Silver Ball Kid
New member
- Dec 22, 2013
- 7
- 0
Hi Everyone,
I live in the Motor City - Detroit, and pinball is something that has been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. Growing up in a place like Detroit meant that there were always tables around back in the day - in restaurants, stores, bars (once I was old enough) and of course arcades. I grew up in the 70s/80s, and lived through that glorious time when the quarter was king and we all seemed to spend a lot of time and money feeding machines. As soon as I was old enough to beg, I always wanted a quarter from my Dad if there was a table around so I could play. The lights, the bells, the sounds, the colors on the table art - all of it grabbed me. I was hooked early.
When I was in my early teens, my older brother used to take me to the arcade in our town (suburb of Detroit) so that our Mom would let him go and be with his friends. If you've ever seen "Dazed and Confused" and remember the scene where they first walk into The Emporium and little Mitch is all happy and wide eyed, that was me. Anyway, my brother and his buddies would give me quarters to keep me occupied and usually hit the Centipede machine or the Flight 2000 table. I loved Flight 2000 but couldn't usually muscle in with my brother's friends so I'd wander the place playing what caught my eye. Even then, during the coin-op heyday of video games, I was usually playing pinball. There was just something about the physical nature of it that kept me coming back. Well, the fact that getting the hang of a good table meant that I could get much better mileage from a pinball machine than the Asteroids machine didn't hurt.
When I stumbled across TPA last week online, I was pretty stoked. I had always wanted to see a good pinball sim for PC and none ever seemed to really deliver. I gotta say, TPA is just unreal. Having played most of the available machines in real life, I am stunned by how well they have been rendered and how realistically they play. Well, the tables seem to have a more forgiving slope quite oftern, but I'm OK with that. I bought the season one pack already and I doubt I'll wait too long to get Season 2, because I gotta get my hands on Flight 2000. I've played the demo and it was like jumping into a time machine.
Anyway, I am loving TPA and I can't wait to talk some pinball with you peeps. Great to see that there are so many out there that still love to hit a table and kill some time.
Cheers to you all from Detroit!
I live in the Motor City - Detroit, and pinball is something that has been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. Growing up in a place like Detroit meant that there were always tables around back in the day - in restaurants, stores, bars (once I was old enough) and of course arcades. I grew up in the 70s/80s, and lived through that glorious time when the quarter was king and we all seemed to spend a lot of time and money feeding machines. As soon as I was old enough to beg, I always wanted a quarter from my Dad if there was a table around so I could play. The lights, the bells, the sounds, the colors on the table art - all of it grabbed me. I was hooked early.
When I was in my early teens, my older brother used to take me to the arcade in our town (suburb of Detroit) so that our Mom would let him go and be with his friends. If you've ever seen "Dazed and Confused" and remember the scene where they first walk into The Emporium and little Mitch is all happy and wide eyed, that was me. Anyway, my brother and his buddies would give me quarters to keep me occupied and usually hit the Centipede machine or the Flight 2000 table. I loved Flight 2000 but couldn't usually muscle in with my brother's friends so I'd wander the place playing what caught my eye. Even then, during the coin-op heyday of video games, I was usually playing pinball. There was just something about the physical nature of it that kept me coming back. Well, the fact that getting the hang of a good table meant that I could get much better mileage from a pinball machine than the Asteroids machine didn't hurt.
When I stumbled across TPA last week online, I was pretty stoked. I had always wanted to see a good pinball sim for PC and none ever seemed to really deliver. I gotta say, TPA is just unreal. Having played most of the available machines in real life, I am stunned by how well they have been rendered and how realistically they play. Well, the tables seem to have a more forgiving slope quite oftern, but I'm OK with that. I bought the season one pack already and I doubt I'll wait too long to get Season 2, because I gotta get my hands on Flight 2000. I've played the demo and it was like jumping into a time machine.
Anyway, I am loving TPA and I can't wait to talk some pinball with you peeps. Great to see that there are so many out there that still love to hit a table and kill some time.
Cheers to you all from Detroit!
