between them, they are limited to one zine a year that culminates when they return to their alma mater to teach workshops. This zine covers interviews, personal narrative comics, and detailed Independent, small press publishing drawings of dream machines they wish has a strong presence in pinball with existed. Issues are five dollars and are three popular titles and hopefully more half-size zines, bound with a screen- to follow. printed cover. It’s available at droptarget. Gordon Orneleas, who ran the punk blogspot.com. fanzine WDC Period, along with friend Slam Tilt Zine out of Australia is Brad Hayden started Skill Shot seven a new addition to the self-published years ago simply because of their love of passion for pinball and was inspired by the game. It has since become the Seattle Drop Target. There is only one issue so area’s main pinball reference guide with far, but it is fantastic. It covers interviews the most current list of tables, organized with local players and artists who use by neighborhood and printed in each pinball parts, maintenance, how to issue, along with features, news, and play, and where to find machines in gossip. They have so much community Sydney. It’s a half-size zine, bound with support that they can cover the breadth a screen-printed cover. It’s five dollars of the metro area and often are one of and available at slamtiltzine.com. the first to announce game changes. Full- size, double-sided, zine subscriptions Despite these older machines’ simpler Williams/Bally out of business as well appearance, they usually are some of as mirrored the subsequent downfall of the hardest to master. Thus, there is a pinball in general. small schism between those who love This left Stern Industries the the classics versus players who stick to monopoly of pinball manufacturing for modern games, though its best to build over a decade up until today. skills on both. Jersey Jack Pinball popped up last Post-1977 machines began using year with its Wizard of Oz table decked solid-state (SS) electronics consisting in LED lights and an LCD plasma of transistors, circuit boards, CPUs, display that caught many player’s and audio boards, many of which are attentions. They plan on releasing completely controlled by software. The Hobbit next. A company in the Scores are recorded on a plasma Netherlands called Dutch Pinball is screen and, depending on the era of releasing The Big Lebowski pinball and machine, you’ll have either an alpha- gaining a ton of buzz about it. Spooky numeric display capable of letters and Pinball is another new pinball outfit numbers only, or a dot-matrix display and has released an original game (DMD) complete with animations and called America’s Most Haunted. I’ve cut scenes. DMDs, on the whole, are been lucky enough to play it twice and orange, though a select few have been it’s really awesome. modified to be in full color! Animations on the display give the GETTING SERIOUS player a better idea of what the game’s goals are and is more immersed in the table’s theme. Licensed games like Interest in pinball and match play is Indiana Jones, Batman: The Dark Knight, erupting like crazy in Seattle. and Tron include detailed likenesses of A few months ago we adopted the characters and sometimes clips from a team play model from New York, the respective movies.