Can you remember the first pinball tables you ever played?

[Tabe]

Early 70s for me - Mystic Marvel. My grandparents had one in their house that they'd bought for my mom and her brother when they were kids. So whenever we would visit, we'd head to the basement and play.

Later, my parents bought my brother and I a Strat-O-Flite for Christmas circa 1980.

I've been hooked on pinball ever since.

 

[Heretic]

T2 or Totan... Before that I wasn't allowed to enter those bars

that really used to piss me off in the city. had to go to towns for amsument arcades that allowed kids in.

as for my first game ive no bloody idea

but i remember finding a central park in the back of a joke shop and it was like finding the holy grail.

my right hip will never forgive t2 big gun shooter i hit so hard it felt like id shattered something

getting freaked out by an orbitor 1 was great, spooky balls

totan my first shot broke the plastic off a genie, it had a wayyyy overpowered and broken right flipper that actually blew up a day or two later....i assumed it was a bomb heh little smoke and flames and even chunks of wood from around the button were missing lucky the dude playing didnt loose a hand heh obviously it was a faluty solenoid but it was muhc more exciting at the time

 

[big_kick]

Pinbot. It was mid-1980 era.

 

[Xanija]

Eight Ball for me. This was in a bar with my parents. I must have been about 11 or 12. The table got eventually replaced by a Playboy table.

 

[Fungi]

Eight Ball for me. This was in a bar with my parents. I must have been about 11 or 12. The table got eventually replaced by a Playboy table.

Wow. Germany.

 

[RushDude2112]

Evil Kanevil, Big Shot

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[heberts811]

First of all, thanks to all for making me feel really old!!! The first pin I remember playing was a Williams Wing Ding in about 1965 when I was seven or so. My father took me with him to the local candle pin bowling alley and I was hooked.

Gary

 

[Xanija]

First of all, thanks to all for making me feel really old!!!

Err.. guys.... who is going to tell him....?

j/k

 

[k88dad]

Some of the earliest that I remember were from my early teens in the '70s: Big Brave, Ro Go and Travel Time. The latter controlled play with a timer instead of the number of balls. The best of those three for gameplay would have been Big Brave.

The machines were in a local McCrory's store. That was a five-and-dime chain, similar to Woolworth's or Kresge's. Today's equivalent would be the dollar store, pound store, or $2 store for you Aussies (they always have to be able to say that they pay the most.)

 

[mystman12]

I'm not sure... I only really paid any attention to pinball after I played The Williams Collection on Wii, so I have no idea if or what I might have played before then... But, the earliest I remember would either be Simpsons Pinball Party at a Chuck E. Cheese, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and maybe Lord of the Rings.

 

[Extork]

I'm not sure... I only really paid any attention to pinball after I played The Williams Collection on Wii, so I have no idea if or what I might have played before then... But, the earliest I remember would either be Simpsons Pinball Party at a Chuck E. Cheese, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and maybe Lord of the Rings.

I would sell my kidneys and all other organs for those 3 to get made. The first table I've played was Star Explorer. It was a crappy home edition, and it was only because a relative gave it to us because it was so broken. So maybe that doesn't count. The first real table that I remember was South Park. POTC was right next to it, and I've revisited it since. But after that South Park table, I found TPA, and realized that there were better tables out there. I may have played TAF, and MM, but my memory is foggy.

 

[Slam23]

The first pinball I played I can't remember, I must have been 6 or something like that. I always accompanied my father when we went shopping for groceries. In the same building where the supermarket was, there was also a small café which had a pinball machine. I was too small to see the playfield and control the buttons at the same time, so my father placed me in the shopping cart. This would have been in the late seventies but I never found out which pinball it was. The next one I do remember was SW from Data East in my college days, followed by Indiana Jones, Terminator 2, Black Rose, TAF and TZ. So you could say that I was spoilt right from the bat...I always held a soft spot for early '90's DMD-style pins from there on after. Wow, the first "Well of Souls" on IJ, that was one of my best memories, the giddy feeling of being overwhelmed by a six-ball MB. Sadly I didn't "get" TAF and TZ, those were not very familiar licenses in the Netherlands back then, and they were probably a bit complex. I had to be careful with my coins, because it was my college allowance. I didn't play those two that much because of that. It was TPA that also got me into other era's.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Sadly I didn't "get" TAF and TZ, those were not very familiar licenses in the Netherlands back then

TAF, I understand.

But TZ... well the main theme music in TZ is based on the song "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring, perhaps best known for their song "Radar Love".

Golden Earring are, of course, a Dutch band

 

[Slam23]

I'm more of a classical music guy myself, but kudos for pointing out the Dutch connection! I actually didn't know that, nice trivia. /national pride on/ with the Big Lebowski from Dutch Pinball and the Timeshock project from Silver Castle (also a Dutch company) AND my friend JP de Win contributing to several pins including WOZ and the Hobbit, I have no excuse to be ignorant anymore about Dutch involvement in the pinball industry /national pride off/

 

[FrankenBall]

I was 5 or 6, and Mom and Dad had taken I and my toddler brother to the Ground Round restaurant in Morton Grove on Dempster Street. There, amid the peanuts shells and a Sea Wolf video game and a jukebox, was a game that would alter my life. The game was Little Chief, and as soon as that quarter had gone in and the miracles of physics took over; I learned the joy of the silver ball. Said ball caroming and careening, I quickly figured out the beginnings of flipper mechanics and quickly out of the gate I GOT pinball. Just like that. First time. Being just outside of Chicago in the 70's and 80's and Milwaukee in the 90's meant games were ubiquitous and largely functional still so I played a lot for a kid then. Now I do expos and use pinballmap and geek out on TPA; and wonder how the *bleep* you guys like Eldar and Tarek DO it, racking up those scores.

For me though, the line can be traced straight back to Little Chief.

 

[jonathan.rowe.75]

Most of pinball tables I remember playing was in the 90's. I recall being freaked out by Fun House because of the puppet head! LOL I recall Whirlwind, where there was a spinner in the middle that would spin your ball somewhere and there were fans on the backboard. Then later on I played Star Wars Trilogy and Episode 1 tables. I think Monster Mash I recall playing in the bowling alley of my base in 29 Palms.


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