Appreciate the engineering wizardry of pinball with this slo-mo footage

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/02/appreciate-the-engineering-wizardry-of-pinball-with-this-slo-mo-footage.html

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As a long-time pinball afficianado (though far from an expert) I was overjoyed to watch that. It would be interesting to me to see digital pinball games use information from this to create better physics simulations in the future.

Sound off with your favorite pinball games.

  • Black Knight 2000 is my all-time favorite.
  • Twilight Zone is, of course, a classic for good reason.
  • Earthshaker received a lot of my pocket money.
  • I always thought the wide-body Atari pinball games, like Superman, were fun to play.
  • Baby Pac-Man delights me and I’m a little surprised we don’t see that lineage continue now that everything is digital recreations and there are no barriers between physical simulations and video games.
  • I’ve only had a few chances to play, but Tron: Legacy was fun as hell.
  • For digital-only tables, nothing tops Pro Pinball: Timeshock

Mostly I’m playing Pinbal FX 3 on a rotated 27" monitor; haven’t yet found a great VR pinball.

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I grew up playing Bally’s Fireball pinball (https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/fireball-bally), one of the first, if not the first multiball pin. Also had that wicked spinning pad in the middle of the board.

I had a chance to play one recently but unfortunately, it was in poor shape mechanically. Quite disappointing.

More current pins I like include: Black Knight 2000, Twilight Zone and the Addams Family. I love it when the flippers move with the sound of finger snaps.

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I always loved the silver ball! The pinball deluxe app is is a very good second if you’re out of nickels! Just game, no candy crush garbage.

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Addams Family is my favourite!
I poured loads of money in to the machine at my local pub in my late teens / early twenties, and a few years ago, when there was a Kickstarter to get it added to the pinball simulator “The Pinball Arcade”, I jumped right on it. Having it on Steam is great, but even better is having it on my Playstation Vita. The commute goes really quick when playing Addams Family Pinball on the train.

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Hey you with the face! Riiiide the Cyclone!

We have a winner! Bluuuhhhhh!

Also heavily sampled in the Mr Bungle song “Carousel”.

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Didn’t expect to see Mr. Bungle in a thread about pinball!
Every note of that album is burned in to my brain, for better and worse. In turns Odd, brilliant, puerile, compelling and frequently verging on unlistenable, it’s one of the most memorable albums I ever bought.
Mike Patton still astonishes me with his vocal gymnastics, and the band are ridiculously talented and tight.

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I had one of those once:

Poking around inside was as much fun as playing it.

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I had a “Captain Fantastic - Brown Dirt Cowboy” one. Very complicated point-to-point wiring which made it a challenge to troubleshoot. One of the better all-mechanical ones, I think.

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Yeah, a 1000 wires, find the one cold solder joint…
Good times.

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My number one machine will always be “The Addams Family”, but Elton John’s “Capt Fantastic”, William’s “Whirlwind”, “Bride of Pinbot”, “Twilight Zone”, the second “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark”, “Black Knight 2000”, “Medieval Madness”, “Whitewater”, and a really weird one from Bally, from the 1980s called “Fathom”. Haven’t seen that one in decades. “Haunted House” from Gottlieb deserves and honorable mention, but it always seemed to have an “out of order” sign on it.

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The joy of pinball is the machine. Can you imagine Tommy playing a digital game? It’s the very physicality of interacting with the mechanism that makes it fun.

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Playing by sense of smell wouldn’t work with a digital table, that’s true :wink:

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This is one of my favorite albums–listened the shit out of it. I even started a relationship with an old girlfriend by slow-dancing to it one night.

I suppose it’s fair to say that I am an odd person.

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Speaking of Bungle, this just popped up on my Firefox recommendations:

I will definitely have to give that remake of “The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny” a listen.
Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo playing with Mr. Bungle?
Be still my beating heart.

Anthrax (with King’s X supporting) were my first proper metal gig, and I’ve been a fan ever since, and a big part of that is Scott’s skill as a rhythm guitarist.

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