Play Meter

go to and play alone. The only other thing I could
play alone is solitaire and maybe some video games,
but the video games won't give me the sound or t he
ense of visual or auditory accomplishment.
PLAY METER: It's a physical endeavor as well,
isn't it?
SHARPE: Definit~ly. It is hand and eye coordin-
ation at its finest degree. If you don't have it right,
you're not going to get it right. You might as well
walk away from the machine if you can't relax and let
if flow .
PLA Y METER: A lot of video games are
beginning to put more of emphasis on hand and eye
coordination, too.
SHARPE: Fine and I commend them for it. But
video games are just a different medium for me; sort
of like the difference between communications critic
Marshall McLuhan's "hot" and "cold" media. A hot
medium is something with which you can interact
and pinball has that quality.
Most video games have a predetermined path for
that bleep to go across the screen and in most cases
you could probably physically pick up the machine
and throw it across the room and it wouldn't change
that. Some of them are changing a bit and there have
been some I thought were marvelous. But whether
any can capture or hold my interest for any long
period of time I doubt.
PLAY METER: Will video games ever present to
you the challenge, skill and intimacy of pinball?
SHARPE: I don't know . I've done a lot of thinking
on that in terms of where the industry's going and in
terms of solid -state, which will probably be a reality
before all of us die.
In a lot of ways it saddens me because I know
maybe within 10 years or so, there's going to be a
generation of players who will look upon the games of
the '70's the way we look upon games of the '30's. If
we're not careful we're going to destroy something
that is very special, unique and very much a part of
many people's lives.
You can't bastardize it; that's the only term I can
think of. The components are there for a pinball
machine to act they way it does. You have basics that
players expect--I want to see thumper bumpers, I
want to see flippers I want to see targets or
something, I want to hear that noise and see the
lights go. I want enough excitement there t hat I can't
get the quarter out of my pocket fast enough.
I commend the pinball manufacturers for taking
their time, for looking before they leap on solid-state.
They have something that has too much of a quality
to change overnight.
PLAY METER: If pinball provides this rich
entertainment experience, and it's obvious the public
thinks it does, why haven't many legislators kept
pace with the times?
SHARPE: There are only two large metropolitan
areas where they're outlawed--Chicago and New
York. (New York City may soon legalize them.) I
went to every major city in Europe and they were
thriving.
I think you have many legislators who go back to
30-40 years ago, who remember payout games, who
still think there's a criminal element involved with
pinball. They equate pinball with coin machines and
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