Coin Slot Magazine - #040 - 1978 - May [International Arcade Museum]
great bearing on the quality of those pinballs, for pinball is a peculiar
art in that it must interact directly with the beholder. One does not
damage a pinting by looking at it; the timeless qualities of a musical
damage a painting by looking at it; the timeless qualities of a musical
composition are not lessened by those who listen to it. Pinball, on
the other hand, is a hodge-podge of items mechanical and electrical,
all with a known finite life defined by usage.
You cannot enjoy
pinball without playing it. You cannot play pinball without destroy
ing it
There must, therefore, be a constant input of human energy
to counteract the harm done by the use of the game, and human
energy adds still more to the cost of pinball.
Pinball is a celebration of technology. It confronts us on both cere
bral and physical levels. It has advanced on both fronts through the
use of technology. The electro-mechanical flipper, for instance, has
added to the raw pleasure of the rolling ball by adding to a player's
ability to influence the quality and quantity of play. The use of mic
rocomputers has had and will have further effect on the concepts of
scoring.
Although breakthroughs seem to come exceedingly slowly,
we must remember that pinball has yet to see its fiftieth year.
Cur
rent economic considerations engender us only a slow progress,
unfortunately.
For now we must do what we can.
?
The art needs as many patrons
large or small as it can enlist. Games of current economic importance
can be improved by the operator's refusal to look upon them as sim
ply money-making devices. He must be able to give of his time and
efforts to be certain his games are in top operating condition — to
be sure that they are deserving to be called pinball games and not
ripoffs. He will see results also in his workers who have no ownership
in the games but certainly an interest. Moments spent in fine tuning
a game, because that's the way a game should be treated, become
rewarding beyond the weekly paycheck.
Games past economic value
to the operator should also be treated with reverence due their in
herent and often tired art. I beg of owners of these games to store
rather than discard, restore rather than destroy, sell to patrons of
pinball rather than mutilate. The experimentation and differing out
looks of play design in these games must not be lost, cast off as
bulky tools of the trade which no longer pay their way. They still
have a wealth to share with us.
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