The first pinball you played to rule?

[StevOz]

After reading this post by @Isaac Sauvage

VP9 - Gottlieb - SS - Recreation - Joker Poker (Gottlieb, 1978) VP921

Furio submitted a new resource: Joker Poker (Gottlieb 1978) VP9.21 - Game that was very successful. Joker Poker (Gottlieb 1978) VP9.21 Leon Spalding IPD No. 1306 Read more about this resource...

pinballnirvana.com

It made me think back and thought it would make an interesting topic.

For me, it was Buccaneer, after my mates and I discovered that lighting all the numbers, lit the special for free games, it was usually a play it all day machine for 20 cents, most of the time.

This meant losing a ball in an out lane was actually a good thing if that number was not lit, also getting the centre spinner when lit was also a very important shot for the possibility of lighting a number and number 1 top centre in lane was very important to get on the first ball, with a carefully calibrated plunge.

It was also the first machine I ever "clocked", rolled over past 100 000.

Internet Pinball Machine Database: Gottlieb 'Buccaneer'

www.ipdb.org

 

[GeorgeH]

I can only remember playing a pinball table once when I was young. It was at a bowling ally. I don't remember much else other than it was either an EM or early SS. I think it required a quarter each game. I had very little money so it seemed like a waste to me. ...But 20 cents for a whole day of game play seems pretty unusual.

 

[StevOz]

Ah, the thing was with Buccaneer, once the special was lit, it would stay lit the entire game, and it was doable on the first ball, that had to be a perfect first ball.

Get the 1 in lane top centre, then score the 2 out lane numbers with a lot of luck via the spinner when lit and many of the other numbers via the spinner, and it was a five ball game, so once that special was lit you could clock up many free games.

Actually, it was not uncommon for the arcade operator to come over after an hour or so and say, come on boys give the machine a rest, I'll give you a few credits on another machine.

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

the first game that I remember trying to play (rather than mash the flippers) would be Teachers Pet
one lane at the top needed a good plunge, make the lane, nudge the game just as the ball hit the bumper, and score the lane again

 

[StevOz]

mmm, teachers pet, a little before my time I find some comments on IPDB rather interesting, more to these old games then meets the eye. That nudge back up to the top lane kind of reminds me of the way it was possible to get a great game going on KISS.

Ratings and Comments for Teacher's Pet

www.ipdb.org

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

it was before my time also, but the caravan park we stayed at (mid 70's) had a recreational hall, many older games came in and out, Playball, Teachers pet, Moulin rouge, some EM hockey game, Charlies Angels, 2 billiard tables and a ping-pong table, original Space invaders, and a cool jukebox

 

[StevOz]

The caravan park in the later 70s that I used to goto only had two pinball machines, Cleopatra and Aztec. They were a lot of fun, free games were possible, though both were no easy beats. It just occurred to me both were themed on ancient civilizations, wonder if that was just happen chance?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

One more tidbit about that 1978 Joker Poker - after playing that sucker for hours on end, I strangely didn't actually get in to RL pinball until almost fifteen years later, when I enjoyed playing Littlewing's simulation of Eight Ball Deluxe on a color Mac.

That disconnect from PB was overwhelmingly due to the rise of home computers and video arcade games, which went on to obsess me for many years. For a while there, I was even staying very late at school, programming stuff on their "Trash-80's" to the neglect of any kind of dating & social life. In fact, that kind of obsession likely wound up creating various social skills shortcomings that I struggle with to this day.

Anyway, those excellent Littlewing simulations finally did prompt me to seek out the real thing in the area, where I found stuff like Creature from the Black Lagoon and Addams Family. Pinball seemed so classy and self-aware for a few years there, mostly under William's stewardship. Stern never quite seemed to get that memo.

 

[StevOz]

@Isaac Sauvage

I'm curious about your choice of Joker Poker as a machine you targeted as one to learn. As it was, one machine I did not play often back in the day when every coin mattered because as I recall it was one of the more difficult games to score a free game from via score or special. Did you end up getting good enough to score free games on Joker Poker on a semiregular basis?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@StevOz,
Good questions! TBH, I'm not 100% the machine in question was actually a JP, or the year was ~1979. I guess it might have been a year or two earlier, with a different card-themed table with similar layout.

Anyway, the situation was that I was dropped off at a friend of my aunt's house for the day, with not much to do. They had this machine in the basement for some reason, so I wound up playing it for hours & hours, then kind of forgetting whatever I'd learned afterwards.

I guess the real question is how & why did they have a machine in great condition that had only been released a year before or so. If I ever talk to Bonnie again (she's about 80yo now), I'll have to ask here and see if she remembers!

 

[StevOz]

Basements are not something that really exist here, let alone one with equipped with a pinball, wonder if that game is still there?

The only privately owned pinball I got to play was in the garage of a mates place he was renting in the 90s. It was Countdown, in suprisingly good condition everything worked, except the tilt.

We used to hammer that machine, usually after more then a few ales at the local. I was surprised by how solid it was!

Internet Pinball Machine Database: Gottlieb 'Count-Down'

www.ipdb.org

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Basements are not something that really exist here, let alone one with equipped with a pinball, wonder if that game is still there?

The only privately owned pinball I got to play was in the garage of a mates place he was renting in the 90s. It was Countdown, in suprisingly good condition everything worked, except the tilt.

We used to hammer that machine, usually after more then a few ales at the local. I was surprised by how solid it was!

Internet Pinball Machine Database: Gottlieb 'Count-Down'

www.ipdb.org

You know, Steve... unless me memory be mistaken... you once posted a pic of yourself playing that very machine in your mate's garage, with you and the lads enjoying some suds! That pic might have been from ~20 years ago, and I'm thinking you posted it at the original VPF only a couple years later.

If I may say so, IIRC you looked pretty different then, less brawny, with chestnut-colored hair and a sort of page-boy cut. That was a long time ago though, so I might be misremembering some things!


Btw, speaking of pins in basements, I'm pretty sure I told this story before, but my funnest-time ever with PB involved me and a buddy buying three 70's-era machines and figuring out how to fix them ourselves in the basement of my West Philly group home. It really did feel super-empowering to use patience, logic and contact-erasers to get two out of three working, namely Atlantis and Big Ben.

Magnatron I couldn't get working, I guess because someone had done a herky-jerky wire-mod job across the logic board. Still kinda pisses me off, but I was much younger then, and had never worked on pins before. Plus it was also before I had online access.

Also, the fibreglass erasers we used at the time to clean the contacts were a godamn TERRIBLE idea, as they created fibreglass particles that would get in to our fingertips and maybe even our lungs, a bit.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Btw @Pop Bumper Pete,
Ah, I meant to ask you for some time now-- how goes the shed?

Backstory-- Pete built the shed from scratch in his backyard, laying the concrete, erecting the structure, then using that to house some (or most?) of his pin collection. This was in the mid-aughts IIRC. (mid 2000's)

My life was pretty trash around those days, so we half-joked / half-serious that I should emigrate to Oz and live in a sleeping bag under the pins at night, fixing them up by day. Probably could have helped with the meat-pie shop, too.

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

i found out there is such a thing as too many machines
41 games, most in storage , and no room to set them up
and now with my health issues, I cannot move them or work on them (try taking out a playfield glass while on one leg)

 

[Mark1]

The first tables I liked and played allot were, Skylab, Volley , Jubilee and Royal Flush.

​

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

The first tables I liked and played allot were, Skylab, Volley , Jubilee and Royal Flush.

If you mean the Williams '73 version, there's a VP8 version with some really nifty perks added in, like being able to adjust voltage level and stuff. (yes, you read that right!)

If that's of interest, a copy has been stashed at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/download/Visual_Pinball_2020-06-20/Visual%20Pinball%20%5BVP1-VP7%5D%20Recreated%20Tables/Jubilee%20%28Williams%29%281973%29.zip

Indeed, a while back, I was working on upgrading some of the graphics with @druadic's help (the pop bumpers), but didn't quite finish. So yet another unfinished Ike project for the time being.

 

[druadic]

If you mean the Williams '73 version, there's a VP8 version with some really nifty perks added in, like being able to adjust voltage level and stuff. (yes, you read that right!)

If that's of interest, a copy has been stashed at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/download/Visual_Pinball_2020-06-20/Visual%20Pinball%20%5BVP1-VP7%5D%20Recreated%20Tables/Jubilee%20%28Williams%29%281973%29.zip

Indeed, a while back, I was working on upgrading some of the graphics with @druadic's help (the pop bumpers), but didn't quite finish. So yet another unfinished Ike project for the time being.

I STILL have those images saved