Special When Lit (2009) - full transcript

Looking back on my boyhood
and adolescence in South Texas,

I spent an incredible
amount of time

in gas stations, honky-tonks,

and other off-the-beaten-path
places trying to appear cool

while obsessively following
the descent of a steel ball

down the playing surface
of a garishly-lit machine,

a pinball machine.

*

*

*

*



(dinging)

*

(dinging)

*

I'd come in with my grandfather
standing on pop crates

to play the pinball machines.

I think I was
about eight years old.

I used to hang out
at the corner store

and my parents
were always lookin' for me.

(dinging)

I would go away
with my grandparents

every summer and they'd say,
"Hey, you're in the arcade.

Here's a roll of quarters,
go have fun."

All these back-lot mom
and pa stores and everything



had, uh, one or two
pinball machines there.

*

Apartment houses would have 'em
in the laundry rooms.

If you had a gas station
where they weren't doin'

car repair anymore,
they'd take the service bays

and fill 'em
with pinball machines.

Playing at our local
bowling alley was the place

where parents told you
not to go.

I guess it was the kind of age
when you don't want to do things

with your parents.

My parents used to think
I was going to church

Sunday mornings and I'd
be at the local hangout

playing pinballs.

I also remember my father
dragging me out by my ear

saying that I spent
too much money.

*

I used to sneak down there
without telling anybody

and on my own,
and practice like crazy.

There was probably
a crowd hangin' around

a pinball machine
and we used to have to wait

to play and line up your coin.

And you'd know which one
was your coin.

I started playing
at, like, the local café.

Took my books to study there.

It was a great break
from studying.

Sometimes it replaced studying.

*

I used to steal pop bottles
from the back of the gas station

and trade 'em in
for three cents,

and when I had enough dimes
to go play pinball

I would wander all over town
just putting dimes

in pinball machines.

On a Saturday afternoon
I'd run it up

to the highest amount
that you could win,

which was about 15 games.

I would sell 'em for 50 cents.

Sell 'em 12 games.

Tell 'em to leave me three.

They'd lose 'em
in about 30 minutes.

They'd leave me three.

I'd run it back up to 15 again,
sell 'em again.

That's how we'd spend
a Saturday afternoon.

If you say pinball,
people are like, "What?"

Or, "What's that?"

(dinging)

I mean,
there are many kids today

that--that don't know
what a pinball machine is.

(electronic game sound)

*

*

If you were growing up
in the '60s, '70s, and '80s,

you could go to the movies,
you could listen to the radio

and music,
and you could play pinball.

And now here we are
twenty years later,

and if you wanted to re-live
a song that you remember

from your youth,
you can put it on your iPod.

If you remember a movie that you
particularly liked as a kid,

you can get the DVD of it,
but when it comes to pinball,

since it only exists
in the real world

and can't
be digitally duplicated,

there is no place
to play pinball,

and yet in everybody's mind

they remember those games
from their youth,

and they come in here
and they see something

that they haven't seen
in 25 years,

something that was a major part
of their youth.

You know, "The first time
I kissed a girl,

I was playing this machine."

And they see that
and they just get this look

on their face of pure nostalgia.

*

Kids today don't really
understand pinball.

They come in looking for the
Dance Dance Revolution machine

or the fighting video game
or the really fast driving game,

and all they see
are these pokey,

slow, old pinball machines
that just go,

"Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing,"

and they don't understand it.

(dinging)

You look around here,
all you see is old farts.

You don't see the kids
that were playing pinball

when I was growin' up.

I mean, the kids today
are just--

you know, that between
the computer games

and the home games and the--

and the Nintendos
and the Sega systems

and Gameboys and--

they just won't play pinball.

I can remember
when I was growing up,

we used to eat
all our meals at home,

and we used to go out
for entertainment.

We'd go to the movies.

We'd go bowling.

We'd go outside the house
to have our entertainment,

and now everybody eats out.

Everybody always goes
to restaurants.

They don't cook
at home very much,

but they get all
their entertainment at home

through their big screen
theater room

or their game room
that they've got

in the basement.

Public places of amusement
have been falling by the wayside

in America like crazy.

You can't find
a pinball machine.

I mean, most arcades
there's no pinball machine.

There's no more arcades
in malls in most cases.

Even bars.

I mean, all the bars today
have a Megatouch,

the jukebox, and a pool table,
but no more pinballs.

I mean, very, very,
very, very few.

Pinball is finished in France.

In England it's finished
long times ago.

Right?

In Italy you can find
one pinball.

In Germany, no one pinball.

In Holland, no pinball.

Even in Belgium,
it was a pinball paradise.

No pinball.

It's finished.

*

*

You know,
they said pinball was dead.

It's not.

I was very surprised
that other people

were like this.

I thought we were just crazy.

It starts with one.

Buy another one.

And then another one.

Then, like, four.

And I was outgrowing
the family room.

I'd buy 20 here, 30 here.

And then your wife
starts to say,

"Uh, what's goin' on here?"

We got enough, no.

-Yes.
-No.

Sixty games.

-Three hundred fifty or so.
-Four hundred.

I'm close to 600.
Sixteen hundred.

It was a very rapid decline
into obsession, I think.

*

Come on this way.

Show you some more.

We have about 150 in here.

Once you get the lure
of the silver ball in you,

it's like an addiction
and you just can't stop,

and I just kept, you know--

it's like you got
to have 'em all

'cause they're all just
beautiful pieces of art.

You remember buying every one,
where you got it from.

One time, when my addiction
was really bad,

I bought a Barb Wire on eBay.

I thought it was a great deal.

I thought,
"Gee, what am I doin'?

This is crazy to drive 24 hours
to go get a pinball machine,"

and just as I'm thinkin'
maybe I'm not gonna do this,

you know, Pinball Wizard
comes on the radio

and I thought,
"Nope, I'm goin'."

You know, and it was,
like, my longest haul.

It was like,
you know, 26 hours later

I'm finally home, exhausted.

Ended up comin' home
with three machines.

They're up on this upper deck.

This is the first little deck
that I built to get some room.

Pinball machines
seem to be alive.

They--they really don't seem
to be machines.

When you're playing,
they're almost

like they're alive
and the way they talk to you,

you find yourself talkin' to it.

Extra ball!

(pinball music)

Sometimes I just come in
to look at them.

You don't even
have to play them.

You just come in
and just admire them.

It's just a tribute
to man's creativity.

I'll tell ya.

This was, like, a little
guest bedroom but it's...

I had to squeeze
more pins in here.

My theme though,
I kinda have always dreamed

it might happen, but I really
want to do the passion.

Uh, you know, people say,
"You're crazy," but see,

I have a bac--
I was a youth pastor

and, uh, so I st--I--
I love the Lord

and I just can picture
the passion play

in a pinball machine.

* Shine the light
down on me *

* Shine the light
for all to see *

Hallelujah, the ball is saved!

* Shine the light
down on me *

* Shine the light

*

All my life, it was pinball.

*

This is very good game.

Well, when I am
with the pinball

I look the pinball
and I think I am in love.

It's my life,
it's better to own--

It's better to collect pinball
than to take cocaine.

Yes?

Like, some people
are to spend the money

to drink or to eat.

I don't like to eat.

I like pinball.

Pinball and girls,
but girls is finished.

(laughs)

(dinging)

*

I will not sell one.

I like them all,
but is like my children.

I like some of my children
better than the other.

(laughs)

Of course.

We're in the area that
actually enjoyed pinball,

and we all
kind of sort of hooked up

and the heart of the group
plays every Thursday

and they don't miss.

Puts gas in my truck.

I mean, look at these guys.

Take a look at these people.

That's all they care about,
is pinball.

I got girls,
I got dates.

I go to concerts.

You meet all these people
that--that are into it

and they'll all come over
and you'll have a--

a big party every week.

Though Steve's
still kind of a center.

He's kind of like the--

He's a--he's the leader.

(laughs)

If it wasn't for Steve--

1972, my dad bought one
for my room,

and I was like, "I'll, you know,
do my homework forever

if I have a pinball machine."

Of course that probably
didn't work out.

From there on it just
got pretty wicked, you know?

Now I've had--I've had 70.

I think I'm down
around 50 now, but I've got them

in every room in my house.

We have a New York Jets
pinball machine

and in here we have Maverick,
which is a western-themed,

Mel Gibson.

Okay, now we're in another room
of this crazy house.

We're in the pinball dungeon.

Which actually is being sold
because I need to make room.

In here we have some more
pinball machines to try.

*

*

We call this our "pirate shed"
because we have a bar

in the back
that's pirate-themed.

*

(dinging)

I never knew you could own
your own pinball machine.

I mean,
soon as I found out that

then that's when
my whole life changed.

I mean, you've seen my bedroom.

I'd--at times
I have 14 pinball machines.

The things I like,
I'm very obsessive,

so--and I am a perfectionist.

Uh, these are the barrels
from "Jaws."

So, if I collect something,
whether it be pinball machines,

"Jaws" memorabilia,
I think I gotta have it all.

*

Like it says, "I want to rock
and roll all night

and party every day."

(beeping)

*

It was during the depths
of the depression,

in the late '20s, early '30s
where the coin-operated

amusement game industry
kind of got birthed.

*

Out of that came pin games.

It literally was a name
because there were various pins

that were hammered into a wood
surface, using a little ball,

and here's the trap.

The games wound up evolving,
if you will, in the 1930s.

Companies just mushroomed
out of nowhere,

most of them located in Chicago.

*

In the end of the 1930s,
beginning of the 1940s

there is an over proliferation
of games literally everywhere

and there becomes an outcry.

(dinging)

"Children spending
their lunch money."

"It's everywhere."

"We have to outlaw it."

"We have to regulate it."

"We can't control it."

*

In Chicago,
scores of confiscated

pinball machines
get a police escort

to their journey's end.

They've had this coming
for a long time.

It was seen
as a game of gambling

and there was
a group of machines created

that were pay-out machines,
so there was some relevance

to that, but by and large,
the majority of product

that was out there
was for amusement only.

In the case of New York City,
Chicago, and Los Angeles

being three major metropolitan
areas as well as other areas

around the United States,
pinball was banned.

*

*

(dinging)

It was this one.

Humpty Dumpty.

This was the first pinball
with flipper.

I've seen so many changes
in pin games,

but when those six flippers
came out on Humpty Dumpty,

I said, "I got to do something
like that," but me?

I was always ta--
taught never to put

too much money into a game.

I ain't about puttin'
those six flippers on my game.

So, I put two of 'em
and I put 'em

at the bottom of the game
and that's somewhat

approximately
with everyone ever since

and that makes me feel very,
very, very good.

*

When we put flippers on a game
you got a tremendous amount

of skill into the game.

Before that it was nothing
but chance.

You were lucky.

You pushed the game,
kicked the game in order

to get the ball to go where
you wanted it to go,

but when the flippers
were there, now you get

a certain amount of skill.

*

Gottlieb ruled
in the '50s and '60s.

They were comin' out
with new machines, like,

every three weeks.

*

*

Generally speaking,
the pinball arcade,

which then, turned into
the video game arcade

was the sort of logical
descendant of the coffee bar.

It's very hard to remember this,
but in the '60s,

coffee was considered
the major social threat.

*

Because they were thought
of as places

where kids got hyped up
and then they acted out

in some sort of manic way.

Boys were thought to be flirting
with waitresses,

and waitresses
sort of hopped up on coffee

were jumping on the tables
and dancing.

*

(gavel hammer)

Before the city council
in April of 1976,

I was enlisted,
if you will,

by the New York State
Association to testify.

Order.

Offered whatever
expert testimony I could,

as well as a demonstration
of pinball being a game of skill

as opposed to a game of chance.

*

Suddenly you could find
pinball machines legally.

*

*

We were rock and roll
in the '70s.

Business was booming.

Profit margins were huge.

Unbelievable.

Demand was sky-high.

Distributors were ordering
it by the truckload.

When we started
solid-state electronics

in pinball machines,
we were on the leading edge

of technology.

I mean, it was an incredible
cross-section at that time

of people playing pinball.

Diana Ross, Paul Simon,
Lou Reed, Matthew Broderick,

studio musicians,
politicians comin' in.

Limo pulls up and these four,
crazy looking guys come out

and, you know, it's Kiss.

Very nice people
that come in here.

Matter of fact, you'll find
business people come in here.

You'll find musicians
from the shows,

uh, managers
from the different restaurants,

and the regular Broadway crowd.

The thing I'm the most proud
of is the fact that we created

this environment
where you would have

different social stratas
all coming in,

standing next to each other,
playing and interacting

with each other and walking out
and going their separate ways,

never to really meet
anywhere else,

and, you know, but in the arcade
this was sort of an environment

that allowed a diverse amount
of different people to come.

Kids would always want
someplace to go,

something to do,
and at that point in time

there wasn't a lot of options
for that teenager,

whether it was just pre-getting
their driver's license,

so, you know, their--
their--the--their lifestyle

had to be within
walking distance

or a bicycle ride
or something,

and I think
that's what gave growth

to the arcade business.

*

Arcades had this air
of "certainly not approved

by your parents."

"Naughty," or whatever,
'cause they could in there

and they could smoke.

*

It was usually dark.

You could kind of do
what you wanted to do,

and that was a very male-crowd.

It was all
young males,

fourteen to
twenty five.

It wasn't like going
to a Walt Disney movie

where the whole family
could go along

and feel happy about it.

It was more like hanging
out with your friends

and doing bad things.

I think at that time
it was considered rebellious.

I think this was a bit
of a Fonz-type activity,

a sort of downward-mobility,
wasting time,

developing highly-refined skills
in an area that was going

to be relatively useless
in adult life.

(coins being inserted)

Half of all our production
went over into Western Europe.

Container loads of games.

(coins being inserted)

I was astounded to find out
that the first runs of games,

even in the heyday,
went to Europe

instead of the United States.

The market was bigger in Europe.

And at that time I think
the pinball machine

was highly Americanized
and pe--and then people

were proud of that.

Proud to have,
in a French bistro in Paris,

an American machine.

(dinging)

Everything came from
the United States at that time,

glowing success,
because people's mentalities...

United State
is the paradise of the world.

And everybody understood
the language of pinball.

(laughs)

Game over, tilt,

special targets,
you know.

(gun shots)

(cheering)

(baseball hit)

(cheering)

*

What is it that makes you stop
and play one machine?

What makes you think,

"Oh, I'm gonna put my money
in this one?"

And so you come up
with, uh, rock and roll.

You come up with sex.

You come up with the--the--
all the things

that young teenage boys
wanted to be.

I mean, you can look at the art.

It's definitely something

that's pitched
towards young males.

There's not really a lot of
female-friendly images on these.

*

Part of the adolescent
male fantasy is, guns,

women with large breasts,
magic spells, any violent,

misogynist thing you want
is there on pinball.

A lot of these machines
have um,love scenes on them.

Uh, you don't suppose
there's any connection there?

(pinball machines dinging)

I'm not in
the supposing business.

What do you think?

Well, I don't know
if you've ever followed

the motions of people's bodies
while they're playing,

but you might be able
to draw a connection there.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah!

You have those
centerfold images

of young, rather
buxom ladies,

usually blonde, staring out
of the machine at you

to inspire you.

It's a sexual release.

I really don't understand
why though.

But you believe it is?

Oh, I know it is.

No question about it.

Sexually frustrated people
play pinball a lot.

And--and that sort of captured
in that noise that's made

when you win a free game.

You know,
there's that clunk noise,

(clunk)

which is supposed
to alert everybody

in the environment
that you are a--

you know, you are the man,
and if you can do it repeatedly

or get clunk-clunk, you know,
everybody's like--

notices that and they--
even if they don't show it,

their admiration
for you increases.

(pinball sound effects)

A guy has a hot ball
and it's just flyin',

and, you know, you're gettin'
ready to become ruler

of the universe or somethin'.

You might have been playin'
by yourself

and not too many people
watchin',

but when they start hearin'
those sounds,

then all of a sudden
you'll see people gather around

to see that great ending
of that, you know, ball.

(moans)

I knew you'd come back.

(clunk)

(cheering)

*

*

(pinball dinging)

It's number 174 with a circle.

It says
"Williams Perky, 10-24-56."

Well, it's been in my blood
since I was 12 and I'm 59,

so pretty major.

Should have known right away
that I was gonna be a collector

and I didn't start collecting
until I bought this house

in 1976, and the first game
in my collection

is my favorite game of all time,

Gottlieb Slick Chick,
April of '63.

It's in my bedroom up right now.

It's been up
since I started my collection

and it's never gone down.

I have a--a--kind of my--
what I call my bible.

Whenever I go to shows,
and I've been doing that

for a long time, I always
copy down serial numbers.

And I have a binder
that I've hand-typed,

since I don't do computers yet.

To me, I think
it would be interesting,

I have 300 games,
where they were at one time.

Egg Head,
Flipper Clown, Tropic Isle,

Fashion Show, Cover Girl.

Were they in Joe's Bar
and Grille

or somewhere down the street,
or at a show?

Uh, I have a column
for the date, the game number,

the players, notes.

It's because ten years from now

I think people
would like to know

where their Twilight Zone
was or their Addams Family

or whatever game
it happens to be.

It's interesting to me.

*

I worked in the bowling industry
for a lot of years

and the last bowling alley
I worked at closed down

twelve years ago,
and so I get up

and work on my collection
every day.

*

I'm in it
for the history of it too.

That's why I collect flyers.

That's why I collect
what they call press photos.

Spiderman.

There's Circus.

They're chronological.

That's--that's all my--up here,
all my photo albums.

I have about 6,000
pinball negatives.

This is Bally parts catalogues,
and then this over here

is schematics.

There's a lot of games
are missin' score cards.

How they get lost
over the years

it's hard to believe,
but they do.

I have 11 comic book boxes
full of score cards.

In the front closet,
there's lots of binders

in there also.

I was blessed
with an unbelievable memory.

I mean, records,
pinballs... jokes.

(laughs)

Did you hear
about the Polish carpoolers?

They all met at work.

Isn't that good?

This front
bedroom

has 26 woodrail
pinball bodies,

all stacked,
twenty four and two,

and approximately 250
backglasses.

Isn't that awesome?

I really don't think
about what it's worth

'cause I really don't want
to sell it.

I want to play 'em.

I want 'em to play like they
did when the--

when they were in the--
comin' out of the factory.

That's why I spend the 40 hours
and do the job right.

(pinball dinging)

Rebuild the bumpers,
rebuild the pop bumpers,

and rebuild the slingshots,
and rebuild the flippers.

A lot of work, and when you're
done and you turn it on

and it doesn't blow up you fe--
you feel real good.

(laughs)

I sort my parts
out of the parts catalogue

by part number.

You never know when somebody's
gonna need somethin'.

I'm gonna need more room.

(laughs)

I'm a people person.

I like people.

When I worked,
it--it--it really wasn't work.

I looked forward to seeing
these people on Monday

and these people on Tuesday
and these people on Wednesday,

and I have, uh, a--
uh, I have--

I never had
any brothers or sisters.

I was an only child,
and, uh, my mom and my real dad

got married and divorced twice.

And they say
it's kind of hereditary

but my--my real dad
smoked and drank

and he was an alcoholic
and I never did drank or smoked,

so bein' an individualist
is...always been proud of.

I can--I--I'll--
I get high on life,

not on anything artificial.

Only 100,000 away
from a game.

Oh, I didn't get it.

Four-eight would--
I was 10,000 away from a game.

The rush
of being able to play

any game you have
at any given time,

if I just push the button,
is you can't explain it

to people, you know?

It's something you like
and it's fun

and it's...enjoyable.

I don't know why some people
have the bug

and some people don't,
but I'm one of the ones

with the bug.

I wake up
and do it every single day.

*

Part of my life.

Like an extension of my hand
or something, I guess.

*

There's a joke that we have
in the business,

which is "how hard can this be?"

Uh, people look in the box,
they see it.

They'll be in a bar
or they'll be with their friend.

They'll look inside and say,
"Oh, how hard could it be

to build a pinball machine?"

Uh, and we like to just smile.

We just smile.

*

Chicago is the pinball capital
of the world.

*

We make it here
'cause the people

who understand
how to make it are here,

the tooling is here,
we live here.

We need to have
that fast turnaround.

It's all in Chicago.

*

I tell people that I've been
in the pinball business

for, um, 61 years
because I'm 61 years old.

This is where
my father started me.

To understand that even today,
with solid-state electronics,

we have 3,500 pieces
in a pinball machine,

over half a mile of wire.

There's a lot that goes
into makin' one.

There's more labor
in a pinball machine,

more man hours
than in a Ford Taurus,

which is built
not far from here.

*

It's a progressive line.

Each person does a little part
of it and passes it along.

Much like automobiles
but by hand.

*

*

The volume of the game business
as a whole, coin-op business,

is significantly down
from what it was.

*

'92,'93, there were 100,000
pinball machines a year made

and there were 4 or 5
different companies or brands.

Today we're the only company
making pinball machines

and we like to, well, yo--
strive to have 10 percent

of what that market once was,
and then we'd have

a nice, small business.

If you drive a 1978
Super Beetle convertible,

it's very cool,
but that's nostalgic

and it's not a great car.

If you have a new Beetle
convertible, that's retro.

It's a modern car
that has some of the--

some of the look and feel
or coolness of it

and it--it's retro.

Um, we don't make games
from the '60s.

We make games of today
that are retro.

We no longer talk about being
the last pinball manufacturer

'cause that sounds
like we're gonna get out.

We're the only pinball
manufacturer

and we intend to remain
in the pinball business.

*

Every game designer
who's worth anything

will tell you that what you're
really trying to build

is a carnival game.

You're trying to build something
that's easy to learn,

easy to play, and hard to beat.

You want to create hooks
in a game, to hook them in,

to interest them,
to keep them interested.

(guns firing)

Destroy the saucer!

Something that's out there,
on the edge of their ability,

that they can--
they can see sometimes

and achieve you--

you know, less times,
that, that, um...

that keep them playing.

Super jackpot!

You get that implanted
in your head

that you want to hear that.

This is Pavlov.

We're teaching you that when
you hear a thing in a game,

it means something.

The best games
are always the games

that left you one shot away.

"Gee, if I had just
that one more shot

I know I would
have gotten it this time.

I had two balls locked
and if I just got

that last ball locked,
'cause I know I did it

last time,
or I did it two games ago,

I just need to do it
one more time.

One more time."

To design a pinball machine,

basically you start
with a theme.

You then begin the process
of "how do I lay out

an interesting pinball machine
with the flippers

and things that represents
where I'm trying to go

with all of this?"

The right lane feeds back
to this flipper.

We build working models
of things

and then we play with it,
but it tells us

whether what we're doing
is going to work or not work

or be fun or not fun.

Okay, this shows
how we mock up what we do,

and then here's the final game.

This is what the final version
of the game looks like

when it's finally produced.

(pinball noises)

Each one of these games
is a year of your life.

In that year of your life,
you always put your best effort

forward to make the game fun.

What you think
will be fun, okay?

And you don't always hit it.

Uh, no game designer
would lie to you

and tell you they always hit.

You don't always hit it.

(crowd noise)

The guy whose games I played

is one of the legends
of the business,

Steve Ritchie.

Hi, my name's Steve Ritchie.

*

(tires screeching)

(engine roaring)

It's not so much
what I wanted to be.

It's what people said
that I was going to be.

They said that I was going
to be a mad scientist

in a toy factory.

Even in grade school,
and that's what I am.

(flippers clicking)

(sirens)

(dinging)

I never thought that I would get
to meet Steve Ritchie.

It's just, it's awesome.

I'm on cloud nine.

(laughs)

It's definitely an art.

Just to know
the science of it is nothing.

You have to understand
how the ball moves,

but it's also curves
and things that the ball does

that make you feel satisfied,
a nice sound, okay?

You send a ball through a hole
and it goes "thunk!"

Locks in, stays solid, you know?

Doesn't bounce out.

Make a sound at the same time.

It's--that's art.

(thunk)

It is a work of art.

Being a programmer by trade
I can appreciate

this is like
a large 3D program to me.

All event-driven, and when it--
as soon as a, uh...

an event happens...

you can picture the electricity
flowing through there

and different things happening.

I mean, for me, this is like
a little, mini-world.

So when the ball's
bouncing around inside,

it's having fun
inside its own little world

and you're helping it along.

(laughs)

Maybe that's why I like it,
'cause I enjoy aquariums.

The little fish
in the tank having fun,

the ball's having a--
having fun in here.

*

If you chart
the history of pinball,

you'll see things
go in and out of style.

*

Pinball has been through
its growth spurts,

when it went from lights
in the backbox to score reels.

From score reels to displays,
and displays to alphanumerics,

and alphanumerics
to dot-matrix.

*

Pinball lost a market of players

because of their
technologically enhanced games.

Video-mode is a feature
that allows me to play

a video game
within this pinball machine.

The machines went
a little haywire with their,

um, toys and all
their different things

that they felt
had to be on a game.

(evil laugh)

There's the biggest division
among pinball players

in my generation.

Most of us would refuse to play
the new highly electronic

pinball games.

They've made the game
so complicated

that five percent
of the people that play 'em

understand the rules.

(pinball sound effects)

I've always been into rules.

I'm into board games
and I love strategy,

so to me it's about rules.

It's about achievement.

It's about goals.

You start a game
and you start learning

about a game
that you've never played before,

and you--
and you--and you go,

"Oh, I see, I--
if I do this and this and this

I get one of those and--

and three of those
gets me a multi-ball.

I can do that,
piece of cake."

You know, and then--
and then you do it

ten times in a r--

and then you play ten times
in a row and you don't do it,

and--and you're like,
"Oh, I can do that!"

(flappers clicking)

For instance, in Pirates,
a very obvious strategy

is to get "time-lock" lit.

You get "time-lock" lit
by shooting balls into the disc,

up the left ramp.

The ball will bounce around
for three or four seconds

while the post is up.

Then the post comes down
and it still may bounce around,

and all the while you'll
complete these lights.

You get the light to the end
and that will light "time-lock."

Once "time-lock" is lit, I know
that I'm good to go there,

so then I start--
then I get the ship multi-ball,

which is the ship--
I get the ship multi-ball

one shot away from starting.

So you shoot the ship,
you shoot the ship,

you shoot the ship.

The ship will start to rock,
and you know that when the ship

is rocking you're one shot away
from starting that multi-ball,

and if I succeed I have
a four-ball multi-ball

of Tortuga running with--

and the ship multi-ball
is one shot away.

Then I try and shoot the ship
with that fourth ball,

starting that multi-ball
and--and--and I like that a lot

because then I can try to lock
balls back into the disc

to create--
to get my multiplier up

while I'm create--
collecting jackpots

and super jackpots,
and--and I...

I find that very satisfying.

Um, so that's just--
that's sort of a...

a low-level goal that I think
anybody can achieve

once they've figured it out
and put it together.

(flappers clicking)

What we do is a business
and what we build is fun.

It just happens
to come in a box.

Pinball machine
is a revenue-earning

piece of equipment,
like a slot machine.

Money goes in and--
and an operator comes along

and collects the money.

The player is entertained.

Uh, he can win a free game.

Um, he, uh--he can
be satisfied,

uh, uh, or have
a great time

for a short time, uh,
even with a little glory.

The knocker goes off
in a crowded bar.

"Hey, I did that.

I made that go off, okay?"

When you hear them
cussing sometimes

or trying to kick the game
to get some action,

and you know that--
you know you're getting--

you're getting the results
that you want, you know?

And you'll see them putting
more coins in that.

You'll say, "Then I made it."

* Put another quarter
in the pinball *

* Yeah put another quarter
in the pinball *

* Another one, two, three

There's the collectors
and then there's the players,

and then there's the people
that just like to talk pinball.

They are almost
every kind of person

you can talk about.

I mean, everyone jokes
about there's some sickness,

there's some--
there's some insanity.

I don't know if any of 'em
are really cool, you know?

But, it's kind of like
the "geeky thing"

is probably
the way pinball

is perceived by
the outsiders.

How do you perceive pinball?

Uh, I'm an insider
so I think it's really cool.

(laughs)

Uh, hello.

Uh, we are from Tokyo, Japan.

We are pinball lovers.

And then now it seems,
you know,

almost like a definition
of a nerd or a, uh,

a weird and marginal person
to be caught playing pinball,

but maybe there's something
attractive about that.

I'm the Jim Morrison of pinball.

They either love me or hate me.

*

I think he's great for pinballs.

I--I--I think
the Pingeek is good.

*

I haven't--haven't met any--
anybody like him before.

(laughs)

I'm not a business man.

I'm just a hack carrying
around a camcorder.

*

All my DVD's here are $10.

Now, I want to start
with this one

because it is very hard to find.

I don't even know if anybody
has this except me at this point

because this was ten years ago.

-Um...
-I got it.

-Who?
-I have it.

*

I love pinball.

I love the hobby.

My main objective here
is to document

every pinball machine
that is in existence,

up and running.

I want to show this one.

This is my biggest seller
to date.

Cost me $22 to make in gas.

You know, 96 percent of my ideas
pan out to money,

'cause I have years of sales
and marketing experience.

Who would have even dreamed
to tape video of a pinball show

ten years ago?

I didn't know this stuff
would sell, did anybody else?

Pfft.

(pinball machine dinging)

Then when you drain the ball,
it kicks up over the switch.

This relay
disallows this switch,

and then this drop switch--

And I could watch it
over and over again myself,

if I had the time.

That was kind of weird.

I'm here to save a hobby
that saved my life

because music has saved my life

'cause I collect records
all the time.

I love music.

I love the movie "Tommy."

That changed my life,
'cause it was music,

and it was about pinball.

The arcades kept me going.

I was pretty much
raised in arcades

because of divorce issues
and just a mess.

My whole life,
up till past couple years,

was just a nightmare,

and now I'm getting recognition,
you know,

as this Pingeek character,

just this guy runnin' around
with a camcorder.

Hold on, I gotta check
my camcorder

'cause I think I got
a bad angle.

I'm showin' my butt right now,
hold on.

Um...

I'm single,
and you got to be,

because if you have a family,
forget it.

I mean, you can't be married
and have kids and do this.

It will kill you.

You know,
you can't do it.

If you met the right woman,

would you give up
pinball for her?

Absolutely not.

(laughing)

I guess, uh, may,
it-it-it would depend

on what type of woman it is.

You want "Pinball Fantasy"?

Sure, that looks pretty cool.

*

What would make me happy?

(cheering)

I'm Elton John at a baseball
stadium by the show,

or something that I can go
in a glitter outfit, you know,

and hop up
on the stage and say,

"Hey, I've arrived for the show,
and guess who my ride is?

It's this hot chick
in leather pants,"

and I'm on a Harley,
and in the back,

she drops me off,
and she goes, "You're Pingeek,"

and I go, "Yeah."

Elton John was the ultimate
showman in the '70s,

and I want to be like him,
I want to be a showman.

I might be pinball's
biggest fan.

I really don't know,
but it's just going out,

having fun, saving a game
from being thrown in the trash

and bringing it back.

You could call some of us
geeks--even me,

because we're all
into the game, you know?

And maybe that's
not the coolest thing,

so, you know--but hey,
we're havin' fun with it.

You know, everybody tells me
what to do.

Everybody tells me
to take these drugs.

I should be in an institution,
I should be doing this.

I should have kids.

I should be doin' that.

I get so much crap advice
that, basically,

I'd be dead and bankrupt
if I listened to any of it,

and, you know,
I do my own thing.

*

People need to slow down
and get back to basics here

and talk to each other
and, you know,

there might not be all this
fighting and war and shooting,

and, you know,
whatever happened

to just goin' into a bar
like John Wayne?

You know, somebody said
somethin' to you,

you punch him out

and then you have a drink
over it later.

*

I give-I'm pretty go--
I've given up on mankind.

We're all gonna die.

I mean, it's--you know,
it's inevitable,

and the air's not
getting any better anyway,

but one person cannot save
the world, I found that out,

but I can try to save
this industry and this hobby.

I can do my best,
I mean, you know?

(sighing)

Yeah, I'm definitely
misunderstood.

I'm, you know...

*

*

Here's this landscape
of things that are happening,

and-and I can effect
that change

by the simple manipulation
of pressing a button,

and by pressing a button
at the right time,

that ball is going to be
propelled into something

that's gonna hit something,
knock something, do whatever.

You are the-the person
that is, in some ways,

controlling your own destiny.

I used to think that it was
man versus machine,

but I tended
to back away and said,

"It's not really
man against machine.

It's man with machine."

(game sirens)

If I can sense
the rhythm of that game,

the tempo of that game,

I wanna be working
in tandem with it.

I don't want--
I'm not fighting it.

I'm not fighting against it.

I'm workin' with it.

You have to be in sync.

You know, I-I want
to give to that game

and it's gonna give back to me.

Oh!

(applause, cheers)

Holy cow.

Whoo!

I guarantee you,
it's chemically similar

to, uh, that of athletes.

Uh, when athletes,
you know, get in the zone

they feel as though they're
watching themselves, you know,

run the ball down the field.

It's--it is transcendent.

Pinball reminds me of, like,
dreamin' because, like,

when I'm playin' the game,
it's like, uh,

I'm not really with,
like, reality.

I'm just kinda watchin'
this ball kind of float around.

It's like bein' in some place
where you don't really know

what you're doin',

but yet, you're watching
what you're doin',

and you're trying to concentrate
on it, and it feels like--

it feels like a dream.

It really is a unique feeling
to become one with the machine.

To-to tell that ball
where it's gonna go

and have your fingers
and your flippers

and your shaking ability
put that ball

where it's supposed to go.

It's sort of a Zen,

when you're sort
of meditating and you just--

and that's all you're
concentrated on is the pinball.

You can forget everything else.

It just feels like, you know,
here's the flippers,

and the more you get
in the zone,

it just feels
like the flippers are together

and you can't lose the ball
out the middle.

You've built it up
and built it up,

and now comes
the big multi-ball,

the one you've been
trying to get for 20 games,

and you play that, uh,
for all it's worth,

and you stretch it out
and you embellish it,

and you let all the people
that are watching know that,

"look at this person,
this person's just done

a very difficult thing here.

He must be--
he must be special."

Uh-oh.

(pinball machine dinging)

Of course, when you get
to put your initials on,

it's like, "There I am,
I own this game."

I, uh--I put a lot of playtime
in on this machine,

and I try to,
I try to defend it.

It's my home territory,
so I try to make sure

that people see my name
in as many games as possible.

One particular day,
when I was playing,

where I--I was just simply
ahead of the machine.

The machine couldn't keep up
with me and I was accumulating

so many free games,
and I could not leave

'cause I did not want
to lose these free games,

and eventually, after about
three or four hours,

I had to go,

so in a sense, there's,
there is a possibility,

you have the illusion
that you've won.

There is something inevitable
about losing at pinball,

and I think that's a blessing,
because there's a feeling

often when you're
playing pinball

that the machine decides
when you need to go home,

and if you're tired enough,
you'll start playing poorly,

and the machine notices that,

and it wipes you out
and it sends you packing.

(unintelligible chatter)

The object of play in pinball
is a high score.

If you score enough,
you win a free game.

The way to win
is to control the ball,

either with the flippers

or by careful nudging
of the entire machine.

You know, you see a truly
skilled pinball player,

you realize
it is a game of skill,

not a game of chance.

When I started, we started
with small flippers.

You basically played,
you know, gun and run,

run and gun.

Ball's coming down, boom.

And just pound away,
just do it.

I mean, it's--
it's pure adrenaline,

and it's pure reflex.

It is the spontaneity
of that reflex.

(unintelligible)

Now what you have
are players who control

the tempo of the game.

I see it with my sons,
in all honesty.

I mean, there are times
where I just stand back

and I marvel at the fact
that they have

the ability that they have.

One of the ways that I've
become a better player,

and I think it's
sort of the difference

between how I approach
a game of pinball

and how our dad approaches
a game of pinball.

I look at a game,
I try to find a weakness,

and I try to exploit that
weakness for my own gain,

whereas, you know, my dad
will sit and shoot a ramp

over and over again
for no points,

because the shot feels good.

(laughter)

And it's like--

(stylized heartbeat)

It's very serious.

They train and they have
training sessions.

(applause)

This is a sport,
you're gonna work a sweat.

I've seen some players play
where their entire body,

like, floats up from the game.

(yelling)

You know, you're down there
playin' for five or six hours.

To stand and stay focused
that long, it's,

it's pretty draining.

I'm sore in my legs.

I'm sore in
my shoulders,

underneath my
arms, my calves.

(yelling)

You want to build up
those pinball muscles.

I know it
sounds crazy,

but we
are athletes.

(heartbeat)

I've always wanted to be
the champion of the world

in something,

and then I had to figure out
what it was gonna be in,

and then I figured out
that it's gonna be pinball.

(cheering)

And later on tonight,
Rick Stetta, who's being crowned

the new pinball wizard
of the world.

It was really in 1991, I think,
Rick Stetta became our first

really recognized
world champion.

Rick Stetta.

Thirty-two.

Sunnyvale, California.

World's best pinball player.

Well, I...don't really
have a job.

*

I was the same person
I always was

before I got
all my publicity,

just a guy that went out and,
and liked playing

the machines, and--
and, you know,

nobody...

nobody thought
that much of me, you know?

Um, they thought, you know,
I was pretty much, you know,

just some, some weird guy
that was out doin' stuff

by himself,

and, um, just out of touch
with life.

I started playing
when I was 10 years old,

and when I was 15, I decided
to dedicate my life to it,

become the best in the world.

I practice three to four hours
a day, on the average,

and that's almost every day.

I miss about one day a month.

It's addictive.

You start thinking about
when you're gonna get your,

your next one and where it's
gonna be from,

and what it's gonna be like.

Yeah, it's the whole thing.

Pinball has gotten a lot more
complicated nowadays,

and it's becoming more
and more unclear to me

how people are getting
big scores.

I was trying to see if my name
was still on it, too,

but mine had actually fallen off
of the number 1-through-25 list.

Besides, all the world
really wants to know

is who's in the top ten.

(pinball machine fanfare)

Yeah, sometimes
you see it all when,

when you're playing
really well.

I can see a ball
going toward the out lane

at 12 inches away,

and know that I have to do
something right away,

and I'll nudge the machine,
and when the ball gets there,

it just does this thing
off the post and rolls in.

Like I knew,
I could see it.

When I watched him,
he does the routine

where he's, like,
you know, just--

you know, like a mime
or somethin' like this,

sizin' up the game
and tips it a little bit.

He respects the game,
he wipes it off with whatever.

and he's got this own routine
that's only his.

Nobody can do it, but the
body English and everything,

he's just one with the game,

and I want to do
what he's doing.

The way I play, I've got this
dance thing goin' on, you know,

and I could be, like,
on one hand and one heel,

and then I'm making my decision
how to hit that machine

from that odd pose.

But I would be in that spot
because the way I play,

it was determined that that's
where I was supposed to be

before that ball was there,
and then I'd pop it

and change my stance
and watch the ball roll in

and, and play the ball,
and I'd st--I'd be amazed.

No matter how many times
I'd see something odd like that,

each time that I would see it,
I would be amazed.

*

I would hate to be 95 years old
and look back on my life

and say, "You know,
what I really wanted to do

was play pinball, but,
gee, my mom told me

that I should get a career."

Pinball makes me feel
very special

because I have pinball
as my own world,

always something
that's there for me.

Pinball is a prize,

a diamond in the rough
that I have personally shined.

Pinball is something
that's done something for me

that I had to discover
for myself,

that was already there
in a world that--

that gives us all kinds
of input about stuff

that we don't even
want to hear

other people's
input about.

The input I got about pinball

was that it was
something negative,

and I knew

that all that input
was mistaken.

Pinball is a world of,
of special rules and,

and unique opportunities
and entertainment coming out

of seemingly nowhere.

I would even go
as far as to say

as I am special
because of pinball.

*

*

I always played pinball,

and my friends and I
were always into it,

but we never had any idea that
there was pinball competitions.

"Wow, we've got
to go to these things

and I'm gonna go
and annihilate everybody."

And we went to our first show
and your heart would be pounding

and you'd be shakin' a little,
and just so nervous that it--

it was really difficult to play.

You'd choke,
you wouldn't do well,

and you have to wait a year
till you get back

to try it again, you know?

Aww!

There's, like, 10 women
and, you know, 200 men,

but pay no mind to it.

*

It's not as popular with girls
as is with boys,

but we can play just as well.

*

(applause)

*

*

There's a strong mental
component to remain calm

and in control.

The best players
will never do something

that affects the ball unless
they do it for a purpose,

and ball control
doesn't just mean

always catching the ball
and holding it.

It also means putting the ball
where you want it

so that you know
where it's gonna be next,

not just where it is right now.

You know, people in A division,
you know, it's, like,

it's just amazing
to watch, watch them play.

Like, they-they do stuff
that, uh, that sometime,

you would think
was not possible.

And I think that it's special
to see incredible play,

because it combines chess with
true physical inner activity

and people who have,
you know, the ability

to hold their concentration,
have the reflexes, uh,

know how to dissect
a play field

and the objectives
and the rules,

into something that is as
elegant as watching a ballet.

*

*

I would say most
of my vacation time

is, uh, pinball shows.

My mother lives, uh,
lives with me in New Jersey,

and I tell her
I'm goin' to these shows,

She said, "Go ahead,
enjoy yourself."

She says, "You gotta
have some fun,

so go ahead,
enjoy yourself."

Six million!

And basically, I'm a synthetic
organic chemist.

Actually, uh, been working
on, uh, they're trying to find

a treatment for,
for Alzheimer's disease.

Fifty million!

I like chess,
I like to solve math puzzles.

Gonna have to wait.

You know, I like,
uh, bowling.

Then I'm a,
I'm a big rail fan,

so I like to ride--

I like to ride subways.

I really haven't made it to, um,
finals, and, um,

or made a tournament
in a while.

I think I, I did it,
I did it once in--it was '99,

and--but I got eliminated,
unfortunately,

so I'm hoping to, uh, you know,
to actually win

a major tournament.

*

* A storm is brewin'
along the horizon *

* Clouds gettin' darker,
but my sun is still risin' *

* Surprisin' villagers,
flooding cities and towns *

* Down with the strong,
and I could be cut down *

The Storm is,
uh, my nickname.

I came up with it myself.

* To rectify,
electrify your brain *

* Eyes closed in terror

I was born and raised
in Manhattan.

I-I started playing pinball
when I was four years old,

so pinball and I kind of
grew up together.

I want to win, and I want
to beat the best.

I don't go day to day thinking
that I'm second-best.

It makes it much easier to live
thinking that I'm the best

and I just haven't
had my moment.

What's really important
when you play pinball

at the world-championship level

is to get
your mentality straight,

to be sharp, and to have
a killer instinct.

Get in there!

Because everyone is so good
that you need the mental edge.

I deliberately pump myself up
to bring that killer instinct

up to the highest level,

so that's where it's a storm,

because you got two
totally conflicting things.

You got this placid,
Buddha, meditative state,

and you have this
devilish fire,

screaming-madman state

going on at the same time.

And if you can balance
those two things,

you'll be unbeatable,
and sometimes I am.

And I feel like an outsider.

I feel kind of like someone
that they all think

they're better than,

and I know for a fact
that I can beat them,

and I haven't proved that yet.

There is enough
of a skill element

that the best players
always rise to the top,

but there's enough
of a luck element

that everyone
should have their day,

and I haven't had mine yet.

One of the gentlemen here,
Neil Shatz,

has been in the finals
three or four different times,

and it's, like,
if there is a pinball god,

maybe they're cursing him
because he's second place

or third place,
and he's so great.

He deserves to win finally,
and so if,

if I were to pick
someone to win--

well, I'd pick me,

but, uh, if I were to pick
two people to win,

I'd pick him.

I've taken, uh,
second at PAPA.

I've taken second in Pinburgh,
and second place in Arizona,

uh, second place
at the Pinathon is Roseville.

Second at Expo I believe
three times in A,

and then I won
the B division.

I started the competitive
circuit in, uh, 1992,

and then when I went
to that first tournament,

I took second behind Rick
and got a book for it,

and then I realized
I was hooked at that point.

Sometimes, I've made
mental mistakes and,

and then it's really
tough to deal with.

It's frustrating,
but other times

I think I've played
to the best of my ability,

not made any mistakes,
and it's that knowledge

of knowin' that pinball
can deal you bad breaks

and it's no one's fault that,
um, I think helps me deal

with a lot of those situations,
but sure, yeah.

It's, it's tough, um,
but I enjoy just

the thrill of competition,
so I think that just

keeps me comin' back,
regardless of the result.

Give me a typical moment
this morning, guys?

Trying to, uh, last-minute
qualify here.

And another thing too
is just happening to have

my competitive career
when, you know,

some true giants of the game
were also, um, in their prime.

I mean, Bowen Kerins,

Keith Elwin,
Lyman Sheats Jr.

Absolutely, I think those guys
are simply better players.

Maybe none better
than Lyman Sheats.

Lyman Sheats.

Lyman Sheats.

Lyman Sheats.

He's the best pinball player
in the world.

(flappers clicking)

I'm a game programmer.

I, uh, program, uh,
pinball machines,

work with designers, uh,
and, uh, basically

make the game do
all of what it does.

(flippers clicking)

While I was in college,
it was around 1986.

You know, bein' in college,
it's kinda

low-pressure,
fun environment,

and it just, uh--
I don't know,

I just kinda took to it as a,
as a very inexpensive

form of entertainment.

It was about five years
after that

that I started competing.

There are, like,
a couple techniques I try and,

you know, teach at first.

The easiest thing
is to just hit the flippers,

uh, individually.

Uh, you know,
just at separate times.

I don't know, you know,
if people,

I see a lot of people,
you know,

they hit both flippers
at the same time.

The other is,
it's pretty easy

to just not do anything,

um, in terms of when
the ball is coming down.

I mean, I always, like,
try and stress ball control

to people who, um--

(click)

You know,
when they first play.

Try and get the balls
under control

in multi-ball here.

I'm actually gonna try
and get one of these balls

over the other flipper
so I can make a shot,

score some points.

Sort of like that.

Lyman Sheats,
never had seen him before,

and I watched this person
methodically

do a passing shot over,
make the shot, kick down, go up,

passing shot, over.

So--so, like that.

Bounce the ball over
to the other flipper.

Now it's under control
just because--

And I just watched in disbelief,
and I said, "This is amazing.

This is incredible."

I'd never thought
of playing pinball that way.

*

The what?

The what?

*

I don't even know
nothin' about it.

*

What's that, pinball?

Pinball?

Play pinball?

*

World Pinball Championship.

Here we are.

World Pinball Championships.

I didn't even know
they were having

a pinball championship here.

*

PAPA was actually started
by Steve Epstein

in New York City.

He did the first six of them.

What exactly is PAPA?

PAPA is the Professional
Amateur Pinball Association.

And then Kevin got
the rights to take it over,

and then he built this place.

This is about 30,000
square feet of space

for about 350 or so
pinball machines.

It was built in 2004.

It was finished about one day
before the actual tournament.

We had the tournament.

Everyone came here.

Everyone had a great time,
and within one week

there was a hurricane named Ivan
that came up the East Coast,

and the, the little creek
in front of here

overflowed its banks.

*

Well, the flood
was five feet high

in some places,

and I was out here
when it was happening,

and there was nothing
to be done about it.

It destroyed
240 pinball machines

and about a dozen video games.

*

*

All of the machines
were taken out front

and basically
smashed for parts.

*

It was heartbreaking.

It was everything we had
just finished, was washed away.

*

We call it the graveyard.

You never know
when you need a part.

*

I was just frustrated and--
and wanted to get the place

cleaned up so I could decide
if I wanted to try again.

It did prove possible
to clean up and rebuild.

Kevin rebuilt it and purchased
all the machines within a year,

and we got it open again

about one day before it was
ready to go last year,

and we were ready to go again.

Uh, it's what I wanna do,

and I had barely
really gotten started.

It seemed silly
to only do it once.

*

(foreign choral singing)

*

*

You can have a great game
one game, next game you'll look

like you've never played pinball
before in your life.

* Yeah, yeah

* Yeah, yeah

* Yeah, yeah

* Yeah, yeah

*

*

There are a couple of people

who are really
high-quality players,

very focused when they play,
tough to beat.

You know, when they're
having an off day,

that's the day that you hope
you have your on day,

because they don't--they don't
have off days very often.

*

* Hey

* Hey

* Hey

In the final rounds,

most players
will put up huge games,

just because of the situation.

They, they rise
to the occasion.

* Hey

Anything can happen.

One slip and the ball goes,
and that's it.

* Hey

* Hey

* Hey

* Hey

*

* Hey

*

* Hey

*

* Hey

Okay, the first-place winner
and new World Pinball Champion,

the incomparable Lyman Sheats!

(cheering, applause)

(video game beeping)

It certainly presented
an entertainment option

that was awfully compelling.

As much as pinball was sort of
man against machine,

your ability to catch
and move that ball around

and hit those targets,

video offered
a completely new dimension.

(video game beeping)

In 1980, you could not possibly
build enough video games

to saturate the market,
it was impossible.

Little by little,
the interest in playing

the pinballs went down,

and of course,
the videos came up.

And all of a sudden, our income
doubled and tripled overnight.

Then Pacman hit.

I couldn't believe
how much money

they'd take in a weekend.

It just blew me away,

and then the pinball sat there
almost forlorn-looking.

You know, like,
"Come play me."

When video came in,
it was such a big deal,

and all the people
that had been playing pinball

got squeezed out.

What can you do
in a video game?

You can't see anything
except what's on the screen,

but when you're playing
a pinball game,

you're playing actually
a piece of equipment

that you can move around
and control.

Video games you can play
a few times,

learn the patterns,
and beat 'em.

You can beat 'em endlessly.

You can beat 'em
into submission.

Pinball machines,
you can't do that.

You can only go so far
and then it--

it just dominates you,
so you always lose in the end.

There's not a closed-end
loop here.

It's a pinball machine.

There's a beginning,
but it's endless.

A video game, I got to the end,
I finished it.

It took me, you know,
42 months and 10 hours a day,

but I finished the game,
it is now done.

A pinball machine,
you're never done.

The real back-breaker came

when home video finally
hit the marketplace,

when you could go out
and buy your Atari console,

where you could pop in
the various games

and play right on your set.

Now kids weren't
collecting in one spot

and having that
social interaction.

They were now breaking down
into sub-little-groups

of either myself
playing at home,

or me and my buddy
playing at home,

but it really spelled
the end of, certainly,

the pinball era.

It was widely believed
at the time

that videogames
had usurped pinball

and there was no longer a need
for pinball whatsoever.

And then one day,
people got bored

with playing
all these video games,

and the industry
imploded on itself.

(mechanized explosion)

Pinball was back
on the map again.

After a decade of decline,

flippers are flapping,
bumpers are thumping.

Pinball is bouncing back.

The last coming of pinball
would have been 1992, '93.

In those years, we built,
oh, somewhere around

120-, 130,000
pinball machines that year.

*

*

*

*

I've had a steady connection
to pinball

for the last 50 years.

I had a lot of life
tied up in it.

It was sort of an identity
that I, I grew,

and I didn't
separate very well

the identity of me
as the Broadway Arcade

and me as Steve Epstein.

(arcade noises)

Took me quite a few years
after we closed the arcade

to really, uh,
I had a pretty big long funk,

to be honest with you.

It wasn't a monetary
thing that, you know,

I lost a big income.

It was really a presence and,
uh, just the daily interaction

of the world that I had
at my doorstep,

that I knew I was never
gonna have again.

(arcade game noises)

It was a
life-defining moment

that, uh,
saddens me,

and still saddens me, actually.

Big smile, Steve!

That whole '70s into the '80s
into the early '90s

was a time when, you know,

the magic of pinball
was out there.

The magic of pinball
still exists.

It just has to reconnect
with the people.

You know, I go out now and I see
some of my old friends,

and I play pinball,

and that's, that's nice,
but, you know,

having the Broadway Arcade
was, uh, was a unique

and incredible experience that,
uh, just never gonna happen

for me again.

(arcade game noises)

I think one of the most
difficult things

that anybody might encounter
in their lives

is to be somewhat
helpless

in the inevitability of an
outcome.

So if you look at the,
at the downside of it all, um,

pinball deserves a better fate
than what it currently has.

In truth, it isn't a big part
of our culture anymore.

In truth,

you might not
want to print this, but...

pinball's slowly going.

It is an American invention.

It has been a big part
of American pop culture,

but I'm not sure
that...

anyone will care

in 10 to 15 years.

That's my thoughts,
but I don't know.

*

Were pinball not to survive,

the world would continue,

but a little bit of the fabric
of life would be gone.

*

I don't know
if we can get to a point

where there is
a precipitous

need and desire

by the general population
for pinball.

I think that there is
a fleeting sense

of one's naiveté
and innocence

that games bring out,

and as we get older,
for many of us,

we step away
from doing those things

that gave us joy
when we were younger,

and I think that that
loss of innocence is tough,

and that is the tragedy
of it,

because there is still
something that is just

marvelously entrancing
about pinball,

and everybody should try it,
at some point in time.

*

Pinball is a game
that

adds more to life.

Yes, I think it is definitely
more than just a game.

I-I-I, it is such a unique
experience that you cannot

replicate anywhere else.

I mean, you have
a universe in a,

in a box under glass,
and every time

you enter that universe,
it's different.

You never know what
you're gonna have.

You never know what
you're gonna experience,

but whatever that experience is,
of frustration, anxiety,

the pleasure of making shots
and scoring,

I mean, it's all part
of what life really is,

and I-I-I equate it
much how life is.

You never know what you're gonna
get around the next corner,

but you, you got to go
and be involved in it.

*

I still get calls.

People still walk by that,
you know, they look for it,

even to this day.

I mean, you know,
it's very strange, very strange.

It was a great 35 years.

*

*

* Pinball

*

* Pinball

*

* Pinball

*

* Pinball

*

* Pinball

*

*

* Pinball

*

*