Only 90 were made in the early 1980s by Williams Electronics. One of the rarest machines he's encountered is a Varkon, which he valued at about $10,000. "And so the phone started to ring and I started to go and do more and more house calls."ĭuration 1:33 Featured VideoCorey Cooke of London Pinball reveals the inner workings of a pinball machine. "There's quite a collector community out there for these types of things," he said. "The geometry is a lot like billiards, in that you're using the flippers to aim the ball where you want it to go," said Cooke, a friend of Dorssers in London, Ont.Ĭooke was an audio-visual technician at King's University College, but started fixing pinball machines around 2008, for some extra cash. That focus is important for play, said pinball machine repairman Corey Cooke, despite the fact some people think it's a game of chance. "You have to focus on the game … I can lose myself in pinball." So it's a really good way to get away from the daily stresses of life," she said. "Nobody talks about their job, they talk about pinball. (Alison Masemann/CBC)ĭorssers is a massage therapist, but enjoys the fact the pinball community is focused on one thing. Pinball machines on Stern's website are priced at $4,999.99 US, before shipping and taxes.Ĭorey Cooke turned his hobby into his business when he became a full-time pinball machine repairman. One of the world's largest manufacturers, Stern Pinball in Chicago, reported a five-fold sales increase. The game has seen a resurgence in popularity in the last decade, including a spike in sales of pinball machines during the pandemic. Early pinball games didn't have flippers or electricity, but eventually became synonymous with bright lights, sound effects and colourful graphics. Pinball emerged around 1930, based on the French game of bagatelle, which involves manoeuvring a ball into holes on a wooden board, around pins placed as obstacles. "It is really interesting to see people get pulled into that mechanical world … getting hooked on the different machines," said Kreuzkamp. Graylands and his partner Sophia Kreuzkamp opened their arcade in 2022, and have loved welcoming people who have never played pinball before. Seven Graylands and his partner Sophia Kreuzkamp opened Seven's Pinballorama arcade in Cornwall, P.E.I.
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