Oakland Pinball Machines will finally be legal in the California city after an 80-year ban following the City Council public safety committee meeting on Tuesday, June 24. The ban is part of an effort by the city council to modernize and broaden the gambling laws of Oakland, California.


The 80-year old ban can be traced back to the 1930′s when pre-war pinball machines were popular. The tables were produced from the 1900s up until the 1930s when electronic versions were introduced between 1936 and 1948, giving rise to the “payout” machines. The idea behind these flipperless tables were in the player launching the ball and using skill and nudging to get the ball to land or trigger a payout from the bartender or proprietor turning a penny into something more.



The machines became more sophisticated, resulting in the game becoming more addicting, and many cities, including Oakland, banned all pinball machines outright. Once World War II broke out, the manufacturing companies essentially ceased production of the “payout” tables in favor of the war effort and over time the ban became obsolete.

When the war was over, pinball machines began ramping up production again and in 1950, the famous D. Gottleib Co. made the first table with the modern inward facing flippers called “Spot Bowler.” From there Gottleib and Williams rode a wave of new interest in pinball and, with the advances in technology, the tables became more complex and offered more intricate goals, lights,and sounds. There were even tables that spoke to you, such as the famous “Gorgar” table. As the pinball machine and arcade become more popular, cities decided to remove the old bans with one of the most famous cases being that of the New York City Council.

In 1976, the New York City ban on pinball tables was overturned by a historic shot made by Roger Sharpe, one of the best players in the city. Before the City Council, the demonstration provided the tangible evidence that the game was indeed based on skill, not chance. Sharpe explained that if he pulled the plunger back to the right position, the ball would go in a certain lane and before the assembled council and reporters he made the shot perfectly.

Now it is Oakland’s turn and according to the SFGate, the public safety committee of the Oakland City Council will vote to overturn the 80-year-old ban, which has not been strictly enforced. The recommendation before the council (PDF) will allow councilman Noel Gallo to start work on a broader campaign to update the gambling laws. The vote will remove a club poised above arcade owners and bartenders who have pinball leagues hosted at their establishments and will hopefully allow the only current pinball company, Stern, to make more tables in the area such as they usually display at CES.

Image Source | The Everett Collection

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1314708/oakland-pinball-machines-to-be-legalized-after-80-year-ban/#CZOxAf7j7H4rmTRB.99

Pinball machines and other arcade games don’t seem very nefarious now, but they apparently did in the early 1980s — enough so that city police code restricts these types of devices to fewer than 10 per business.

That’s why the Board of Supervisors this week approved a resolution that would exempt two businesses — one a yet-to-be opened bar in the Castro, another a screen printing shop in Cole Valley — from a section of police code limiting what it calls “mechanical amusement devices.”

Supervisors Scott Wiener and London Breed, whose districts include the businesses, proposed the exemption and said they now want to look at whether the code is obsolete and should be repealed. Wiener said the code is one of many affecting bars, restaurants and other businesses that may have made sense at the time but now seem bizarre. For example, two years ago he authored legislation to repeal outdated restaurant codes that, among other things, prevented some cafes from toasting the bagels they sold or serving ice cream in a cone (cups were all right).

“It almost seems like a kitschy thing now, but it’s part a of a broader theme,” Wiener said. “If you look at businesses and restaurants these days, there is so much variation, so much creativity — sometimes the municipal code doesn’t take into account the positive aspects of allowing businesses flexibility to offer products and services.”

The Cole Valley business, Free Gold Watch, offers T-shirt and other printing services as well as a number of pinball machines. The arcade games were flagged by the Entertainment Commission as possibly violating the police code. Neighbors love the arcade, however, and submitted dozens of letters in support, according to Breed’s office.

The soon-to-be opened Castro bar will be located on the northwest corner of Market and Sanchez streets at the location that formerly housed Leticia’s, a Mexican restaurant. Wiener said the owners, who also own the nearby Blackbird Bar, want to make it an arcade-themed watering hole. Since the police code actually restricts the number of arcade games by the businesses square footage, Wiener said they would be limited to three or four without the exemption.

If the supervisors author legislation to repeal the police code, they would probably still require business owners who want to host arcade games to apply for a special permit, he added.

via http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2014/04/23/like-pinball-supervisors-say-limits-on-arcade-games-are-outdated/

WASHINGTON -- If you love pinball, you'll flip for this.

The man who founded D.C.'s now-closed National Pinball Museum is selling his collection of hundreds of machines, andthe second in a series of auctions is set for 9 a.m. Sunday, April 27.

David Silverman, of Silver Spring, Md., first opened the National Pinball Museum in Georgetown in late 2010, then moved it to Baltimore before closing it for good last year.

Silverman says he then moved hundreds of his machines to a storage area at a former mall in Sykesville, Md., where he was told he would have one year's notice before he would have to move them.

He considered opening the museum a third time when he got word that he would have to move his items out in just 30 days. That's when he called Morphy Auctions, in Pennsylvania. Although the auction will be held in the Lancaster, Pa.-area, D.C.-area bidders can participate online or by phone.

See what is in the auction catalog here.

Silverman says he doesn't plan on going to any of the auctions.

"It's partially painful, and partially, I'm trying to get beyond it."

Among the items for sale in Sunday's auction is a 1936 machine called Daily Races, which was banned in many places because players could win money from it. That makes it a rare machine because it would often be confiscated, Silverman says.

"The interesting part about that game is that, the one that I found, it was confiscated to the basement of a policeman's home.

"I don't know how many of this game exist, but it was one of the highest-priced games that I ever bought."

Another game, called Safe Cracker, is a game within a game within a game. Scoring in the pinball game help move you forward on a second Parcheesi-style game board on the backglass, the upper part of the pinball machine. If you win this second part of the game, something amazing happens.

"You get a token that rolls right out of the game, onto the playfield glass, into your hands. That token then you can use to put into a different coin slot, and that coin slot plays a different game."

Other interesting machines in Sunday's auction include an "Indiana Jones" machine, another based on "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" and a very hard-to-find rolldown machine, which was made for states where shooting a ball with a plunger was considered gambling.

Silverman says it's a good time to buy and a bad time to sell. He says the economy has really affected the value of older pinball machines.

"The first auction has kind of taught me a lesson ... I don't even expect to come close to getting what I paid for these games."

Silverman collected about 700 games over almost 35 years, but he's not selling all of them.

"I'm keeping about 12 or 15 games, and they're for all the wrong reasons that people would think of. They're not necessarily the rarest, and not necessarily the most beautiful. They just have a lot of historical importance to me -- not only from their own historical perspective, but they had importance to me based on my collecting, where I was in my life during it.

"Like the first game I ever bought was a game called Fireball. I've always kept that game -- we kept it in this house. At one point we kept it as a night light because it had the most beautiful backglass -- these reds, oranges and yellows."

He also has a brand-new "Wizard of Oz" pinball machine at his home that he intended on showing off at the museum. Sadly, it was delivered after the museum closed.

Silverman has gone through a range of emotions since the museum was shuttered, but now he can look back and smile.

"I'm sad that it didn't survive, but it came as close to my mind's eye of what I wanted as it could have ever been. And so I'm satisfied with having that happen, and that's taken a lot for me to actually say that."

Follow @WTOP and WTOP Entertainment on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

© 2014 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.

via www.wtop.com

This news may come late to some and apologies are expressed for not having reported this as it happened. Python was an incredible man whom touched the lives of everyone that he met including myself. Pyhton was a selfless man who treated strangers as friends and friends as family. 

With an incredible career most notably as a pinball artist Python left his indelible mark that the industry and fans will never forget. Python was responsible for classic coin-op artwork such as Comet, Cyclone, Fish Tales, Pinbot and more

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of such a great man. We will miss you Sir, we will remember you, always..........

More news on Python's passing can be found all over the net including the following

http://www.pinballnews.com/news/python.html
http://www.examiner.com/article/legendary-pinball-video-game-artist-python-anghelo-passes-away
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/python-anghelo-has-passed-away

On Saturday a new Barcade named "82" opened in the Arts district of downtown Los Angeles to plenty of classic and contemporary pinball machines and video games.

Watch the 2 minute news segment here 
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video/9973767-new-bar-and-arcade-is-decidedly-old-school-in-scope/

Great story about John Reuter and his massive collection of pinball machines.

GORHAM, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The game of Pinball has a rich history, with it's origin dating back to the days of Louis XIV. It of course has evolved from the days of the 1600's, to the machines you're more familiar with. Like any sport, it's gone through its lulls, with the evolution of the internet changing the game. There is one Mainer, who's doing his best to keep it alive.

After playing his first game of pinball in 1964, John Reuter was hooked. He's been an avid player participating in competitions all across New England. After seeing the game die out after the 1980's, he decided to create an environment in his own home for others to be able to come play.

"I wanted a variety of machines and I didn't want to get bored with the ones I had so that's what I did what I did. I bought a bunch of them," said Reuter.

He now has around 95 pinball machines total in his Gorham home. Alot of sound and alot of options for other players to choose from like Mike Haycock. He took home first place in the 2014 Maine Pinball Championship, that was held at John's home.

"There's no slouchers," said Haycock. "Anybody can have a bad game at any time. That's how pinball is."

To find out more about John and his pinball tournaments, you can visit his Facebook page, New England Pinball.

Read more and watch the video here http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/271568/50/Pinball-player-collects-95-pinball-machines-in-his-home

NEW YORK CITY -- If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere. Pinball guru Steve Epstein is bringing the classic coin-op game back to Manhattan, but not in an arcade. Modern Pinball NYC on 3rd Ave. between 26th and 27th Streets is an interactive showroom featuring brand-new pinballs and refurbished models, dating back to the early solid-state era (late 1980s). The retail showroom, where every game is for sale, is only 1,450 square feet, but it tidily packs up to 35 games. Small quarters in the back can be used for parties or as a staging area for events. Modern Pinball NYC is an official distributor for Jersey Jack Pinball, which began shipping its Wizard of Oz flipper game earlier this year. New games from Stern Pinball are also for sale, and are supplied and shipped by Modern Pinball's allied resellers, including Tilt Amusements (Ostrander, OH). 


The pinball venue is roughly the same size of Epstein's former Broadway Arcade, (the second one at 52nd St.), which closed in 1996. Its clientele comprised local coin-op fans, Broadway cast members and celebrities like Roberta Flack, Matthew Broderick and Paul Simon. Lou Reed held his wedding reception -- with 50 guests, cake and gifts -- at the Broadway Arcade. The musician and songwriter died on Oct. 27, the same day Modern Pinball NYC "unofficially" opened for a private party to celebrate the second birthday of Epstein's twin grandsons.

Nostalgia aside, Modern Pinball NYC is about a coin-op institution that has been struggling to find a place in a digital society. Since the Broadway Arcade shut down almost 20 years ago, Epstein has been a go-to guy for collectors, promoters, tournament organizers and manufacturers, and a spiritual figure to soul seekers searching for the meaning of pinball. At Modern Pinball NYC, Epstein's business partner is Steve Zahler, a 44-year-old Web developer from New Jersey, and a serious pinball collector and competitive player.

"We're going to offer white-glove service," Zahler reported. "Every machine must pass a thorough checklist. And taking care of customers is the top priority."

VT recently toured the facility and found every game in it to be in excellent working order and in pristine condition. The Addams Family (Bally/1992), Fun House (Williams/1990) and Flipper Football (Capcom/1996), along with Dr. Dude (Williams/1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (Williams/1993) and Punchy the Clown (Alvin G. & Co./1993) are some of the solid-state games on display. Stern's Star Trek and Metallica pins, among other new titles, are also in the showroom.

Zahler grew up in New Rochelle, NY, where he spent his youth playing pinball at Nathan's. He hopes Modern Pinball NYC will introduce the classic game to kids and teens, and perhaps make it a family experience. Games on display, all set on free play, can also be played after paying a small admission fee.

With the devoted assistance of pinball enthusiasts Francesco LaRocca, Al Cihak and Eddie Cramer, among others, support for Modern Pinball NYC is growing. LaRocca is an experienced pinball tournament organizer; Cihak is a collector who has become one of the biggest pinball machine operators in the Big Apple; and Cramer is an expert at restoring games.

In addition to showcasing pinball machines and hosting special events, Epstein and Zahler are planning outreach programs to provide exposure to pinball to a much broader audience.

Epstein is a founder and co-chairman of the International Flipper Pinball Association, which is moving its official headquarters to the Modern Pinball site. The official opening of the venue will be celebrated this weekend, Nov.16 and 17, in conjunction with an IFPA tournament, the proceeds of benefiting the city's Food Bank.

Going forward, Epstein and Zahler, who is a top-ranking IFPA player in New Jersey, say tournaments will be a big part of their enterprise. Video footage of tournaments and player interviews will run on TV displays located throughout the store. TVs will also show high-score leaderboards.

The IFPA was created with the express purpose of encouraging, supporting and endorsing competitive pinball throughout the world. The organization provides oversight and assistance in establishing pinball leagues and organizing tournaments. At present, more than 450 IFPA events are staged annually.

The association endorses the World Pinball Tour events, which now boasts more than $500,000 in cash and prizes awarded each year. With 25 country directors around the world, the IFPA has created the first official player ranking system, which awards points based upon player performance. The World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) includes over 21,000 players from 40 different countries. And these numbers keep increasing, as people of all ages from all parts of the globe respond to the timeless appeal of the pinball machine's harnessing of Newtonian mechanics to human ingenuity to present an intriguing challenge to skill and quick reflexes.

"The staggering, explosive growth of the entire worldwide community of pinball players and enthusiasts has been nothing short of remarkable since we re-launched the IFPA just a few years ago," said association cofounder and co-chairman Roger Sharpe. "And the future has never looked brighter for pinball, with tournaments and leagues taking place around the world on an almost weekly basis. I know Modern Pinball NYC is going to become the must-visit place for everyone in the tri-state area."

For Epstein, creating a physical presence in New York City dedicated to pinball has been a long time coming. "Modern Pinball NYC will showcase the best that is pinball," the amusement industry veteran said. "And to have the IFPA headquarters based here is icing on the cake."

Modern Pinball NYC is located at 362 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10016. It's open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Information can be had by calling (646) 415-8440; For parties and corporate events, call (908) 358-7773.

Click here for directions to Modern Pinball NYC.

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NORTH HILLS- Stephen Scohy's North Hills basement is a step back in time.

The walls are adorned with late 1970s, early 1980s memorabilia including glass placards advertising arcade games, candy and gum machines.

There's also a soundtrack. Scohy bought recordings of the 1980s American Top 40, complete with advertisements.

And then there's the games, more than two dozen vintage pinball and arcade machines. The machines in the basement are only part of Scohy's collection, most of which date between 1976 and 1984.

"It's a crazy hobby that keeps me sane," he said.

Scohy has acquired and repaired about 60 pinball machines and close to 25 video arcade games; most were games he played as a kid at the Escape Hatch, the Corner Pocket and FunLand. His Dig Dug machine used to sit at Skate County in south Parkersburg.

He started collecting pinball machines in 1999 when he rediscovered his love for the games.

He bought his first pinball machine, Rock.

"Growing up in Vienna there wasn't much to do," he said.

As a kid, Scohy would mow lawns and shovel snow to earn money to go to the arcade.

"Pinball was the first game I was good at," he said. "I had a crowd that would watch me play."

It wasn't long after he started purchasing the machines that Scohy got into repairing them.

"The second game I got broke," he said.

Scohy learned how to fix it from the Internet and from a friend in Boaz, William McCormick. He has learned to repair the machines and now prefers to purchase ones that no longer work.

"It's more fun to play detective and fix them," he said.

In the 14 years he's been collecting, Scohy also has amassed a collection of parts and play fields. Scohy will scout the Internet and want ads for machines he can repair.

His favorites are people who call him offering to sell machines that used to work.


Read more via newsandsentinel.com

For this California man, the beauty is in the classic game
By Greg Hardesty / The Orange County Register
Published: October 27. 2013 4:00AM PST

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Dave Miner used to spend a lot of time in bowling alleys.

It made sense. It was the 1980s; Southern California. He was a teenager.

Bottled water is served. No alcohol or food allowed.

But like a lot of teens who hung in bowling alleys but weren't really into bowling, Miner's alley time was spent playing pinball.

He fed a college tuition worth of quarters into the slot, trying to keep the steel balls in play long enough to earn a free game or two.

Ding-ding-ding!

Blip-blip-blip!

Tat-tat-tat!

Some might consider this a huge waste of time, and they'd have a point. But Miner found the game's simplicity appealing. And the gloriously cheesy pinball art — usually chronicling the pop culture vibe of the moment — was beautiful.

One day, when Miner saw a repairman reveal the mystery of the machine's guts, the kid from Arcadia, Calif., was transfixed.

Decades later, he's still a complete pinhead. Miner was 15, he thinks, when he bought his first machine.

He was working part-time as a computer lab assistant — a.k.a. the Epicenter of Nerd-dom — and he shelled out $300 to a guy getting rid of some machines from an arcade in Buena Park, Calif. The one Miner bought was Gottlieb Circus, with art by Gordon Morison, who in those days was one of the bigger names in pinball art.

The purchase virtually certified Miner as a lifelong geek. (He's OK with that.) It also fed his soul.

“It was a beautiful game," he said.

Over the next few decades Miner kept feeding his passion. Today, Miner, 45, a computer executive, is a celebrity in the tiny but still vibrant world of pinball. He owns one of the world's most diverse private collections of pinball machines, with pieces representing each key innovation and era in the history of the game.

Miner recently opened his 80-machine collection to the public. Some date back to the dawn of the Great Depression, when the first coin-operated pinball games were manufactured in the U.S.

Pinball Forever, Miner calls his business. Rachel Miner, Dave's daughter knows pinball history. She's 12.

She can talk about the first machines, built in the 1930s. She can talk about the big years, the '50s through the early '80s, when everything from the games themselves to the rise of bar culture to random influences like the rock song “Pinball Wizard" and the movie “Tommy" helped boost the game. She can talk about the time pinball nearly croaked (again, in the '80s), because of the rise of video games.

She can even talk about the current resurrection of pinball, as the game today is a popular niche entertainment consumed by back-in-the-day pinhead types, like Dave, and youthful hipsters, like herself.

Before she talks about all this, Rachel tapes a homemade sign to the door of the office, located at the back of a light industrial complex in Santa Ana, near Grand and Edinger Avenues.

For $20 (cash preferred), visitors can play three hours' worth of games on more than 50 of Miner's machines, most of them from the 1950s through the 1980s. Some of the older machines are relics, meant to be admired but not touched.

Paul Anderson, 48, of Mission Viejo, Calif., who started playing when he was around 12 and, today, is one of about 70 or so who play in the Orange County Pinball League (yes, it exists). He is a Pinball Forever regular.

“Some old kid at the local 7-Eleven, which was at the end of my paper route, saw how I would use both flippers at the same time. (He) took pity on me and showed me a few tips, like playing one flipper at a time," Anderson says of his introduction to pinball.

Patience, eye-hand coordination, timing, familiarity with the game, and practice, practice, practice — pinball fanatics like Anderson say those are the key skills required for strong pinball.

Miner believes there's a little renaissance going on in pinball playing these days.

Heather, his wife, has a theory about why that's true.

“People come in here, and all of the stress of the day disappears," she said. “All that matters is the silver ball."

ASHEVILLE – Atlanta residents Burton and Rebecca Posey were recently on their way home from visiting relatives in Virginia when they decided to make a stop in Western North Carolina's most populous city.


The married couple, in their early 30s, were strolling near Asheville's historic shopping center, Grove Arcade, when Burton saw something that grabbed his attention.

Across the street, on the ground floor of the Battery Park Hotel, was a window sign for the Asheville Pinball Museum.

“When I saw it, I had to stop in,” Burton said. “It's really neat. I'm glad that there's something around like this. Pinball machines are kind of magical. To me, they're like an amusement park wrapped into this little box.”

Taking a quick break from playing such classic machines as 1981's Black Hole and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Burton revealed that his interest stemmed not only from childhood nostalgia but also from the fact that he works as a video game developer.

“I get to do a lot of interesting stuff but nothing like this,” Burton said. “These machines require a lot of craftsmanship. It's a blend of manufacturing and technology.”

The museum only opened Aug. 30, meaning that the Poseys are not the only ones discovering it for the first time.

Given that there are nearly three dozen machines from various eras available for play, first-time visitors are sometimes overcome with a sense of wonder.

“I've seen grown men raise their arms up in almost praise to these machines,” said T.C. Di Bella, a 46-year-old Enka Middle School teacher who owns and operates the museum. “Some of these machines, they haven't seen in 30 or 40 years, and they just get so excited.”


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