I remember they had a "Pole Position" game in our local convenience store. What a weird thing that would be, to have now.

Pinball! I miss (real) pinball so much.

It's all still there at Crab Towne USA in Glen Burnie, MD. Bring lots of quarters.

ufez, I miss pinball, too. I played my first game in a laundromat in Augusta, Georgia, while my mom washed our clothes, and I think that primed me to spend my whole teenaged life in video arcades, which I did. But they also had the good pinball machines, like Black Knight.

I was either playing Galaga or one of those extra-wide pinball machines (Alien, probably) that were in vogue back then.

OK I loved Pole Position ("Prepare to qualify!") and I still love pinball. I'm living in a house with 2 pinball machines (Twilight Zone and Taxi) and I love them, play them a lot. When I win Megamillions and/or Powerball, my compound will most certainly have a video arcade with pinball, PacMan, air hockey, Space Invaders, a bowling game, a cotton candy machine, one of those old fortune telling arcade things, a penny scale that will tell me I weigh 10 lbs less than I actually do, lots of old fashioned vending machines and oh, probably a few model trains. Everything set to "free play", of course.

I'm living in a house with 2 pinball machines (Twilight Zone and Taxi)

Oh shit. I'm so jealous. My first job ever was as a busboy at a pizza joint a mile from the house that I started literally on my 16th birthday. They had the Twilight Zone and Addams Family pinball machines. On slow nights when I got forced off the clock early, I'd grab 4 quarters and play those machines for a couple of hours. It was fantastic.

One of these days, when I have spare time and money and feel like tinkering with something (uh, assuming that ever happens. At the rate I'm going, I kind of doubt it) I'll buy a fixer-upper and get all zen while listening to loud, fuzzy music and make it work.

But they also had the good pinball machines, like Black Knight.

I had to look that up on the IPMD (this is a thing!) and yeah, I totally recognize the backglass.

Pinbot! Loved that game. I worked as a pizza driver for in a place that was inside of a bowling alley that had a a decent arcade including Pinbot. I wasted too much of my tips on that game.

Back in the 80s, when I was in college, the basement level of the associated students building had bowling alleys and an arcade. I spent many delightful hours there; sadly, they took out the fun stuff & turned it into an extension of the bookstore.

One of my step-in-laws had a ginormous house with its own game room, including an Addams Family pinball machine & lots of other toys. Christmastime at his place was lots and lots of fu.

The LOTR pinball game (spotted over at the IPMD) looks so cool.

It's interesting how Addams Family seemed to rise to the top as the consensus best of those late wave pinball games.

The xenomorph and double mirror "tunnel to infinity" blackglass of Space Invaders scared 9-year-old me shitless from across the arcade.

Oddly enough "Black Knight" came up in conversation tonight. And, young white men have no butts for the most part.

My closest approach to athletic glory was two golden weeks in which I was one of the eminent scorers in the Star Wars arcade game around the corner from my high school.

Thereafter, the rest of the field overtook me.