PinBall Origin Stories

Jun. 3rd, 2019 01:28 pm
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[personal profile] froodle
CFO - Orlando, FL: What was the first pinball table/machine you felt a connection with? What made it so special for you?

“Funhouse. There was a Funhouse table in the Cape Coral location of Mugs 'N' Jugs (that's right, there were TWO places in Lee County bearing that gracious nomenclature) where my dad had to run a series of refrigeration repair jobs during one summer. I usually spent these days with him at the dawn of high school because I was cheap labor, but workaholism tended to stretch his days well into the evenings and once there was no longer a need for my ability to Be Skinny and Get Behind Heavy Things, I was just kinda left to my own devices. Those devices: flip that silver ball; get that replay. Getting to know Funhouse in a darkened, mostly empty bar in the thickest of twilight hours was a singular type of experience, though, probably reinforced by a nascent preoccupation with stuff like Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Twilight Zone & Eerie, Indiana: the taunting of Rudy was emboldening, but his mounting desperation as you nudged the clock further to midnight radiated an almost tangible malice if, say, it's reverberating off the spanish tiles in an empty hallway with only and the backing board and a distant emergency exit lamp providing visibility. That nights made me question the exact nature of Funhouse's tale: what WAS Rudy? Why was he so protective of the Funhouse; so welcoming at the outside, but hostile as you wore out your welcome; why was he so fearful of the slumber induced by that clock? Funhouse tolerated no shortage of unease, from Rudy's incessant harassment to the minor-heavy midi soundtrack to mounting questions about your purpose there. Oh, shit: yes, pinball can tell stories. About a month after that, Twilight Zone hit the streets, indicating a possible root in designer Pat Lawlor's inspiration for Funhouse. Imagine having both of those tables in the same building...“
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