Blog · October 29, 2019 0

Just another cookie monster

Who’s obsessed with pinball? I used to be back in the day. I picked up the habit up from my Aunt Valerie who was super obsessed with the game. She used to drag me along to the corner shop and play for hours (or at least seemed like hours for a little kid who wanted to be outside playing with his friends). I remember one time while she was playing, she had me hold her paperbag full of cream-filled cookies. I remember there were a mix of flavours – strawberry, vanilla, lemon…lemon was my favourite. I got so bored waiting (and hungry I guess) I licked all the cream out of the cookies and put them back together, and then put them back in the bag. I didn’t think she’d notice. Later, when she went to eat her cookies, she most certainly did notice and I took a clobbering for it! I decided being a cookie monster wasn’t worth the pain.

I learned to play pinball instead.

Here’s a piece from Quartz on the history and state of play of pinball machines now in an age obsessed with video games.

Did you know…

Although pinball seems downright wholesome these days, it was considered anything but when it debuted in the 1930s. At best, having a pinball machine or two in your establishment might earn the owner a bit of a seedy reputation. And at worst, it would land the owner in jail, complete with a hefty fine.

I might do what my Internet friend Albert Z did and buy an old pinball machine.

“Pinball is in between the industrial revolution and the information age. Pinball is a warm entertainment. It’s electronic, but it’s still wood and metal. It’s still about using the heel of your hand to knock a big, giant machine so that Martians can die. Video games aren’t about physical interaction; they’re about information interaction.”

Pat Blashill, writer and “professional pinball obsessive”


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