Let’s face it, when you’re a nerd, you have to be pretty well-rounded in popular culture. One thing that has never really gone away completely is pinball. We’ve covered development of new tables themed around Rush (the band) and Godzilla in the past. The whole reason we can even do this is because in the last several years, pinball has started to become popular again. A project in the works aims to tell the story of that popular resurgence in the form of a documentary, and just launched a Kickstarter for funding.
Before there were video games and arcade games, there was pinball. Elements of the game actually date back centuries, but the actual pinball machines with flippers didn’t come until the 1940s. As technology evolved so did pinball, incorporating electronic scoring, digital displays, music, voice and video clips, and various other gimmicks that affected how the ball traveled along the table. Pinball’s popularity would continue to rise over the decades before taking a downturn in the 1990s. Not uncoincidentally, this is where more advanced video game arcade cabinets really started taking off.
You might be forgiven for thinking pinball completely died after that, but this is where the documentary, “Shoot Again: The Resurgence of Pinball” hopes to step up and fill you in on the details. As the Kickstarter page points out, there was a period of time where the world was reduced to only one pinball table manufacturer left, Stern. After carrying the torch through the 2000s and into the early 2010s, things started to turn around. Now, pinball is coming back stronger than before with new tables based on popular properties from across music, film, and television.
Blake Faucette and Lorien Green, two pinball enthusiasts who wanted to share the rebirth of the game with the world, are behind the project. The film is currently complete, and the Kickstarter campaign seems to be all about distribution. The duo is currently looking for a total of $20,000 in order to help make bring the film to people in both a digital and physical edition. (Full disclosure, upon learning of the Kickstarter campaign, this author did contribute to its funding).
$20 will get you a digital downloadable copy, while $40 will get you a Blu-ray with special features in addition to the digital copy.
The trailer for the documentary might not mean much to non-pinball enthusiasts, but if you are familiar with the history of the game, you’ll see some very notable faces and names. Among those featured in the film are some legendary figures such as Roger Sharpe, Steve Ritchie, George Gomez, and Gary Stern. All of them were instrumental in advancing the game through table design or in the case of Sharpe, saving the game from being classified as a form of gambling.
If you have even a passing interest in pinball, this might be right up your lane, err, alley. The campaign has 29 days to go, and is an “all or nothing” format. At present, they’ve raised $1,531.
