Pinball Spots

Grant Levey talks about his pinball hobby and some of the treasures in his collection.

He explains his process around designing the home-build machine he created: Battle Pinny. The first to feature a camera and interactive LED strip lighting?

Below is an image and demonstration of Battle Pinny, and also a short video of the “cone of silence” ball manipulation feature of Grant’s next intended home-brew: Get Smart.

Battle Pinny by Grant Levey, and below - a video demonstration.

The “cone of silence” ball lift for Get Smart pinball. Design in progress.

Gunnar has been commercially involved with pinball and other coin op amusements in Melbourne since the mid 1970’s. Hear him talk about the industry, working for Coin Play Australia Ltd with a very large operation of sites and amusement centres. Then in 1997, acquiring the company and selling to the home market from his showroom.

Formerly from Auckland NZ, John Mason has been living in Melbourne since 1991.

He has been collecting and repairing pinball since then. He operated machines full time through the 1990’s and well into the 2000’s.

With a fondness for older style machines, he has a vision for a project showcasing the evolution of coin op amusements 1900 - 2000.

Below are some images discussed near the end of this talk.

Egyptian style; an operator friend of John’s had a unique way of moving pins in his station wagon.

A Chicago Express machine from 1935, utilised a flash lamp and vertical upkickers long before the modern era.

A 1932 patent by Charles M Gravatt for a flipper type mechanism

Hamish owns a dedicated pinball arcade space in central Wellington, New Zealand. Ye Olde Pinball Shoppe is intended to be a community pinball space for tournaments, events, as well as casual coin-drop play.

Hamish running the Twitch live-streaming for his online audience during a monthly Poneke Pinballers tournament.

Mike is a collector and enthusiast of not only arcade and pinball, but home console gaming as well. His knowledge of coin-op and gaming history is impressive. A regular host of our annual meet-up event: Pincade.

Phil has been involved with pinball since the late 1970’s and is the go-to-guy in Auckland for servicing and repairs. His favourite games are Wms Space Mission, Bally Eight Ball DeLuxe and of the modern ones: AC/DC.

Note: There is so much detail in this interview it is slightly longer than usual.

Phil & Roger have been friends in the pinball industry for many years. Phil as an operator and distributor for Data East and Gottlieb. Roger, initially producing wall mounted “penny games” and then as an importer and distributor of video arcade machines and Williams pinball (1960’s - !991). He also owned the Fun City arcade in Auckland.

Below is a letter that Roger sent out to operators, praising the virtues of the then new Data East Gun’s n Roses machine. It is endearing for it’s content.

Tony & Anna live in West Auckland and have a passion for pinball as well as motor racing.

John Bell in his movie study. John was a collector of pinballs in the early 1980s before he ventured into film collecting and enthusiast cinema, which led to him opening the Time Cinema in Wellington’s Lyall Bay.

Right: In March 2016 John sold me The Getaway, for which he had lost the keys some time prior. The was the last machine of his pinball collection.

Mike Burke in 1998 — This interview was broadcast on Wellington's local TV channel: ONTV in early 1998, and features dedicated pinhead Mikey Burke.