A March 2006 article from Las Vegas City Life about the Pinball Hall of Fame is bursting with juicy quotes from the organization’s founder Tim Arnold, and his cohort, a “wiry, grumbling game mechanic,” known only as “Hippy.”
Arnold: “A good pinball game gets into your mind with the strategy, and will take you to where you think you’ve got the game beat and, next thing you know, you’re screwed. That’s a good mindfuck.”
Hippy: “If you’re standing here, going — (Hippy clacks the flipper buttons mindlessly) — and winning the game other than making any type of judgement calls, or figuring out what to do … if that’s your idea of pinball, you’re a dumb motherfucker.”
Arnold: “This is commercial equipment. It’s not art. These are old, tired street whores that belong out in the alley with their legs in the air and their slots open, ready to make money. That’s what they *do*. They don’t sit in somebody’s rec room.”
Arnold: “There isn’t a person who walks in here that doesn’t go, “Holy Shit!” I remember that! They’ll be walking along this row and all of a sudden they’ll stop and have this wave of pure nostalgia. This stuff is still in your mind somewhere, and when you see it, you just this wave of ‘Holy Shit! There it is! I remember! I squeezed my first titty on a girl standing next to that game!”
Arnold: “With the video games, we stop at 8-bit machines. And no kung-fu video games. Those are anti-social bullshit.”
