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TB pinball enthusiasts?

#247
I forgot...here's another one I liked because of that nutty spinning disc in the center:

1247892473.jpg
 
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#249
Guild B301 said:
There were a lot of Bally machines in the late 70s & early 80s, including the KISS machine, that were a quarter (.25 a game) But, they would give 5 games instead of 4 - if you used one of those quarter sized $1 coins. (The Susan B. Anthony dollar). I used to trade with everyone I knew - 4 quarters for those dollar coins, because it meant extra pinball games.
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I mean they would legally give you 5 games for a dollar coin instead of four games for four quarters. It was no trick for getting a free game by using a dollar. The machines actually said that on them. Right next to the coin slot - it said .25 a game or 5 games for $1 coin.
 
#253
equill said:
Try Pinball Arcade | Real Pinball - I play that on my phone.
Funny thing: we had the PC version on a table at the office, for a while. It was like a half-sized version of a physical pin-ball machine, which made it all the more frustrating that it just doesn't respond the same. YMMV, but I'm happier with it on my phone, probably because it doesn't tantalise me.
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I picked up Pinball FX3 for pc along with the Williams bundle that happens to be on Steam sale until july 9th. It's way better than i expected i must say!
 
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#254
Here's a story.
Mid/late '70s, me & my 2 pinball wizard friends are playing (IIRC) Jack-In-The-Box...simple target game.
I am playing the once in a lifetime, "Ball that would not go down". I dunno, 10 minutes? :)
Now there's a small crowd around.
...and then-
I do something stoopid & lost it.
My friends are no help ("Man, that was dumb") & a couple in the crowd are like, "Ugh, c'mon".

At this point, I hit the glass as hard as I could with the bottom of my fist...I had every intention of breaking the glass. Quarters went flying. The place got dead quiet. The glass did not break & I got a lecture from the attendant (someome we know).

On an aside-
This was a rough place. I saw some skinny longhair crack a drunk Marine over the head with a pool cue. The Marine looked like Frankenstein. The attendant pulled out a 45...
 
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#255
JimK said:
Here's a story.
Mid/late '70s, me & my 2 pinball wizard friends are playing (IIRC) Jack-In-The-Box...simple target game.
I am playing the once in a lifetime, "Ball that would not go down". I dunno, 10 minutes? :)
Now there's a small crowd around.
...and then-
I do something stoopid & lost it.
My friends are no help ("Man, that was dumb") & a couple in the crowd are like, "Ugh, c'mon".

At this point, I hit the glass as hard as I could with the bottom of my fist...I had every intention of breaking the glass. Quarters went flying. The place got dead quiet. The glass did not break & I got a lecture from the attendant (someome we know).

On an aside-
This was a rough place. I saw some skinny longhair crack a drunk Marine over the head with a pool cue. The Marine looked like Frankenstein. The attendant pulled out a 45...
Click to expand...
Awesome. Sounds like ROADHOUSE !! :bassist::hyper:
 
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#256
IPA said:
After bass and beer, playing pinball is my top hobby/money drain. Got into it a couple of years ago and play at least a couple of times a week. Getting pretty good, too.

Just wondering if anyone else out there loves to play? Do you all own any of your own tables? Post pics if you do!
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I've never owned a pinball machine, but was a pretty serious "pinball wizard" up through my pre-teen and teen years. There have been very few things in my life that I can honestly say I was really good at (excluding playing bass, unfortunately) ... pinball was one of them. I aquired my "chops" during the golden era of five games for a quarter/five balls a game. I was very good at what I'll call "ball control". I could often capture the ball on a flipper which would improve my chances of aiming the ball at the targets that would yield the most points. I was also very good at what I'll call the "combination flipper" technique where the ball would be coming (almost) down the middle between the flippers where you could just nick it with one flipper which knocked it slightly towards the other flipper and with timing the other flipper just right you could get a piece of the ball and keep it alive. I used to live a coupla miles down the road from Wheaton, MD (where the legendary Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center was (and still is)). My father would give me some pocket change and I'd hitchhike (remember doing that?) to Wheaton and play for hours. I knew all the machines in town and was aware of various flaws that could be exploited for free games. Like there was this machine that was stuck on one match number so if you were having a bad game, you could tilt it when the score had that match number and win a free game and continue on playing. There was another machine that had a rollover scoring slot that was a bit too wide and if the ball went into the slot slowly enough, you could shake the machine side to side hard enough to keep the ball going over the rollover, but gently enough not to tilt and rack up a lotta points that way. However, the crown jewel machine in Wheaton was in the bowling ally and was called "Casino". It was a very popular machine and you had to be very lucky to find it available to play. It was so popular because it had a totally unique attribute ... whatever cycles it would go through to double and triple the values of targets as you knocked them out would stay in place for the next game instead of reset. You could actually start off a game with specials lit. I don't know if that was how the machine was designed or if it was a flaw that needed fixing. We were certainly never going to report it!!! That "Casino" machine actually caused me to get punched out one time. Unless I was really having an off day, I could play that machine for a really long time on a quarter. One time when I was 12 or 13, a guy who was 16 or 17 was waiting for the machine while I was "in the zone". When I _finally_ lost my last game, I matched and when I fired up my free game, he shoved the machine causing it to tilt. I turned to protest and he punched me ... the closest thing to a fight I've ever been in my life. He was older and much bigger than I was and would've kicked my you-know-what had I offered any resistance. I just skulked off and hitchhiked home with a bloody nose and life went on.
 
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