Silverball

There's not a whole lot of exciting things to do growing up on a military base. Most Army bases are pretty standard, they all seem to have a Popeyes, a Burgerking, a PX and a Commissary, and a trusty bowling alley. My parents would join a bowling league and I would often spend Wednesday nights with them at the bowling alley. I didn't have the patience for bowling at a younger age, instead I was always far more interested in the video game arcades in every bowling alley. The nineties was one of the last great eras of arcades, thanks to the competitive and addicting nature of video games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and while the fighting genre and beat em ups were the main attraction and pinballs' popularity was on the decline, no arcade was complete without a few pinball tables of their own. As such, pinball made up a good portion of my childhood and I have fond memories of playing the silver ball.

There's something aesthetically beautiful about pinball machines. Most arcade cabinets are essentially a monitor and buttons and joysticks. Pinball machines have flashing lights, moving parts, different leveled ramps, dot matrix videos, plungers, buttons, artwork, and sounds. The playing board of a pinball table is something to marvel at, something that can be studied, it's art appreciated, it's looping ramps and flashing targets and hidden passages to be traced and explored. Even when you remove the paneling and uncover the machine's guts, it's an intricate array of wires and switches. I told myself when I was little, that one day when I'm wealthy enough, I want to own my own pinball machine.

Unfortunately, pinball and arcades have become a dying breed and are now sparse and few. You're lucky to find a pinball machine or two in a movie theater or bowling alley but the likelihood of finding some of the classic pinball machines of the late eighties and nineties is much more difficult, or if you do, they're in dire need of a tuneup and repair. I continued to play pinball on the PC and on my Playstation but the emulated pinball just isn't the same

I first heard of the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown a few years back when I was attending CU at Boulder. I saw a postcard sized flyer for the weekend long Pinball convention. Unfortunately I had already missed the convention by the time I saw the flyer. This would repeat for the next 4 years. Haha. It seemed like every time I remembered the convention, it would be a month or two too late. I was determined to go one year and this year I made special note of it at the start of the year.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first entered the Embassy Suite, where the convention was held today. I paid my admission fee and filled out some contact information, received a wrist band and walked into their main lobby. There were a few pinball machines around and a stage and I was a little confused at first. Weren't there supposed to be more machines I thought? I played a few quick rounds of the machines I saw in the lobby and then decided to do some investigating. I passed by the bar and turned the corner and instantly recognized the sounds of flippers, bells, sound effects, and bumpers, all the familiar sounds of pinball. I entered their conference room and discovered the convention's main stash of pinball machines, there must have been 25 or so machines in the room, a row of tables against the wall as you entered and two rows of tables back to back in the center of the room as well. There were really old classic machines, to the newest fanciest Sterns pinball tables. I took a walk around the room to check out all the tables, as well as a second conference room where there were even more pinball machines and pinball tournaments taking place. It was as if I had died and gone to pinball heaven.

It's interesting the crowd of players that came to the convention that night. Most of them were older, probably people who grew up when pinball was in it's prime. Some looked like they had clearly spent way too much time playing pinball. I don't mind people who take their pinball seriously, I admire anyone who's determined in their hobby or sport. I did have a problem with some of the more aggressive players, who vented their frustrations by shaking and tilting the table roughly. I understand tilting is an aspect of the game but these machines are on loan by private collectors for the sake of everyone enjoying pinball, why risk breaking someone's machine? There were some little kids there as well and they were adorable. They would get so excited when they played! It reminded me why I played Pinball in the first place, the joy and fun of the game.

There were quite a few tables I remembered fondly from my childhood. The Adams Family machine is one of the most popular pinball machines of all time and I had played my share of games on it. I forgot however how crushingly unforgiving the game is compared to more modern pinball machines so it took me a few games to get a decent score up. Another favorite was the Twilight Zone table and I ended up scoring a major jackpot and racking up a good score on it as well. One of my absolute favorite tables however is the 94 World Cup pinball table. I remember distinctly playing the machine in the bowling alleys while my father was stationed in Korea. What's really cool about the table is the center target is a soccer goal with a goalie moving back and forth and flipping the ball past the goalie scored major points and unlocked missions and targets. It's also a very high scoring game and very popular because of the numerous targets on the playing board. When I finally was able to play the machine, nostalgia overtook me. Pressing that start button, watching that dot matrix video pop up, taking my position in front of the machine with my left hand along the button and the right grasping that plunger, pulling it back and letting it go and sending that ball into play brought a genuine and irresistible smile to my face.

I ended up playing pinball for nearly five hours straight. So long that my neck began to fatigue and sore from looking down on the playing table. By the time I walked out of the hotel, it had started snowing in Denver. The visibility was actually pretty bad all the way to Castle Rock but I didn't care. Being able to replay the pinball machines of my childhood, to place my hands along the side of the table, fingering the buttons along the side, resting my weight slightly forward on the table itself, and to take in the flashing lights, the buzzing, and silver ball bouncing back and forth and the slight rumble of the table with each score of a target brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. It was the first time in a while that I've been so happy, forgetting about everything else and just enjoying the simple joy of the game of pinball.