Ah, very cool, glad to see I'm not alone here.
Arcades have been dead around here for a while now so I never really had access to real pinball machines in the past. Even the coorporate Namco-run arcades that we used to have didn't stock pinballs. Never understood why. Needless to say though when I did run into one, I had the tendency to bat the ball around until it drained. Never really understood the game, but I always liked the flashing lights and neat playfields (who doesn't?).
I do have fond memories of some PC and console pinball titles (Last Gladiators, Hyper 3D Pinball, Epic Pinball, etc), spent a lot of time with them in long gaming sessions, but I can't say I played them on an even remotely regular basis. At least not anytime in my recent years anyway.
A few months back I ran into an Avatar pinball machine stuck in an unmanned hole-in-the-wall arcade that opened in the last year or so (it's a really, really bad "arcade". I shouldn't even call it an arcade). Just a few games in I was hooked. What I think solidified that though is picking up the Williams Pinball Hall of Fame collection on the modern-day platforms. It's a great compilation that recreates real tables. There's also an instructor commentary available in the game telling you what everything does and how each table works, what the goals are, etc. Perfect for any pinball noob (like myself).
After that I discovered that there's a hole-in-the-wall bar nearby that houses 13 or so machines. Like I said, arcades are basically dead around here so I never expected to find a place with a pinball machine, let alone this many. I've been going there every weekend for about a month and a half now, plunking a lot of money into the machines. There are some great tables there--The Adams Family, the new Rolling Stones 2011 machine, Monster Bash, The Getaway, and Jack*Bot, a spin-off of Pin*Bot. Oh, and 3DOKid, they have the Harlem Globetrotters pin, too! Unfortunately it seems a lot of the lights on the playfield do not work though. When I get a working phone again, I will take a picture of it.
I also recently found there's a Pinball Museum just over the state line in DC. As they are closing down in the next week or so (location issues, supposedly, they are planning on reopening somewhere else), I finally made my way out there yesterday (I've been holding off as I hate driving to and in DC). It was pretty interesting, showing off where the industry started and what it spawned from, and there is also naturally a pay-to-play area that I spent most of my day in. I got to play the Twilight Zone for the first time, as well as some other classics like Fun House and Whirlwind that are on the Williams Pinball HOF console collections.
Anyways, total addiction. I think what's not helping is that I'm getting a lot better at the game. I can bounce the ball from one flipper to the next at-will (depending on the table) in order to have near full control over the ball, and I'm learning the tables pretty well.
Man, the more I talk about this here, the more I wish the 3DO had a great, traditional-style pinball game.
[/img]