Author Topic: Pinball  (Read 12084 times)

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Offline Finrod

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Pinball
« on: October 15, 2013, 02:54:42 PM »
For anyone interested in pinball: I hang out over at a forum dedicated to all things pinball and related: pinside.com.

Online IronDioPriest

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2013, 03:12:42 PM »
LOL. I went through a long pinball phase in the 80s... My machine of choice was called "PinBot". I was absolutely addicted. When the nightclubs were closed that had it, I would go to the 7-11 and play for hours.


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Offline Finrod

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2013, 04:16:02 PM »
Pin-bot is on the list of machines I'd buy if I had the money and the room.

Oh, another pinball resource: ipdb.org -- it's like IMDB is for movies except it's for pinball.

Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2013, 04:42:18 PM »
Pinbot was the best Pinball Machine ever. I liked Bride of Pinbot as well, but yes, if I were to ever buy a manchine, Pinbot would be the one.

Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2013, 04:50:13 PM »
I always like pinball.  I never put in the time to get really good because with my competitive nature I knew I'd put way too much time into it.  Though I did rather enjoy beating my brothers.
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Re: Pinball
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2013, 05:25:24 PM »
I got very good at Captain Fantastic in college.  One quarter would last a pitcher or two, at least.  Make no mistake, those of us who grew up in the pinball era knew their favorite machine by name.  And if they ever run across it somewhere, they'll play it for old times' sake, to remind themselves how good it was back then.  How you could smoke a damn cigarette while playing the machine back in the day.



She's a real beauty.



In high school, though, it was the Rene Pierre Foosball tables that hooked me.  These are not your 'spin wildly hoping for a goal' lightweight flimsy tables.  No these tables were substantial.  You could trap the ball with the players' bases or 'feet', slide the bar and ball back and forth and smash it when an opening appears.  I actually saw a high school class mate front partner take a shot with his center front man with the ball going over the bar and into the goal.  A great shot.

Here's a video of the table being properly played.  Notice the control, how they trap the ball, then slide the ball back and forth with a tap-tap-tap-BANG!  But they'd still suck as teammates in the 'challenger pays' foosball parlor I played in in high school, though the kid on the left shows some promise as a frontman, making a few good shots while showing ball control.  Also notice the angled corners which keeps the ball in play and can be used to make defensive shots.  Having one of these tables has been a goal/fantasy of mine for decades now.  Also note how big the metal goal is, how much room there is above the bar.  I swear I saw that shot I described, where the ball was slammed over the bar and into the goal.  The guy had great control and wrists.  I was known to pull a decent two-player defense bar bank shot out of my @ss every once in a while.  You could put a lot of bend on those rods to get a good hard shot off.  And if you knew your angles, . . .

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Offline Finrod

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2013, 08:14:03 PM »
Pinbot was the best Pinball Machine ever. I liked Bride of Pinbot as well, but yes, if I were to ever buy a manchine, Pinbot would be the one.

There was a followup machine called Jackbot that had the same playfield but a somewhat different ruleset.

Offline trapeze

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2013, 09:37:14 PM »
I started playing pinball in the 1960s when I was a kid. I went into actual pinball halls where they had a row of machines running front to back on each wall. Back then they were mainly Williams and Gotliebs. In the 1970s the machines improved greatly and then, after the Atari revolution, they got really sophisticated. I also got involved in billiards during the 1970s and that sort of put an end to my pinball days...I just grew to like the more social aspects of shooting pool. That was the time period when I started beer drinking.

During my college years I wasted untold hours playing foosball on Dynamo tables...lots and lots of beer pitchers involved in that. And yeah, trapping the ball, backspinning it and then slamming it. Not allowed to take your hand off the grip when shooting, of course. I never got really good at it but I saw plenty of people who were...the hallmark of the better players was hitting the goal so hard that it shot through the table and came out the other goal. That was impressive.

BTW...speaking of the Atari revolution...did you know that for under $50 you can have a new Atari console that is pre-loaded with something like 75 games?

And how many people can say that they actually paid to play Pong in an arcade? I did. And then a few months later Pong was a hot Christmas gift. Who knew?

There is also a Sega Genesis console available preloaded with 80 games for just over $50.

My personal favorite Atari game? Pitfall. I wasted a lot of time in college on that one. There is a site where they have these things archived.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2013, 09:46:16 PM by trapeze »
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Online Pablo de Fleurs

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2013, 09:50:04 PM »
I can't remember the names...but I pumped many a quarter into machines @ the Rutgers Pub & Gameroom in college. That, Centipede & Berserk. We'd play (TKE fraternity) w/the loser paying...forcing you to get good fast. Like Father Guido Sarducci was fond of saying..."A .25 - .25 .25 ...it add'a up real fast."

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Offline trapeze

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2013, 10:06:31 PM »
I played a lot of Missile Command and Joust in college, too. And, of course, Pac Man. I was also fond of Spy Hunter. And I remember when Dragon's Lair came out...that was interesting.
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Online Libertas

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2013, 07:30:14 AM »
Being an older fart now I basically grew up in bowling alleys and pool halls...

I swear this is the machine I used to play a lot...



Pretty simple, pretty basic...but I knew just how much abuse that thing could take without tilting.   ;D

Like trap I migrated to pool, loved shooting pool, had my own stick...would play for hours...never anything special, but I was steady and could come up with the occasional spectacular bank shot now and then...skills proved valuable later in life...played many a game (mostly doubles) for drinks and had a lot of free drinks!
 ::beertoast::

But when video games started taking off, not so much pinball anymore, if I wasn't shooting pool I was playing Space Invaders (that phase didn't last long!) Asteroids (better than Space Invaders!), Missle Command (Killed off a lot of innocent people!), Defender (Meh!), Battlezone (Weird cubist graphics but I really had fun blasting crap with that tank!), and later on getting toward the mid 80's a buddy and me would take breaks from pool to play Atari football, remember that one?  It was a sit down console with the track ball, super ordinary graphics with X's & O's on a green football field and a couple of buttons for passing ans switching players...but you had to wail on that track ball to move.  Had many a sore hand after playing that but it was hilarious.  Now I find it hilarious I liked that cheesy crap so much back then!

Anyway, we had one of those early versions of Pong at home.  Let me tell ya, there were no electronic or computer brainiacs in my family...we hooked it up to our only TV...our first color TV bought 6-7 years earlier...big boxy wood console behemouth, know what I mean?  Had to hook up cheap wires to the back of the thing (to the UHF screws IIRC) and we turn it on, see the black and white display come up on our color TV (heh!) and get all giddy...then the ball is released and we realize we cannot see the paddles!  Wanna know what us sub-genius' did?  We played anyway!  It made the game a lot harder trying to figure out where on the hidden margin of the screen where your paddle was.  Well, that stupidity didn't last long.  Didn't have any home games for a while, not until my borther got a Commodore 64 and got this Mule game, another simple game game kind of goofy and fun.

Now, everything is souped up, wireless, online and crazy.

Heck I even haven't played Madden football in years...just not that interested anymore...too much other stuff to do.

But hey, like Rick, I too was better at D in Foosball, could pull off bank shots and straight slams down the gut after some jukes...got really good and passing between goalie and the 2 D players. 

Fun going down memory lane.

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Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2013, 08:42:41 AM »

BTW...speaking of the Atari revolution...did you know that for under $50 you can have a new Atari console that is pre-loaded with something like 75 games?

Yeah, or you could do Stella and download the Roms for free. There are homebrew roms available now as well, and if you really want/need authentic controllers there is an adapter you can buy.


 There are emulators for nearly everything.. just do an internet search. You can even get an emulator for the pinball machines, but playing Pinbot on a computer will never be like the real thing so I'll pass.  A few years ago, I built my own arcade with the help on this forum Great bunch of people. Or at least it was.  There is a wiki page for the Cabinet too

Its based around real arcade controls, has swapable mini panels so you can approximate the layout of the original games. I even built a Star Wars yoke using some very clever plans on that site as well. (Man I love that old vector graphics game. Just something was so right about it)  And yes, there is a 2600 panel with Stella adapters as well, so you can play the 2600 games with the original controls.



There are some things I would want to tweak about the design. Use LED strip lights instead of CCFLs etc.   But the cabinet caused a lot of strife in my marriage the first time ( you spend more time with that project then you do with me!)  so I left well enough alone.
 
« Last Edit: October 16, 2013, 09:22:22 AM by Weisshaupt »

Online ToddF

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2013, 09:38:22 AM »


Threw a lot of quarters into this, once upon a time.

http://www.vpforums.org/

Dedicated to creating their favorite boards of old.  My dad's old machine is one.  Eightball Deluxe is one.  And yes,

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?s=04dc198a551dead4d09075300d643248&app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

Well worth wasting hours of your time on.

Online Libertas

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2013, 11:16:31 AM »
Ever been to Asia back in the day?  Not sure aout now but Pachinko used to be all the rage...never really appealed to me...but I am just a Western devil!
 ;D
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Online ToddF

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2013, 11:29:25 AM »
Ever been to Asia back in the day?  Not sure aout now but Pachinko used to be all the rage...never really appealed to me...but I am just a Western devil!
 ;D

Had one of those back in the day.  Maybe it would have appealed to you if you would have done it proper.  As a gambling device. The payoff being the balls you turned in after the end of play.

Online ToddF

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #15 on: October 16, 2013, 11:31:12 AM »
My dad had one very much like this, once upon a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mechanical_sankyo_pachinko_machine.jpg

No hot linking the wikis...look it up.

Online Libertas

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #16 on: October 16, 2013, 11:54:09 AM »
Ever been to Asia back in the day?  Not sure aout now but Pachinko used to be all the rage...never really appealed to me...but I am just a Western devil!
 ;D

Had one of those back in the day.  Maybe it would have appealed to you if you would have done it proper.  As a gambling device. The payoff being the balls you turned in after the end of play.

No I got it...but it seemed like the Asian version of Keno to me...
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #17 on: October 16, 2013, 01:31:02 PM »
Used to have a broken Pachinko game in the basement collecting dust.  I think we threw it out years ago.  Or it could still be down there.  ::whatgives::
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Online IronDioPriest

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #18 on: October 16, 2013, 02:39:29 PM »
I have a few pinball apps for my iPad, for those moments when killing time is the only option (sitting outside the dressing room at Kohl's; waiting for dance practice to end, etc.)

The three apps I have are called Zen Pinball, Retro Pinball, Pinball Collection HD. All three have their plusses and minuses. The physics are pretty good.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Pinball
« Reply #19 on: October 16, 2013, 02:41:38 PM »
I have a few pinball apps for my iPad, for those moments when killing time is the only option (sitting outside the dressing room at Kohl's; waiting for dance practice to end, etc.)

 ::laughonfloor::

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