Line #16 YMMV/Pinball


1	* AmericansHateTingle: Although it has its fans in Japan, the fanbase there is a [[CultClassic cult following]] at best. Pachinko machines, which share a few similarities to pinball, are far more popular there.
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: So many, we put them on [[AwesomeMusic/{{Pinball}} their own page.]]
3	* DeadHorseGenre: First, it was because video games were cheaper to maintain and took up less space at arcades. Later, as arcades died out, pinball machines all but disappeared. Of all the major pinball machine manufacturers such as Gottlieb, Bally, Williams, etc., only Stern Pinball remains today.
4	** It could be argued that pinball has more of a PopularityPolynomial, as it is staging what appears to be somewhat of a revival in the last few years. Second-hand machine prices have surged. As an example, the value of ''Pinball/MedievalMadness'' has gone from about $4,000-$5,000 in 2007 to over $7,000 in 2012. And as of 2013, a new pinball manufacturer, Creator/JerseyJackPinball, has sprouted up and released their first pinball, based on ''Pinball/TheWizardOfOz''.
5	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
6	** 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.
7	** 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.
8	* 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 cash grabs designed to suck out customers' money.
9	* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome:
10	** Creator/RogerSharpe's courtroom demonstration of pinball skills, as recounted on the [[{{Pinball}} main trope page]]. Made all the more amusing by his later admission that [[AccidentalHero his success was due to luck.]]
11	** 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.
12	** ''The Pinball Circus'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DXk2Xn1W04 a pinball machine built to fit in a videogame arcade cabinet.]] Only two of these machines were ever built.
13	** Performing any of the advanced techniques in a pinball machine. Admit it, you cheered upon your first live catch.
14	** Triggering a WizardMode, which is rarely ever easy, and often makes everything on the table activate and/or be worth a large number of points each.
15	* ScrappyMechanic:
16	** Outlanes, particularly for beginners; it can seem unintuitive for the ball to slide into an outlane, resulting in a drain that seems quite non-preventable. While experts argue that nudging the table can easily prevent an outlane drain, nudging requires knowing exactly when the ball is about to slam into the outlane as well as being delicate with the table; a nudge too weak is the same thing as doing nothing while a nudge too strong is a [[NoFairCheating TILT]]. However, some tables have "kickbacks" that will eject the ball from an outlane (usually the left one), or other means of catching balls that are about to head into either outlane (such as the Shooting Star in ''Pinball/TalesOfTheArabianNights''); either way, anti-outlane measures often have limited activations so don't count on them saving you every time.
17	** {{Skill Shot}}s involving flashing lanes at the back of the table are often dismissed for being [[LuckBasedMission Luck Shots]] in practice; even Creator/RogerSharpe admitted that his pinball-saving skill shot was a stroke of luck, i.e. he proved pinball wasn't about luck ''[[{{Irony}} through sheer luck]]'' (pinball tables had been [[BannedInChina banned in some jurisdictions]] on accusations of being gambling machines). Even other kinds of plunger-based skill shots can still fall under this trope depending on how well-maintained the plunger is. Perhaps because of this, some tables use flipper-based skill shots instead, where the player has to hit the ball into a designated target with the flippers immediately after launch.
18	** {{Video Mode}}s are seen by some as interrupting the flow of a pinball game and being fairly out-of-place; after all, why play ''pinball'' and end up playing a ''video game''? Creator/PatLawlor, among other pinball creators, is known for refusing to put video modes in his tables as a result.
19	** Every pinball machine that provides unlimited balls but only allows you to play until time runs out--''Pinball/JamesBond007Gottlieb'', ''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.

Context YMMV / Pinball