Pinball Stances

Player 1.........Step Up!

Pinball Stances, we all have them, but why do we do them? Is it natural? 

What drives aficionados to stand the way they do at a machine?

A typical bank of games in a collection...

Is it due to Center of Gravity? Height? Visibility? Is there even a reason at all???

I wondered about this and started to ask around...And I found some answers!

Marcel Gonzalez (Arcade Pinball Expo show runner):

"A stance aids in the eye level most comfortable to a player. some is low , very close to playfield level (Lyman). Some are almost perpendicular to playfield.

Tall people are pretty screwed in a crowded room. Same as me. I'd have to switch to a stance not so comfortable to me. I guess tall pinheads need space."

I guess surrounding conditions can contribute to someone's pinball stance at the moment...

Whysnow (Pinside Member):
"I actually find that I play best when I am in a more casual stance. Getting closer to the glass tends to help me concentrate and focus, but rarely do I play better.
My wife makes fun of my stance and says I look like I am going to fall over sometimes.


A good friend has the patented 'enders pinball stance' where he stands very wide legged directly in front of the game for a firm base and good nudging core. I heard he does 500 sit-ups a day just to get better at nudging."

Hmm...."Ender's Pinball Stance"???

Rollitover(Pinside Member):
"Me? I stand left foot forward and straight on, right foot back and at a slight angle outward. Upper body tilted slightly toward the machine. Hands firmly down on the machine. I nudge from time to time but not as much as I should and use body english at tense moments. I swear it helps as much as nudging.

My son? He stands feet side by side or right foot back a pinch. His upper body nearly straight up. His hands rest slightly and he rarely nudges. He says he likes to let the machine "play out".

He is a damn good player so lots of people are now copying his stance."



Great responses! So I guess in the end it's all of the above, space factors, height, comfort, habit...it boils down to the player and what they personally want when they step up.

In the end, no matter how you stand at a game, it's where the ball is that counts.

And last but not least:

Rick Stetta, does it best!

Until Next time!!!

What Makes a Pinball Shot Feel Good: The Answers!!!

Some of the Shots available in Stern's Star Trek

Wow! Well after throwing that question out there (What Makes a Pinball Shot Feel Good), I was blown away by the response. Answers poured in from aficionados all over the pinball community. Tournament players, novices, collectors, operators, techs, designers, even the VP of Design at Stern Pinball chimed in!!!

Here are some of their responses:

"The best shots are the ones that can be dialed in by the player to be made with regularity and therefore be satisfying."

-- Marcel Gonzalez (Showrunner - Florida Arcade Pinball Expo)


"Feedback- its all and only about feedback- the choreography of the event , the things you see, hear, the emotion evoked by the realization that you have: advanced, achieved a goal, completed something, incremented score, heard or discovered a piece of the story, evoked an emotion from an opponent whether real (your buddy) or virtual( the animated 3d Hulk toy you just hit). The smooth transition of the ball is a visually and aurally perceived event. Feedback- like all games is the magic."

-- George Gomez (Designer, Stern Pinball VP of Game Design)


"It's about satisfaction. It's such a relief when you achieve it, like a weight is lifted off your shoulders and you're on top of the world. (Especially those difficult, timed shots worth a ton of points)."

"It feels similar to scoring that winning goal/basket/TD/Home run/KO punch and getting a rise from the audience.

Same with golf, pool or bowling. When that ball rolls a strike, or falls in the intended hole/pocket, it evokes the same visceral reaction as scoring a super jackpot."

-- Joel Cohen (Tournament Player)


"Pinball does an amazing job of letting you know that YOU are the one in control...but it also does a great job of letting you know that YOU screwed it up...love a great shot, but I also like the feeling of great ball control. To me there's greater satisfaction from a solid live catch/drop catch/cradle separation followed by a tough shot."

-- Carlos Porta (Tournament Player)


"The best shots are not too easy, not too hard, and have good feedback so you know you did something cool, or that you pushed forward in the rules of the game."

-- FLECOM (Operator/Tech/Collector)


"Not an easy question, I think a pinball design is not about one shot... its how all the shots, flow (up & down), rebounds, bounce, rest, jumps, timing, and many more factors. I guess ultimately for me a "shot" is part of a larger composition...and it is all related in some fashion."

-- John Popadiuk (Pinbal Designer)


"What makes a good shot for me is that it puts me into a Peak Experience. A peak experience is that sweet spot my mind gets into when it faces a desirable challenge, a challenge that is difficult enough to not be boring but not too difficult where it puts me off. It’s at a specific level where I have to focus at the peak of my ability. When I get into a good flow of making shots and keeping the ball alive who I am and what I think about diminish and only the pinball and the field exist. Sometimes I get so lost in that flow that the boundaries between my fingertips and the flippers disappear. When I keep shooting the shots I need to hit faster and smoother than I can think normally is what makes pinball extremely enjoyable for me."

-- Joshua Fay (Pinball Enthusiast)



Wow, so from most of these responses, it would appear that the key is not so much in a particular shot, but the many things that the player experiences in tandem during a good game. Factors like challenge, rebounds, flow, feedback, sound, choreography, all play a part in making pinball feel good.

So going back to the original question, I guess that the reason why a shot might feel good even if the ball leaves your direct control lies not in a single shot alone, but in the overall design and its impact on the player and how it makes him or her feel. The beauty lies not in the single tree, but in the forest it calls home.


To sum it up, here's an amazing video that I feel encapsulates all of the factors mentioned. It's called "The Last Empire" by Adrian Seifert. Check it out!

Point Monster Tournament at the Pinball Asylum Part 3

The Main tournament at Point Monster event at the Pinball Asylum was a huge deal (if you want to know more check out PART 2)! It was worth a full 25 IFPA points (as it's considered a yearly event) and was capped at 40 participants, who mostly preregistered days and weeks before. The format of this main event was slightly different from the Classics Tournament. It featured unlimited qualifying attempts for the participants from 11 AM to Midnight on Saturday, with the top 16 qualifiers vying for the win on Sunday, which ran from 10:30 AM to completion. 

Competition was rough, with a very strong field of competitors, playing on machines that are not very common today. Saturday's qualifier featured a 5 game bank consisting of: Jack in the Box (what a fun layout with a challenging 10 bank drop target to shoot for!), Avatar LE, World Cup Soccer, Gorgar, and Grand Prix. 

Jack in the Box, gotta love that Gordon Morison artwork!!!!

Check out those drop targets!!!

Then the top 16 qualifyers duked it out on Sunday on a refreshed bank of 5 machines (with only World Cup Soccer surviving the changeout). The four replacement games were Hot Doggin, Avengers Pro, Phoenix, and Surf Champ. 
After hours of fierce competition by the top 16 (including an unbelievable performance by one Al Neumann on Surf Champ - where he rolled that EM on Ball 1 and proceeded to roll it a second time before the end of his game!!!), the final four emerged and then a winner was crowned.

Congrats to 2014 Point Monster Pinball Champion Brian Dominy:

The Champ

The other four finalists included Atticus Palmer (2nd), Jeff Palmer (3rd) and Spencer Carey 4th.

Congrats to them as well!!!!

The pinball wizards with their super cool poses from L to R: Spencer, Brian, Atticus, and Jeff

It was a very fun weekend and I encourage any pinball aficionado out there to check out the pinball asylum if you're ever in Ft Myers FL. It's well worth the drive. Thanks again to Dan Spolar, David Denholtz, and the rest of the Asylum crew for putting on an awesome weekend. Can't wait for their next one!

Here's more photos from the event!!!

Fast Draw, excellent Gottlieb EM!

Managed to Roll it and get to the final shots while I was checking it out.

The main tournament bank on Sunday (check out those cool PAPA style monitor setups).

Pro Pool, you don't see too many Add a Ball's around nowdays :D

Avatar LE with all that chrome

Voltan's Artwork by Dave Christensen... WOW! (I guess one doesn't need to be warm in space... ;) )

Surf's Up!

Pinball aficionado Howard posing for the camera.

Hot Doggin, in all it's glory.

Nice Widebody playfield, with some challenging drops up top.

See that switch, it's actually part of a larger disappearing kicker mech, not too many games had this (link credit: Jeff-Z.com). 

Voltan, in all its glory.

That's all for now, stay tuned for my next post about other facets of the pinball universe!