Comment by x______________
10 days ago
Hello fellow enthusiast pinball wizard!
Good ol' days indeed! That picturesque glimpse of the past brings a smile to my face! I didn't get more than 1 chance to play physical machines back in the day and only started in the last decade with a machine popping up at my office, to which I became the defacto repairman after it needing maintenance regularly.
I'm located in Prague, Czechia. The pinball scene in the country is basically held by two groups of people: those previously working in the gambling scene changing up their ways and going into the arcade scene, overcharging for tables (3$ dollars and up for 1 game, bought by in-house credits) or the older pinball scene and owners who have been milking out old tables for years on very reduced maintenance cycles, which results in rarely fully working tables.
Despite there being 1 local tournament, one of these options offers anything near IFPA standards.
Geographically speaking and as seen on the pinside map[0], France and Spain have very little areas where there are no machines whileas Germany has barely none. The reason being is that Germany has introduced entertainment laws at require businesses to pay for any machines they may offer to their patrons, resulting in table operators operating at a loss most of the time. That also stops the scene from crossing the border as it virtually doesn't exist, Spanish and French tourists do not come here for pinball whatsoever.
Move further east to Czechia and you have a very small population where most people do not know of the game or even less its local name of "Flipper". Businesses that have went into the pinball scene recently have failed miserably for various reasons but mainly due to pricing/bad business models and lack of international advertising.
Despite the grim situation over here, I'm aware that some efforts are persisting into getting another place set up so the dream of getting an IFPA chapter here is not dead!
Happy to hear your thoughts on it all!
[0] https://pinside.com/pinball/map/mapbox#5.89/49.472/14.274/0/...
Ah, very interesting! Here in Austria, we have a number of great tournaments being put on by various private clubs and enthusiast groups - but yes, machines are hard to find, if you don't join these clubs. I recently joined one (FlipperAsyl.at) and have had a lot of fun rejuvenating my youthful interest in this subject, joining tournaments, leasing a machine for my apartment to practice on, designing my own table, and so on. ;)
I have a plan to visit the Pinball Museum in Krakow (Poland) some time this summer .. perhaps similar jaunts are worth the effort? I know for a fact you could come to Vienna for the weekend and get quite satiated, if only at the Prater .. ;)
That's so cool and I appreciate the recommendation!
I do need to get out of the country soon for a weekend and the Viennese recommendation does sound nice! Looking at the Pinside map[0], there are a few hundred tables to try in the city! I might have to hit you up somehow whenever I finalize travel plans. Also, a few friends have been mentioning the Budapest Pinball museum lately so the idea of visiting there was also in the cards for this summer on top of ?Krakow? (didn't know about that!)
Leasing a table is indeed nice.. I opted to purchase one in an attempt to build a collection but that effort fizzled out but still have a table a few hundred km across the border waiting for me to pick up. I think the universe has better plans tho.. will need to wait and see :)
[0] https://pinside.com/pinball/map/mapbox#10.73/48.1852/16.4336...
Oh yes, you could indeed enjoy a fair bit of flipping spinners and bumping dodgers in Vienna, while having all the other great things to see and do as well .. if you time it right, you might even get to participate in a tournament - check the roster at FlipperAsyl.at - I'll see you there. ;)
Didn't know much about the Budapest Pinball museum, but yeah - that's what fellow enthusiasts are for! I'll add that to the Day Trip roster, since Budapest is absolutely gorgeous this time of year .. but I'll do the Krakow day trip in the next few weeks, since it'll be a new (and fascinating) city for me, whereas I've been lost in Budapest too many times to count so far, lol ..
I'm not .. quite yet .. at the point where I will purchase a table, but leasing one for a few months has been very, very rewarding - it was an immediate catalyst for cohesion and mirth among my circle .. we're even printing t-shirts for our Pinball Gang this weekend, hehe.
May your balls drain to great bonus and your bumpers drop like they know how to score!