Internet Pinball Database — This is an amazing resource of pinball game information. There are records for over 5,000 games, with over 36,000 images including pictures of the games and scanned images of flyers and other related material. There are also other resources here, including a glossary of pinball terms, books, and more. The website isn’t particularly attractive, this site is all about the information and tools. The site is very well-organized, easy to search and has very clear instructions for linking and embedding to their content. Great stuff!

When I was growing up, we spent two weeks at Swift Beach every summer, and I spent a certain amount of time at the penny arcade there. Everyone called it the “penny arcade” but of course you couldn’t do a thing with a penny. Like so much about Swift Beach in those days, the name was an anachronism, a reference to the good old days the older people were always talking about.

When I was younger, the arcade seemed like a noisy and scary place, and the pinball games, with racy artwork like this, were exciting but also repellent. But by the time I was eleven or twelve, I went there every evening, just hanging out, watching people play pinball, and playing a bit of it myself. I didn’t exactly like it there, but I couldn’t stay away. I found the noise and the crowd overwhelming, and I was terrible at pinball, but I really liked the technology of the games, all those knobs and flippers and lights and sound as the ball bounced and rolled around.

Links

• The White Elephant Shop — Essex, Massachusetts
• International Pinball Database — More information on this 1972 pinball game