THIS GALLERY OF PINGBALL MACHINE PHOTOS ISN'T AS INTERESTING AS I'D HOPED IT'D BE, SO YOU MIGHT LIKE TO IMAGINE THE PEOPLE IN THEM ARE POPSTARS

3/4/2017

Before there were video games there was pingball! Please, what is pingball? It was a game in which players would "ping" a "ball" around a special type of table called a pingball table. It was invented by Pingu.

Here is a gallery of vintage images showing people playing pingball, though sadly it's not quite as interesting as we might've all hoped for.

Fortunately, there's a way to remedy this: by pretending that all of the people paying the pingball are popstars - the most important and coolest people around!

Look: it's the band Supergrass - Gaz, Daz and Ba-Nimbus - and they're playing a sweet game of pingball!

Why, it's the Bohemian Rhapsoder himself - none other than the King of Pop, The Queen's Freddie Mercury... and he's leaning on a pingball machine, rubbing his forearms against it in order to create sufficient friction to set it ablaze!

Typical crazy popstar antics!!!

This arcade is full of the pop stars of the day! L-R: Sonny Bono (arm only), Sonny Rollins, Bono, Henry Rollins, and The Rollins Tones! And get this: they're all playing pingball!!!!

Male-female duos are a rarity in the pop landscape these days, but there were loads of them back in the 60s and 70s, or whenever this photo was taken. And who is this particularly memorable pairing, sandwiched in twixt the pingball machines? Why, it's Art Garfunkle and Dutch!

One... two... three... four... four members of the pop band Oasis, seen here playing pingball.

L-R: Madonna, Lady Gaga, Paul Simon and Dutch's Father - two of whom are playing pingball, and two of whom are talking about how they are soon going to be playing pingball. Nice one, guys! Love it.

It isn't every day that you get to see The Pet Shop Boys playing pingball - but today you do. Today is the day that you get to see The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and little Bruno Tot, stood side-by-side playing pingball.

And here we see The Who, best known for their pingball-celebrating song, I Am A Pingball Wizard:

I am a pingball wizard,
I'm not a lizard,
Or a gizzard in a blizzard,
Ping! Ping! Pingball!
Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping!
Murder everyone!

Hello there, skinny feller. I see that you're all hunched over that pingball machine. Shouldn't you be off finishing your next album, seeing as you are a member of the Baha Men?!

For whom doth the pingball bell toll in our final picture? Why, it's The Specials AKA, and the lady one is doing her diarrhoea all over the pingball table!!!! Thrrrrrrrpssssssss! Pingball? More like PONGball!!!!

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
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10 VINTAGE MECHANICAL ARCADE GAMES
A TRIBUTE TO STEVE JOBS

13 Comments

SweetMrGibs

3/4/2017 12:30:28 pm

Pfft... everyone knows that the other member of Pet Shop Boys is Chris Lowe. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at pinball and subsequently always got 'Lowe' scores. Even when he used a Tennant's Extra life.

Starbuck

3/4/2017 10:47:59 pm

Much better than my intended Pet Shop Balls joke.

THX 1139

3/4/2017 01:31:10 pm

I once saw a Mary Shelley's Frankenstein pingball table, it had a little plastic Robert De Niro in it. Do they still make inappropriate movie tie-in pingball machines? Is there a Nocturnal Animals one, or a The Love Witch one?

Biscuits

3/4/2017 04:05:16 pm

I went to 4 Quarters the other weekend, and they have a very funny 'late era' Rolling Stones table with little plastic Mick and Keith et al.(strangely, no Darryl Jones...). It is very silly. Here's a link:

http://www.sternpinball.com/games/the-rolling-stones/the-rolling-stones

Look what's listed: 'Moving Mick target'!!! Holy mackerel

Spiney O'Sullivan

3/4/2017 04:40:13 pm

More London-talk:

Sadly now-defunct City bar Pipeline had a great AC/DC table.

In terms of places where you can still play, Soho videogame arcade/slot machine emporium Las Vegas has a Metallica one, and a much better Spider-Man movie one that I love due to its use of JK Simmons' JJ Jameson as the announcer.

Biccles

3/4/2017 04:56:42 pm

I think I played the Metallica one in the Wetherspoons in Liverpool street some years ago? Probably the same one

3/4/2017 05:41:11 pm

Just remembered: Las Vegas also had a Lord of the Rings pinball machine last time I was there. The only catch is that to get to it you have to go into the games arcade bit proper and try not to feel really unfit in the presence of all these kids who play super high-level DDR without breaking a sweat.

Bisco

4/4/2017 11:02:04 am

I've never been there but it looks pretty good, I'll check it out. I live near 'Game Over' now, which is more about console and board gaming. And having a leaky ceiling worryingly close to all the electrics

4/4/2017 01:07:54 pm

What's Game Over? Is it like Loading in Stoke Newington? And if so, whereabouts is it?

Monkey Head

3/4/2017 03:59:25 pm

Here's a male - female pop duo for you...." Dollar".
Remember their catchy hit, O L'amour, you don't get songs like that any more

Chomboss Wankuss

3/4/2017 09:06:00 pm

that lizard/blizzard/gizzard business is a good excuse to bust out the classic Adam and Joe "G-six" song cycle - listen if you wish to chuckle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj4fGejPpVo

BTW i imagine there is some intersection of Digi and Adam & Joe fans. Some real cool guys in that Venn diagram methinks.

Snipsnopp

4/4/2017 01:01:51 pm

Man I miss their Radio 6 program - that was amazing - song wars in particular.

Kestrel

4/4/2017 09:42:46 pm

Madonna is looking quite foxy in that picture.

THIS GALLERY OF PINGBALL MACHINE PHOTOS ISN'T AS INTERESTING AS I'D HOPED IT'D BE, SO YOU MIGHT LIKE TO IMAGINE THE PEOPLE IN THEM ARE POPSTARS

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