Pacific Pinball Expo Audio: (for GJD to aspire to)  

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30252_3-10370321-246.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

Very cool. But at the end Steve Ritchie made me sad.

Quoted from jonny_eh

Very cool. But at the end Steve Ritchie made me sad.

2nd that!!

Pinball is not dead yet. Hobbyists like us are definitely keeping it alive with our enthusiasm. A simple thing that we can do is to have friends over and invite them to play the games and then gently suggest that you can help them get "just one small machine in your basement..." If every member was able to find one person and show them that this is a fun hobby, we would double the community just like that!

I know that I have welcomed 2 people back to pinball (I am not the only reason of course) and I challenge everyone to do the same    Just think of more people interested in machines makes it more fun, more profitable for the business types, more opportunities, etc... And don't start knocking on your neighbors door on a Saturday morning like those evangelical types

Ok, I am getting off of my soapbox now, phew!

Knock Knock...Who`s there? It's  Jehova`s pinball Witnesses!

But of course Rick, you only preach Gottlieb, especially EM.

Quoted from wbradley

Knock Knock...Who`s there? It's  Jehova`s pinball Witnesses!

But of course Rick, you only preach Gottlieb, especially EM.

Does that make Williams collectors Born Again?

I suppose I must be a Pinball mormon of the latter day because I keep so many at once.

Quoted from jonny_eh

Very cool. But at the end Steve Ritchie made me sad.

The key phrase being "just about dead", so at least there's some hope left.  

Have you accepted the glory of Pat Lawlor into your heart? If you'll only give me a minute to explain to you the rules of Twilight Zone...

Quoted from websherpa

The key phrase being "just about dead", so at least there's some hope left.  

Just because there probably will not be a manufacturer left (if, and for how long...) doesn't mean that pinball is just about dead. It has a following that will keep it alive for a long time.

Vids are in the same position. All the companies pop out these days are shooters and drivers, yet there is a big following for vids, be it through mame or original equipment.

Yea I don't think it's dead at all.  If PPE shows anything it's alive and well.  More shows keep popping up around, existing shows keep getting bigger, more people are making parts for pinball then ever before on a commercial level.  Yea there may come a time when there are no new games left but pinball as a hobby isn't going anywhere.  

Good day gentlemen,

for those of you that have answered some of my questions lately you know that I am new to this field but I am truly hooked and forecast on staying for a long time.  I maybe new but I have a dream..........!!!  The reason pinballs are not mainstream is that it is not attracting new money i.e. new kids.  Of course my kids can't wait for me to finish my pinball but it will not last it is not their generation. They play World of Warcraft with guys around the globe!

No reasons why I couln't plug my new pinball to the internet and interac with others with the same machine.  Ever played the old gameboy hooked to machine and play duel (tetris). Quite fun.  Pinball could do the same.  Your actions on your game affects the machine of someone else (or many) around the globe.  That would enter a new field.

Of course there is always a cost but the technology is here, hell it was there early 90's. Enough for now.

take care

Not so shoot you down or anything gmaranda but networked pinball is pointless.  There is no checks and balances that need to exist in anything like this to make it worthwhile.  Cool yes but not really viable.  Plus it already exists on the RFM pinball machine and haven't really seen a steady stream of people lining up to buy the machine as a result, hell the value of the game is the lowest it's been in a long time.  

If there is going to be a future in pinball my opinion is it's going to lie in Nucroe.  The ability to only need to provide a conversion kit rather then an entire machine opens up a world of possibilities, if CPR is showing us anything it's that conversion kits could be a viable option.  I'll reserve the "conversion kits are a viable option" comment after I've hopefully been able to buy mine   

NBA Fastbreak could be linked together for head to head play.

Of course... we all know how popular NBA FB is.

Hello, some good comebacks (I always enjoy a good debate)

I never thought I had the answer but I truly believed that pinball did not stay mainstream because it did not evolve with the times.  Just check out what you get with a $300 console such as PS3 of xbox 360.  Granted games are not cheap but you can get a new games once in a while and every time you get something new.  I don't pretend to have the solutions to the world of pinball but everything in business that stayed status quo simply disappeared from the main market.

Maybe it was destined to simply become an after market industry for years to come.  However, I believe that a group of fanatic such as yourself (I'm getting there..)  could potentially find the solution..........who knows!!

Nice chatting  

Pinball is now nostalgia, pure and simple.  They cost too much to make in today's Made in China plastic world, and bring in too few bucks in their traditional home (bars) where a couple more tables would bring in a lot more. Pinball has evolved, it's just that it IS video games and DS and such ... it has already evolved.  There will likely always be a collector market for them, but I don't expect a mainstream comeback.

and Pinball did evolve with the times, Pinball 2000 was that evolution.  I believe had Williams given Pinball 2000 a chance it would have changed the face of pinball as we know it today and based on what they were saying from the Tilt move it might have even done well, maybe not as well as it had done it the boom years but better then it's doing now.

I don't know, the technology still requires expensive components and would have to find a home amongst adults in bars (since arcades are pretty much a thing of the past .... well at least fading....).

I mean, video arcade machines are getting far and few between other than driving games and first person shooters which have some accessories that are harder to "justify" at home... they evolved into home gaming systems.

If you or anyone can predict what's to come next, you should make a mint in the stock market...

...what about "stay at home school" - that seems to me to be one way that school boards could save a mint on real estate and teachers.  With today's wide Internet access and ability for certain safeguards and compliance - that could be the next evolution in technology.  And if that is the case, Massive Multi-player Online Gaming would take an even bigger leap forward since they would become the "playgrounds" of tomorrow (well they are almost already the playgrounds of today - save that older more "socially involved" youngsters gravitate towards texting, making videos of themselves (and watching others) and other online social meeting grounds.


Maybe we can get some answers from Hypno Toad.

The demise of pinball is depressingly simple, the death of arcades. Ever since the advent of video arcades, pinball's fortunes have been linked with the popularity of arcades. The main reason why TAF and it's brethren did so well was that it was in arcades at the same time as Street Fighter 2. Now that home gaming systems have gotten advanced and cheap enough to kill of video arcades, there just isn't enough places to put games.

Just ask any of the ops on this board. Workingpins complains all the time about having no good places to put his pins. Arcades just don't exist anymore. Sure, newer technology would really help sales but the state of the industry probably wouldn't change all that much. You could also blame the fact that people don't carry around as much change anymore due to debit cards and other factors but I'm still convinced that pinball's demise is linked with arcade games.

On the up side, I believe the market for replacement parts, retrofit and refit will continue to grow. The Lost Vegas project is probably just the beginning of a relatively economical way to intorduce "new" games into the market for the niche enthusiast.

Theres a lot of old tired machines that could easily be refitted into new machines with inovative features at a fraction of the cost to build from scratch.

Pinball is analogous to our society. It is an aging population and therefore there will be a greater need to provide care and fix the malfunctions that are bound to occur.  Kudos to companies like Rottendog, Pinled, CPR and several others. They will need the full support of consumers in order continue their positive direction.

Real tangible physics in a life-sized game is costly to make in the age of virtual physics. And to that end, perhaps there will be further development in the Global VR or similar platforms that make them desireable at the local bar or movie theatre. Further, perhaps the packaging of kits to build similar units as a sort of pinball MAME will become less costly and readily available.

There is hope. But also change.

Quoted from wbradley

On the up side, I believe the market for replacement parts, retrofit and refit will continue to grow. The Lost Vegas project is probably just the beginning of a relatively economical way to intorduce "new" games into the market for the niche enthusiast.

Theres a lot of old tired machines that could easily be refitted into new machines with inovative features at a fraction of the cost to build from scratch.

I agree... I hear a lot of operators complaining that recent machines are too expensive and need too much maintenance compared to older early SS machines. Maybe the solution for pinball is to keep it simple yet fun. Toys are fun on a playfield and attract people to play, but are costly to make and costly to maintain. I am sure that a pin with a simpler layout with a deep ruleset and a great theme can work. Especially if you cut the cost by a grand...

Less toys and deep gameplay? Why, that's the opposite of the direction Stern is going!