WEBVTT - SYSK Distraction Playlist: How Pinball Works 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:13.080 dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.079 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Doo Doo doo doo, 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:18.800 and there's Jerry Doo and this is stuff you should 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:25.160 know the podcast. What is that? Oh? Yeah, I thought 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.760 you're making pinball pings and no bells and whistles. No 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.640 sounds like Vegas. Vegas like one big pinball machine. It 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.320 is that you've been to walk through those casinos. Yeah, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.120 you just made my neck muscles tight. Now, man, I 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.920 hate Vegas. I like Vegas. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:46.720 I don't. I don't want to live in Vegas or 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.240 like go to Vegas every weekend or anything like that. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.120 But going to Vegas once a year, once every couple 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.840 of years, that's fine with me. Yeah, not for me. 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:58.800 I mean, I've been a bunch and I'm just I'm done. 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.640 Oh you're one with Vegas. That's what you're saying that 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.240 I don't see any reason to go back. I guarantee 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.360 somebody you want to see will have some sort of 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.920 residency out there, and you will be back in Vegas. 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.440 When I'm like sixty. Yeah, like pavement will have a 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:17.319 residence valleys. That's exactly I think, what's going to happen. Well, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.679 then you'll find me in living in Vegas, my friend. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.680 There you go. Yeah, see I got you back on 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.240 the Vegas train. But that sound. Yeah, it's like a 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:29.640 million pinball machines that take your money faster than pinball machines. Yeah, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.320 and that was an early worry about pinball. Actually, as 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.920 we will soon see because I say, chuck, let's dive 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:41.480 right into the history of pinballs. So pinball machines actually 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.759 find their lineage back in the nineteenth century. There were 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.800 um things called or what were they? I want to 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:54.280 say Bagat machines, but that's not correct. The table, Yes, 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.240 the Bagatel table, thank you. Um. They were basically a 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.960 cross between pool and pinball. He used a pool que 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.240 and everything, and they sucked and nobody liked him. I 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.600 think it looks pretty cool, does it? It looks I'm 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.280 boring to me? Well, I mean it's if you're used 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:18.680 to modern gaming, is not gonna thrill you, but look 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.480 kind of neat. So the Bagatel table was there, it 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.280 was in place, and in the thirties a guy named 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.959 monte Redgrave came along like, you can't not say that 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.600 guy's name like that. Um. He came along and said, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.600 you know what, people just invented a spring. How did 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:40.119 you say his name? Again? Montague, like he's on lad 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.560 on um um and uh. He came along and said, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.359 somebody invented a spring recently. I'm gonna add it to 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.320 this bagatel table make it less sucky. And then all 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.639 of a sudden we have the the what did he 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.359 call it, the ball shooter, which makes sense, that's what 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.720 you call it. And now we had the first introduced 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.799 mechanism of pinballs. Things are starting to take shape a 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.440 little bit here. Yeah, but you didn't stick a coin 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:10.959 in the game. What you would do is kind of 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.720 like pool tables these days at a bar. You would 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.200 go up to the keeper of the balls and say, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.799 here's some money, give me my balls, and let me 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.120 go play the game on the bagotel table. Yeah, and 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.160 he would go, you know it sucks, don't you, And 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.840 you would say, yes, but it's the eighteen thirties. Yeah, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.960 and if I play really well, then I can win 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.640 free drinks and cigarettes. And they said, exactly, can you 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.800 see a little twelve year old, winning cigarettes and then 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.480 going back to play more bagatell Sure, so this is 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.960 the way it went for many decades. People were miserable 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.800 until the nineteen thirties, and there was this enormous explosion 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.560 of innovation and pool table re um in the thirties. Yeah, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.200 like just almost everything that you think of and you 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.920 think of a pool, a pool um. We've been saying. 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:06.960 I've been saying pool table just for the last like minute. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.320 Why didn't you correct me? I thought you were talking 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.360 about bull tall I'm talking about pinball. Anyway. In the 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.320 thirties there was a huge explosion in pinball, pinball or yeah, 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.360 and um, everything that you think of when when you 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.240 think of a pinball machine, almost all of it came 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.160 about in the thirties. Coin operation, the back glass, the 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.240 thing that has like a kiss or Hugh heff neuron 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.120 it or something like that stands up off of the 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:40.279 playing field. The table um electric well, I guess an 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:47.400 electric current running through it, legs um, the tilt mechanism, bumpers, 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:55.359 uh sounds yeah, score keeping. And then first, of course 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.719 I think I said bumpers, did I not? I don't know. Maybe, 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.760 And then most of all, most wortaintly chuck was. The 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.480 thirties led to a huge surge in popularity because you 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.200 had the Great Depression and pinballs were cheap entertainment that 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.800 were wide, widely available. You notice the one thing we 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:15.000 didn't say though and all that innovation, what flippers, Because 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:21.720 still up until nineteen seven, you just bumped the thing 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.080 to make the ball move. Yeah, there were no flippers, 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.920 which seems very counterintuitive to pinball. And the flippers really 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.200 changed things. They fundamentally changed pinball, not just in the 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.400 way you play, but in pinball is a game because 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.400 before flippers, it was a game of chance. It was 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.440 the same thing as playing like um high low. Basically 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.520 like you had no way really of manipulating the movement 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:52.920 of the ball. Well you shake them sheen, you could 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.240 without tilting. I mean that's what you did. Yeah, that 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.920 was how you did it. Even still it the amount 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.279 of skill it took was minute compared to the skill 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.720 that could be used. Once flippers were introduced, pinball wizardry 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.920 and it became a game of skill. Um. And then 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.320 but before that, the like I said, things were popular. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.000 Get this um. In the early thirties there were a 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.560 hundred and forty five companies making pinball machines, and the 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:23.880 field became so competitive and ruthless that by the mid thirties, 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.760 like five years later, there were fourteen. Yeah, and most 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.680 of those were based in Chicago, which became sort of 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.080 the pinball capital of the world. And I've never been there, 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.720 but I bet you anything, Chicago still has a lot 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.600 of a lot more pinball machines than elsewhere, you know. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.320 I was trying to think of like this, researching this 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.360 made me want to go play pinball, like researching sushi. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.880 Maybe we want to go eat sushi. And I was thinking, like, 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.080 I have no idea where to go to play pinball, 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.080 you know, and we'll go to my brother's house. Does 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.520 he have one? He's got three? Oh, I love your 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.000 brother even more now, dude. He built a whole game room, 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.200 of course, because that's what my brother does. What does 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.719 he have he has? Uh F he has a Tomcat 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.720 F four team, which is the rip off of top Gun. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:07.800 He said, there's a lot. There were a lot of 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.520 rip off games for a while, of movies and actual 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.880 movie time games. Uh. He has black Hole, but not 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.240 the movie. Another rip off game. I would love that. 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:20.680 Uh And those are both kind of old school. And 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.720 then he has a Jurassic Park, which is uh newer. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:25.840 I think didn't they have like a t rex that 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.320 comes down and eat your ball? I can't remember. I 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.760 feel like all three of them. But yeah, and he 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.160 also kicked this. He took an old um video game 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:40.160 like stand up video game console and removed all the guts, 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:45.600 got a computer screen and um computer and hooked it 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.520 up in there too, where you can play all the 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.600 old school games, you know, those programs they have now, 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.680 and change the screen vertically so it just looks like 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.600 a regular arcade game. And you can go up and 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:01.560 play Frogger and Space Invaders and Scott Bite me over 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.920 and it's all free. That's so awesome. Man. He's like, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.680 um Ricky Schroeder and silver Spoons or something. But growing up, yeah, 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:11.840 pretty much. Um. And I think the reason why I 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.960 don't play more pinball over there is because, um, we're 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.360 always playing ping pong. Yeah that's a game of skill, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:20.840 and I love ping pong. But I'll try and get 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:22.760 in a pinball game. Man. I want to play some 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.640 pinball so bad. Let's just go out to Roswell dude, Okay, 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.320 do it right? Now. Uh, and I if I, if 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.960 I collected pinches, it would definitely be mid mid seventies 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.439 and mid eighties. From me, I would think, yeah, you know, 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.360 all the bells and whistles and all that, the new 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.719 fangled bells and whistles. They're fine, that's cool. But I 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.079 like a not so old that it's like electro mechanical, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.040 but not so new that it's like nothing. But like, um, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.120 you know, plasma screens and stuff like that. Well, we're 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.760 in the middle. Sure, I'm the same way. My favorite 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:58.640 game of all time pinball wise, um, favorite game ever, gallagha, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.559 but favorite game pinball wise was Adams Family Pinball. And 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:05.600 then I learned in this article that is the top 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.240 selling game of all time from yeah, I think it 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.760 was either Bally or Williams put that one out and 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.840 they sold more than twenty thou units of it. Dude, 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.480 it's awesome and it didn't surprise me. And like, I 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.599 have no iffinity for the Adams Family, but it's the 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.079 best pinball game I've ever played. And when I saw 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:24.320 it was number one, I was like, well, of course 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:25.920 it is, because it's the best one. You don't like 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.280 the Adams Family, No, I mean, I like it fine, 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.520 but I don't. I didn't play it because of the movie. 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.959 I played it because it was an awesome pinball game. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.200 And they had one of them all not them all 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.160 the bowling alley near me in Athens Bowling Alley. That's 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.480 where I could probably go find a pinball machine. Huh yeah, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.640 or maybe not. Sadly, I'm starting a quest, all right, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.120 um so telling you let's go to my brother's house 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.560 because we can have a scotch okay. Uh So. Anyway, 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.439 seven is when they finally invented the flipper. D Gottlieb 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.439 Company introduced a game called Humpty Dumpty, and that was 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.880 where what most people say that the first modern game 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.240 came about. It took at the level flippers, all the 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.880 innovations of the thirties and out of flippers and boom 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:19.000 you've got pinball, not pool table pinball pretty much, although 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.160 the flippers weren't the same. It was the nineteen fifties 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.679 the same person and came up with spot bowler, and 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.559 that was the first modern arrangement of flippers, right, and 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.040 they were longer with that introduction or else a little 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.840 later on. The first flippers they introduced were Um, they 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.720 were shorter. Yeah, and they didn't face this. They faced 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.480 in reverse of the way they face now. It was weird. 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.000 It was like they were working it out beta pretty much. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.880 So it's funny that they introduced flippers in because by 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.199 the time flippers came around, pinball was illegal and most 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.360 of the major cities in the United States, Um, and 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.599 have been for several years. I never I think I 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.480 had heard this once and forgotten it. But pinball was 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.640 totally outlawed because they equated it to gambling because it 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.240 was not a game of skill, which and I guess 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:18.000 because you got prizes. Yeah. Um. Mayor Lea guardia Um, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.199 who you will remember from the Burlesque podcast, was a 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.960 bit of a moralist, although he was a wet politician. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:29.360 He was in favor of repealing prohibition. He hated pinball, 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.720 hated it. He he thought it was a mafia racket. 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.040 He thought that it robbed the quote pockets of school children, 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.160 the forms of nickels and dimes came to them as 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.000 lunch money. And he got an outlawed in New York. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.880 And once it was outlawed, he ordered like really dramatic raids. Yeah. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.040 Right after Pearl Harbor. He said, you know what we 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.880 need to do. The Japanese have just bombed us. We 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.199 need to get rid of these pinball machines. And so 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.240 let's go round him up, uh like in a raid style. 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.280 Let's smash him with sledgehammers. Let's dump him in the river. 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.360 What they did, they dumped them in the river after 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.000 they smashed them. That's a very New York nineteen forties 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.120 thing to do. Exactly. I bet you there's still pinball 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.520 machines down there, if anyone's brave enough to get into 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.640 the East River. I don't think they are. We should 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.200 say also give a shout out to Popular Mechanics, who, um, 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.439 we're working off in part really awesome article. They came 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:25.800 up with eleven things you didn't know about pinball history. 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:31.400 Um So, from the forties until the mid nineteen seventies, 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.439 if you wanted to play pinball in New York City 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.880 and Chicago and l A most cities in the US, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.120 it was illegal. Um you had to go to a 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.880 pornography shop basically and go behind the curtain and play pimball. 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.120 Is that weird? It's the weirdest thing we've ever said 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.800 on this show. Until the mid nineteen seventies, and like 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:58.000 there were still raids and pimball operators. Little five year 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.560 old Chuck, Yeah, I would have been dropped off at 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.840 a porn shop to play pinball, which I'm sure your 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.280 parents would have been happy to do. Well they did, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.280 and I played pinball. I didn't look at nudy people. 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.720 Did you really know what I was gonna say? Man, 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.360 he just blew my mind. No, no, And get this, 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.480 The city of Oakland, Oakland, CALIFORNIAWN, just this past July 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:25.840 overturned an eighty year ban on pinball. Free the pinballers. Yeah, 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:30.240 good for them. Yeah, so pinball's band people are still 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.520 playing it like crazy. Um And apparently the manufacturers realized 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.920 this as well, because they're still innovating and adding and 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.240 making new games and machines and all sorts of stuff. Yeah. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.679 Well this is after World War Two, that where things 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.440 really slowed down, obviously because of the war effort. Pointball 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.800 was big. Dent was put in pinball manufacturing too. Yeah, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.199 like everything else. And then after the fifties it took 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.720 off again, and it also became kind of a symbol 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:01.040 of rebellious youth. In this popular mechanic starticle points out 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.880 like the Fons played a lot of pinball. I never 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:08.439 considered that from Tommy Um, from the Who's Tommy the 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:13.280 Pinball Wizard? And Tommy both kind of rebellious, like stick 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.280 it in your ear LaGuardia. Yeah. I mean, it seems 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.640 silly now to think about that. But when Tommy came out, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.160 it was illegal, so pinball was sort of uh yeah, 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.000 I guess it was just the rebels. Yeah, you're anti 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.000 authoritarian if you played pinball, it was just an image 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.000 of it. Yeah. And then the Great Simpsons quote side show, 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.680 Bob said television is ruined more young minds than pinball 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.000 and syphilis combined. That one flew right over my head 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.000 when I heard it the first time. I just thought, oh, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.320 that's silly pinball, right, But I didn't think about like 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.040 moral turpitude. Yeah. I didn't get that one either, but 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.920 I do know. So luckily, pinball was still widely available, 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.520 albeit in the backs of pornography shops UM. And the 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.960 reason we say luckily is because somewhere along the way, 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.520 a young man in I think in his early twenties 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.440 named Roger Sharp, who is a magazine editor, UM, was 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.920 called upon to save the pinball World at a New 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.640 York City council meeting. Yeah, they finally said, hey, City council, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.040 can we get a hearing on pinball machines? You guys 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.440 are being ridict because it's a bicentennial of this country 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.640 and we need pinball. It's as American as America gets 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.280 as pornography. So they said, sure, we'll have a hearing. 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.200 Because their intent was to prove that it was a 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.040 game of skill and not chance, which was the whole 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.640 rub in the first place. They brought in there a 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.840 pinball wizard. Game of chance is gambling? Sure, LaGuardia had 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.200 a point, well sort of. I still don't get it. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.280 But this law was obsolete because they added footperson now 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.000 as a game of skill, but the law was still 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.520 around basically. So they brought in their pinball wizard Sharp 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.560 and um. They brought two machines because if one broke down, 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.000 they wanted to have a backup, and some jerk councilman 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:58.520 when he went to play the game, said no, no, no, 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.680 no no, why don't you play the their game, the 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.160 backup one. Yeah, the backup game. And Sharp started sweating 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:05.520 because he was like, oh, I'm not very good at 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.680 that game. Yeah, he never played it before. I'm a 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:09.800 master at this one, but he was a pinball wizard, 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:11.840 so I believed in him. Yeah. Well I didn't know 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:16.080 what happened, did you. Did you see the the documentary 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.240 Special Windlet. No, Oh my god, it has footage of this. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:24.360 It's amazing, amazing documentary. All about pinball, I mean all 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:29.240 about pimball is not so awesome documentary there is that's 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.480 about a specific moment in history and pinball. I haven't 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.600 seen that one, but it sounds pretty good too. But 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.680 see Special Winlet amazing um and see Tilt two. It's 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.320 what's the deal? So um. Roger Sharp's playing, he's not 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.640 really impressing anybody, and things are kind of going bad, 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.680 and he decides to do a Babe Ruth call. He 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.360 pulls back the plunger and before he releases it, he goes, 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.760 I'm going up the middle aisle here. Yeah, And just 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.120 so you know, if you've never seen a pinball game, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.680 you you pull the plunger, it's shoots the ball up 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.320 the right hand side through a trough and then it 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.080 spits it out at the top. And what he was 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.080 trying to prove is where I'm going to spit it out, 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.320 and where it's going to start it's descent back to me, 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.159 It's going to be in a very specific place in 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.320 the center of the board, not on the left, not 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.480 on the right, right up the middle. And um, he 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:23.000 did it. And apparently right afterwards the city council was like, okay, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.160 we'll repeal it, like it's obviously a game of skill, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.560 like Roger Sharp single handedly, well double handedly because he 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:37.879 was using the flippers. Um, save pinball from illegality. I 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.720 wonder if they said, yeah, fine, good lord, just it's legal. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.159 Get the machines out of here, get this loser out 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.159 of here. But he is not a loser, because he 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.640 is currently still the number five hundred and thirty six 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.440 ranked player in the world. I'm surprised. I thought he 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.560 went on to be. I think at the time he 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:57.760 was number one, which is why they chose him. He 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.720 probably was, but he's been falling ever since. Man, that's 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.280 another thing in special win let Man, there are some 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.600 like really good pinball players. Well, I've got the list. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.280 I'll quickly go with the top five, number one in 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:15.200 the world as of today, two thousand, fourteen August whatever 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.520 it is. Keith Lwyn of the USA is number one. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.320 U s a Urian ingele Brixton of Swedeness number two, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:30.400 Swedie din Zack Sharp recognize that name. It sounds vaguely familiar. 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.120 Roger's son. Yeah, he's the number three player in the world. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:38.560 That's awesome. Number four Danielle Celestino Axiarty, what was that? 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:43.600 He's Italian, he's before Jorgan Home is also Swedish. He's 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.480 number five. There's a Canadian at six, a Sweet at seven, 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.440 then eight through twenty save one are all Americans and 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.160 number twenties Josh Sharp. So his sons followed in his footsteps. 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.320 That's great, and are both top twenty ranked players. And 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:02.000 I bet Josh is supers jealous. Maybe maybe Josh is 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.000 also He's like, I want to be a veterin area, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.679 so I'm paying more attention to that kind of thing. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:12.200 Maybe so. Um So, pinball was saved by Roger Sharp, 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.040 and um pinball just kept going on and on. Apparently 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.400 it had its golden day age. It's widely believed between 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.600 ninety eight, but it was also huge in the seventies, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.359 huge in the eighties, and then video games came along 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.720 and all of a sudden pinball was like uh, and 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.280 it started to decline and decline and decline and decline, 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.959 and all I think we were down to maybe five 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.800 major pinball machine producers, and by major I mean the 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:47.480 only ones. Um no, because I mean it's all it 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.240 takes a lot of time and effort to manufacture of 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:57.160 functioning pinball game. Yeah. So, um, by the nineties there 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.160 were just a couple left. Everybody was selling off their 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.320 pinball divisions and there was a company called Bally Williams, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:07.280 which were former competitors that emerged and this is what 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.600 the documentary Tilt is about. They went to their pinball 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.240 division and said, hey, you guys are great in the 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.200 pinball world, but the pinball world sucks. We want more 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:18.920 money out of you guys. What are you gonna do? 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.159 Is that pinball two thousands? Yes, they came up with 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.280 pinball two thousand. They said, we will give you a 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:29.440 chance to save yourselves. Figure out what will revive pinball 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.800 for they and they came up with Pinball two thousand. Yeah. 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.680 It's basically a hybrid of video gaming and pinball, where 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.000 you have a kind of a standard pinball set up, 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.239 but a video screen that's interactive as the back um 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.359 backdrop no on the playing field too, so like holograms 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.600 pop up on the on the playing board and like 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:52.880 run away from the ball and interact with the ball. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.480 It stinks, though, and no one liked it. Have you 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.280 played it? I haven't played it, but I saw videos 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.200 of it and it didn't look like fun, and no 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.000 one liked it. So the thing is is like this 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.440 one article I read pointed out like it wasn't given 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:07.440 a chance to flourish, Like the idea was great, and 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:09.440 the fact that they pulled it off successfully it was 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.800 really something. Well, they built only two games, right, and 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.880 I think each one had a few thousand production run. Um. 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.720 But there was Star Wars episode one, which here's my 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:25.360 theory the reason Pinball two thousand went nowhere charge R Biggs. Yeah, 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.800 the other one was Revenge from Mars and um you 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:33.240 can still find those used today. Um. But despite the 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.960 fact that Pinball two thousand was created, it was it 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:41.720 was okay as far as successes go. Um. Bally Williams 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:47.080 pulled the plug, which left one company stern. Uh. There's 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:52.520 a guy named Michael Stern, I believe, who inherited his 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.560 father's business and um became the only people making pinball 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:02.560 machines in the world. Still. No, yeah, man, had we 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.159 been have we been recording this two years ago, we 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.879 would have basically been saying, like, pinball's dead, it's on 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.080 its last leg. There's one company making it. They've started 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.200 to lay off their designers because of the economic crisis. 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:20.520 Some of those designers went on, some of the Stern 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.240 Vets went on and founded a company called Jersey Jack, 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.520 and for the first time in many many years, there 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:32.240 are more than one pinball manufacturer. There's too, right, but 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.920 the competition has caused Stern to go back and rehire 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:36.560 some of the people they laid off, come up with 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:41.440 new designs, and um they are there's a pinball renaissance 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:46.960 and nascent pinball renaissance just beginning to bud that could happen. Well, 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.400 pinball is definitely a sort of an end thing now. Um, 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.120 if you're super cool and you have some money, then 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.200 you might have a pinball machine in your house like 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:02.520 my brother. Um. It is a Apparently Sterns ratio of 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:07.000 home sales to commercials sales has risen from thy percent 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.520 to six of their total sales. So the market now 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:14.720 isn't for arcades, because what are those. The market is 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.879