you will never know the joys (Score 4, Interesting)

the joy of pinball, and a feeling that you can only get once the brain pathways have been etched, is that you really do "feel" the ball through the flippers.

Even though the ball is smooth and featureless, you can tell how it is spinning and can predict how it will rebound.

The feature rich machines which have emerged since the late 80's like the Addams Family and Twighlight Zone (a notoriously unreliable machine) are brilliantly realized fun, but for me the subtlety of the old 60s and 70s mechanical machines is just as fascinating. And the mechanical sounds are great. The replay "thwack" was produced by a solonoid knocking on a metal plate. Every manufacturer had a different component making this sound, so every machine was different.

Another great thing about pinball is that skills are transferable. There never was a good pinball player who was only good on one machine.

I spent 1000s of hours playing pinball in my teens and 20s, and I can honestly say that when the game is going great and you have saved disaster over and over and feel you have the machine under your control, you feel like a god. It's obviously not the very best feeling in the world, but I think it's comparable to what it feels like to be onstage if you are a performer. Not many video games can ever give you that feeling.

And of course, the next ball goes straight down the drain. And you miss the replay by 100 points... But then get the lucky number.

I pity those who don't get pinball.