pbWiz

Pinball Machines We're All Glad Were Never Made

Over at Something Awful, there is a great collection of photoshop created pinball machines. Apparently, they put a call out to their forum members to create some pinball machine parodies based on current themes. Well, they definitely took the job on and created a ton of fake pinball machines with themes ranging from the Iraq War to TurboTax (!?)Here are a couple of samples to whet your appetite -- after this, head on over to Something Awful and check out all the pinball machines. There are a ton of them!!Technorati Tags: Pinball

Mom Forces Son to Sell His Pinball Machines

Here's a story that will give any self respecting pinball collector nightmares. An Australian mother is forcing her son to sell off a huge portion of his pinball machine collection!Anthony Donnelly, 42, of Hurstville, NSW, Australia, has a collection of more than 250 pinball machines that apparently has gotten to be too much for his mother to handle. So he is going to auction off about 100 of them including machines from the 1950's to present day Stern pinball machines.While this is an extremely sad story, there is possibly one good thing that will hopefully come out of this: Mr. Donnelly says that he hopes to use the money he gets from selling his pinball machines to open a pinball museum!Let's all hope that the auction goes well and he gets top dollar for his pinball machines. Another pinball museum like the one in Las Vegas would be a good thing.Technorati Tags: Pinball, Gaming, Pinball Machines

Middle Earth Pinball Flyer

Middle Earth is another late 70's (1978 to be exact) widebody Pinball Machine made by Atari. Like many of the other Atari pinball machines from the 70's, reliability issues were a real problem. Middle Earth has kind of a medieval theme and reminds me a lot of another 70's Bally pinball called Lost World, one of my favorite machines from this time period. Click the thumbnail of the Middle Earth Pinball Flyer above to see a larger version of the flyer.Technorati Tags: Pinball, Middle Earth

A Home Arcade to Kill For

Having been to Vermont many times, I can attest to the fact that there is not much to do there -- especially in the winter. Well, here's one person who's got the perfect solution to those winter blues. John Prescott has built an arcade in his basement that most people would kill for.Nick named The Overkill Arcade by one of Prescott's friends who realized that he has a bit of an obsession (some might call it a problem) with arcade games and pinball machines. The Overkill Arcade is located in his basement and contains everything from poker tables to shuffle bowling alleys and, of course, pinball machines. There are eight pinball machines in total including Dirty Harry, The Twilight Zone and Lord of the Rings.With pinball machines, video games, big screen TV and even a jacuzzi, this sounds like somewhere I would never want to leave!Technorati Tags: Pinball, Home Arcade

Take a Virtual Tour of the Stern Pinball Factory

For anyone who's ever wondered what goes into the production of a real pinball machine, here's a video tour of the last remaining pinball manufacturer, Stern Pinball:It's amazing to see how manual the process really is -- I though it would have been much more automated than this. Definitely shows one reason why new pinball machines are so expensive -- anything this labor intensive to manufacture can't be cheap.Technorati Tags: Pinball, Stern

Superman Pinball Flyer

Superman is a widebody Pinball Machine made by Atari in 1979. This is a wide body machine meaning that the playfield is larger than most pinball machines, allowing the designer more room to work. Because of the wider playfield and added room, designer Steve Ritchie was able to create a pinball machine with more targets and action than normal. Superman was also one of the earlier Solid State Electronic pinball machines made. Unfortunately, the Superman pinball machine suffered many of the reliability problems that most of the Atari pinball machines were afflicted with and is a particularly difficult machine to find today in good working order.Click the thumbnail of the Superman Pinball Flyer above to see a larger version of the flyer.Technorati Tags: Pinball, Superman

Pinball Hall of Fame Picture Gallery

GameSetWatch has a great series of articles on The Pinball Hall of Fame including a ton of amazing pictures of some beautiful pinball machines.For those who aren't familiar with it, The Pinball Hall of Fame is a pinball museum located in Las Vegas, Nevada that has on display what is arguably the largest pinball collection in the world. Not only are these vintage pinball machines a work of art, they all work and can be played by visitors to the Hall of Fame!The three articles by GameSetWatch highlight a variety old and (relatively) new pinball machines and are part pinball history lesson, part picture gallery.Don't miss these great tributes to the history of pinball -- the pictures alone are worth the visit!Pinball Hall of Fame Volume 1: The Pinball CircusPinball Hall of Fame Volume 2: Design ClassicsPinball Hall of Fame Volume 3Technorati Tags: Pinball, Museum

Smoking Ban Opens The Door For Pinball In France

According to this AP story, the French government thinks that Pinball Machines may be the solution to the upcoming Smoking Ban and expected loss of business at French Cafes. In France, Pinball machines and similar games that are in Cafes are heavily taxed by the government -- so much so that many have been removed to avoid paying the taxes. But with the upcoming Smoking Ban in Cafes, Pinball may help to replace cigarettes.This sounds like a Win Win situation to me.

Pinball and Video Game Motivational Poster Contest

RetroBlast is currently running a Classic Video Game and Pinball Motivation Poster Contest. To enter the contest you just create a pinball or video game themed motivational poster (online poster creator tool here) similar to what you would see at Successories.The winners have a shot at some great prizes including arcade control panels and a professional print of their poster!This is a great idea -- check out two of my favorites below -- both pinball themed, of course! Technorati Tags: Pinball, Contest, Video Games

Classic Pinball Arcade Video

Check out the arcade in this video -- this is a Pinball Fanatic's dream. It reminds me of the arcades I used to go to in the late 1970's that were packed full of Pinball Machines. And these aren't all new Pinball Machines in this video -- I think I spotted a KISS machine and even a Bally Space Invaders.Technorati Tags: Pinball, Video