I was reading Pat Henzy’s 365 Days of Illustration blog a bit ago. The post of the day regarded pinball. Pinball! I loved pinball in the 80’s. Arcades were huge in the 80’s. One arcade I remember most of all was in the back of the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philly, PA. It was called Champions.
So, as I sat here relaxing after a November NaNo fest… I was reading blogs and I told you already where the post idea came from.
There was a pinball game I absolutely loved. I am sure most people of the 80’s pinball era loved it as well.
The game called HIGH SPEED.
The first time I ever played the game of HIGH SPEED was at the lottery store down the street from where I lived (the cool thing about living in the city – easy access to arcades and candy stores!). This lottery store is where I honed my pinball skills, drank carton iced tea with a straw and started hanging with boys that were older than me (a little too old!).
The goal of the game was to rack up points of course.. but the one thing we all loved the most and were envied for and envious of was…. when we got that red siren at the top to go off. That was when hell broke loose and two or three more balls would shoot out and we had to keep ’em going for as long as we could.
Looking back, the best part of the era was the friendly competition between us kids and just the hanging out, really.
Did you have any favorite arcade/pinball games as a kid?
The Great 80's 
Pacman and Asteroids were my two favorites. Had easy access to them while working in a movie theatre and the machines were “right there” during breaks. Who knew that technology would advance to the point our “games” would be on our phones? Then again, who knew our phones would be smaller than our hands?
I loved both of those games… Pacman for sure. I loved Space Invaders too!!
Technology is crazy, hmm? I wonder what the next thirty years holds.
I guarantee you we hung out at Champions together, and didn’t realize it \m/
Hey Rich – – ya know.. you are probably right! 😉 \m/
I remember going to the roller rink and playing pinball with my dad. And then in the 90s I found the arcade in the mall in the city I would go to with finds. Ten bucks worth of quarters and hours of fun waiting for his mom to finish up her shopping.
And more locally, the Dairy Queen down the street had Street Fighter II. So weekends we would fill up on ice cream and play some Street Fighter.
I miss the days of the penny arcades.
Hey, Jeremy.. I miss the arcade days too.. 🙂 Ten bucks worth of quarters and we were set!
made my way to your blog from google and and am glad i found it, hope you keep up the good work
Hey there.. thanks so much for the kind words. And thank you for stopping by! 😀
Thanks for the plug! You know, I was born in 81 and me and my generation generally grew up playing arcade games and home console games. I am still a huge video game nerd but I really do miss pinball machines. I remember when I was younger they were everywhere. If my Dad and I went to a local Pizza place there would be a pinball machine in a corner, and my Dad could never resist them. He was the person who introduced me to pinball. I also remember going on vacation to NJ beaches each summer and you could find a pinball machine in almost every other shop. I don’t know where I would go if I wanted to play one today. Great article!
Thank you so much for dropping by.. and I had to give you the plug! Your post totally inspired my post… 🙂
I don’t know where to find a pinball machine these days myself.. but when I do, I am playing it!