I started playing pinball before I was a teenager, and then went through high school in the heyday of the arcade. Asteroids, Defender, Centipede, Robotron 2081, Tempest – I played them all, along with every pin that came along.
One afternoon, when I was heading out to the arcade, my mother asked where I was going, and when I told her, she looked at me sternly and said, “Wasting your life on riotous living, I see”.
She was kidding, but that was the phrase I always used in the future.
Today I took a trip to the Seattle Center to the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show.
$20 to get in, and as many games as you can play for free. Played a lot of video games, and a lot of pinball as well. It was quite a bit of fun, except for the odd pin with weak flippers. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to shoot a ramp because of a weak flipper.