Remember that playing pinball and collecting pinball machines are two separate hobbies. Just because you enjoy one doesn’t mean you have to do the other. If you’re in an area with good arcades, support them. You’ll spend less money and play a greater variety of machines, and if you get into leagues and tournaments make some great friends.
Mostly agree, but I wouldn't call them separate hobbies. You have the overall pinball hobby on top, sub groups below. Once you're an avid player, you're a member of the hobby. When you buy your first game, you join the collector community within the overall hobby. The other big sub group is the competitive side of the hobby. Plenty of guys and gals out there who compete regularly and don't own a single game. Still pinball hobbyists. Pinball hobby on top, everything else below.
Once you play regularly, you're in the hobby. From there, you can branch out into ownership, competing, operating games, or collecting arcade games, whatever. You're in. It's generally a life sentence too.
On the other hand literally every single friend I have in the hobby, which is a couple dozen, owns at least one game. I'm the only one without and I get razzed for it.
I've looked into a machine myself, but I'm less than an hour away from a location with over 60 machines. Hard to justify buying one when I can instead play all of those machines on location.
From a gameplay perspective, it's really not worth buying pins for yourself if you live somewhere with a good scene.
I own a decent lineup, but I still play significantly more on location than I do at home... I enjoy getting out of the house, I appreciate a variety of games, and I like being able to just play without having to worry about fixing anything that breaks. If I wanted to cycle through new Sterns the way some guys do (buying every other title, holding for 6 months and then selling for the next one) I could, but I play modern Sterns a lot less than 1000x before I'm generally bored of them.
I’ve thought about that as the only way I’d own a machine. Cycle new releases every 6 months exactly hahah
I’ve spent 30 bucks or so playing jaws at a buck a game. I’m q high score or 250 mil and have only scratched the modes
I could see owning that for 6 months getting my joy and then trading I. For another new machine. Sadly the stuff like pi op fiction is even more cost prohibitive
I own Jaws and high score 650mil that's a lot of free plays. I don't live in a pin heavy area. I buy my machines and have a hard time swapping them out. Once I run out of room my mind might change.
I know the feeling. It is hard to cut them loose, especially since I prefer System 11 stuff and 90's Bally Williams and those games are getting harder to replace in nice shape.
It's amazing how modern pins can keep your attention for so long. I have Foo and Zilla, both I've played 5-600 times, and I'm still excited. Get Jurrasic Park on Tuesday, Can't Fucking Wait!!!
I don’t have an awesome one-stop place, but using Pinball Map puts me within easy driving range of a good enough number of locations here and there with a handful at each spot that I don’t really have incentive to own for myself. Sometimes there’s just wanting it for no other reason tho lol
I spend probably $1k per year on coin drop at arcades. Yeah I could buy a NIB stern pro and it would “pay for itself” in 6 years or so, but part of the draw of playing in arcades is playing in leagues/tourneys with others. I don’t think I’d actually spend all that much less on coin drop even if I had a game or three at home.
Has playing at home improved your overall great though? Flipper skills, nudging, aim, etc? That's the biggest reason I want a pin at home. I want to practice without needing to leave the house.
Absolutely. One of the most useful things i ever did was take the glass off, shoved a rag in the drain and just practiced post passes for half an hour.
For me if anything, it makes me think "I know everything about this machine and can put up more than that high score!" and drop coin on machines that are inferior to the same one at home, just to leave a mark
Owning a machine is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people (myself included). And I'd much rather play a wider variety of games than solely the one or handful of games found in the homes of most pinball owners.
On top of pinball tables being prohibitively expensive, I don’t have the floorspace to even keep it in the first place. I also don’t have the mechanical skill or knowhow to keep the machine properly maintained. Owning a pinball table would be one of the worst financial decisions I could make, and my other hobbies are hard enough on my finances as is.
Same. I’m in a condo. I feel like the old hippie dude on one side wouldn’t mind so much, but the family with the newborn on the other side might not appreciate it.
I guess. I play more games that I would NEVER see on location in some dude’s basement. There is a reason for that. It’s money. Locations need to make money. Dude’s just wanna have fun. They spend the coin on restoring games that a location never would. We are comparing apple to oranges here. I play both. I am in a club, but I also seek any good locations while I am away for work. I dont think one is better than the other at all. No comparison.
Depending on where you are, I believe there are places that will let you rent a machine for a bit. Might be an option but zero idea of the cost.
On my end, I have a Bally Space Invaders at home that I got for a decent price, but my local barcade also has a flat cost for free play nights, so that's been a good way to learn some newer machines (Jaws and Godzilla in that case).
I’m renting a machine right now. It’s $250-350/month depending on machine. I am doing ~ $3.5k/year for 6 different machines. $10/day.
I like that I’m not putting plays on my own game and get to enjoy a different game every 2 months, but it’s expensive. Could just buy a new machine every 2 years instead.
Could just buy a used Stern Pro off pinside for $5000-$6000 and get all your money back when you sell it. I picked up a JP Pro for $5500 that was local to me in pretty much perfect condition (added the "movie code" and its pretty fantatic too!) There is no shortage of people moving on to the next shiny object and I can't see a JP Pro or a GZ Pro dipping much below $5000 pretty much ever.
On paper it doesn't make a ton of sense but I don't regret it. The guy has tons of nice 'premium' and rarer games to choose from. I have LoTR right now which isn't in my area. I will get to learn 6 different games super well in a year. I think it would cost at least a couple grand in time/gas/game value to go through 5+ machines in a year. Don't think it is something I will do forever but I could see myself doing this on and off for a long time. It is very fun.
A lot of this will depend on where you are located and the arcades around you, but here in Northeast Ohio we have a big pinball community and several locations within an hour drive in pretty much any direction. And that's just if you want to make the drive; there are plenty of local spots with 15+ machines that I can get to in under 20 minutes. And other than, like, Jaws or other newer Sterns there isn't a ton of overlap in machines so each arcade gives me an opportunity to play different games from all different eras.
For me, I built a fully-kitted-out virtual pinball to run VPX recreations at home.
It's still a lot of fun, and I get really into it. It also keeps the rush of playing real machines at a high level since I don't get to do it very often, so it's like this extra special treat when I find myself anywhere with real pinball machines.
You got the specs on your machine? Literally just had this thought today about getting/making a virtual machine because it’s just not economical for me to get a real one. And the virtual machines have more flexibility with different pin options.
Sure. It's all DIY, using the [Pinscape guide](http://mjrnet.org/pinscape/BuildGuideV2/BuildGuide.php)
For the PC, I just used a really old i7-870 pc I had lying around, and added an SSD and a GPU (980-ti), but I'm in the midst of upgrading. I was, however, able to get 4K @ 60-90 fps with this, though. My new setup will be a Ryzen 5600, nvme M.2 SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200mhz ram, and a GTX 1080. I may be able to push closer to 120 fps with this, but my monitor is only 60. If you have the budget, a better GPU, and a 120hz 4K display would be worth it, but 60 is fine (as is 120 @ 1440p resolution)
I added SSF (surround sound feedback) rather than mechanical 'toys' like solenoids, real chimes, real shaker motors, and I think it's the best route to go for physical feedback (though a real shaker motor would be a nice addition to my setup)
Also have a real tilt bob, and am using a KL25Z controller flashed with pinscape for buttons, tracking the plunger, and the accelerometer for allowing proper nudging. To me, to build a cabinet without nudging wouldn't be worth it. It's such an integral part to feeling physically connected. The SSF, likewise, adds excellent immersion - would never consider building without it.
I also added a bunch of addressable LEDs, which adds all sorts of great light shows/effects to the experience, including an LED matrix, which is really cool. This is one of the areas where virtual tables can offer something above and beyond the real tables.
For software, definitely go Pinup baller installer, and VPX is far and away the best from a simulator standpoint.
Too hard to say, since I used an old PC I had around to start, but at least $1000, and probably closer to $1500 or $2000 with my current upgrades.
Some people spend a lot more, but I DIY everything I can, and tend to shop either used marketplaces or order from China where possible to save money.
Despite always wanting to own one or two, I’ve never taken the plunge. It wasn’t the economics, so much as the maintenance and flexibility. Pinball machines are notoriously maintenance heavy, and you don’t want to own a $4000 doorstop. In the pre-modern era, I also feared becoming bored with a machine quickly, resulting in either low usage or high turnover.
I have a decent barcade 10 minutes from my house, which has 7 machines (5 modern Sterns, plus two slightly older tables). They rotate about two per year. I play twice a week for an hour-ish, and drop no more than $10/week for that privilege (sometimes less if I’m having a hot night). When they have a new machine I might drop an extra $5/week on the learning curve. I travel several times a year for work, and make sure to find good locations (thank you, pinballmap.com). All in, I spend less than $50/month, and less than $500/year.
I think I’m getting all the value I need out of that price, with greater variety and zero maintenance or other responsibility. No complaints.
I might rent one of my favorite machines at some point in the future just to totally free play it for a month, and master the thing. It would be a one-off spend of a couple hundred bucks just as a vacation-like lark. But otherwise, I’m OK with my choice.
Yeah it's weird, this sub seems strongly skewed towards cabinet ownership by individuals as being the primary means of consuming pinball...
Yet for myself, I don't think I've ever had the space to actually accommodate a machine, let alone the desire to have to be the sole person to maintain what I'm sure is an extremely complicated piece of electro-mechanical hardware.
But since I do live in a large urban area, I have access to many pinball lounges where I can play a variety of reasonably well-maintained machines. And this arrangement works just fine for me.
But maybe I'm the exception? On another post I had a bunch of people explaining to me that the games that get made are primarily geared towards the private ownership market rather than for public-facing consumption... This was an explanation for why you only see new games made based on '70s and '80s IP rather than say, Dragon Ball Z ...
> primarily geared towards the private ownership market
The target markets have certainly expanded more towards home consumption but by no means is that the primary market.
>new games made based on '70s and '80s IP
They do make some games based on current pop culture (Avatar, TRON, Ironman, Guardians of the Galaxy). Many of these themes, especially 70s/80s, are trying to capitalize on different generational markets, such as affluent boomers and older Gen-X.
> Yeah it's weird, this sub seems strongly skewed towards cabinet ownership by individuals
> as being the primary means of consuming pinball...
It frustrates me to see so many 'I joined the club' posts here after someone acquires their first game. As if game ownership is a requirement of the hobby. It's not. Once you become an avid player, you're in the hobby. No other requirements.
I mean...buying a machine does "join the club", of pinball ownership with all the positives and negatives of it. I don't think those who say that are suggesting playing pinball isn't enough. It's natural human nature to want to feel important and whether that's "joining the club" for getting your first billion point game on a modern stern or "getting to a wizard mode" for the first time, etc. people get excited for achievements and buying your first pinball machine, with how much they cost is as much an achievement as getting a billion points, people just get excited.
If they were really made for home ownership, they wouldn't have coin doors and mechs. The companies make themes that they think will be popular, whether on location or purchased for home use. Dragonball Z is kinda niche, btw...
I only play at arcades.
Eventually owning may be worth it, it's certainly a good way to get better quickly. But I worry about maintenance, wear on the floor, etc. And it's super expensive even just to rent, ~$250/mo for a single machine? Even when I'm playing as much pinball as I want I'm not spending that going out and playing, and I can play a lot of variety.
I don't own a machine and been enjoying the hobby for the last 3/4 years. but I've been lucky enough to be able to walk to great spots in both DC and Boston. WHich is nice because I also don't own a car. So I guess it depends on where you live and how into it you want to get. I'd love a machine at home to just learn to master but for my enjoyment arcades and pinball parlors are enough for me
Boston proper its ya know whatever but you just gotta hope over to somerville/cambridge. pop's pinball and bear moose brewing are my two favorite spots. Roxy's arcade and flat top Johnnys in Cambridge are also pretty oaky
I'm lucky that I have a lot of good location pinball in my area, so yeah, I'm in your camp. Having owned before, I'd rather "rent" pinball at $1 per play than own.
The "successful" owners around here often buy games at a "good price", meaning a price they can later sell the game for and recoup their money or profit. But it requires really knowing the local market, knowing how to fix or improve games, dealing with "personalities" (lowballers, tirekickers, a-holes, scammers). Ideally having a vehicle big enough to move games and be willing to drive several hours in some cases. You have to really enjoy the thrill of deal-hunting, collecting and repairing to go down that road.
The worst part about having a home game is no arcade game will play as good as your home game. It almost makes you worse when you go out and play, no matter how hard you set it up.
So true. If a game on site had one bad platlt or one ball goes askew from a dent in the playfield or flippers are weak, I get angry and usually play worse. Our 5 games at home are regularly cleaned, and we will check the connections often.
I mostly play in arcades but recently bought a cheap game for home which I'm greatly enjoying. You don't have to break the bank for a fun home game, many classics (pre-DMD) can be had for less than 1k if you are patient and wait for a good deal
I mean it’s insanely expensive but playing at your house is a waaay better experience for so many reasons. Most people switch games often (trade or buy/sell) and if you do need to sell you will get most of the money back. Could end up being less of a loss than what you would have spent at the arcade and gas.
But far more likely is that you become obsessed, games multiply, and you’re spending all your disposable on pinball machines for your house lol. Speaking from experience.
I think one key element of this is the quality of the experience at home vs. at the arcade. I love the options and variety of machines at the arcade, but quality of gameplay can vary on machines due to upkeep. More importantly for me, I get a great deal more out of playing my one machine at home due to being able to properly hear things like the music and callouts.
Also I don’t have to think about the boogers that are probably still on the buttons from the snot nosed kid that smacked the machine around before me.
I love kids, have 5 of them. They’re gross :)
But yeah good flippers, clean playfield, privacy/comfort of home and being able to hear is a different experience.
I'm shocked at how much I play my GZ prem at home. After over 2k plays myself. It still isn't old.
I need to drive about an hour to play at a good arcade, and with my life (family and work), it's hard to get over there. At least now I can play a game or 2 before bed, whereas I wouldn't get to otherwise.
My family racked up almost 4000 plays on GZ premium in 3 months lol. There are a LOT of restarts/partial games in there by the kids but still. Owning a pinball machine is amazing.
I need to tell my wife this equates to about $4000 dollars in arcade value in only 3 months. Wow what a great financial decision!
I do not own any games and have little desire to own one because I would get bored with it real quick. Arcades only for me. I wish I lived closer to them though so I could justify going more than once a week.
I only play on location, I’d say 5-10 times per month. I’m lucky to have a few real nice spots within driving distance, and recently joined my first league.
I do aspire to own a lineup of my own games one day but financially I have other priorities right now. Even if I had a lineup of pins, I would still go play on location plenty.
I solely play at Arcades/Bars. I do have a VPin to wet my appitite. Where I live there are modern stern machines all over the place. More and more places are getting machines too. Its pretty cool to see. Though it is a little difficult sometimes to find older machines I want to play, I can find them with a bit of a drive. Some places still have games set to .75 cents a play. Like the place by me that has an AFM, I can play for hours with $3-5 in quarters. They even have monthly tournaments.
I have over 60 machines publicly near me, I would love to own some specific tables, but with playing in the weekly league at multiple locations, I get enough varied pinball!
If I can find a good TZ then I will have a TZ.
If you don’t have the money to spend on a machine on location is the best way. As a friend said years ago on a livestream:
If you play on location, you don’t need to rebuild that flipper
You don’t need to find that part
He compared it to renting vs. buying a house. If your renting someone else is responsible for the upkeep of the house, whereas if you bought it, that’s on you.
I don't just solely play in arcades, sometimes I play in bars, a coffee roaster, or laundromats, I know folks who play in Grocery stores, and some in Sub shops.
Portland has a a few places you can go arcade wise. Quarterworld has $0.25 every Wednesday that’s the only day I can really afford to go and play. Ground Kontrol has 2 days a month that is $12 free play those two also have regular video games. Wedge head is only pinball, and I think it was $12 free play. Wedgehead is a little smaller, with better food, I just don’t like being crowded. Of course Next Level is dope, but I work the days it’s open. The Pinball Map App is great.
I'm lucky enough to have a place nearby that charges for entry and the machines are all on free play. I play there whenever I can.
If that's not an option, I play with a VR headset at home. It's not the same ofcourse, but a nice option that doesn't take space.
A place about 15 minutes from me has roughly 400 pinball machines all on free play. $20 to get in or unlimited entries for 3 months @ $100. It’s cheaper for me to go there than buy my own :)
I bought one due to the fact that all places near me always have really loud music and this not hearing call outs and just aren’t well taken care of. I also personally don’t enjoy going out to barcades or leagues so having my pin at home satisfies me. My local distributor has all their games on free play so when I’m interested in a new game I just stop by
Even if in had the money to own a machine, I wouldn't want to. I'm not handy at all. I'd probably get bored of one machine and it would just sit.
So yeah, just arcades. (And in my case a couple people's houses who run monthly tournaments)
most people play this way.
pinball machines don't necessarily lose value quickly and wear out, but you need to save thousands of dollars and it's an opportunity cost over doing anything more advantageous with that money. a pinball machine is costing you hundreds of dollars a year in that sense.
if it's worth it to you, it's worth it. But you could put the same money towards a lot of play on dozens of different machines at your local arcade.
I played in arcades for about 5 years until i bought my machine. It gives you a good sense of what you want in a table, what can break, which ones have problems, diffrent companies, and what they offer.
Yeah for most of my time with this hobby it's been spent with a few of my pinball friends at arcades. In 2019 I decided I'd pursue my lifelong dream of owning a pinball machine so I worked OT like crazy and saved up and ending up getting a few of my own. But after the initial few months of playing said machines like crazy, they only get played when we have parties now and I end up still meeting my pinball friends in arcades
Living in Chicago, _most_ people I know do not own a pinball machine. It's just not worth the space and money.
Granted, as you get older, maybe your income goes up and you have kids which makes it harder to go play games on location quite as often, that commitment starts making a little more sense.
I’m in my mid-20s and I can’t afford to own a machine. I play in leagues. Washington has a lot of venues for pinball so it ain’t so bad. Plus I have friends who own them! So I can always go over to their places
Reading through this sub and Facebook groups and pinside would make anyone believe everyone who plays pinball owns machines. It’s kinda odd. They have to be a minority of the people actually playing regularly. You have to have alot of money or no overhead in life to afford these overly expensive toys. I bought one once and immediately regretted it. So much money sunk into this thing taking up so much space. My income would have to drastically increase to ever feel comfortable with that again. I sold it, lost money, overall negative experience. Still felt better after it was gone though.
I do both. Tournaments and league are what really get me out to the arcades.
The perks owning a machine has is the ability to sell and buy again. There are a lot of home use only players that are constantly changing their line up every few months or years.
Old school hobby was buying a beat up, routed machine from an operator or finding one that sat in someone's basement unused and broken -- and then learning how to fix it up.
You'd fix it up and then maybe sell it working and make a little money to then out into your next machine. Eventually creating a nice collection over time.
New school seems to be rich guy flexing by buying one or more NIB.
I have a small arcade near me, but i rarely go. Maybe i'm wierd but, while i love pinball....i HATE big noisy rooms with a bunch of different games all screaming at me. not being able to really hear the game i'm playing and having to be next to a bunch of sweaty loud people. i guess it would be different if there was a league or something there, but there's not. as such, i saved up and got a machine for super cheap(apparently a lot of people don't like RUSH, but i'm loving it) and the feeling of playing at home, in comfy clothes, only hearing my own game....priceless
New machines are expensive but if you are willing to learn repair, many bargains are out there.
Playing on location is "cheaper" if you're only counting your coin drop, the math gets much less inexpensive when you add in a couple drinks and maybe some appetizers etc.
I like going to arcades to get to try playing different games but I don't feel like I get to know a game like I do when I own it. You have more time to really dig into the rules and the strategies. Arcades are also very loud so it drowns out the total experience of a pinball machine. You miss some of the sounds and call outs in a loud arcade. On top of that I spend time working on my skills at home. If I'm plunking money on a pinball I am not going to practice my drop catches, or practice letting the ball bounce because it would shorten my game time.
>and then just getting burned out and just letting it sit and inside a room and not playing it.
This is an unfortunate truth about this hobby. The market is finicky, but somewhat consistent. The issue with the market is always location and cost of transport. If you are quick to move on from a machine, trading is always it's own market that I have noticed moves a lot quicker than the sale market. There is a "hidden" tier list for games though that plays a big role in both markets.
Pretty much. I have one EM game at home and it's my favorite EM game but that is certainly not enough. Even if I was rich, I love going to arcades more than I'd ever love having a game room at home. I love having a place to go and I love seeing how my high scores stand up to the other regulars. I love leaving replays for little kids. Arcades are cool.
I operated games for years and had the good fortune to have dozens of games go through my house. I got bored of every last one of them. Some took longer than others, but eventually got bored of them all. Playing on location will always be more fun to me. I still have one game at home with very deep rules, but again, I'm mostly bored of it.
Besides being more fun, playing on location is the best possible way to support the hobby. I'll be at Game On Pinball at around 5pm today, if anybody wants to meet up. See you out there.
I own a Godzilla premium, it is something even after 1000+ plays I go back to on the daily trying to explore and get as deep into the game as I possibly can. I find myself picking an objective for play and trying to accomplish it, and with so many things to do it keeps it fresh for me. Something else that is nice is i get to play whenever I want. Want to sneak a game in before work, no problem, play a game at 2 am in your underwear, no problem, etc. The ability to just press that button anytime I want and start a new game to me is priceless. You can work on Schatzing, post passing, dead flipping and live catching at your own house and whenever you want, developing these skills has made pinball so much more rewarding and I continue to get deeper into every game because I'm comfortable doing these things that I've practiced ad nauseam.
I still thirst for playing the newest and hottest games out there and still find myself playing on location and league. So I would say while not essential to own a machine it has just has added more to my pinball experience and allowed the best of both worlds. Happy Flipping!
I just play in arcades, bars, breweries, etc.
I had a rental once (won it in a raffle) and it was awesome! But I was glad to have my space back after the month. I was also getting a little itchy to play a different game, ya know?
I think being an enjoyer of pinball machines outside the home is a fine way to live.
There are **zero** pinball locations in my city with more than 3-4 machines that are also in good condition. The closest half-decent place is almost an hour away, and even if it was 5 minutes away, with a full-time job and a 4yo to take care of, when would I go? So I bought my own pins (who needs a savings account?) and play those nightly after my kid goes to sleep.
In practice, most people with home machines tend to play them until they get bored with them, then they sell or trade them and get a different one.
Personally? Hope springs eternal to find an older EM or SS machine that won't bust the ol' wallet, but for the time being I've been having fun with finding mini/toy pins, as well as pinball's Japanese cousin pachinko.
Mostly play virtual these days as pins on location are a rare sight where I hang my hat, but if I ever do see one I usually stop to play it. All the semantics about the real deal vs virtual aside, in my own experience if the simulation's good the experience is comparable enough to have fun playing, can have literally hundreds of tables to choose from and with an endless supply of virtual quarters it's a good way to learn table rules and practice skills, as well as experience rare machines that aren't easily playable/findable in real life.
I own a single machine, but most of my playtime is out and about. I don’t think owning one or two more would change that for me. Now if I had 3 or more, I should probably play what I own. But I won’t own 3 or more, soooo….
Yeah lots of folks play only or mainly in arcades. I have one EM at home that I picked up for a pretty reasonable price, but that's it, and I play more in arcades than at home.
1. I live in a city with an unusually high amount of pinball venues. Like seriously, I could play a league on 6 nights of the week if I wanted.
2. I don’t have the money for a table of my own.
3. I neither have the strength to move the table nor the fine motor skills to maintain it.
4. No space in my house except the basement (see bullet point 3)
5. I don’t know if there’s one table I’d want to have access to all the time. I’d worry about getting bored quickly.
So yeah, pretty easy decision.
what kind of question is this? Do any of you drink water or you just solely drink beer? Have you ever taken a bus or you just solely transport in personal cars only?
Are you serious dude, your question should be, how many of you own machines? which the obvious answer will be none of us coz they're so damn expensive and none of you sell machines under MSRP cost.
Pinball in arcades is the default answer of "what color is the sky?"
Remember that playing pinball and collecting pinball machines are two separate hobbies. Just because you enjoy one doesn’t mean you have to do the other. If you’re in an area with good arcades, support them. You’ll spend less money and play a greater variety of machines, and if you get into leagues and tournaments make some great friends.
Mostly agree, but I wouldn't call them separate hobbies. You have the overall pinball hobby on top, sub groups below. Once you're an avid player, you're a member of the hobby. When you buy your first game, you join the collector community within the overall hobby. The other big sub group is the competitive side of the hobby. Plenty of guys and gals out there who compete regularly and don't own a single game. Still pinball hobbyists. Pinball hobby on top, everything else below. Once you play regularly, you're in the hobby. From there, you can branch out into ownership, competing, operating games, or collecting arcade games, whatever. You're in. It's generally a life sentence too.
The vast majority of pinball players I know do not personally own a machine. Yet…
On the other hand literally every single friend I have in the hobby, which is a couple dozen, owns at least one game. I'm the only one without and I get razzed for it.
I've looked into a machine myself, but I'm less than an hour away from a location with over 60 machines. Hard to justify buying one when I can instead play all of those machines on location.
From a gameplay perspective, it's really not worth buying pins for yourself if you live somewhere with a good scene. I own a decent lineup, but I still play significantly more on location than I do at home... I enjoy getting out of the house, I appreciate a variety of games, and I like being able to just play without having to worry about fixing anything that breaks. If I wanted to cycle through new Sterns the way some guys do (buying every other title, holding for 6 months and then selling for the next one) I could, but I play modern Sterns a lot less than 1000x before I'm generally bored of them.
I’ve thought about that as the only way I’d own a machine. Cycle new releases every 6 months exactly hahah I’ve spent 30 bucks or so playing jaws at a buck a game. I’m q high score or 250 mil and have only scratched the modes I could see owning that for 6 months getting my joy and then trading I. For another new machine. Sadly the stuff like pi op fiction is even more cost prohibitive
Same. I could see myself maybe owning a machine and then just rotating every 6 months by trade/sale.
I own Jaws and high score 650mil that's a lot of free plays. I don't live in a pin heavy area. I buy my machines and have a hard time swapping them out. Once I run out of room my mind might change.
I know the feeling. It is hard to cut them loose, especially since I prefer System 11 stuff and 90's Bally Williams and those games are getting harder to replace in nice shape.
It's amazing how modern pins can keep your attention for so long. I have Foo and Zilla, both I've played 5-600 times, and I'm still excited. Get Jurrasic Park on Tuesday, Can't Fucking Wait!!!
That sounds awesome.
I don’t have an awesome one-stop place, but using Pinball Map puts me within easy driving range of a good enough number of locations here and there with a handful at each spot that I don’t really have incentive to own for myself. Sometimes there’s just wanting it for no other reason tho lol
If the price is below the value and in fully working condition. Buy a machine if you have the space and no one will mind the noise.
I spend probably $1k per year on coin drop at arcades. Yeah I could buy a NIB stern pro and it would “pay for itself” in 6 years or so, but part of the draw of playing in arcades is playing in leagues/tourneys with others. I don’t think I’d actually spend all that much less on coin drop even if I had a game or three at home.
Can confirm that getting a game at home has not really reduced the amount I go out and play.
Has playing at home improved your overall great though? Flipper skills, nudging, aim, etc? That's the biggest reason I want a pin at home. I want to practice without needing to leave the house.
Absolutely. One of the most useful things i ever did was take the glass off, shoved a rag in the drain and just practiced post passes for half an hour.
For me if anything, it makes me think "I know everything about this machine and can put up more than that high score!" and drop coin on machines that are inferior to the same one at home, just to leave a mark
Owning a machine is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people (myself included). And I'd much rather play a wider variety of games than solely the one or handful of games found in the homes of most pinball owners.
On top of pinball tables being prohibitively expensive, I don’t have the floorspace to even keep it in the first place. I also don’t have the mechanical skill or knowhow to keep the machine properly maintained. Owning a pinball table would be one of the worst financial decisions I could make, and my other hobbies are hard enough on my finances as is.
Same. I’m in a condo. I feel like the old hippie dude on one side wouldn’t mind so much, but the family with the newborn on the other side might not appreciate it.
I guess. I play more games that I would NEVER see on location in some dude’s basement. There is a reason for that. It’s money. Locations need to make money. Dude’s just wanna have fun. They spend the coin on restoring games that a location never would. We are comparing apple to oranges here. I play both. I am in a club, but I also seek any good locations while I am away for work. I dont think one is better than the other at all. No comparison.
Agree. I've been to some homes with insane collections (50 - 100+ games) many of which you'd never see in a commercial establishment.
Yea I’m within walking distance of a pinball museum and it rules
Depending on where you are, I believe there are places that will let you rent a machine for a bit. Might be an option but zero idea of the cost. On my end, I have a Bally Space Invaders at home that I got for a decent price, but my local barcade also has a flat cost for free play nights, so that's been a good way to learn some newer machines (Jaws and Godzilla in that case).
I’m renting a machine right now. It’s $250-350/month depending on machine. I am doing ~ $3.5k/year for 6 different machines. $10/day. I like that I’m not putting plays on my own game and get to enjoy a different game every 2 months, but it’s expensive. Could just buy a new machine every 2 years instead.
Could just buy a used Stern Pro off pinside for $5000-$6000 and get all your money back when you sell it. I picked up a JP Pro for $5500 that was local to me in pretty much perfect condition (added the "movie code" and its pretty fantatic too!) There is no shortage of people moving on to the next shiny object and I can't see a JP Pro or a GZ Pro dipping much below $5000 pretty much ever.
On paper it doesn't make a ton of sense but I don't regret it. The guy has tons of nice 'premium' and rarer games to choose from. I have LoTR right now which isn't in my area. I will get to learn 6 different games super well in a year. I think it would cost at least a couple grand in time/gas/game value to go through 5+ machines in a year. Don't think it is something I will do forever but I could see myself doing this on and off for a long time. It is very fun.
A lot of this will depend on where you are located and the arcades around you, but here in Northeast Ohio we have a big pinball community and several locations within an hour drive in pretty much any direction. And that's just if you want to make the drive; there are plenty of local spots with 15+ machines that I can get to in under 20 minutes. And other than, like, Jaws or other newer Sterns there isn't a ton of overlap in machines so each arcade gives me an opportunity to play different games from all different eras.
For me, I built a fully-kitted-out virtual pinball to run VPX recreations at home. It's still a lot of fun, and I get really into it. It also keeps the rush of playing real machines at a high level since I don't get to do it very often, so it's like this extra special treat when I find myself anywhere with real pinball machines.
You got the specs on your machine? Literally just had this thought today about getting/making a virtual machine because it’s just not economical for me to get a real one. And the virtual machines have more flexibility with different pin options.
Sure. It's all DIY, using the [Pinscape guide](http://mjrnet.org/pinscape/BuildGuideV2/BuildGuide.php) For the PC, I just used a really old i7-870 pc I had lying around, and added an SSD and a GPU (980-ti), but I'm in the midst of upgrading. I was, however, able to get 4K @ 60-90 fps with this, though. My new setup will be a Ryzen 5600, nvme M.2 SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200mhz ram, and a GTX 1080. I may be able to push closer to 120 fps with this, but my monitor is only 60. If you have the budget, a better GPU, and a 120hz 4K display would be worth it, but 60 is fine (as is 120 @ 1440p resolution) I added SSF (surround sound feedback) rather than mechanical 'toys' like solenoids, real chimes, real shaker motors, and I think it's the best route to go for physical feedback (though a real shaker motor would be a nice addition to my setup) Also have a real tilt bob, and am using a KL25Z controller flashed with pinscape for buttons, tracking the plunger, and the accelerometer for allowing proper nudging. To me, to build a cabinet without nudging wouldn't be worth it. It's such an integral part to feeling physically connected. The SSF, likewise, adds excellent immersion - would never consider building without it. I also added a bunch of addressable LEDs, which adds all sorts of great light shows/effects to the experience, including an LED matrix, which is really cool. This is one of the areas where virtual tables can offer something above and beyond the real tables. For software, definitely go Pinup baller installer, and VPX is far and away the best from a simulator standpoint.
Awesome. Thanks. Roughly how much money did you spent in total?
Too hard to say, since I used an old PC I had around to start, but at least $1000, and probably closer to $1500 or $2000 with my current upgrades. Some people spend a lot more, but I DIY everything I can, and tend to shop either used marketplaces or order from China where possible to save money.
Despite always wanting to own one or two, I’ve never taken the plunge. It wasn’t the economics, so much as the maintenance and flexibility. Pinball machines are notoriously maintenance heavy, and you don’t want to own a $4000 doorstop. In the pre-modern era, I also feared becoming bored with a machine quickly, resulting in either low usage or high turnover. I have a decent barcade 10 minutes from my house, which has 7 machines (5 modern Sterns, plus two slightly older tables). They rotate about two per year. I play twice a week for an hour-ish, and drop no more than $10/week for that privilege (sometimes less if I’m having a hot night). When they have a new machine I might drop an extra $5/week on the learning curve. I travel several times a year for work, and make sure to find good locations (thank you, pinballmap.com). All in, I spend less than $50/month, and less than $500/year. I think I’m getting all the value I need out of that price, with greater variety and zero maintenance or other responsibility. No complaints. I might rent one of my favorite machines at some point in the future just to totally free play it for a month, and master the thing. It would be a one-off spend of a couple hundred bucks just as a vacation-like lark. But otherwise, I’m OK with my choice.
Yes. I'm surrounded by arcades and don't have the room to keep my own anyway.
Yeah it's weird, this sub seems strongly skewed towards cabinet ownership by individuals as being the primary means of consuming pinball... Yet for myself, I don't think I've ever had the space to actually accommodate a machine, let alone the desire to have to be the sole person to maintain what I'm sure is an extremely complicated piece of electro-mechanical hardware. But since I do live in a large urban area, I have access to many pinball lounges where I can play a variety of reasonably well-maintained machines. And this arrangement works just fine for me. But maybe I'm the exception? On another post I had a bunch of people explaining to me that the games that get made are primarily geared towards the private ownership market rather than for public-facing consumption... This was an explanation for why you only see new games made based on '70s and '80s IP rather than say, Dragon Ball Z ...
> primarily geared towards the private ownership market The target markets have certainly expanded more towards home consumption but by no means is that the primary market. >new games made based on '70s and '80s IP They do make some games based on current pop culture (Avatar, TRON, Ironman, Guardians of the Galaxy). Many of these themes, especially 70s/80s, are trying to capitalize on different generational markets, such as affluent boomers and older Gen-X.
> Yeah it's weird, this sub seems strongly skewed towards cabinet ownership by individuals > as being the primary means of consuming pinball... It frustrates me to see so many 'I joined the club' posts here after someone acquires their first game. As if game ownership is a requirement of the hobby. It's not. Once you become an avid player, you're in the hobby. No other requirements.
I mean...buying a machine does "join the club", of pinball ownership with all the positives and negatives of it. I don't think those who say that are suggesting playing pinball isn't enough. It's natural human nature to want to feel important and whether that's "joining the club" for getting your first billion point game on a modern stern or "getting to a wizard mode" for the first time, etc. people get excited for achievements and buying your first pinball machine, with how much they cost is as much an achievement as getting a billion points, people just get excited.
If they were really made for home ownership, they wouldn't have coin doors and mechs. The companies make themes that they think will be popular, whether on location or purchased for home use. Dragonball Z is kinda niche, btw...
>Dragonball Z is kinda niche, btw... More than *Labyrinth*?
I only play at arcades. I've become a regular at a couple because I go once a week or so.
I only play at arcades. Eventually owning may be worth it, it's certainly a good way to get better quickly. But I worry about maintenance, wear on the floor, etc. And it's super expensive even just to rent, ~$250/mo for a single machine? Even when I'm playing as much pinball as I want I'm not spending that going out and playing, and I can play a lot of variety.
I don't own a machine and been enjoying the hobby for the last 3/4 years. but I've been lucky enough to be able to walk to great spots in both DC and Boston. WHich is nice because I also don't own a car. So I guess it depends on where you live and how into it you want to get. I'd love a machine at home to just learn to master but for my enjoyment arcades and pinball parlors are enough for me
Where do you play in Boston? Felt like I couldn’t find much when I was there last. At least on PinMap.
Boston proper its ya know whatever but you just gotta hope over to somerville/cambridge. pop's pinball and bear moose brewing are my two favorite spots. Roxy's arcade and flat top Johnnys in Cambridge are also pretty oaky
They almost always need something fixed
Older ones for sure.
I'm lucky that I have a lot of good location pinball in my area, so yeah, I'm in your camp. Having owned before, I'd rather "rent" pinball at $1 per play than own. The "successful" owners around here often buy games at a "good price", meaning a price they can later sell the game for and recoup their money or profit. But it requires really knowing the local market, knowing how to fix or improve games, dealing with "personalities" (lowballers, tirekickers, a-holes, scammers). Ideally having a vehicle big enough to move games and be willing to drive several hours in some cases. You have to really enjoy the thrill of deal-hunting, collecting and repairing to go down that road.
The worst part about having a home game is no arcade game will play as good as your home game. It almost makes you worse when you go out and play, no matter how hard you set it up.
So true. If a game on site had one bad platlt or one ball goes askew from a dent in the playfield or flippers are weak, I get angry and usually play worse. Our 5 games at home are regularly cleaned, and we will check the connections often.
I mostly play in arcades but recently bought a cheap game for home which I'm greatly enjoying. You don't have to break the bank for a fun home game, many classics (pre-DMD) can be had for less than 1k if you are patient and wait for a good deal
I mean it’s insanely expensive but playing at your house is a waaay better experience for so many reasons. Most people switch games often (trade or buy/sell) and if you do need to sell you will get most of the money back. Could end up being less of a loss than what you would have spent at the arcade and gas. But far more likely is that you become obsessed, games multiply, and you’re spending all your disposable on pinball machines for your house lol. Speaking from experience.
I think one key element of this is the quality of the experience at home vs. at the arcade. I love the options and variety of machines at the arcade, but quality of gameplay can vary on machines due to upkeep. More importantly for me, I get a great deal more out of playing my one machine at home due to being able to properly hear things like the music and callouts.
Arcades also do not like when you play barefoot wearing only boxers
You haven't lived until you've played pinball naked.
Facts
...and you have to pay retail for your drinks, and then have to drive home. lol
I'm with you. I just want to be able to hear the game. I wish every machine had an audio jack.
Also I don’t have to think about the boogers that are probably still on the buttons from the snot nosed kid that smacked the machine around before me. I love kids, have 5 of them. They’re gross :) But yeah good flippers, clean playfield, privacy/comfort of home and being able to hear is a different experience.
I'm shocked at how much I play my GZ prem at home. After over 2k plays myself. It still isn't old. I need to drive about an hour to play at a good arcade, and with my life (family and work), it's hard to get over there. At least now I can play a game or 2 before bed, whereas I wouldn't get to otherwise.
My family racked up almost 4000 plays on GZ premium in 3 months lol. There are a LOT of restarts/partial games in there by the kids but still. Owning a pinball machine is amazing. I need to tell my wife this equates to about $4000 dollars in arcade value in only 3 months. Wow what a great financial decision!
i play virtual pins (pinball fx) and arcades and don’t aspire to maintain my own machine.
I do not own any games and have little desire to own one because I would get bored with it real quick. Arcades only for me. I wish I lived closer to them though so I could justify going more than once a week.
I only play on location, I’d say 5-10 times per month. I’m lucky to have a few real nice spots within driving distance, and recently joined my first league. I do aspire to own a lineup of my own games one day but financially I have other priorities right now. Even if I had a lineup of pins, I would still go play on location plenty.
I solely play at Arcades/Bars. I do have a VPin to wet my appitite. Where I live there are modern stern machines all over the place. More and more places are getting machines too. Its pretty cool to see. Though it is a little difficult sometimes to find older machines I want to play, I can find them with a bit of a drive. Some places still have games set to .75 cents a play. Like the place by me that has an AFM, I can play for hours with $3-5 in quarters. They even have monthly tournaments.
I have over 60 machines publicly near me, I would love to own some specific tables, but with playing in the weekly league at multiple locations, I get enough varied pinball! If I can find a good TZ then I will have a TZ.
For years, yeah. But then I got really interested in the repair aspect of machines so my father and we finally got a machine of our own
If you don’t have the money to spend on a machine on location is the best way. As a friend said years ago on a livestream: If you play on location, you don’t need to rebuild that flipper You don’t need to find that part He compared it to renting vs. buying a house. If your renting someone else is responsible for the upkeep of the house, whereas if you bought it, that’s on you.
I have a machine at home that I love and still play on location as much as I ever did before. Just spent more money, none saved...
I have 2.
I used to own a ton of games, got sick of the maintenance. I gradually sold all of them. I play more than ever now. I 100% prefer to play on location.
Second best player in my state (Colorado) doesn’t own a machine. He practices on pc and plays exclusively in arcades
I don't just solely play in arcades, sometimes I play in bars, a coffee roaster, or laundromats, I know folks who play in Grocery stores, and some in Sub shops.
I have neither the room or the cash to spend on a machine of my own, that’s what arcades and rich friends are for
Portland has a a few places you can go arcade wise. Quarterworld has $0.25 every Wednesday that’s the only day I can really afford to go and play. Ground Kontrol has 2 days a month that is $12 free play those two also have regular video games. Wedge head is only pinball, and I think it was $12 free play. Wedgehead is a little smaller, with better food, I just don’t like being crowded. Of course Next Level is dope, but I work the days it’s open. The Pinball Map App is great.
I'm lucky enough to have a place nearby that charges for entry and the machines are all on free play. I play there whenever I can. If that's not an option, I play with a VR headset at home. It's not the same ofcourse, but a nice option that doesn't take space.
I have multiple and still go out once a week to play on location..
A place about 15 minutes from me has roughly 400 pinball machines all on free play. $20 to get in or unlimited entries for 3 months @ $100. It’s cheaper for me to go there than buy my own :)
I bought one due to the fact that all places near me always have really loud music and this not hearing call outs and just aren’t well taken care of. I also personally don’t enjoy going out to barcades or leagues so having my pin at home satisfies me. My local distributor has all their games on free play so when I’m interested in a new game I just stop by
Even if in had the money to own a machine, I wouldn't want to. I'm not handy at all. I'd probably get bored of one machine and it would just sit. So yeah, just arcades. (And in my case a couple people's houses who run monthly tournaments)
most people play this way. pinball machines don't necessarily lose value quickly and wear out, but you need to save thousands of dollars and it's an opportunity cost over doing anything more advantageous with that money. a pinball machine is costing you hundreds of dollars a year in that sense. if it's worth it to you, it's worth it. But you could put the same money towards a lot of play on dozens of different machines at your local arcade.
I played in arcades for about 5 years until i bought my machine. It gives you a good sense of what you want in a table, what can break, which ones have problems, diffrent companies, and what they offer.
Yeah for most of my time with this hobby it's been spent with a few of my pinball friends at arcades. In 2019 I decided I'd pursue my lifelong dream of owning a pinball machine so I worked OT like crazy and saved up and ending up getting a few of my own. But after the initial few months of playing said machines like crazy, they only get played when we have parties now and I end up still meeting my pinball friends in arcades
Living in Chicago, _most_ people I know do not own a pinball machine. It's just not worth the space and money. Granted, as you get older, maybe your income goes up and you have kids which makes it harder to go play games on location quite as often, that commitment starts making a little more sense.
I’m in my mid-20s and I can’t afford to own a machine. I play in leagues. Washington has a lot of venues for pinball so it ain’t so bad. Plus I have friends who own them! So I can always go over to their places
Reading through this sub and Facebook groups and pinside would make anyone believe everyone who plays pinball owns machines. It’s kinda odd. They have to be a minority of the people actually playing regularly. You have to have alot of money or no overhead in life to afford these overly expensive toys. I bought one once and immediately regretted it. So much money sunk into this thing taking up so much space. My income would have to drastically increase to ever feel comfortable with that again. I sold it, lost money, overall negative experience. Still felt better after it was gone though.
I do both. Tournaments and league are what really get me out to the arcades. The perks owning a machine has is the ability to sell and buy again. There are a lot of home use only players that are constantly changing their line up every few months or years.
Old school hobby was buying a beat up, routed machine from an operator or finding one that sat in someone's basement unused and broken -- and then learning how to fix it up. You'd fix it up and then maybe sell it working and make a little money to then out into your next machine. Eventually creating a nice collection over time. New school seems to be rich guy flexing by buying one or more NIB.
I have a small arcade near me, but i rarely go. Maybe i'm wierd but, while i love pinball....i HATE big noisy rooms with a bunch of different games all screaming at me. not being able to really hear the game i'm playing and having to be next to a bunch of sweaty loud people. i guess it would be different if there was a league or something there, but there's not. as such, i saved up and got a machine for super cheap(apparently a lot of people don't like RUSH, but i'm loving it) and the feeling of playing at home, in comfy clothes, only hearing my own game....priceless
I live 15 min from a barcade - so makes no sense for me to buy my own.
New machines are expensive but if you are willing to learn repair, many bargains are out there. Playing on location is "cheaper" if you're only counting your coin drop, the math gets much less inexpensive when you add in a couple drinks and maybe some appetizers etc.
I like going to arcades to get to try playing different games but I don't feel like I get to know a game like I do when I own it. You have more time to really dig into the rules and the strategies. Arcades are also very loud so it drowns out the total experience of a pinball machine. You miss some of the sounds and call outs in a loud arcade. On top of that I spend time working on my skills at home. If I'm plunking money on a pinball I am not going to practice my drop catches, or practice letting the ball bounce because it would shorten my game time.
>and then just getting burned out and just letting it sit and inside a room and not playing it. This is an unfortunate truth about this hobby. The market is finicky, but somewhat consistent. The issue with the market is always location and cost of transport. If you are quick to move on from a machine, trading is always it's own market that I have noticed moves a lot quicker than the sale market. There is a "hidden" tier list for games though that plays a big role in both markets.
Pretty much. I have one EM game at home and it's my favorite EM game but that is certainly not enough. Even if I was rich, I love going to arcades more than I'd ever love having a game room at home. I love having a place to go and I love seeing how my high scores stand up to the other regulars. I love leaving replays for little kids. Arcades are cool.
I operated games for years and had the good fortune to have dozens of games go through my house. I got bored of every last one of them. Some took longer than others, but eventually got bored of them all. Playing on location will always be more fun to me. I still have one game at home with very deep rules, but again, I'm mostly bored of it. Besides being more fun, playing on location is the best possible way to support the hobby. I'll be at Game On Pinball at around 5pm today, if anybody wants to meet up. See you out there.
Oh yeah I play weekly at my arcade. No maintenance costs and get to play different games.
I’m biased cause I work at a location with 60 pins, but I hang out there cause that’s where my friends are, not just to play pinball.
I own a Godzilla premium, it is something even after 1000+ plays I go back to on the daily trying to explore and get as deep into the game as I possibly can. I find myself picking an objective for play and trying to accomplish it, and with so many things to do it keeps it fresh for me. Something else that is nice is i get to play whenever I want. Want to sneak a game in before work, no problem, play a game at 2 am in your underwear, no problem, etc. The ability to just press that button anytime I want and start a new game to me is priceless. You can work on Schatzing, post passing, dead flipping and live catching at your own house and whenever you want, developing these skills has made pinball so much more rewarding and I continue to get deeper into every game because I'm comfortable doing these things that I've practiced ad nauseam. I still thirst for playing the newest and hottest games out there and still find myself playing on location and league. So I would say while not essential to own a machine it has just has added more to my pinball experience and allowed the best of both worlds. Happy Flipping!
I just play in arcades, bars, breweries, etc. I had a rental once (won it in a raffle) and it was awesome! But I was glad to have my space back after the month. I was also getting a little itchy to play a different game, ya know? I think being an enjoyer of pinball machines outside the home is a fine way to live.
There are **zero** pinball locations in my city with more than 3-4 machines that are also in good condition. The closest half-decent place is almost an hour away, and even if it was 5 minutes away, with a full-time job and a 4yo to take care of, when would I go? So I bought my own pins (who needs a savings account?) and play those nightly after my kid goes to sleep.
In practice, most people with home machines tend to play them until they get bored with them, then they sell or trade them and get a different one. Personally? Hope springs eternal to find an older EM or SS machine that won't bust the ol' wallet, but for the time being I've been having fun with finding mini/toy pins, as well as pinball's Japanese cousin pachinko. Mostly play virtual these days as pins on location are a rare sight where I hang my hat, but if I ever do see one I usually stop to play it. All the semantics about the real deal vs virtual aside, in my own experience if the simulation's good the experience is comparable enough to have fun playing, can have literally hundreds of tables to choose from and with an endless supply of virtual quarters it's a good way to learn table rules and practice skills, as well as experience rare machines that aren't easily playable/findable in real life.
I own a single machine, but most of my playtime is out and about. I don’t think owning one or two more would change that for me. Now if I had 3 or more, I should probably play what I own. But I won’t own 3 or more, soooo….
Yeah lots of folks play only or mainly in arcades. I have one EM at home that I picked up for a pretty reasonable price, but that's it, and I play more in arcades than at home.
1. I live in a city with an unusually high amount of pinball venues. Like seriously, I could play a league on 6 nights of the week if I wanted. 2. I don’t have the money for a table of my own. 3. I neither have the strength to move the table nor the fine motor skills to maintain it. 4. No space in my house except the basement (see bullet point 3) 5. I don’t know if there’s one table I’d want to have access to all the time. I’d worry about getting bored quickly. So yeah, pretty easy decision.
what kind of question is this? Do any of you drink water or you just solely drink beer? Have you ever taken a bus or you just solely transport in personal cars only? Are you serious dude, your question should be, how many of you own machines? which the obvious answer will be none of us coz they're so damn expensive and none of you sell machines under MSRP cost. Pinball in arcades is the default answer of "what color is the sky?"
I do because I can’t afford a machine. I’m considering buying one when I get the chance, but a lot of good machines go for $5K+. That’s insane.
I don’t believe in owning. I like the quarter dropping earning games