The youth of today, or at least my sample of it, was very impressed, interestingly favouring the older machines over the newer ones. It is pretty amazing what they managed to do with just a few levers and switches, and we were soon busily entertaining ourselves on the "Mystic Marvel", "Dragonette" and "Sweet-Add-A-Line".
Out the back was where the 80s happened in all their candy and coke (that's Coca Cola) fueled excess, with enough flashing lights, electronic voices and thumping music to induce ADHD in the calmest individual. I enjoyed "Twilight Zone", which included magnets under the table that threw your ball in interesting directions, while the star of the show was "Indiana Jones", complete with blaring film score and so much in the case that it was actually hard to spot the ball. We racked up scores in the tens of millions.
After a good couple of hours of entertainment we pulled our last plunger, hit our last bumper, and said goodbye to another new, strange, now-added-to-my-tour-route venue. As we left I mused: like life itself, all the bells and whistles are merely ephemeral trappings, and everything eventually tends downwards into a deep, irretrievable hole, despite our best attempts to flip it back up to the top. Happy days.
Lining them up.
David on one of his faves: Egg Head.
Hand-eye uncoordination.
David poses by the star machine.
Another of his favourites - a pinball with a screen attached. It was pretty good actually; you could squish the aliens onscreen by hitting them with the ball.
"The first commercially successful pinball machine." Punters were easily amused back then.
