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Pinball documentary

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Pinball Documentary Torrent
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Introduction & video compilation by MJL.


p.s. I did not create any of these videos myself


My story...


The late 70's and 80's were a time when pinball arcades could be found in any
mall, bowling alley or truck stop.

Youths hung around the arcades spending their hard earned allowances or paper-route
earnings. The cooler kids could be found outside smoking and trying to look
'cool' while skipping school.

It was a much simpler time without 64-bit arcade games, Playstations or X-Boxes. Kids would
actually play outside until the sun went down and parents called them indoors for the night.
Today the kids hibernate in their rooms as they play home video games.

Wherever a pinball arcade could be found, so could the assorted graffiti and
cigarette burns (grr) which would be inflicted upon the various pinball machines. Yes,
this was where the delinquents and tough guys hung out.

I can remember my first few years venturing into our local arcade which was named Little Joe's
and located in our shopping mall here in Ontario, Canada. There I would plop quarters into the
video games and spend hours at a time playing. While I'd seen the pinball machines located
along the other wall, I had no interest in playing them.

My time was spent playing video games consisting of such classics as Galaxian, a submarine
game in which you shot at enemy subs through a periscope and Crazy Climber, to name just
a few.

Out of boredom one day, I plopped a quarter (just one was needed) into a pinball machine
just to try it out. From that point on I became addicted. I blew so much of my paper route
money in that arcade, trying out the various pins. It was always a wonderous new day when
a "new" pinball arrived. I remember the day that Firepower made its way to the arcade, brand
spanking new. I was so impressed by the backglass, the colors and the amazing sound that I swore
one day I would own it. Well, it's 2008 and I don't own a single pinball machine nor am I
all that impressed by Firepower any longer. Black Knight however, remains an obsession and
I am determined to one day own it - or BK2000.

When I was about 11 years old, I tried to make a pinball machine out of an old table top,
nails, elastics and two allen-keys to use as flippers. The scoring was done via a calculator
on top of the tabletop. Needless to say trying to play the game while keeping score with
the calculator did not go over so well.

I did own a Harlem Globetrotter but became bored with it. I bought and sold it for $100
although I am now regetting it due to the tight market.

I always wondered what happened to those old pinball machines - the Stern "Meteor", the
"Black Knight", and the "Big Game". Did they get parted out and end up in a landfill site? Did
they find their way into collector's homes, or do they lie waiting to be discovered one
day in an old storage shed?

That era is gone forever and will never be recreated. The arcades are no longer financially
sustainable. Today's arcades feature video games and kid's whack-a-mole games which will
dispense tickets to be redeemed for stuffed aminals. Our last "true" arcade closed it's doors
approximately four years ago.

Williams was always my favourite, you know. They could design a pinball based on any
theme - be it playing poker with aliens, giving a robot a set of eyes or fighting a
knight.

Today's market is much more delicate. No longer can a pinball be created based on a designer's
imagination. The machines of today are lisensed after television shows or movies (eg. Shrek).

Those kids with the rock and roll t-shirts and long hair have grown up and have their
own families now. The old pool hall with its grungy clientelle, four pinball machines
and snack bar has been replaced by a paint store.


Index of video
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1) Hands on History - The History Channel [30 minutes]

A look at the start-to-finish process of building a pinball machine. Also includes some
early history on pinball.
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2) Stern Factory Tour [2:34 minutes]

An inside look at the Stern factory in a quick clip created by Erin Stern.
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3) Tilt - The Battle to Save Pinball [1 hour]

IN 1998, COIN-OPERATED GAMES were in dire straits. Arcades were extinct, having long ceded
their popularity to home video games. Yet pinball remained an experience you couldn’t get at
home. The pinball designers at Williams of Chicago, Illinois—the world's largest manufacturer
of pinball—realized this; they knew that with a little rethinking, pinball could once again
succeed.
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4) Bucci's Vintage Pinvids #1 [19m:24s]

Back in 1994, when I was about 16 years old, my friend Trevor and I grabbed the VHS camcorder
and drove around town looking for pinball machines. We had planned to make this a long series
of tapes and tried to do it like a TV show.

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5) The Who - Pinball Wizard

A scene from the musical "Tommy". Featuring Elton John

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6) Pinball Hall of Fame - Las Vegas [7m:25s]

Gene Jarvis was visiting the Pinball of Hall of Fame at the exact same time as the author.
Gene was a pinball and video game engineer at Williams in the 1980s, creating some of the best
games of that era, including Defender and Robotron. He was listen to watch Gene and Tim reminisce
about the history and people they both know.

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7) Ball Saved [3 parts]

Ball Saved", a pinball documentary by Ben Olson. "Ball Saved" features a rare glimpse
behind the scenes at Stern Pinball, an interview with Roger Sharpe, world-class player,
historian and pinball transcendentalist and brings you into the world of competitive pinball
at the Pinbrawl.

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8) How It's Made - Pinball Machines [2m:49s]

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9) Arcade Attack [9m:31s]

A British documentary from 1982 in which video games battle
pinball machines. Contains some great footage of older Williams machines.

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10) Little Miss Gamer [9m:52s]

Little Miss Gamer discovers that there are certain things that can't be replicated on a home
console - like pinball! Join LMG as she interviews Levi Nayman, a pinball wiz with a showroom
filled with old and new pinball machines. Classic cabinets reviewed include: Dimension,
Night Rider, and Eight Ball.

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