The Pinball Arcade

It's a sad fact but there is likely a whole generation of gamers out there that will have never actually seen a pinball table out in the wild, let alone played on one.

I'm lucky enough to have , both seen and played on those when they were still kinda relevant, though not in arcades as there were none in my my area, but in pubs there would always be at least one, more often than not accompanied by an arcade cabinet (and those would usually house a fighting game. I have witnessed Fatal Fury, Super Street Fighter II and Samurai Showdown in my hometown. Fun times. Today all you get are Bally Bingo machines in pubs, or virtual slots and card games. Miss those old days!

Nowadays it almost feels like you've stumbled across buried treasure when you find a pinball machine in good working order. There are likely a lot more out there I'm yet to discover but I only actually know where there are 3 pin-tables in Manchester. Arcade machines are bit easier to stumble across as a lot of cinema foyers seem to have a few in there ('House of the Dead' / 'Time Crisis' etc)

I was lucky I grew up near a seaside town so heading out with mates for a few games of pool followed by a trawl around the arcades was a regular occurrence