CLEVELAND — Nathan Murray said pinball is a game he enjoys playing, and more appear to be joining him as the number of pinball players since the start of the pandemic has skyrocketed. 

“Every game's different, you know, even if you played the game 100 times, you know, like it's there's always going to be a different outcome, but practice makes perfect,” he said. 

What You Need To Know

  • Nathan Murray said pinball is a game he enjoys playing
  • He said it used to be illegal to play between the 1940s and 1970s in some parts of the United States
  • He said he sees the impact of pinball's resurgence at Superelectric Pinball Parlor
  • He said the parlor charges $6 dollars to play all day

It’s a game he said used to be illegal to play between the 1940s and 1970s in some parts of the United States. 

“Essentially, it started off with a board with a bunch of finishing nails and maybe slots at the bottom in the machine where you score zero points, five points, 10 points, 20 points, 50 points, 100 and then in 1947, the Gottlieb Pinball Company created a game called Humpty Dumpty, and that was the first game with flippers,” he said. “Before flippers, you know, pinball was more of a game of chance, and that's what government people considered it because you put a coin in the slot, the coin slot to get the game going, [to] win games, so it was considered gambling. It wasn't until 1976, a guy named Roger Sharpe kind of put that to rest and let the world know that it was a game of skill.” 

In present day, he said he sees the impact of pinball's resurgence at Superelectric Pinball Parlor.

He’s one of the owners at the parlor and said the typical price of a basic new pinball machine used to be $5,900 one year ago. He said they are now $6,900. 

“There's so much demand for pinball machines. We've been collecting games for 10 years and a lot of titles, you know, the older stuff we used to be able to pick up for like a few hundred dollars and that really doesn't exist anymore,” he said. 

He said it's more evidence that pinball is making a comeback. 

“It’s more popular than ever. I don't know if it was the pandemic that really set it off, but, like, shortly before the pandemic, the amount of registered pinball players in the world like, quadrupled pretty much — went from like a few thousand to like, you know, 15,000, almost,” he said. 

He said it costs $6 dollars to play all day at the parlor.

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