My crazy pinball hobby! Here are the machines..

Current Collection:
My Pinball History:

I guess it's kinda neat that, growing up in my generation I was a kid during the height of the video game/arcade boom. I can remember going on a family trip with my dad, sister, and mom to a local arcade in Bowie, MD. It was called "Mr. D's Arcade", and I can still see Mr. D's face as he explained to us the object of playing Pac-Man ("You want to eat all the dots, but don't let a ghost get you- unless you eat an energizer, and then you can get them!") I was pretty overwhelmed with it all I think, and I spent my quarters on peanuts and candy at the vending machines!

Later trips to other local arcades such as "Games People Play", "The Golden Dome", and "Chucky Cheeses" would reveal that my father was astonishingly good at Donkey Kong and also Phoenix. I can remember more than one occasion my dad doing so well on these games that he drew a crowd of people around him! Those were the days! I remember my sister and I being fans of kickman, frogger, kangeroo, crazy climber, and all of us loved Frontline for some reason! I guess a couple of years later, my parents got a divorce, and while we lived with my mother, my dad would take us out to dinner and a few games or a movie on Wednesday nights. When we played frontline, we'd each get to man a control- the joystick my dad, my sister the fire button (and aiming), and myself the grenades! That's a family friendly activity, eh? It was loads of fun!

While I remember pinball machines being in the arcades at this time, I don't remember ever playing or watching people play them. I do remember seeing a few pins and remembering them, due to the wild artwork. Xenon stands out, as does Haunted House, and also Genesis. I played pinball a couple more times growing up, as the video arcade crash pretty much got rid of the desire to play them (we all had Nintendos at home, so what was the point?) I remember playing a DataEast Checkpoint at a pizza place in New Carrolton Mall with some of my best friends in highschool, but there was still no real desire to play pinball until I moved out of my parents home, and into an apartment on my own.

See, when I moved out, I moved into a shared apartment with my buddy Dave, right on the University of Maryland campus, and as I was freshly out of the nest, I was dirt poor! I got a job within walking distance from my apartment at the Bently's Bar & Grill, as a busboy. This accomplished two things- one it was a job, but two, there was beer there, and LOTS of pretty girls working as waitresses. It was a cool place, and did I mention pretty girls? :) In the lower level bar there was an Addams Family pinball machine, and later they added a Twilight Zone. Bently's was the type of place where everyone that worked there hung out after work and drank beer, and also played pinball. While I was super poor, I always had enough money from tips for one or three (or five) beers, and some games of pinball. I was hooked! It only took a few games of TAF, with a pretty brunette waitress telling me "awesome Mamushka score", and who wouldn't be hooked! A later trip to a local vending company to see how much pinball machines actually cost turned into a second job, repairing them for 10 bucks an hour.. I even learned component level circuit board repair there, and eventually I got pretty good with some advanced troubleshooting with a logic probe.. Oops! I'm rambling!

Later on, I got better jobs, and more disposable income, and I always promised myself that I would buy myself a pingame or two. There were other machines that had special meanings to me for different reasons- one machine, CFTBL, I used to play with an interesting girl who I always wanted to date, and never quite got there with her- but I did eventually pick up my own Creature, and it's still one of my favorites. Then there are those awesome roadtrips where you drive WAY too many miles to buy a game. When you finally make it home, you're dead tired, but always have enough energy to fiddle with the newly aquired pin all night! I once drove 12 hours each way with my dad, to buy a Haunted House pinball machine. I fixed it up like new, and while it was one of my favorites pins, I became more attached to it's predecessor of Gottlieb's assembly line: Black Hole, a game I first saw at the guy's house where I bought my Haunted House!

I've bought and sold a few in-between too. Some games astonish my friends because they are so ugly or seemingly undesirable- but I still like them! Capt. Fantastic comes to mind, also Raven. These two pins are not so great to look at (and I've been ridiculed because of them when I had them), but they were great fun to play until I sold them. One of my favorite pins is Williams Space Shuttle, which was my first Williams pin, my longest owned pin, and has been with me through thick and thin.. I recently set it up at a relatives house (they wanted a pin for their gameroom). It cleaned up so nice and works so well, I made sure they understood it was just a temporary deal! :-) It really is one of my favorite games- although it's not as complex as the newer games, it's got something about it. Every now and then you can get on a run in that game, and you're just in the zone! It's amazing, it's like a drug! Good stuff..

Here are some frequently asked questions:

Why do I collect pinball machines?

Are they expensive?

Are pinball machines still being made today?

Where can I go to just play pinball, without having to buy one and load it into my house- filling up my basement and making my wife mad?