'We remember playing it when we were younger in the local bowling alleys and fish and chip shops … and then you've got a whole heap of people who are used to playing video games who are experiencing pinball with a ball that is flying around a playfield,' Mr Gillard said. He said the resurgence had been led by a combination of sentimentality and players seeking out something different. Melbourne pinball distributor Wayne Gillard, who has been involved in the business for 37 years, said Australia consumed more pinball machines per capita than any other country. ( Supplied: John Cosson) Aussies love the games 'His name is Haggis Pinball and I think he's just made a game called Celts, and it'll be a low-production-number game, made to order.'Ĭelts is an Australian-made game from Haggis Pinball in Melbourne, and the game was featured at the Melbourne Silverball Championships in November 2019. 'There is a pinball manufacturer based out of Melbourne who is a start-up and making his first game,' Mr Jones said. There is some hope, though, for a resurgence of Australian-made games. 'You can buy a new car for the price of a pinball machine,' he said, explaining that most were made in Chicago in the United States, and could cost upwards of $20,000.Īustralia's only mass-produced pinball manufacturer, Hankin, closed its doors in the early 1980s. Mr Jones has one new machine on display, Black Knight Sword of Rage. Most arcade pinball machines in Australian arcades are originals, including the almost 20 that line the walls of Mr Jones arcade, with names like Mousin' Around, No Good Gofers, Congo and Bram Stoker's Dracula. 'Then one day he said he was going to a competition, so I was like, 'OK, I'll join you'.' New machines 'not cheap' 'He was always in the pinball room, so I was always wondering what he was doing, so I'd join in,' Emily said. Tell us your location and find more local ABC News and informationĮmily Cosson, left, and Escher Lefkoff, centre, compete regularly in international and national pinball competitions like this one, in Coolangatta, in August 2019.She said she often competed alongside her father. The teen said pinball was different from other sports because it was strictly a single-player game, and a hybrid of a tactile game and video game.įellow teen pinball player Emily Cosson, also 16, of Burleigh Waters, said her family owned 16 machines. 'I would just kind of watch my dad play,' Escher said. The teenager said he had been playing on pinball machines his dad owned since he was a toddler. The Queensland Pinball Championship held in Brisbane last year caught the eye of 16-year-old player Escher Lefkoff, an Aussie teen who lives in the United States.Īt the time he was ranked eighth in the world by the IFPA, which is the governing body for pinball as a competitive sport. 'The current world champion is 19 years old, and some of the best players in the club here are in their teens.'

'There are casual gamers, they've wandered in off the streets with some dollars in their pocket to have a bit of fun on a whim,' he said. While they are mostly men aged in their mid-40s to 50s, Mr Jones said they were not 'necessarily indicative of the best competitive player'.

So what does the typical profile of a pinball player look like in 2020? ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Annie Gaffney) Pinball players of today Vaughn Jones is opening a pinball arcade in Nambour, on the Sunshine Coast, as the game enjoys a resurgence in popularity.

Pinball arcade machine