Meet the Pinball wizards, whose love of the game runs deep

Packed into a barn at the Great Northern Exhibition Fairground in Stayner Ont., close to 100 pinball machines clank, ping and sing in an echoing chorus. The earliest one dates to the 1930s; the newest is a Pokémon game released only a few months ago.

Pinball machines are often described as a world under glass – intricately placed ramps, bumpers, targets and pins in a cabinet adorned with its respective generation’s pop culture imagery.

The objective is to control a metal ball, using two small flippers, to hit targets in a specific order to score points. The classic arcade game is played by a hodgepodge of enthusiasts, restorers, collectors, sellers, casuals and competitors.

Until the 1970s, pinball was widely considered to be a form of gambling and often illegal. But nearly 60 years later, at the fourth annual Ontario Pinfest, love for the game runs deep – and across generations.

In 1993, Dave Astill saw a newspaper listing for a pinball machine he recalled playing as a young boy. Since the moment he brought the machine home – he paid $1,000 for it – he says he’s been “full tilt on pinball.”

Mr. Astill is the organizer of Pinfest, and for him, the game is a family affair.

“When my children were babies, I used to have them sitting on the glass, and I’d play,” he says. “They would follow the ball – I guess the sounds and the flashing lights and everything was attracting them.”

The Astill family, helped by a dozen volunteers and pinball collectors, organized the fourth annual Ontario Pinfest. For these pinball enthusiasts, love for the arcade game runs deep – and across generations.

The Globe and Mail

These days, Mr. Astill’s son, 21-year-old Noah, is a much better player than his dad; he holds the high scores on most of the 22 machines the family owns.

They often travel around North America attending pinball conventions, bringing together Dave’s childhood nostalgia for the machines and the growing interest of a younger generation slowly rekindling a love for tactile gaming.

The expertise, interest, investment and complexity in the game spans a wide range. Some of the older games are electromechanical, often referred to as EM games. They contain a mess of wires, relays and switches that control the game play. The newer ones are controlled by a single small chip. (Dave, a one-time real estate agent, now sells these chips full time.)

A new addition to many of these games is a QR code reader that pairs with an app. This allows players to keep their scores online and compete against their friends around the world.

“I just think there’s so much innovation in the new machines,” says Dave. “It seems to be attracting the younger kids, and I hope it’s here for a couple more generations.”

If his son has anything to say about it, it will be. “For what they’ve done in the last decade, I’m very excited to see what they do in the next decade plus,” says Noah. “I look forward to the day where I’m playing and teaching my kids how to play pinball.”

‘);
var parentEl = document.getElementById(“giScriptEl”).parentNode;
parentEl.removeChild(document.querySelector(‘#giScriptEl’));

// *** start add your photos and text ***
var mediaCardObj = {
“element”: parentEl,
“media”: [

{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball1”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Ben Willms, Ottawa”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[““When you’re playing pinball, you can feel everything that happens. You can learn to predict where the ball’s going to come from based on what you feel before you can see it,” says 27-year-old Ben Willms.”]
]
},

]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball1v2”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[“He said he accidentally came across the game while looking for a job at an arcade. Since then, he’s been hooked. He says many of his hobbies are screen-based. He wanted a different experience, and pinball has filled that void.”]
]
},
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[““It was cool to have the same sort of excitement that you might find in a video game, except completely physical and tactile.””]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball3”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Julie Dorssers, London, Ont.”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[“Pinball attracts some hardcore competition and is sanctioned by the International Flipper Pinball Association. Julie Dorssers first started playing in the back of her local bar.”]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball2”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[“As of Pinfest weekend, she’s ranked No. 7 in IFPA’s Ontario ranking.”]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball4”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[““Pinball is different every game,” Ms. Dorssers says. “You really have to watch. You can’t just do the same thing over and over.””]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball5”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Corey Cooke, London, Ont.”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[““There’s so much to pinball you can fall in love with,” says Corey Cooke, known in the community as “The Guru.”

At Pinfest, he’s the go-to guy for repairing any machines that aren’t working. “]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball6”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[“He started fixing pinball games in the early 2000s as a hobby. After the pandemic, he realized he couldn’t go back to his job as an audio-visual technician at a university in London, Ont., and he began repairing machines full time.”]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball7”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[““It’s the best decision I ever made,” he says. “]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball8”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Alan Zuckerman, Richmond Hill, Ont.”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[“While many of the older pinball fans rekindled their love for the game through childhood nostalgia, Alan Zuckerman, 69, has been in it pretty much his whole life. His dad used to manage arcades around Montreal in the 1970s, and while his introduction to the game began as a job distributing change to arcade goers, he says pinball has now become a sanctuary of sorts.”]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball9”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [

{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[““It’s going to bring younger generations in, like my grandkids,” says Mr. Zuckerman. “I have a 10-year-old and a six-year-old. The 10-year-old’s not that into it. The six-year-old? They sit him down for a couple hours, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh my god, this game is unbelievable.’” “]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball10”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Lin Oliquino, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[“Back home in the Philippines, Lin Oliquino says she was a very serious student who never would have come across pinball.

Then she moved to Canada and met Jonathan Mann. The first time she saw his 12-machine collection, she fell in love with the game. “]
]
},
{
“title”: “”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[“For Ms. Oliquino, pinball is an opportunity to “learn something new and make it a part of my life.””]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball11”,
“video_url”: “”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Jamie Burton, Collingwood, Ont.”,
“position”: “right”,
“text”: [
[“The first and only other time Jamie Burton played pinball, he and a friend each operated one of the two flippers. The 12-year-old student went undefeated in the Pinfest kids’ tournament, winning a trophy and a giant Bart Simpson stuffie.

Still, he prefers video games because “there’s more buttons.””]
]
}
]
},
{
“photo_url”: “https://www..com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pinball/pinball12”,
“video_url”: “”,
“video_loop”: “false”,
“video_autoplay”: “false”,
“landscape_contain”: “true”,
“portrait_contain”: “true”,
“credit”: “”,
“textbox”: [
{
“title”: “Rose Fisch, Toronto, Ont.”,
“position”: “left”,
“text”: [
[“Even though seven-year-old Rose Fisch can barely see over the edge of the table, she’s a pinball regular – her family likes to visit arcades when they go on vacation. She finished at No. 5 at Pinfest, three spots ahead of her big brother.

For many little sisters, that would come with big bragging rights. But Rose said she didn’t feel much excitement and summed up her triumph with one word: “sad.””]
]
}
]
}
],
“credit”: “”,
}
// *** end add your photos and text ***

if (typeof giapp == ‘undefined’) {
giapp = {};
}
giapp.mediacards = giapp.mediacards || {};
if (!giapp.mediacards.galleries) {
giapp.mediacards.galleries = [];
}
giapp.mediacards.galleries.push(mediaCardObj);
})();