Some of these folks you will hear from in my podcast interviews on this site. Through it all, I’ve had lots of fun and met many wonderful people in the hobby. Some titles I’ve even owned 3 times, occasionally buying back the very same machines. At one point in around 2008 I pretty much exited the industry and sold most of my collection at comparatively low prices. Over the last few years, the emergence of new manufacturers such as Jersey Jack, Spooky and Multimorphic would confirm this theory.įor me, many pinball and arcade games have come and gone through my possession. The coming together of market trends and the craft beer movement, has meant pinball is finding a footing again as a great social activity. As some people look for physical, non screen-based entertainment activities, pinball is on the upswing again. It was also the first pinball to be released at three price points (pro, premium and limited edition) and appealed immensely to the growing collector market. It sold in huge numbers all over the world giving pinball the much needed shot in the arm.ĪC/DC was the 21st game designed by arguably the industry’s most prolific and successful designer: Steve Ritchie. The biggest name in contemporary rock music. In 1990/91 I was hawking around Melbourne then Wellington to play the latest great games: Funhouse, Bride Of Pinbot, Terminator 2, The Addams Family, Getaway, Fish Tales and others.Ģ0 saw some modest successes with Iron Man and Tron Legacy, but I think the following year - 2012, pinball radically jumped ahead with the release of AC/DC. Games that followed, such as F-14 Tomcat and Swords Of Fury I also remember. I do remember the arrival of Grand Lizard in 1986 and would travel from Upper Hutt into the city just to play it. I continued to seek out pinballs but the supply in and around Wellington seemed to dry up somewhat, after the closure of the Silverball Palace. A mixture of pinball and video arcades, these had all been imported from Japan second-hand in order to avoid the strict importation tariffs for new product that NZ was under at the time I was there the day before opening, where my friend and I had free rein on all of the authentic USA-made games. When that company opened the Silverball Palace (1981–1984) spread over two floors, it was like a dream come true for me. He would sometimes take me to his workshop where I was fascinated by all the carcasses of pinball and arcade games being worked on. He traveled much of the lower North Island servicing the games they had on site. When I was 14 years old my older brother was an amusement machine technician in Lower Hutt. In 1984 the success of the pinball game Space Shuttle is credited with buying some extra time for the industry - for leading manufacturer Williams Electronics at least. That year, in 1978, the arcade video game boom was strong all over the world and into the early 80’s nearly killed pinball. The then brand new Midway/Taito arcade game Space Invaders took most of my pocket money as an 11 year old. I saw first-hand the move from electro-mechanical arcade games to video screen-based coin-op entertainment. Born in the late 1960’s I grew up in New Zealand experiencing the arcade culture boom of the 1970’s.
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