But by the mid-1990s, videogames - both in the arcade and at home - delivered the KO punch. The 1970s and '80s were the classic period of pinball, with companies such as Bally and Williams filling bowling alleys and pizza parlors with the machines. By the time the Who's rock opera Tommy hit in 1972 with the tale of the "Pinball Wizard," some bans were still in place, but the game's popularity had exploded. Pinball became a wink-wink backroom pastime. In 1942, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally ordered raids of pinball parlors to destroy the damn machines that were stealing nickels and dimes from "the pockets of schoolchildren." But by then, most major American cities had outlawed the game as another form of gambling. The flipper wasn't introduced until 1947. The first mechanical pinball machines were largely games of chance you shot a ball and tilted the machine to control its trajectory. Now, five months into 2014, Florida has already seen ten.īack in the day - before Xbox, Nintendo, Donkey Kong, or even Pong - there was only pinball. Last year, 13 tournaments with 168 competitors were held in Florida. Fueled by the internet's enthusiasm for all things retro and a new world ranking system, its popularity is surging across the United States. The Palmers' pin success comes amid a pinball resurgence. "He's going to be playing against literally the elite people from the United States." "You have people who are flying in from all over the country," Jeff says. Atticus will be the youngest competitor at the event. And this week, the whole Palmer clan is heading off to Lyons, Colorado - just outside Denver - for the International Flipper Pinball Association's U.S. He clinched those bragging rights at a nail-biter tournament at Club 66 in Boynton Beach in February. The younger Palmer is currently the Florida flipper champ. "We're not," says mom Nancy, "like the other families in the neighborhood." See also: Atticus Palmer Is a Pinball Wunderkind (Slide Show) Put them together and you're looking at Florida's first family of pinball excellence. His only son, Atticus, is a cheery 15-year-old with a Nicolas Cage fixation who likes to dress up like Doctor Who. The man of the house - who, thanks to a Duck Dynasty beard and shoulder-length hair, looks like he could be hauling around guitar cases for Metallica - is a friendly engineer named Jeff Palmer. Another 11 rigs are tucked away in the garage. It's Mayberry 2.0, a David Lynch movie before shit goes bad.īehind the front door of one such modest suburban house - a three-bedroomer on NW Tenth Street - is a living room like a million others, except this one is lined with five blinking pinball machines. The boxy patch of West Broward is made up of neighborhoods of modest ranch homes planted evenly on shady, manicured lawns. The museum is open seven days a week and their hours vary, so be sure to check their website before heading out to play some pinball.Suburbs don't get much tidier than Coral Springs. A glimpse that Davitt is more than happy to share with all who walk through the doors of the Replay Museum. Some of the pinball machines even date back 50 years, giving patrons a glimpse of pinball through the decades. Inside Replay Museum, one can find more than a 100 unique pinball and arcade games. “Tarpon is such a quaint small town vibe, so this collection really fits perfectly in the area and brings a lot of nostalgia for those that come to visit us here at the museum,” she said. Now she’s been here ever since and it’s a job she loves with a passion. They shared their collection with the public eight years ago when they officially opened Replay Museum.ĭavitt came when they first opened and eventually helped out on weekends before she was offered the general manager spot. The museum itself is a private collection, and everything you see here is owned by one family in Tarpon Springs. You know, it is something that kind of went out of style in our teen years, but now we are seeing this resurgence in people wanting to play and learn, so it’s really nice,” Davitt said. “My parents played growing up, so I grew watching them play. She remembers playing at a young age, back to when she had to use boxes to reach the controls, and then as the years went on, her love grew. Long before she started working here, though, she found her love for pinball. RELATED: Florida on a Tankful: Relive Your Arcade Days at Replay Museum.Bobbi Davitt loves playing pinball, and she loves working at the museum.Each of the machines comes from a single private collection.Pinball machines from history are present in the Replay Museum.
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