Flipping Out

Earthquakes, T. rex rampages and alien invasions were all in a day’s play at Pinball Fantasy ‘97, a collector’s convention / tournament / nonstop arcade that drew more than 1,000 enthusiasts to the Riviera here last weekend, along with nearly 300 different machines from every era of pinball’s 51-year history.

“I haven’t had any time to gamble,” marveled Ed Ajlouny, a 29-year-old from San Jose who was still playing games at 4 o’clock Saturday morning. From Medieval Madness and Asteroid Annie to King Kong and Shaq Attack, the games were in constant use. At 3 p.m. or 3 a.m., there was virtually no difference in attendance. At night, the machines were just a little greasier, and the players a little more worn down.

“You get to play games that aren’t in your home town--[ones] you remember or have heard about and want to try,” said Jody Crooks, a 51-year-old from Tucson who was playing in the vintage game tournament. “These shows just have so many games! You can go around for two days and do nothing but eat, sleep, drink and play pinball.”

Pinball Fantasy is the newest of three major annual conventions in the U.S. (the others are Pinball Expo in Chicago and the Wild West Pinball Show in Phoenix). Each draws a mix of collectors, industry executives and players, both recreational and competitive. All three conventions include tournaments, but Fantasy is the only one with an all-night arcade and hundreds of machines to be played.

Not to mention a custom game competition (won this year by Go Girl!; see accompanying story) and a Rat Raffle, in which entries are stuffed into plastic rats and the winner gets a game called Mousing Around.

Fantasy was organized by Herb Silvers, an upholsterer by trade who also owns Fabulous Fantasies, a pinball machine restoration company in Studio City. Silvers, who has more than 100 machines of his own (and whose upholstery often features pinball motifs), came to Vegas with his wife, daughter and a six-truck caravan carrying two-thirds of his collection, knowing that the majority of those in attendance would be coming not just to play but to buy.

Gene Cunningham bought two games at Fantasy. A 60-year-old real estate magnate from central Illinois, he has what generally is acknowledged to be the world’s largest collection--about 1,200 machines. “I had one, then three, then six,” he reported matter-of-factly, as if pinball games were potato chips. “It just kept snowballing until I ran out of room in the house, and then the garage and the basement. Now I have a 21,000-square-foot building.”

Traveling to about 10 pinball shows a year, Cunningham loads his booty into the back of a 16-foot, air-conditioned truck. The multimillionaire also collects slot machines, diamond rings and, until a recent hunting accident, guns.

Tim Arnold has the world’s second-largest collection--1,000 games, 60 of which he loaned to Fantasy this year. A Las Vegas resident, he hopes to open “the world’s biggest pinball arcade.”

“I’m gonna get four giant letters and put them on top of the building,” he said, his blue eyes magnified behind thick glasses. “ ‘NFVG’ --No [expletive] Video Games. [Those] are for children. It’s rote memorization. The computer does the same thing every time, but the ball is wild. It can go anywhere, do anything, and that takes a lot more skill than just memorizing the kung fu moves to rip a guy’s heart out.”

There was a small video game section at Fantasy, but the machines were clustered together and pushed to the side, like bastard offspring at a family reunion. Most of them weren’t even turned on.

“Pinball and video games are always competing for the same customers,” said Larry DeMar, director of engineering for Williams Bally in Chicago, the world’s largest pinball manufacturer. “People have only so much money to spend on entertainment.”

*

The modern pinball machine, with flippers and bumpers, was invented in 1946 and enjoyed a steady following until video games appeared in the late ‘70s and threatened to put the pinball companies out of business. They rallied back, but the general public’s enthusiasm for pinball continues to wax and wane. The industry is only now pulling out of its most recent slump, one that put two major manufacturers out of business last year.

“If the industry doesn’t make a turnaround, we may not have any new machines for younger people growing up,” said P.J. Sheehy, 32, a concerned collector. “If we can keep the flame going and get new people to come along and join in the fun, then the manufacturers can keep making games.”

New machines still are being offered, though, and among those making their debuts at Fantasy was Sega’s latest, the Lost World. Based on the blockbuster movie, it has custom vocals by the film’s star, Jeff Goldblum, whose classic deadpan kicks in at various points (“What did you do?” “Oh. The snagger has my ball.”).

The game also includes a big egg (which, after a certain point, hatches a baby T. rex) and video samples of raptor attacks. Six Lost World games were arranged in a row for the Fantasy tournament.

Tournament participants had the first five hours of the weekend to get their highest scores before entering the primary qualifying round Friday night. On Saturday, they had from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to better their scores before finals began.

Even with the air conditioning turned up to the max, many of the players were sweating. Hand wiping was common, as were hip swiveling and general abuse of the machines. Former world champion Rick Stetta drew titters from the viewing section as he listened to a tape of hard rock hits from the ‘80s and performed what appeared to be a little dance.

“I get nervous,” explained Stetta, 36, who won 11 tournaments in as many years (the last was in ‘95). “One way to [calm myself down] is to play music. The other way is to remind myself of all the games I have at home that I can play if this doesn’t work out.”

Ranked 15 at the time of the finals, Stetta was knocked out in the first round.

*

The winner was Keith Elwin, a slightly overweight 26-year-old from San Diego who also won last year. His girlfriend, Alexis Wiggins, won the women’s division. She had never played pinball before dating Elwin. Elwin has been playing since he was 6.

“My parents dumped me off in an arcade with 50 cents and I had to make it last,” he explained. “So I learned to get good real quick.” As a teenager, he played as many as eight hours a day, so much that his fingers would swell.

The tournament, played before a large and enthusiastic crowd, didn’t end until 1:30 Sunday morning--about the time that former Guns ‘n Roses guitarist Slash and his busty, blue jean-jumpsuited girlfriend stopped by. “I don’t usually play anything because there are so many people looking at me that I get really self-conscious,” Slash said.

Like most at the show, Slash is an avid collector, with 20 machines. His criteria: “Nothing about basketball or fishing. They all have to be on some sort of theme--sort of dark or really fun.”

“Like a comic book coming alive” is how Sheehy put it. Pinball “is where fantasy meets technology, and it comes in a 3-by-6 box.”