Patrick's post reminds me that I also need to tell the tale about this monstrosity...

Look into how Iowa and New Jersey treat these games. They recognized that these were unregulated devices and require redemption machines to have a software audit and not screw a player just because they performed well. The other states were a free-for-all.

Great cover recommended by a great pinballer! You should check out this video and this table.

The original company nucleus is the casino chain, everything else was sold off. The Life Fitness exercise equipment company still builds products in the Franklin Park factory that made Pac-Man back in the golden years.

Those WERE the same company for a certain period of time!

The Bally corporate family tree is a huge rabbit hole if you have the time and interest. At one point in time they also owned Six Flags, a restaurant chain, the Vegas casinos, and the Aladdin's Castle arcades.

This place confused me as a kid.

Oh, they exist.

We should all be boycotting Molex (owned by the Koch family) but if you're into fixing pins... it's difficult.

Macos: i have no idea where your document is

Windows: “your” document? These are onedrive’s documents

Linux: /opt/fakevm/mounted/tmpfs/vmlinuz/ubuntu-36.0.01_x86_also-arm.0.21.013/snapd/docx-exporter.sx/0028492748901.txt.converted.bak/v/9/ms/1/0.out

Try @pinballmap.com

This one? 🤨

bsky.app/profile/kozi...

Hanna-Barbera character sheet for the Pac-Man cartoon series. GO PEPPER.

Hey @namcohistory.bsky.social, is this anything?

good lord.

That Time America Outlawed Pinball | HISTORY It may be hard to believe, but not too long ago major American cities banned pinball out of fear of the arcade game’s...

Here's the story:

www.history.com/articles/tha...

The new pinball room here kicked it off by inviting Roger to come and recreate The Shot. That's pretty nifty.

www.instagram.com/reel/DWp74Jv...

Brinda and Sam are cool people. I am not.

Brinda Coleman sent me a copy of this 7" for doing an interview with Multiball and I wish I could find it. Grrr.

This popped up out of the blue. Nice.

True. You know any? 🤨

The key might be that microphone, if they were recording audio to go with the film.

If there are other photos from that day it might be possible to see if that mic had a logo from a news station or something.

That Time America Outlawed Pinball | HISTORY It may be hard to believe, but not too long ago major American cities banned pinball out of fear of the arcade game’s...

Sorry, here's some background:

www.history.com/articles/tha...

The REALLY interesting mystery is that someone was recording this event! Where is this footage?

While working for GQ Magazine, he was recruited by the Amusement and Music Operators Association to testify, and successfully predicted the position of the ball in a machine arrayed for the council and media in attendance. Speaking at the hearing, Sharpe said "Look, there’s skill, because if I pull the plunger back just right, the ball will, I hope, go down this particular lane." Following Sharpe's demonstration, the council voted unanimously to lift the existing ban on pinball.

Roger Sharpe, Larry "LED" DeMar, and myself at the Insert Coin opening in 2024. The sign is from the WMS factory on California Avenue in Chicago.

It's the 50th anniversary of The Shot. April 2nd, 1976.

Send your pinball love to @sharpe52.bsky.social even if he doesn't check Bluesky that often. It's an honor to know him personally, even though we only worked together for a few years.

Reading that particular name elicits no surprise. And it makes a lot of sense.

Shout-out to every other Gen Xer that was holding their breath the entire time for the first five mintues of the launch

For

r e a s o n s

Never saw that, but would love to now. I wonder who made it.

And I /really/ wanted Croc Hunter for PLD game 2. Use the Nip-It mech and etc. Probably all for the best it never happened.

PLD had no interest or $ to patent the work back then and since Stern had no competition in those days it was kind of moot. They'd be expired by now anyway.

We did have a problem with the jerk that had rights to the WMS patents though. Lots of things had to be re-engineered to avoid angry letters.

All you aspiring homebrew makers out there, remember this device if you want a cheap way to hold the ball at high speed without making an entire VUK.