Shared from the 2/23/2018 Dayton Daily News eEdition

TRENDS

Pinball resurgence rolls with passionate players

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Joe Bertolini (left) and Pamela Sams play pinball during a meeting of the Stonehedge Pinball League at Stonehedge in January in Akron. KAREN SCHIELY/AKRON BEACON JOURNAL/TNS

AKRON, OHIO — It used to be huddled in the corner. Its colors muted, its lights darkened, its calamitous noises silenced, a place to toss your coat or rest your drink, its scribbled “Out of Order” sign like an ominous headstone signifying its fate: Ghost of Games Past.

But now it’s in the midst of a beautiful resurgence.

Pinball machines are on the rise in bars, arcades and game rooms, while pinball leagues and tournaments are seeing an increase in players.

This was evident on a recent Monday night at Stonehedge, the bowling and entertainment center just off Route 8 in Akron, where the inviting glow of Batman and Star Trek and Game of Thrones and Metallica beckoned.

“This is the Mecca, Akron’s pinball parlor,” said Tommy “Pin Wizard” Bizzi. “We have 23 machines here.”

When he’s not working, Bizzi is playing pinball, and when he’s not playing pinball, he’s organizing pinball tournaments, more than 100 last year.

“There’s a whole pinball community,” he said. “We play all over. We go to Berea, we go to Cleveland. We’ve been down to Columbus. We want to take pinball to a whole other level.”

The Stonehedge Pinball League gathers for weekly IFPA-approved tournaments. The IFPA is the International Flipper Pinball Association (www.ifpapinball.com). It coordinates leagues and tournaments around the country. The Ohio state championship was held last month in Columbus. The national championship is March 1 in Las Vegas, followed by European and world championships.

Pinball interest has exploded in recent years. There were nearly 4,500 competitions worldwide in 2017, with more than 55,000 players, according to the IFPA. That compares with only 50 competitions in 2006.

The championship tournaments consist of best-of-seven rounds played on different machines. This year in Columbus, most of the 16 competitors were from Northeast Ohio.

“It was amazing, it was my first state championship appearance,” said John Tomsich, standing over the row of machines at Stone-hedge. Actually, at 6 feet 10 inches, the former basketball player was towering over the machines and everyone else.

“Like a lot of kids, I grew up playing video games. But there’s something different about pinball. There’s the physical nature of it and the unknown, the fact that every single game is going to be different.”

Evolving technology

It was one thing for old-school pinball machines to be shunned during the video arcade craze of the 1980s. But you wonder how they can hope to compete in the digital age of high-tech video games, 3-D, HD, drones and the vast horizons of virtual reality.

The answer, in part, is a if-youcan’t-beat-‘em-join-‘em approach.

“It’s an evolution of technology,” said Zachary Sharpe, vice president of the IFPA. “Pinball games now have LCD displays.” There’s also an app, Pinball Map, which can locate pinball machines in your area.

To appeal to millennials, Jersey Jack created Dialed In, a pinball machine equipped with Blue-tooth and a camera. (You can control the flippers from your smartphone.)

Of course, there are also video versions and pinball games for your phone. But it’s the nonvirtual, hands-on appeal that drives most players.

“It’s not like video games that are pre-programmed,” said Sharpe, who was speaking on the phone from Elk Grove Village, Ill., where he is director of marketing for Stern Pinball Inc. “With pinball, you’re battling physics and gravity. It’s fun trying to keep that ball alive as much as possible.”

Alien attackers

At Stonehedge, you soak up the ’70s vibe as you stroll past the bowling lanes and party areas and walk behind the massive oval bar to the pinball area and its 14 machines (nine more are located near the side entrance, including a stunning Wizard of Oz game).

One of its most dedicated players and organizers is Jessie Carduner. By day, she is an associate professor of Spanish and linguistics at Kent State University. By night, she pounds the flippers and gets a kick out of creating themed competitions for “Casual Thursdays.”

“It’s like lesson plans without being restrained by a curriculum,” she said.

Carduner is an accomplished flipper and nudger (adroitly adding a little body English to the machines) as well as an aficionado. She has eight pinball machines in her house. “It relaxes me,” she explains. “It also stresses me. But mostly, it unstresses me.”

Her favorite game at Stonehedge is Attack from Mars. Between the rolling, banging, dinging and kachunk-a-chunka, a scenario of an entire alien invasion unfolds.

“Earth will be ours!” threatens the invading leader. “Come here, tasty human!”

It is a remake of a classic machine from the 1990s, and like a kid let loose with a handful of quarters, Carduner lights up when she plays it.

“This is one of the greatest games ever made,” she said. “With this one, I feel like I’m killing Martians.”

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