History YMMV / PinBall

** Every pinball machine that provides unlimited balls but only allows you to play until time runs out--''Pinball/JamesBond007'', ''Pinball/FlipperFootball'', and ''Pinball/SafeCracker''--have all bombed in sales and were unpopular with people passing by putting coins in to play. (A fourth one, ''Goin' Nuts'', was scrapped before it could even be sold.) For all of these cases, the reason is the same: Newcomers get destroyed until they run out of time, whereas people dedicated to playing them well could learn to exploit time bonuses and play for way longer than it would remain interesting. ''Safe Cracker'' has since been VindicatedByHistory when individuals bought used machines for personal use and they didn't have to worry about paying per game, however.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Pinball has long been more popular in Europe than in the United States, partially due to post-WWII love of all things Americana. During the 30-year-ban on pinball in the US, manufacturers continued to thrive solely on the strength of sales to European markets, and even today, European orders for a new game will be fulfilled first.
** In regard to individual countries, Scandinavia has latched onto pinball rather fiercely, and machines can be found in most bowling alleys, arcades, amusement centers, and convenience stores. The Polish are also crazy for pinball, with a large hardcore group that does high-quality maintenance work and writes books. Spain has traditionally been the second-largest producer of pinball machines, and is also the only country to export domestic pinball machines to the United States.
* ItsHardSoItSucks: Pinball requires careful aiming, fast reflexes, and even (gently) [[ViolationOfCommonSense rocking the machine]] just to survive for longer than 30 or so seconds per ball, and unlike in video games, real-world physics can complicate matters. As such, it's easy for newbies to dismiss pinball as cashgrabs designed to suck out customers' money.

** Atari Games' 1979 ''Pinball/{{Hercules}}'' measured 93 inches long, 39 inches wide and 83 inches high. It used a pool table cue ball for the pinball. Sometimes this would be an 8-ball.

* CrackIsCheaper: Both the machines themselves and to compete. To buy a brand new Star Trek Standard Edition from Stern would cost as much as buying a UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}} and ''110'' games. PAPA tournaments allow players as many attempts for the high scores on the machines as long as they are willing to keep paying the fees, which leads to arms races where players throw large amounts of money into the competition to one-up their rivals. Averted with IFPA tournaments, however, where each player gets a finite amount of tries for a fixed fee. You can try DigitalPinballTables, including pinball simulator ''VideoGame/ThePinballArcade'', but playing on a simulation isn't the same as the real thing.