by Adam Ruben
PAPA20 marked the last pinball competition inside Kevin Martin’s warehouse in Carnegie; Martin announced that he’s moving future events, starting with PAPA21, to an even larger and better venue. Sweet.
There can be no more inspiring story about the future of pinball than the shocking outcome of PAPA20. After surpassing the usual group of luminaries (including Cayle George and both Sharpe brothers) in the semifinals and finals of A Division, Bowen Kerins faced off in a tiebreaker against Escher Lefkoff—age thirteen. Kerins was once the youngest PAPA world champion himself, winning PAPA4 at eighteen years old, and at PAPA20, he lost that title on a game of Skateball (1980) to Escher Lefkoff. Streaming PAPA TV shows Kerins draining his last ball unexpectedly, falling to his knees, and an overjoyed Lefkoff jumping into the arms of his dad, Adam Lefkoff—who himself took seventeenth place in A Division, losing in the first round to his son.
It was an invigorating outcome for pinball, a sign that the youth are ready to receive the torch. Nor was Escher Lefkoff the only young pinball prodigy at PAPA20—the B Division winner was sixteen years old, and the D Division winner was eight. I think pinball will be all right.
Maya, now age six, often asks to go to VÜK, or as she calls it, “pinball pizza.” I love to tell her yes.
Appendix
* * *
SO YOU WANT TO PLAY PINBALL, or at least learn more about it. Here are some useful resources and some awesome places and events to visit. All are current as of this writing. Bring quarters.
Magazines
Gameroom Magazine, www.gameroommagazine.net
Pinball Magazine, www.pinball-magazine.com
Pingame Journal, www.pingamejournal.com
Blogs
The Gameroom Blog, www.gameroomblog.com
Pavlov Pinball, www.pavlovpinball.com
Pinball News, www.pinballnews.com
Podcasts
Coast 2 Coast Pinball, www.podcastgarden.com/podcast/coast2coastpinball
The CoinBox Pinball Podcast, coinbox.libsyn.com
Dead Flip, www.deadflip.com
Gameroom Junkies, gameroomjunkies.com
Geek Gamer Weekly, www.geekgamer.tv
The Pinball Podcast, www.thepinballpodcast.com
Spooky Pinball Podcast, www.spookypinball.com/podcast-2
Pinball Museums (United States)
Ann Arbor Pinball Museum, Michigan, vfwpinball.com
Asheville Pinball Museum, North Carolina, ashevillepinball.com
Coney Island Pinball Museum, El Cerrito, California, www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org
Lone Star Pinball Museum, Hockley, Texas, www.lspinball.com
Museum of Pinball, Banning, California, www.museumofpinball.org
Pacific Pinball Museum, Alameda, California, pacificpinball.org
Pinball Arcade Museum, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, www.facebook.com/DellsPinballArcadeMuseum
Pinball Hall of Fame, Las Vegas, Nevada, www.pinballmuseum.org
Pinball Perfection, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, www.pinballperfection.com
Quarterworld, Portland, Oregon, www.quarterworldarcade.com
Replay Amusement Museum, Tarpon Springs, Florida, www.replaymuseum.org
Roanoke Pinball Museum, Virginia, www.roanokepinball.org
Seattle Pinball Museum, Washington, www.seattlepinballmuseum.com
Silverball Museum, Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Delray Beach, Florida, silverballmuseum.com
Pinball Museums (Europe)
Budapest Pinball Museum, Hungary, www.flippermuzeum.hu
Dutch Pinball Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, www.dutchpinballmuseum.com
Krakow Pinball Museum, Poland, www.krakowpinballmuseum.com
Paris Pinball Museum, France, www.pinball-gallery.com
Museums with Pinball but Not Solely Dedicated to Pinball
American Classic Arcade Museum, Laconia, New Hampshire, www.classicarcademuseum.org
Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn, New York, www.coneyisland.com
International Arcade Museum, Pasadena, California, www.arcade-museum.com
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, Farmington Hills, Michigan, www.marvin3m.com
Musée Mecanique, San Francisco, California, www.museemecaniquesf.com
National Videogame Museum, Frisco, Texas, www.nvmusa.org
Retro Arcade Museum, Beacon, New York, www.retroarcademuseum.com
Route 66 Arcade Museum, Atlanta, Illinois, and America’s Playable Arcade Museum, McLean, Illinois, www.vintagevideogames.com
The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York, www.museumofplay.org
Supercade, Los Angeles, California, www.facebook.com/supercade
Online Resources for Locating Pinball in Public
Pinball Map (with smartphone app), www.pinballmap.com
Pinball Rebel locator, www.pinballrebel.com/locator
Pinball Spot, www.pinballspot.com/web
Pinfinder (with smartphone app), www.pinballfinder.org
Pinformer (UK only), www.pinformer.co.uk
Other Online Resources
International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA), www.ifpapinball.com
Internet Pinball Database (IPDB), www.ipdb.org
Pinball Bash forum, www.pinballbash.com
Pinside forum, www.pinside.com
Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA), www.papa.org
Rec.Games.Pinball Forum, groups.google.com/d/forum/rec.games.pinball
Tilt Forums, www.tiltforums.com
Tournaments, Shows, Events, and Conventions
California Extreme, Santa Clara, www.caextreme.org
Free Play Florida, Orlando, wp.freeplayflorida.com
Louisville Arcade Expo, Kentucky, www.arcaderx.com
Lyons Pinball Spring Classic, Colorado, www.lyonspinball.com
Michigan Pinball Expo, Rochester, www.mipinball.com
Midwest Gaming Classic, Brookfield, Wisconsin, www.midwestgamingclassic.com
Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show, Tacoma, Washington, www.nwpinballshow.com
Ohio Pinball Show, Cuyahoga Falls, www.ohiopinballshow.com
PAPA World Pinball Championships, Carnegie, Pennsylvania, papa.org
Pinball at the ’Zoo, Kalamazoo, Michigan, www.pinballatthezoo.com
Pinball Expo, Chicago, Illinois, www.pinballexpo.net
PinFest, Allentown, Pennsylvania, www.pinfestival.com
Pintastic Pinball and Game Room Expo, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, www.pintasticnewengland.com
Portland PinBrawl, Oregon, groundkontrol.com/category/portland-pinbrawl
Replay FX, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, replayfx.org
Retro Gaming Expo, Portland, Oregon, www.retrogamingexpo.com
Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown and Gameroom Expo, Denver, Colorado, www.pinballshowdown.com
Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo, Atlanta, Georgia, www.southernfriedgameroomexpo.com
Texas Pinball Festival, Frisco, texaspinball.com/tpf
Vancouver FlipOut Pinball Expo, British Columbia, www.vancouverflipout.com
White Rose Gameroom Show, York, Pennsylvania, theyorkshow.com
These are just a few of the major events in the United States and Canada. For plenty of others, and events outside the United States, see www.pinballnews.com/diary. Also see a list of IFPA-sanctioned tournaments at www.ifpapinball.com/calendar. And for a list of IFPA-sanctioned leagues, see www.ifpapinball.com/leagues.
Manufacturers
Dutch Pinball, Reuver, Netherlands, www.dutchpinball.com
Heighway Pinball, Ebbw Vale, Wales, www.heighwaypinball.com
Jersey Jack Pinball, Lakewood, New Jersey, www.jerseyjackpinball.com
Spooky Pinball, Benton, Wisconsin, www.spookypinball.com
Stern Pinball, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, www.sternpinball.com
Accessories, Parts, and Mods
Bay Area Amusements, www.bayareaamusements.com
Coin Taker, cointaker.com
Marco Specialties, www.marcospecialties.com
Mezel Mods, mezelmods.com
Pinball Life, www.pinballlife.com
The Pinball Resource, www.pbresource.com
Pinball Swag, www.pinballswag.com
The Pinball Wizard, www.thepinballwizard.net
Planetary Pinball Supply, www.planetarypinball.com
Pinball Charities
Pinball EDU, www.pinball-edu.org
Pinball Outreach Project, www.pinballoutreach.org
Project Pinball, www.projectpinball.org
Acknowledgments
* * *
NO TWO WAYS about it, Marina is a saint. Thank you for picking up all of the household tasks, double child care included, during each of my trips to some far-flung pinball destination. Thank you even more for editing this book.
I’m equally indebted in the latter regard to Marina’s mother, Vicki, for her extensive edits, and to Roger Sharpe, for fact-checking the entire book and providing a lot of valuable historical context.
So many people were generous with their time in granting me interviews and answering questions that it would be impossible to thank them all, but I’ll try. In alphabetical order: Duncan Brown, Jody Dankberg, Bill and Linda Disney, Barry Driessen, Charlie Emery, Steve Epstein, Jack Guarnieri, Andrew Heighway, Dan Hosek, Ken Kalada, Bowen Kerins, Pat Lawlor, Jody Levchuk, David Marston, Ben Matchstick, Scott Nash, Constance Negley, Barry Oursler, Kevin Perone, Ash Preheim, Ed Robertson, Paul Rubens (no relation), Joe Said, Jim Schelberg, Joe and Julie Schober, Daniel Spolar, Jay Stafford, Gerry Stellenberg, Amber Streath, Josh and Zach Sharpe, Gary Stern, Pete Talbot, and Dan Toskaner.
Thank you to my agent, Laurie Abkemeier, and my editors at Chicago Review Press, Jerry Pohlen and Lindsey Schauer, for all of their help in making this book a reality. Thank you to Mike Freeman for Googling “pinball league” in 2003 when searching for a birthday present for me, and thank you to Lee Hadbavny for joining me at PAPA19.
Finally, thank you to my family for our numerous trips to the pinball arcades of the Delaware seashore. If you want to go back, just let me know. I’m ready anytime.
Index
* * *
A. G. Soccer-Ball (1991), 127–128
A-B-C (1951), 72–73
Abess, Brett, 178, 181–182
Abess, Leonard, 178–179
Achterberg, Rich, 131, 132
add-a-ball feature, 38n
Addams Family, The (1992), 122–123, 127
Advance (1933), 17
Aerosmith (2017), 245
Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (2017), 245
Alien (2017), 198, 246
Alvin G. and Company, 127–128
American Pinball, 246
America’s Most Haunted (2014), 190–191
Anghelo, Python, 87n
Ann Arbor Pinball Museum, 76–78
Arcade Access, 187
arcades, 79, 95, 109–118
Arnold, Tim, 81, 126, 167n, 185, 207
artwork, 59–60, 87n, 176
backboxes, 2
backglass, 2
Baffle Ball (1931), 19–20, 19n
bagatelle, 12–17, 12n, 13n
Baker, Brad, 208
Bally Manufacturing, 20, 24, 72, 73, 105
Ballyhoo (1932), 20
bangback, 66
Bank Shot (1976), 88, 89
Banzai Run (1987), 174
barcades, 114
Barenaked Ladies, 98
Barnes, Richard, 105, 106
Batman 66 (2016), 245
battery backup, 22n
Beercade, 114–115
Bellah, Bill, 37
bells, 22
Belsito, Jim, 231
Bermuda (1948), 70
Bethesda, Maryland, 240–241
Big Flipper (1970), 74
Big Indian (1974), 62
Big Lebowski, The (2016), 201–203, 202n, 223n, 246
Bill Paxton Pinball, 189
Billboard magazine, 19–20, 85
Billet, Sadie, 27
bingo machines, 38n, 72–73
Bingo Pinball War, The (Lawton), 73
Black Cat, The (venue), 97–98
Black Fever (1980), 62–63
Blackpool, England, 195n
BMI Gaming, 110n
bounce passes, 7
Bourdain, Anthony, 80
Bride of Pin·bot 2.0 (2013), 201
Broadway Arcade, Manhattan, New York, 43
Broughton, John, 109
Brown, Duncan, 142, 143, 144
bumpers, 3, 22, 22n
cabinets, 2
Capcom, 128
Cardboard Teck Instantute, 187
Carnegie, Pennsylvania, 45
cash payouts, 24–25, 37–38
Charles X (king of France), 13
Checkpoint (1991), 171
Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company, 70, 105
Chicago Tribune, 144
chill maneuvers, 7
Christie, Chris, 80
Cirqus Voltaire (1997), 87n
claw machines, 31
cockamaroo, 13n
Cohn, Nik, 105–106, 106n
coin acceptors, 37, 145
Coleco, 85n
competitions. See tournaments
Complete Pinball Book, The (Rossignoli), 107, 238
Comte d’Artois. See Charles X (king of France)
Conditt, Jessica, 238
Contact (1933), 21–22
conversion kits, 61
Costello, Frank, 24
Crain’s Chicago Business, 111, 121
Cuban, Mark, 208
Cunningham, Gene, 125
Cupids and Canines tournament, 41–42
D. Gottlieb and Company, 19–20, 62, 62n, 69, 71–72, 105, 128
D&D Pinball, Tucson, Arizona, 117
Dankberg, Jody, 148, 152, 155–159, 161, 161n, 178, 181, 191
Data East Pinball, 128, 151, 171
DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) Pinball League, 96–97, 101
death saves, 66
Defender (1982), 111
delirium pinball tournament, 131, 131n
Dialed In (2017), 175, 177, 245
digger machines, 31, 31n
Diner (1990), 61–62
Disney, Bill and Linda, 116
Domino’s Spectacular Pinball Adventure (2016), 245
dot matrix displays, 125, 171–172, 201, 202–203
double-button press, 98, 98n
drain, 2
Driessen, Barry, 200, 201, 202
Drop Kick (1934), 35
Drop Target (zine), 173
drop targets, 3, 74, 89
drum score reels, 107
Drunk History (Comedy Central), 91, 91n
Duff, Michael, 35
Dutch Pinball, 200, 201–202, 223n, 246
Dziatkiewicz, Lukasz, 170n, 173n
Economist, The (magazine), 144
EightyTwo (venue), 116
El Dorado (1975), 88, 89
Elaut USA, 168, 170, 178
Elwin, Keith, 45
Emery, Charlie, 188–193, 209–210
Emery, Kayte, 192, 193
Epstein, Steve, 43–44, 46, 95
extra balls, 37, 38, 38n
Faris, Paul, 60n
FAST Pinball, 208
Firepower (1980), 111
Flash Gordon (1981), 231–232
Flipper City, 77
flippers, 3, 69–71, 74, 98, 98n, 102–103, 131, 133
Foley, Red, 98n
Fontaine, Romain, 197
Fonz Pinball (1977), 85n
Fonzarelli, Arthur “the Fonz,” 85n
free plays, 37–38, 49
Free State Pinball Association (FSPA), 6, 54, 96
Freeman, Mike (author’s friend), 6, 29
frosted glass tournament, 131
Full Throttle (2015), 196, 198, 205, 223
fun, concept of, 33–34, 235–236
Funhouse (1990), 87n, 121–122
Funland, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 4–5
Gagno, Robert, 4
1, 231–232, 234
gambling devices, 24–26
Game of Thrones (2015), 149, 152, 158, 160
George, Cayle, 65, 66
Ghostbusters (2016), 214
Gibala, John T., 25, 28, 34–35
Goldstein, Murray, 32
Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida, 39
Gomez, George, 141, 142, 144, 160
Gorgar (1979), 110, 199
Gottlieb, Alvin, 38–39, 161
See also Alvin G. and Company
Gottlieb, David, 19
See also D. Gottlieb and Company
gradient lines, 90
Guarnieri, Jack “Jersey Jack,” 79, 163, 164–172, 173, 175, 177–183, 210
See also Jersey Jack Pinball
Hackenburg, Frederick L., 34
Hadbavny, Lee (author’s friend), 214, 215, 216, 219, 220, 230
Happy Gang (1932), 63
Harrell, Clay, 76–78
Hauser, Jon, 26n
He Called the Shot (oil painting), 92
Headlam, Bruce, 144
Heckendorn, Ben “Heck,” 189, 190–191, 192
Hefner, Hugh, 60n
Heighway, Andrew, 194–200, 205, 239, 246
Heighway Pinball, 195–196, 246
Heltzel, Koen, 201
Hercules (1979), 74
Herjavec, Robert, 208
“Hidden Artwork on Pinball Machines,” 87n
